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Gilbert man’s historical mystery set in Gilbert 1918

BY ASHLYN ROBINETTE

GSN Contributor

Imagine going for a run, yet suddenly traveling back in time – to Gilbert 1918.

This is the plot of Gilbert resident Jason Cvancara’s first novel, “Zona Investigations: The 918 Files: Case 000317Gilbert,” which was published last month.

The historical mystery novel follows Harry, a man who was found lying in the street covered in bruises and scratches after time slipping into Gilbert 1918.

Rather than being in the wrong place, wrong time, Harry was in the right place, wrong era.

Set 30 years into the future, Cvancara’s “The 918 Files” book series revolves around an investigator being put into a Gilbert resident Jason Cvancara, a private detective in real life with an office in Mesa, has just written his first novel in which a private detective agency plays a major role. (Special to GSN) nursing home because he has an early onset of dementia. While he’s clearing out his office with his grandson, his grandson finds the 918 case files and asks what they are. So, he pulls out one of the files, the first being the Gilbert case, and tells the story of what happened. “Each file is going to be a book, so we have four or five already lined up,” Cvancara said. “They are all going to be based off of the private investigator from Zona Investigations who works out of Arizona. It’s going to be weird stuff, but I’m going to keep it as real as possible.”

For the protagonist, Harry, the phenomenon of “time slipping” becomes his reality. “Time slipping” involves traveling through time by unknown means

see AUTHOR page 19

Gilbert teen giving scholarships to teachers

BY KEN SAIN

GSN Staff Writer

AGilbert resident and Basha High School senior says her biggest worry when she decided to give scholarships to teachers was not trying to raise the money, but would anyone apply? “For me, the more intimidating thing was like, ‘I don’t know if anyone’s going to apply. I was praying just like one person, please apply so I can actually like do the project.”

There was no reason for Jadyn Ocampo to fret. She left the application window open for two weeks and 34 Chandler Unified School District teachers applied for the Al and Laurie Ocampo Scholarship.

Jadyn said she wanted to raise money for teachers for her senior project Basha High senior and Gilbert resident Jadyn Ocampo said her parents are both teachers and both have college debt, so she started a scholarship fund for Chandler Unified School because she has seen how the student loans teachers take out to get their degrees can take decades to pay off.

Both her parents are teachers. “One day it just kind of clicked,” Jadyn said. “My mom faces student debt. I lived with her in Flagstaff when she was in grad school at NAU, and I see her 10 years later still paying for that degree. I know that affects a lot of educators.”

Jadyn was hoping to raise $1,000 to give to one teacher when she first started the project. She ended up raising more than $4,000 on a GoFundMe page. She decided to award three $1,000 scholarships and four $300 scholarships. “I was moved by all the stories,” Jadyn said. “There are three stories that really stood out to me.”

Jadyn said she knows that with the

and with no control.

After Harry realized he had slipped into 1918, he tries to get anyone to believe him, but no one does.

That is, until he met Charles G. William, owner of private detective agency, Zona Investigations. Zona Investigations takes direct inspiration from Cvancara’s own private detective agency of the same name located in Mesa. In Cvancara’s book, Zona Investigations was developed for people desperate to find answers.

The agency attracts people with unusual requests and takes cases that are so strange, no one believes them.

Charles helps Harry in his search for the truth – much like how Cvancara says he provides investigative services to clients. “I’ve always been the type of person that if you tell me something, I’m not going to discredit you,” the Gilbert resident said. “I’m going to hear you out.”

Cvancara discovered his love for law enforcement as a Security Forces member in the Air Force. After more than 20 years of military service (active and reserves), Cvancara worked in civilian law enforcement for over a decade. The former Phoenix Police officer then started a security guard business, Silbar, Security of Phoenix, and has owned Zona Investigations for about three years now.

Cvancara said his stint in the Air Force as well as his experience as a police officer and private eye have helped him see things from a unique, law enforcement perspective. “I wanted to do something different where I could combine my experience in law enforcement, security and everything else with my creative brain that comes up with weird stuff and put it into a fiction book that would entertain people,” he said. “The 918 Files” offers a mixture of reality and fiction with unexplained cases featuring interactions with historical people, places and events.

