DATE: Tuesday, September 23, 1997           TAG: 9709220140

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B3   EDITION: FINAL 

COLUMN: Unsolved Crime 

TYPE: Public Safety 

SOURCE: BY LARRY W. BROWN, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   56 lines

RESTAURANT SHOOTER STILL LOOSE, VICTIM'S FAMILY IN LIMBO

In April, while cleaning a freezer in the rear of a seafood restaurant, Arturo Cerdenola was gunned down. Now, five months later, his killer remains at large.

``It's kind of frustrating,'' his sister Virginia Cerdenola, said recently. ``It's like we're in limbo.''

Cerdenola, a native of the Philippines, was shot inside Bay Seafood, a take-out restaurant in the 1300 block of E. Princess Anne Road in Norfolk. He had worked at the restaurant since 1992, and in January had been promoted to manager.

Virginia Cerdenola said the family still does not understand why her 44-year-old brother - a kind and quiet man who would give what he had to help others - was killed. Police have not released a possible motive, but the restaurant's owner, Joe Ibay, said at the time that some money had been taken from the cash register.

Police declined to comment on the case, which began with Arturo Cerdenola's shooting on April 17 in the middle of the afternoon.

Ibay said Cerdenola was apparently cleaning the freezer near the rear of the shop - away from the customer area - when he was shot. He was the only employee in the restaurant.

Ibay was out buying seafood in Hampton, when he got a call on his pager from Cerdenola just after 2 p.m. About 15 minutes later, when Ibay tried to return the call, no one answered the phone.

Ibay called a nearby shop owner, who told him to rush back because police officers and neighbors were swarming around his restaurant.

After the shooting, Ibay - who said Cerdenola was like a brother to him - closed the restaurant for a week.

Cerdenola was one of six children, all but one of whom live in Hampton Roads. The family came to Virginia from Manila, the seaport capital of the Philippines, in 1989. Cerdenola had plans to return at Christmas to wed his girlfriend, and hoped to soon open his own restaurant in Virginia.

The anger, frustration and sadness that plagued the family in the days following his death remain, Virginia Cerdenola said.

``Our emotions are like a roller coaster,'' she said. ``We just have to hang in there. . . so we can go on with our lives.''

She said the family has been in constant contact with police, especially lead police investigator Scott Halverson. There have been some leads here and there, she said, but still no arrests.

But, Cerdenola said, police have told her they want to be thorough and make sure they have the right person. ``They're being very careful,'' she said.

``We just have to pray hard that Arturo's killer will be caught,'' she said. ILLUSTRATION: Photo

Arturo Cerdenola KEYWORDS: MURDER SHOOTING UNSOLVED MURDER

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