Clovis woman’s kin seek more info on her death

By Tim Sheehan / The Fresno Bee

As authorities investigate the death of a Clovis woman who had been missing for three days in the rugged Sierra, her mother and stepfather Saturday said they’re hoping for answers about her disappearance.

Searchers found the body of Cherie Hamilton, 20, Friday morning along granite cliffs near Wishon Reservoir. She was on a camping trip with her boyfriend and another couple when she was reported missing Tuesday.

Fresno County sheriff’s officials said Friday that it appeared Hamilton suffered a fall, but they offered no additional details.

Hamilton’s mother and stepfather, Michelle and Daniel Jenkins of Clovis, said they’re concerned about the circumstances of her ordeal.

The Jenkinses said their daughter was gone for more than six hours before she was reported missing by her boyfriend, Matthew Aguilar, 19, of Fresno and their friends William Maciel, 19, and Katie Knott, 20. The four had all been classmates at Buchanan High School in Clovis.

“We don’t know that anything wrong happened, but I want to know what happened,” Michelle Jenkins said Saturday as she and her family waited to make funeral arrangements for her daughter. Jenkins said she has not yet been allowed to view her daughter’s remains.

“It’s so different to hear that she’s gone than to see it yourself,” she said, fighting back tears. “I pray she fell fast and died instantly, but I need to know what really happened up there.”

The Fresno County Coroner’s Office said an autopsy for Hamilton was conducted Saturday but the cause of death hasn’t been determined yet.

Aguilar said Saturday that he and Hamilton met about two years ago and had been dating for 11 months.

“It’s just so surreal,” Aguilar said as tears rolled down his cheeks. “It’s hard trying to wrap my mind around what happened.”

Aguilar said the friends planned to spend two days in the mountains. After setting up their campsite, the group took a walk down a road, but Maciel and Knott turned back after less than a mile because Knott was not feeling well.

Aguilar said he and Hamilton continued down the road to a clearing, where Hamilton stopped at about 2:15 p.m. “She said she wanted to take a short-cut to the lake, and I wanted to stay on the main road,” he said.

“We didn’t argue or anything. She just wanted to go one way and I wanted to go another,” he said. “I just kept walking, and I was holding her dog so I figured she’d just run to catch up with me. She never leaves that dog.”

Aguilar said he waited for her at the lake for about an hour before hiking back to the campsite.

Maciel said when Aguilar arrived back at camp at about 4:30 p.m., Aguilar was upset because he had expected Hamilton to be there. Maciel said he and Knott drove down to the lake to look for Hamilton while Aguilar waited at the campground.

The friends said they thought Hamilton would show up but grew more worried as time passed. Shortly before sundown, they drove to a Forest Service workstation to report her missing and returned to their campsite to await sheriff’s deputies, who Maciel said arrived after nightfall.

The friends said they learned about 11 a.m. Friday that searchers had found Hamilton’s body. They were told shortly after the family — the Jenkinses and Hamilton’s father and stepmother, Gary and Tami Hamilton of Clovis — were notified.

Michelle Jenkins described her daughter as a “loving, beautiful girl with a wonderful spirit” who would go out of her way to help people. A shy but independent girl, Hamilton worked first at a pet supply store and, more recently, at a Clovis movie theater, earning enough money to buy a car. Earlier this year, she moved into an apartment with another young woman.

She was a student at the Willow International community college center and planned to transfer to California State University, Fresno, with hopes of becoming a psychologist, her mother said.

The reporter can be reached at tsheehan@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6319.