Memorial service scheduled for Eric Bean

A memorial for slain Martinez teenager Eric Bean is scheduled for 2 p.m on Jan. 3 at the Connelly and Taylor Funeral Home.

Over the weekend, roughly 150 mourners gathered in Rankin Park to hold a candlelight vigil for the popular 18-year-old, whose body was found aside McEwen Road on Dec. 22 by a passing motorist.

A subsequent autopsy revealed Bean died from asphyxiation from strangulation and blunt force head trauma. Police believe Bean was killed at another location and his body was dumped on the road to Port Costa, one mile north of Hwy. 4.

The Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Office is the lead investigative agency on this case, and spokesman Jimmy Lee said as of Monday afternoon, there were no updates in the investigation, and police have yet to find a suspect[s] or motive in the murder case.

Jimmy Bean Jr., Eric’s father, told the Gazette yesterday he had last seen his son on Tuesday, Dec. 15 as he, Eric and Eric’s brother Jimmy III, 23, retired for bed at their Buckley Street home. Jimmy Bean Jr., an active member of Army Reserves and an employee of Jeffco Painting and Coating in Vallejo — where Eric also held a job — described his son as an avid fisherman and baseball player and someone who would go out of his way to help people.

“He played baseball since the age of four,” said Jimmy Bean Jr. “He fished daily, right off the [Martinez] pier. When [Downtown] flooded a few years back, Eric was right there shoveling mud. He would take in stray cats and dogs and he had never been in trouble until recently. The problem was he would befriend anybody and they — kids his age – would end up staying at the house and I’d have to chase them off.”

Over the past week, during interviews with those who knew Bean, the Gazette repeatedly heard that in the recent months he had become involved with drugs and a different crowd of peers.

“[Eric] was planning on going back to school on Jan. 15,” said Jimmy Bean, adding that he had no idea who killed his son or the circumstances surrounding his death.

Jimmy Bean emphasized that all of Eric’s friends were welcome to attend the memorial service scheduled for Jan. 3.