Belmont Dad Remembers Teen Daughter Killed in East Palo Alto as 'Charming, Beautiful'

It's often said that a parent's worst nightmare is to lose a child.

But for Belmont resident Jonathan Fisher, earlier this month that nightmare became a reality.

In the early morning hours of July 13 in East Palo Alto, Fisher's 19-year-old daughter Catherine Elizabeth Fisher, known as "Cate" to her family and friends, was shot to death while sitting in the passenger seat of a friend's car.

"She was out doing what 19-year-olds do, which is God knows what," Fisher said in an interview with Belmont Patch on Thursday. "She stumbled on the wrong place at the wrong time."

Fisher said he last saw his daughter on Father's Day, when they went to lunch then spent the afternoon playing video games.

"Which is what she and I had done since she was really small," Fisher added.

Other than that, Fisher said he and his daughter text messaged each other every day or every other day.

"We had a lot of text conversations," he said.

Catherine Fisher was spending her summer working at Menlo Park Gymnastics after finishing up a quarter at California State University East Bay, where she was first studying math then planned to pursue a teaching degree.

"She was quite charming, hard-nosed, strong-willed, and really, really smart," Fisher said.

Before attending Cal State East Bay, Catherine Fisher earned a high school degree at Canada College, and then spent another year and a half studying there before transferring to Cal State.

She spent her early years in Santa Clara, then moved north with her parents to San Mateo County. After her parents divorced, Catherine Fisher split her time between her mother in Menlo Park and her father in Belmont.

Both her parents remarried, and Catherine Fisher soon had four siblings, now 9- and 10-year-old sisters and 11- and 12-year-old brothers. Fisher said he and his daughter's mother have remained good friends.

The shooting, of course, is painful for Fisher to talk about.

East Palo Alto police say the shooting occurred in the 2500 block of Annapolis Street at about 2:10 a.m. when two suspects approached the car and opened fire.

Catherine Fisher was sitting in the front passenger seat of the car at the time with a male and another female, and was struck by the gunfire.

"They had picked up this guy, they were just kind of hanging out," Fisher said. "These guys came and got out of their pickup and started shooting."

Police have said the male in the car is believed to have been the target of the gunfire.

On Wednesday night after a lengthy that spanned several counties and freeways, two suspects believed to be connected to the murder were taken into custody. However, police later said the two men wanted in connection with Catherine Fisher's murder were not identified as the suspects who were arrested.

The two suspects still at large are Jaime Cardenas and Fidel Silva, who are also suspected of murder in Grand Junction, Colo., and of another murder in East Palo Alto this month.

A third suspect in the killing, Christian Fuentes, 20, is currently in custody in Alameda County.

Fisher said he will attend any future trial linked to his daughter's murder.

"We’re gonna wanna watch these guys [get] convicted," he said.

Bay City News Service contributed to this report.