TX TX - Emily Garcia, 15, pregnant, Canyon Lake, 12 Feb 1993

[captdj]

In juvenile facility. Then released
Missed meeting at planned parenthood and then saying with a friend.

Don't thing being pg had anything to do with her death.
Then staying with a friend could have been someone she had just met and just told mom it was a friend ...... a friend by her definition isn't what we think.

She could have couch hopping since she was just released and ended up in danger before she realized what happened, just looking for some freedom and fun

 

[TracyLynnS]

Wow, that's one heck of an emergency contacts list, Tracy!

It seems rather odd to me that a teen with runaway and juvey history would provide her mother with a list of friends to contact in an emergency. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, though.

It does stand out to me that she had friends listed in three separate street gangs- the bloods, the latin kings and the crips. Bloods and latin kings are both in the 'people nation' affiliation, meaning they generally get along with each other okay...but the crips are a 'folk nation' gang, the rival affiliation to the people nation. Members of the bloods or latin kings probably wouldn't mind her hanging out with the other; but they wouldn't take too kindly to her hanging out with members of the crips; nor would crips members wanting her hanging with bloods or LK. It seems really odd to me, because these gangs would have their neighborhoods, for her to hang out in three separate, distinct neighborhoods just seems weird. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, though...

Also wanted to comment on the Chief ME, Dr Robert Bayardo. Tried to find out some info on him, but the only thing I found of any significance was the he retired in 2006 as part of a mass exodus of the Travis County ME's office after numerous corruption/incompetence inquiries were made...like the case in which Dr Bayardo identified charred remains as those of a 23-year-old man from "small parts of his penis" and "contents of his bladder", and they were later found to be those of an exhumed 81-year-old woman; or the case where Dr Bayardo determined the cause of death to be cirrhosis of the liver caused from consumption of alcohol, only to learn from the family the deceased was a non-drinker, in which case he changed his findings to cirrhosis caused by Hepatitis C and the alcohol found in the body was a result of decomposition.

Dr Bayardo was certainly no stranger to professional controversy.

Thanks for that info on Dr. Bayardo. I knew of the case of the mis-identification, but didn't know Bayardo was the ME. I wonder if Emily's family knows his strange professional history.

JMO, but I think the list of friends that Emily gave her mom "in case of emergency" might just be more of a list of contacts of people she stayed with or hung out with, in case her mom needed to get in touch with her for normal reasons.

 

[FreeSafety36]

Thanks for that info on Dr. Bayardo. I knew of the case of the mis-identification, but didn't know Bayardo was the ME. I wonder if Emily's family knows his strange professional history.

JMO, but I think the list of friends that Emily gave her mom "in case of emergency" might just be more of a list of contacts of people she stayed with or hung out with, in case her mom needed to get in touch with her for normal reasons.

BBM. When I read this, a thought just occurred to me. Making a list of anyone she might be with- addresses, phone numbers, et cetera may have been a condition of her probation. IIRC, she just came off probation the day before she went missing, correct?

 

[rosesfromangels]

It would be interesting to know if there had been any arrests of her known associates closely within the time of her disappearance. I just keep going back to the notion that she was being "punished", but for what? Had she snitched on someone? If this was gang related, what could she have done that would have caused the penalty of her life? But not just her life, but starved and tortured first?

 

[FreeSafety36]

It would be interesting to know if there had been any arrests of her known associates closely within the time of her disappearance. I just keep going back to the notion that she was being "punished", but for what? Had she snitched on someone? If this was gang related, what could she have done that would have caused the penalty of her life? But not just her life, but starved and tortured first?

If this was gang related, she wouldn't necessarily have to do anything to lose her life. She could have been picked up, possibly even by someone she knows, taken to a home and made a sex slave for the entire gang until they were done with her and then one of them killed her to keep her from talking.

I noticed the guy whom she told her mother was the baby's father, street name Shotgun, was a member of the 357 crips. I wondered briefly if it was possible she may have been carrying, or thought to be carrying, a 'blood drop' (child of a member of the blood gang). That would be grounds for murder in street gang mentality...but I don't think so.

I don't really get the feeling this was gang related. The reason is the manner of death. A gang banger would have taken her out somewhere in the city, shot her in the face and left her. If it was both gang-related and pregnancy related, there would likely have been a crude surgery performed to make sure the fetus didn't survive.

Anyway...I pulled up the facebook page of the girl she told her mom she was staying overnight with- (DG) the one who had supposedly moved when Emily's mom went to talk to her. Without being judgemental, she has a brother who, if I were working this case, would be very high on my list of people to have in for an interview...

