The San Bernardino County Sun from San Bernardino, California • Page 35

JOES TRU COOL AR COOL Staff photo by Rick Martinez Joseph Caponetti's business at 1149 Base Line in San Bernardino. Businessman still missing By RICK MARTINEZ Sun Staff Writer SAN BERNARDINO The strange disappearance Joseph Caponetti has puzzled his wife, friends and police who are wondering why such a "nice, easygoing guy" should just vanish from his east San Bernardino air cooler business. Since Tuesday morning, when Caponetti was reported missing, his wife, Jane, has stayed close to the phone, hoping for some word of his whereabouts. "Joe is a steady guy, he always keeps in contact with me we are very close," she said Thursday. "He is not the type of man to just take off he doesn't go out and get drunk or anything like that." Caponetti, 57, has operated his business, Joe's Tru Cool Air Conditioning, 1149 E.

Base Line, for five years. He was last seen by his wife at 8 a.m. when he left for work. A part-time employee came to work at 9 a.m. and found the firm's doors open and the keys in the ignition of Caponetti's small pick-up truck.

But Caponetti was gone. Behind a work bench was a pool of blood, partly covered over by some tar, police said. The evidence at the scene indicates Caponetti may have met with foul play, Lt. Donald Levan said. Detective Don Saunders said officers are checking Caponetti's background for any clues to his whereabouts and have issued an all-points bulletin and description of Caponetti to other police agencies.

Police have not determined a motive for the disappearance. "It's a seasonal business," Mrs. Caponetti said. "Now that summer is coming he was just starting back to working full-time." Caponetti has lived in the San Bernardino area about 19 years and "doesn't have an enemy in the world," his wife said during an interview at the couple's Highland home. He has owned several businesses in the area since 1960, his wife of five years said.

Caponetti, who possesses a real estate license, worked in that field for several years before opening the air cooler business, Mrs. Caponetti said. April 13, 1979 THE SUN C-3 Village Inn burns (Continued from Metro) not participating in the exercise chuckled with glee they wouldn't have felt had the fire been a real emergency, and jokingly chided their counterparts manning the hoses for not being able to immediately extinguish the flames. The Village Inn exercise got off to a slow start Thursday morning. The fire was scheduled to start at 9 a.m., but it was after 11 a.m.

before the first clouds of white smoke rolled up from the rooftop. A break in the pipeline that carried water from the lake up to the fire trucks was a major factor in the slowdown. In the meantime, some firemen used the spare time to participate in other exercises, such as one organized by San Bernardino City fireman John Zavela. Using a fire engine equipped with a winch, Zavela and his team pulled the supports out from under an old cabin, then placed two "murdered" dummies inside the collapsed building. One dummy had a knife handle sticking in his chest, to give the firemen trainees the idea they weren't dealing with accidental deaths.

The trainees were told the building had collapsed from a natural gas explosion and that there could be victims inside. From there, it was up to them to determine as much as possible the circumstances of the so-called accident. Zavela's story was that a burglar had entered the building thinking no one was home, was surprised by the occupants, murdered them, then turned on the gas thinking the resulting fire would cover up his crime. "They don't know that the sharp investigators can pretty well put everything back together," he said. Just down the hill from the collapsed house, another group of firemen set fire to a second small cabin.

Each time the flames began to rage, a team of firemen moved in with a hose and knocked them down. Time after time different teams repeated the exercise until the cabin was reduced to a mass of ashes. By then, flames were beginning to lick the edges of a third floor window at the Inn, and smoke was oozing through small holes in the roof. Through first and second floor windows, firemen could be seen moving in to attack the bright orange flames. Men in a snorkle truck lowered their basket into position and doused a small fire on the second floor balcony with one squirt of water.

At the entrance to the Inn's parking lot, now congested with firemen and their equipment, a small crowd of spectators gathered. "So you've come down to watch the fun," one friend greeted another. "Yeah, but it's kinda sad fun. It's not fun fun," the man replied quietly. A group of children played in a pool of water at the base of a hydrant, sending sticks of kindling sailing across it while seemingly oblivious to the flames twisting into the air a short distance away.

While the Inn's upper stories burned, fire training officers decided to light another blaze in a lower level room. They carted in an old couch and as they were dousing it with fire starter huge beams came crashing down in the burning room above them. Firemen, reporters and photographers scattered, but the floor held and the training officers went back and lit their fire. As smoke and heat built up in the room, the officers explained the principals of thermal balance the various layers of gases that accumulate from floor to ceiling in a burning room at temperatures ranging from 60 degrees on the floor to as much as 1,300 degrees at the ceiling. The gases can super-heat the ceiling, causing flames to flash rapidly over the heads of firemen, who will be safe as long as they remain.

near the floor, training officer Virgil Ward of the San Bernardino Fire Department explained. By 3 p.m. fire was still rampaging through the old building, though by now it was mostly under control. In addition to leveling the building's east wing, as planned, both the middle and west wing were gutted as well. "Burn to Learn" will continue today, but not in the Inn.

