8 years after his murder, their father still watches over them

Driving down Kennewick Avenue, you can see Froilan Godines watching over his family.

The father of seven lives on in the treehouse he built for his children, tall and proud above the family home and easily seen from the road.

Eight years to the month after Godines’ murder in Pasco, the sight still brings a mix of emotions to the family left behind, especially in February.

“We lived with so much anger,” said daughter Isabel Montes. “It’s always a hard month.”

Seeing their father’s accused killer in court Tuesday for the first time stoked their grief again.

Daughter Karen Montes said they learned of his arrest from the Herald on Monday and were happy to know Adan Virgen-Ponce had been extradited from Mexico.

Police say Virgen-Ponce, then 28, and his nephew ambushed Godines as he got off work as a bouncer at the El Patron Night Club on Feb. 7, 2010.

Police suspect Virgen-Ponce and his nephew fled to Mexico and were on the run for years until Virgen-Ponce was arrested there five years ago.

On Tuesday, he made an initial appearance in Franklin County Superior Court, and Godines’ children and widow, Guadalupe Ortuno, were there.

“It really hurt to see him,” Karen Montes said. “But we had to see him. We had to go for my dad.”

Virgen-Ponce, now 37, was quiet and didn’t look back at them.

Montes said she tried to catch his gaze after the hearing, but the 28-year-old Trios nurse said Virgen-Ponce tried to hide his face instead.

“Why can’t you look me in the face, when you took my father from me?” Montes said she was thinking at the time.

Godines, who was just shy of his 42nd birthday when he was killed, always wanted his children — the youngest now 13 — to be something.

Froilan Godines Jr., 14, said he wants to go into medicine like his older sisters.

“Everyone knew my dad as someone who helped people,” Froilan Jr. said. “By doing that, I feel like I’m helping.”

Princess Godines, 16, wants to become a doctor, as science and medicine come easily to her.

Karen Montes said her father also was “notorious for adventures.”

If he saw the kids idling at home, he’d scoop them up into their GMC Envoy — the only car they had that could fit the whole family — and off they would go to favorite camping spots.

They still go to those areas, Karen Montes said, to keep alive the love their father had for them.

And they always look up at the treehouse.

Froilan Jr. said he thinks about it each time he hears his father’s name.

Karen Montes said there was a time when their mother wasn’t sure if she or the kids could stay in the house. Living with the memories was difficult.

“But we don’t want to leave the treehouse,” Montes said. “It’s something we just can’t let go.”

This story was originally published February 20, 2018 at 8:02 PM with the headline "8 years after his murder, their father still watches over them."