 

[rosesfromangels]

@Free,

You sound like you know what you are talking about. If you feel so inclined, you might want to share your thoughts with:

Comal County Sheriff's Office
Criminal Investigations Dept.
Det. Sgt. Tommy Ward
Phone # 830-620-3400
soatgw@co.comal.tx.us
Case#93-00164
Or
Texas Rangers Unsolved Crimes Team
Sgt. Trampas Gooding
Phone # 830-303-4189
contact@texasrangers.org
% Trampas Gooding

It just might be the break they need.....

 

[FreeSafety36]

roses- there's not really any evidence that he was involved, just some dark innuendo, and he claims to work at a brothel. He lives in Vegas, where prostitution is legal...and I don't mean to sound judgmental of him for his employment...and surely LE has already checked that girl and her family out...I was just saying he stands out to me as someone I'd at least want to talk to, if I were working this case.

 

[kat913]

I am new to the forums so I read about this case for the first time here. Very sad to see such a young, beautiful girl and her unborn baby hurt in such a cruel manner.
I just wonder if Emily was abducted by a jealous girlfriend/wife of either the man she said fathered her child or any other. She was very pretty and may have been trying to get her life together and someone may have been very bitter and jealous towards her.
I don't think 1 person would be responsible in this scenario but a group, which abducted her, sexually abused her and kept her imprisoned while they figured out what to do next.
This would also be the reason no one is talking because it would have been a very violent and horrific situation to have been part of and there would be equal punishment for those who spoke.
Perhaps this scenario has already been suggested and if so, I will continue to follow this story in the hopes that someday her case will be solved and her family may find peace.

 

[kline]

So Emily G is reported missing in one Texas county, has a missing persons report that includes her age and description, that she is 3 months pregnant, conceived while incarcerated in a juvy centre, has a tattoo and fingerprints are available.

Two weeks later a body is found in the next Texas county matching the description of Emily - age and description, tattoo and pregnancy. No one in LE attempts to look around (cough, cough), the ME takes the male fetus and has him cremated with no ID to the mother (cough, cough) and buries the UID (cough, cough) mother in an unmarked grave.

Sure. Or maybe someone in LE knew exactly who the female deceased was and who the father was or likely was. Otherwise there would have been no reason to cremate the fetus - an ME is destroying evidence and is doing it for a reason. I would have started there.

Jmo.

Im not one to knock Law Enforcement for kicks but them not making a connection between their Jane Doe and Emily seems thickheaded in the extreme to say the least.

 

[MsNancyDrew]

Going on memory without searching through the family's website, I *think* Emily's mom said he never showed up to the meeting at the restaurant. (His mom was supposed to come, too?) I don't know what happened to him after that.

I also *think* the family suspects that the boy is not actually the baby's father due to timing. RE: Emily being in secure facilities and the boy had no access to her.

Exactly. Seems odd that Emily would think he was the father of the baby considering the timeline just doesn't work out...

This case is just too sad - so many loose ends that are just downright suspicious on LE's end (and I'm typically NOT a conspiracy theorist). As we all know, teens lie but why are her friends acting so strange?

IMO, murderous stranger or someone with power in her correctional facility is responsible for this.

At the end of the day, I just hope the family gets answers. How tragic.

 

[TracyLynnS]

It seems that Emily skipped school a lot and she and her sister bounced around between different relatives for most of their lives. Is it possible she thought she was pregnant by whoever her last partner was, or the person she had sex with most frequently, and didn't have a good enough education regarding reproduction to understand how all that works, so she just claimed this kid was the father due to her ignorance of the subject?

There are also a number of other possibilities regarding why she named someone who was likely not her baby's father. She could have lied about who the baby's father was (a young teen) to protect an adult friend who would haven't gotten in legal trouble because she was underage; or she believed she was in a relationship with a man she met at a juvenile institution or some kind of situation like that, but of course she would have been a victim, whether she realized it or not, and it wouldn't be a real relationship; or she was pregnant by a married man or a man in a relationship; or pregnant by someone in the "wrong" gang?

 

[Soulmagent]

I wonder if Emily could have been one of Mark Evonitz victims.

http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/vicap/homicides-and-sexual-assaults/evonitz_rm.pdf

 

[TracyLynnS]

I wonder if Emily could have been one of Mark Evonitz victims.

http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/vicap/homicides-and-sexual-assaults/evonitz_rm.pdf

I'm surprised that I've never heard of him. What a monster! Sickening crimes.

