{"id":442862,"date":"2026-08-25T08:30:26","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T08:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/442862\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T08:30:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T08:30:26","slug":"family-remembers-the-life-of-chula-vista-woman-killed-by-tenant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/442862\/","title":{"rendered":"Family remembers the life of Chula Vista woman killed by tenant"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>CHULA VISTA (KGTV) \u2014 Family and friends gathered Monday to remember a 56-year-old Chula Vista woman who was killed in May, after police say she went to address a problem with one of her mother\u2019s tenants.<\/p>\n<p>Brenda Gillett was remembered during a funeral Mass at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in San Diego Monday morning.<\/p>\n<p>Gillett\u2019s younger sister, Wendy Bonifacio, described her as a go-getter who lived by the phrase \u201cS\u00ed Se Puede,\u201d meaning \u201cYes, you can.\u201d She was also an Army veteran who was known for being the life of the party.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI miss her a lot,\u201d Bonifacio said. \u201cI miss her presence. I would love to have her here with me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gillett also helped manage her mother\u2019s home on the 600 block of Via Curvada in Chula Vista.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.10news.com\/news\/local-news\/court-documents-reveal-disturbing-new-details-in-chula-vista-murder-after-landlord-tenant-dispute\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">At the end of May,<\/a> Gillett went to deal with a tenant, Robert Watkins, who was causing problems, according to police and court records.<\/p>\n<p>Watkins is accused of killing Gillett and dismembering her body. Investigators recovered parts of her remains at a Chula Vista park and near the USS Midway, according to court documents. Watkins later confessed to killing Gillett.<\/p>\n<p>Gillett&#8217;s family said her loss has been difficult and they want justice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s been very challenging times,\u201d Bonifacio said. \u201cI want to make sure that she knows she\u2019s not going to be ever forgotten.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bonifacio also said she wants Watkins to remain behind bars.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Brenda would demand justice,&#8221; Bonifacio said. &#8220;She would not want this to happen to anybody else.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Because of the violent circumstances surrounding Gillette\u2019s death, her family chose to have her cremated.<\/p>\n<p>After Monday\u2019s funeral Mass, her ashes were set to be laid to rest at Miramar National Cemetery.<\/p>\n<p>Gillette\u2019s mother, Alba, said her daughter will now be her guardian angel.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was the happiest mother in the world because she treats me like a queen all the time,\u201d Gillett said. \u201cShe was beautiful, beautiful in and out.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bonifacio said the family plans to hold a vigil for Gillett in October when she would have celebrated her 57th birthday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHULA VISTA (KGTV) \u2014 Family and friends gathered Monday to remember a 56-year-old Chula Vista woman who was&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":442863,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[175426,9974,175427,137858,74,76,75,7229,175428],"class_list":["post-442862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-brenda-gillett","tag-chula-vista","tag-our-lady-of-guadalupe-church","tag-robert-watkins","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-tenant","tag-wendy-bonifacio"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=442862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/442862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/442863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=442862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=442862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=442862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}