The call came in about 3:30 p.m. The voice at the other end said, “Victor, I think we found your father’s car.”
It was a call that Victor Cortez was waiting for but one he didn’t want to hear.
“I buckled at my knees,” said Cortez.
He had waited for nearly 16 years.
The day before the call, Tuesday, March 1, the Tohono O’odham police reported that human skeletal remains were found in a vehicle in an inaccessible canyon on Kitt Peak. A Kitt Peak employee had spotted the car, more than 400 feet down a steep embankment, and reported it to tribal police.
The vehicle was a 1988 gray four-door Mercury Gran Marquis.
Santiago Cortez had gone missing in June 2000. The O’odham police are waiting for the county medical examiner’s office to identify the few human remains, but Victor Cortez and his two siblings believe their father has been found.
“That was my father’s car,” said Victor.
The last time Nick Cortez saw his father, nothing seemed amiss. His father was his usual jovial self.
Victor saw his father for the last time about a week before Father’s Day. They had a couple of beers and dinner. Victor planned to see him on Father’s Day.
That day, Victor went to his father’s apartment at West St. Mary’s Road and South Grande Avenue. The lights and ceiling fan were on. Music could be heard on the radio. His father didn’t answer the door.
“It was too peculiar for me,” Victor said. “I started thinking something was wrong.”
Victor called Nick and their sister, Sylvia Reyes, who lives in Mesa. They enlisted Reyes’ husband, a police officer. More calls were made. In November 2000, I interviewed Reyes about her father’s disappearance and wrote a column.
Their father was a wanderer, said Nick, 54, and Victor, 52. Leaving for a few days without saying anything was not that unusual for him.
But as the days passed with no word, the worries deepened.
The apartment revealed no clues. “Everything was there,” said Nick. “It was just like he stepped out.”
The brothers said their father loved to hunt and fish around the state. He loved being outdoors and often took the family on picnics. Kitt Peak was somewhere they went often.
Santiago, who would have been 75 last month, had worked for the state Department of Transportation, repairing roads and working his way up to be a supervisor. He liked to dress in cowboy shirts and boots, and wore Stetson hats. “He took a lot of pride in his appearance,” Nick said. “Always.”
The elder Cortez also battled personal problems. He drank and suffered from chronic pain. He had broken his neck twice in work accidents and he took pain medication. Santiago and his wife, Blanca, divorced.
But the Cortez brothers do not feel that alcohol or the medication played any part in their father’s disappearance.
As the weeks turned to months, the family began to splinter. Their father’s disappearance separated them. “I wanted everyone to do more. I wanted to do more,” Victor said. Posters were put around town. Friends were quizzed. The family combed through their father’s favorite fishing holes and camp grounds for clues.
Nothing.
Victor dulled his pain with alcohol. He had trouble at work. He had become angry — with his siblings, with police, with himself. With the world and God, he said.
As years passed, however, the anger and disappointment among the family dissipated. The siblings repaired their relationships. Nick and Victor began playing softball on Sunday mornings.
Still there was no word about Santiago. His absence gnawed at the family. They missed his laughter. But they did not give up hope.
Now that they believe they have found Santiago’s car and remains, the Cortez family can give up waiting. They are reaching closure, which is what they want.
“No one should have to go through this,” said Victor.
They feel some relief. The burden of worry and despair has dissolved.
“I look at the sky now and it’s bluer,” said Victor.
Still, questions remain.
Why had Santiago Cortez driven to Kitt Peak, about 40 minutes south of Tucson? Did he have a heart attack while driving? Did an animal dart in front of his car? Did something else distract him?
They likely will never know.