A Quonset hut, a structure behind the Ice Cream Castle and several other buildings have been substituted on the agenda, Lake Arrowhead firemen said. He Helicopter Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Caponetti also resided in Las Vegas several years before coming to San Bernardino. His ex-wife and daughter still live there, she said. Mrs. Caponetti said she is keeping an open mind "I just hope he's alive." When she was summoned to the business by his employees Tuesday morning, she said, it was obvious to her that "somebody had took him." "Joe has so many friends, he knows everybody in town," Mrs.

Caponetti said. "He has never been threatened or anything like that. This is really strange." Mrs. Caponetti, seated in a beanbag chair, was interrupted by the ringing of her phone. She answered and told the caller, a friend asking about her husband, that "there's nothing new." "It's been like that all day," a friend of hers said of the phone call.

"People have been calling but she's hoping she will will hear from him." "Joe's been a friend of mine for years," said Chuck Torpey, owner of Golden West Tires, located across the street from Caponetti's firm. "I can't imagine who would do something like that to him," he said. "You couldn't ask for a better guy," said Trinidad Hernandez who owns Trini's Barber Shop, located several doors west of Caponetti's business. "'He has been coming in for haircuts since he's owned the place. "It's too bad about him, I guess it doesn't look too good," Hernandez said as he finished an elderly man's flattop haircut.

"I know him as Joe, but I never knew his last name," he added. Anyone who may have information on the whereabouts or disappearance of Caponetti is asked to contact the San Bernardino Police Department at 383-5011. Saunders said that when Caponetti was last seen by his wife Tuesday morning he was wearing a light blue sweatshirt that used 1 to say Joe's Tru Cool, but that some of the letters had fallen off. He also was wearing a dark blue sweater, light blue corduroy pants and high top, brown shoes, Saunders said. scene, and it was flown back to the Sheriff's Aviation Division headquarters at Rialto Airport.

Jagerson, the division's commander, said the four-seat craft will be inspected and returned to patrol. The department has five jet helicopters: three Hughes 500s and two larger UH-1D Hueys. No firm repair figures were available, but Jagerson said the two ruined blades were worth about $1,000. The third blade was replaced primarily as a precaution, he said. The accident happened less than five miles from where another sheriff's pilot hit powerlines two years ago.

That one also ended in an injury-free forced landing and limited damage. (Continued from Metro) The ownership of the phone wire that Jagerson hit was not immediately determined. "I have been flying that canyon for eight years now, and I've never seen those wires. They're only about an eighth of an inch thick," Jagerson said. Prior to the accident, he had searched for the missing teenagers for nearly three hours, he said.

He had just returned to the search area from a refueling stop when he hit the wire. Jagerson said he was at the low altitude because ground teams had found some footprints and "they had asked me to come up the commissioners want more hearings man of the geography department at California State College, San Bernardino. One of the agricultural policies calls for additional imposition of parcel size minimums on farmlands and encouragement of the merging of under-sized agricultural properties. Allow an average of two homes per acre, rather than the present one per acres, on most of the East Highlands Ranch, subject to restrictions relating to the steepness of slopes. Densities of up to four homes per acre have been sought by Western Communities, representing owners of the ranch.

Allow one home per acre on hills within Loma Linda's southern "sphere of influence" and one home per five acres on steeper lands from there south to the county line, rather than apply the "rural conservation" designation with a 40-acre parcel minimum. The change has been requested by the city. Uphold a proposal to designate 400 acres for industrial development on both sides of Sierra Avenue north of Highland Avenue in the North Fontana area, despite questioning by Fontana officials as to whether that much industrial land is justified in the area. Expand the "urbanizing area" designation at Joshua Tree to include all lands where the present general plan envisions urban development. New issues raised Thursday included the Ontario city planning commission's questioning of revised policies for controlling noise.

Ontario planner Joyce Babicz said a county policy that would "generally permit no new residential uses" within the 65-decibel contour around airports should be amended to allow "compatible" residential uses as defined by the state, including soundproofed high-rise apartments and homes whose owners have waived the right to object to aircraft noise by granting avigation easements. Babicz said her commission also questions why the proposed new county plan would drop a clause calling for adoption of a noise control ordinance. County planners said this was not intended. She said Ontario officials oppose another policy calling for consolidation of the West Valley, East Valley and Mountain-Desert Airport Land Use Commissions into a single commission. Her city also submitted objections to proposals to abandon plans for future widening of boulevards across the Chino Valley agricultur- obituaries ies al preserve, including Campus, Grove, Vineyard and Haven Avenues, all south of Riverside Drive.

City Engineer Rosalind Daniels said improved traffic circulation will be needed in the area whether it remains in agricultural use or not. Spokesmen for two advertising canyon. It was just my way of going up there." His first indication of trouble was a loud whistling sound and a "tremendous oscillation," he said. "I had to fight for control." Initially, Jagerson couldn't tell what was wrong or the degree of damage. "I didn't know if the blades were going to sling off in which case there's nothing you can do.

"It's a feeling that I have never experienced in my You just sweat." After radioing for help, Jagerson turned off the electrical system and waited. Meanwhile, the two hikers struggled up Fredalba Canyon to safety. They had set out on a fishing trip at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday and had planned to return home before dark. Search teams spent the night combing the mountains, and additional searchers and the helicopter were summoned at daybreak.

