Crime & Safety

Family Of Oikos Victim Adrift Without Mom

Doris Chibuko's girls and husband struggle after a gunman took her life.

 

Doris Chibuko's husband sat on the couch of the his home in San Leandro, hugging one of his daughters and staring into a future forever changed by the inexplicable shootings at Oikos University.

"All the plans we had," said Efanye Chibuko, letting the rest of the sentence die in his throat.

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Doris Chibuko, 41, was two months away from getting her nursing degree from Oikos when she became allegedly gunned down by One L. Goh, a disgruntled former student who also wounded three other people during a rampage on April 2nd.

"My whole life depended on her," said Efanye Chibuko as he held five-year-old Ify, who are now motherless.

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Friends have set up a memorial fund and website, DorisChibuko.com, seeking contributions to a family trust fund.

But Efanye Chibuko, a telephone technician, said that what he really wants is beyond anyone's power to grant.

"I need her," he said. "Honestly, that's what I need."

A shrine in the living room depicts Doris in the traditional wedding garb of Nigeria, where the couple were married in 2001. A lawyer in her home country, she gave up that career to become a mother and student in San Leandro.

Now the heart of the Chibuko family has been ripped out.

"I am still in shock," Efanye said Tuesday, his eyes growing moist as he described seeing his wife's body for the first time.

"When I saw her lying there I knew she was never coming back," he said. "Even though I knew what had happened, until that time part of me felt like it couldn't be true, that it had to be a mistake."

It will be a few weeks yet before Doris Chibuko is buried, to give family and friends from Nigeria time to make the trip to San Leandro.

Meanwhile, the house has quieted down as the friends and well-wishers who flocked over in the days after the tragedy slowly drifted back to their own lives.

"Today was the first day I woke up and it was only us here," Efanye said, choking up and hugging Ify tighter.

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