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Affordable Pre-K Tuition-Free K-8 Enroll Today! “The storyline flows with what I’ve experienced over the years dealing with weird stuff and just kind of the process of how an investigator works cases,” Cvancara said. “There are different parts in the book where the police interact with people and they interact in the same way I would have.”

Cvancara credits his mother, who passed away last August, as the person he inherited his creative genes from. She was always open to different, weird ideas and helped him a lot with the book, he said.

If Cvancara was ever stuck, his mother would help him find a creative way to move the story along.

Another family member who the book takes influence from is Cvancara’s great grandfather, William, whom the investigator is named after.

To be as historically accurate as possible as Harry walks toward Old Town Gilbert in 1918, Cvancara went to the Gilbert Museum and tried to find as much information as he could on Gilbert during that period. He did research online as well to learn about what Arizona looked like at the time, what law enforcement was like and what kinds of communication were available. “Another goal is to get people interested in history and make people realize just how fast Gilbert has grown,” Cvancara said. “It hasn’t always been like this. At one point in time, Gilbert was just dirt roads and a couple of buildings.” The number “918” wasn’t chosen randomly for his book series, Cvancara said. In reality, 918 is the radio code in Phoenix for mental illness. “At the beginning of the book, it’s dedicated to those thought to be crazy,” he said. “Sometimes people experience weird things and they’re actually telling the truth. So that’s what all these stories are going to be based on. Someone has experienced something and people are

see AUTHOR page 22

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money she awards, the teachers won’t pay off their student loans, but she hopes it will help them make at least one payment.

Those three teachers were Yolanda Jones of Navarette Elementary, Hunter Wilkes of CTA Independence and Eric Bealer at Hamilton High School.

Jadyn said Jones’ story touched her because she’s a full-time teacher who heads home each day before she goes to her second job at Chick-fil-A. On top of that, she’s a graduate student who hopes one day to be a principal at a Navajo school. She said she identified with Wilkes because they are both athletes.

Jadyn plays tennis and Wilkes came within an inch of qualifying for the Olympics in the pole vault. To train for a shot at the Olympics, she spent an extra year at her university, which just added to the debt she had already amassed.

Bealer has six children – the same number as Jadyn’s grandparents, after whom she named her scholarship fund. Two of Bealer’s children have medical needs. “I guess the key thing with all those teachers, is despite their hard things, they’re still so excited to go to work,” Jadyn said.

Getting the $300 scholarships were Anna Zepada of San Marcos, Vanessa Randall of Hamilton, Amber Lugo of Conley and Andrew Pezzuto of Santan. After a local TV station broadcast this story, more donations came in on Ocampo’s GoFundMe page. She now has enough to hand out about six more $300 scholarships. She said she may have to wait until March to do that,

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because she’s already missed too much school on this project. Jadyn said when she first started trying to decide which teachers to award the scholarships to, she made an initial cut to 15. From there, she picked the seven that ultimately got money.

Jadyn said she will look at the eight she didn’t choose from that initial cut to find the next six.

And she hopes to keep this going. “I really feel like I can go somewhere with this,” Jadyn said. “I would love to start a foundation. I mean, I’m 17 and I have to worry about paying for college right now. But I would love to do this again next year.”

TO HELP

To donate to the Al and Laurie Ocampo Scholarship, search GoFundMe.com by “Ocampo Scholarship.” going to think they’re out of their mind but in reality, they’re not.”

Cvancara soon plans to start writing his next book, which will most likely be set in Prescott. If his first book does well, he anticipates his second to be released this fall. Cvancara also hopes that “The 918 Files” could be turned into a television series in the future. “Think of it like ‘The X-Files’ where it seems real, but kind of not,” he said. “You’re always guessing whether or not it’s a true story.” “Zona Investigations: The 918 Files: Case 000317Gilbert” can be purchased through Amazon. To keep up with the latest “The 918 Files” updates follow the series’ Instagram page @the_918_files or its Facebook and Twitter page, both @ The918Files. To shop “The 918 Files” merchandise or to read about other Arizona-based cases visit the918files. com.