The youths were not injured. They were identified as Donald Carothers, 15, and Morton Solberg, 17, both of Running Springs. After the accident, Jagerson made one last stab at finding the teenagers. He flew the borrowed helicopter for about 30 minutes. "I thought it was a good idea to get me back in the air," he explained.

As for the phone line that nearly killed him, Jagerson said, "I went up and cut me a piece of the wire. "I'm going to put it on my (Continued from Metro) city's request may have been misinterpreted. No city spokesman was present. Henrietta Trujillo, who with Fred Ramos spoke for Bryn Maw's Mexican-American families, said they want Loma Linda to "leave us alone." The planning staff submitted other recommendations that would: Make the general plan's designation of "urbanizing areas" more flexible in accordance with suggestions by the citizen advisory committee that has been consulted on the proposed overhaul and consolidation of countywide land use policies. Among other things, the committee is recommending more allowance for small-lot subdivisions and other splitting of land into parcels of less than acres in areas designated for "rural living" that are outside of the "urbanizing areas." Expand the general plan's proposed new policies for encouraging retention of commercially viable agricultural production, as suggested by an agricultural advisory committee headed by Dr.

William Ackerman, chair- Two killed in collision FONTANA Two persons were killed and two others seriously injured when two cars collided at San Bernardino and Cherry avenues Thursday morning. The names of the dead were being withheld pending notification of their next of kin. The names of the injured were not available late Thursday. California Highway Patrol officer Dave Daniels said the driver of one car was partially thrown out of the vehicle as it rolled over twice, killing him. The passenger in that car was injured, he said.

A passenger in the other car was killed and the driver was injured when ejected by the impact, Daniels said. All of the victims of the 11:51 a.m. crash were taken to Kaiser Foundation Hospital. Machinists (Continued from Metro) said the union's request for percent pay hikes, Laurie patterned after the Teamsters' agreement, had been turned down by negotiators for the Western Trucking Employers, at Burlingame. The machinists, who said they are employed by trucking firms west of the Rocky Mountains, walked out April 1.

THRIFTY FAMILY WANT ADS 3 lines 3 days $3 PAID ADVANCE IN Private parties only. Each item advertised not to exceed $500. The Sun, 399 N. St. San Bernardino firms, Heywood of San Bernardino and Pacific Outdoor of Los Angeles, voiced objections to revised policy language dealing with signs and billboards.

County planners said the new language intends no major policy changes, but they agreed it can be misinterpreted and needs to be modified. Three probation employees promoted SAN BERNARDINO Three employees of the county probation department were promoted during the past two months, one of whom became the new assistant chief probation officer, succeeding James Kuiper who retired in February. Tom Mangrum, who has been with the department 17 years and worked as director of administrative services and director of adult probation, is the new assistant chief. Also promoted were Bill Lusk. 40, and Steve Olivas, 38.

Lusk, of Del Rosa, moved up from delinquency prevention coordinator to director of adminis- Alice Tepper, San Bernardino trative services. He has been with the department 10 years. Olivas, of Riverside, was promoted to of the Verdemont Boys' Ranch from his former position of director of the girls' treatment center on the grounds of juvenile hall. All of the vacancies were civil service positions. Kuiper had been with the department years, beginning while he was a sociology student at Pomona college.

Kuiper was promoted to assistant chief probation officer in 1960. For the previous seven years he was director of juvenile hall. Russell H. Eudy, S.B. Laurie F.

Dolphin, 73, a six-year resident of Yucaipa, died Wednesday in Redlands. He was born in New York. He was a member of VFW Post No. 7347, Yucaipa. Survivors include his wife, Elnora; two daughters, Denise Fortunato of Granada Hills and Gwen Mergl of Inverness, a brother Edward of Los Angeles; two sisters, Lolita Mahoney and Evelyn Neuendorff, both of North Hollywood.

Services are scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday in the Emmerson-Bartlett Yucaipa Chapel, where friends may call from 5 to 9 p.m. today. Burial will be in Desert Lawn Park. Alice Bernardino, born in She was ation of Protestant.

Survivors waii; two Mrs. Harold and three Cryptside Cemetery. ments. Clara Tepper, a 29-year resident of San Russell Houston Eudy, 77, a 56-year resident of San died Tuesday in a hospital there. She was Bernardino, died Thursday in a hospital there.

He was Lawrence, Mass. born in Alabama. a housewife and a member of the Feder- Before retirement he was a route salesman for Republican Women and the AARP. She was a Arden Farms. He was a member of the Highland Masonic Lodge No.

748, past patron of the J. Clifford include a son, Norman of Honolulu, Ha- Lee Chapter No. 55 Order of Eastern Star and a sisters, Mrs. Frank Harding of La Jolla and member of the Rialto Chapter No. 596 Order of Woodley of Glendale; four grandchildren Eastern Star.

great-grandchildren. Survivors include his wife, Iola, two granddaughters services were Thursday in Mountain View and three great-grandsons. Mark B. Shaw was in charge of arrange- The Neptune Society, Riverside, is in charge of private arrangements..