Mother Wants to Know Why Son Was Found Dead

At 1:30 on Saturday morning, Diana Pacifico was woken up by the police knocking on her door.

“They said, ‘Is your son Michael Pacifico? There’s no easy way to say this, but we found him dead,’” Diana Pacifico recounted Sunday. “I just went into shock after that.”

On Friday night, .

They found Michael Pacifico, 20, unconscious and bleeding from his face. Paramedics couldn’t resuscitate him, and he was declared dead at Kaiser Hospital.

Now, his family is haunted by thoughts of what might have led to Pacifico’s death in the hours he was away from home on Friday evening.

Pacifico lived in an apartment on Second Avenue in San Bruno with his mother, cousin, and 8-month-old daughter, Leilani. His fiancé, Kaylah Perry, 21, is expecting their second daughter next year.

Diagnosed with congenital heart disease at birth, Pacifico endured nine open heart surgeries over the course of his life, according to his aunt, Valerie Feeley. As a 12-year-old, Pacifico and his mother took a trip to Disney World sponsored by the Make-a-Wish Foundation.

“He wasn’t supposed to make it this far,” Diana Pacifico said.

Pacifico went to Peninsula High School, and at the time of his death was receiving disability benefits for his health problems, his mother said. A few years ago, doctors placed a pacemaker in Pacifico’s chest.

Pacifico’s family describes him as creative and funny. He filled a bound book with dozens of handwritten pages of stories, characters and drawings from a fantasy novel he was working on. With his name on the front of the book, he included his nickname, Royal, which he adopted in homage to his grandfather’s last name, King.

“He was a very intelligent young man who was a writer and who was on the verge of publishing his books,” Diana Pacifico said.

Michael Pacifico left the house around noon on Friday to meet a female friend he’d known for two years, Feeley said. Around 6:30 p.m., he sent his mother a text message containing the friend’s full name because he wanted his mother to do her psychic reading, Diana Pacifico said. That was the last time his family heard from him.

Later, he apparently headed to a party in the neighborhood where he was found.

The South San Francisco Police Department declined to confirm details of the case because it’s an ongoing investigation, except to say that at this time there’s no evidence of foul play. The San Mateo County Coroner’s Office hasn’t yet determined a cause of death.

But Pacifico’s family said they heard Pacifico’s body was on the street for hours before it was reported. Diana Pacifico said police suggested her son may have died from a seizure and a stroke. But Feeley and Perry said they think he was the victim of foul play.

“His pacemaker got hit, and that’s the only way his heart would stop,” Feeley said, adding that the pacemaker is meant to prevent heart attacks. “The way I look at it is the person he went to meet up with set him up.”

“He was a loving, caring person,” Feeley said. “I was dreaming that he was holding my hand and comforting me for his death.”

Perry hasn’t yet decided what she’ll name the baby she’s due to deliver soon. But one candidate is a direct memoriam to Michael “Royal” Pacifico: Roya.

“Everything that I’m planning on doing is in remembrance of him.”

Anyone with information about Michael Pacifico's death is asked to called the South San Francisco Police Department at (650) 877-8900.

Bay City News contributed to this report.

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