He committed suicide in 2002. In 2003, there was an article or news report that said something about the detective in Emily's case saying they had DNA and were waiting for technology to improve so it could be tested more accurately against suspects. (Not his exact words... I forgot the quote)

They also said they had a couple other cases they thought might be connected to Emily's murder. I wonder if they've ever run the DNA again in the last 10 years, if they ran it against the other cases or against this murderer.

ETA - quote that I couldn't remember above, from the detective, in a 2003 news article on page 13 of Emily's site. QUOTE:

At the Comal County Sheriff's Office, the file on this case sits on the corner of Sgt. Tommy Ward's desk. This is where it's been every day since he took over the case eight years ago. He thinks the time is right for a break.

Somebody knows who did this. Somebody knows Emily Garcia. Someone has some info on the person who killed her, he said. Ward is hoping for that one call, but he does have something more. He has a DNA sample.

When Emily was killed, the technology was not there to analyze it, Ward said. He recently resubmitted the evidence. We got some DNA results back. However, right now those results are not far enough advanced. It will catch up. Technology is improving every single day especially. In this forensic work. One day I'll put someone in jail for killing Emily Garcia.

http://theresayeary.tripod.com/id8.html

 

[TracyLynnS]

People, groups, agencies, etc, the family have contacted regarding Emily's case:

TV Shows Specializing in Unsolved Homicide Cases such as: America's Most Wanted, Court TV, Crime TV, Crime Net, Crime News Two Thousand, MSNBC News, American Police Beat, and Cybersleuths.

Several professionals from Homicide Investigations, Cold Case Investigations, Forensics, DNA Testing, Profilers, Knot Analysis People, Vidocq Society, and Private Investigators.

Several offices for Victims Rights such as Texans for Equal Justice, People Against Violent Crimes, Dept. Of Justice for All, NOVA, Victims Assistance with the local DA's office, FBI Victims Assistance, National Center for Victims of Crime, and Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors in Washington, DC.

The Govenor's Office, State Senator and Representatives, Attorney General, Local DA's Office, Sheriff's Offices throughout Texas, FBI, Texas Rangers, Crimestoppers, Texas Marshall's, Approximately eighty Texas Police Departments, and also major city police departments within the US.

QUOTE from Emily's family: The problem we are having with this is that the people who are willing to help us and work on Emily's case have been refused permission from Det. Tommy Ward, the investigative office of Emily's case, saying that it is his case.

BBM. This is at least the second time the family has mentioned this fact on their site. IMO, he either has a massive ego, is stupid, is involved, or is covering for someone. It's been 20 years. I wonder if he's still the investigator in charge of the case. He was still the investigator quite recently because the family's info regarding him on their website is not that old and he is listed as a contact.

Twenty years.... Isn't this case cold enough? There can't be too many good/legal reasons why he won't let anyone else investigate. How long is he going to block other agencies, groups, and officials from having access to this cold case, which could very well be linked to other child murders?

Family's website, page 15 http://theresayeary.tripod.com/id5.html

 

[pamlet]

Im not one to knock Law Enforcement for kicks but them not making a connection between their Jane Doe and Emily seems thickheaded in the extreme to say the least.

Somehow I've missed all this - and she was found just 15 minutes or so from my home..

In 1993 Comal County was QUITE rural - especially the western end of the county. Being found in the county it would be handled by the county sheriff's department - and it doesn't surprise me that things would have been over looked even just one county away .. geographically where she disappeared and where she was found is VERY different.

We had just moved to the area in fall of 1992. It was a shock when I realized that for our "side" of the county there would only be ONE sheriff on patrol on the night shift .. during the day maybe 2 or 3 ..

Not defending them - just trying to explain - Comal County in the early 1990s was still VERY "small town" . .. so not terribly shocked that they'd miss what would probably have been considered a "runaway" at the time. I suspect that if there had been attempts to make her disappearance known in the media - then it would have been out there. This was only a few years after Heidi Seeman was snatched and killed (her body found out near Wimberley which is NORTH of Canyon Lake) They still talked about it on the news and the Heidi Search Center was already making a name for itself locally.

 

[rosesfromangels]

@TracyLynn - I wonder if anyone from the media has interviewed him recently and asked him why he would *not* permit outside assistance? Perhaps he has a very good reason. If so, we'd all like to hear it I'm sure.

 

[TracyLynnS]

This was only a few years after Heidi Seeman was snatched and killed (her body found out near Wimberley which is NORTH of Canyon Lake) They still talked about it on the news and the Heidi Search Center was already making a name for itself locally.

RSBM

The police said they think her case could be linked to Emily's and are holding back some info on similarities of the crimes:

Police also are investigating a possible connection to another unsolved child murder. Eleven-year-old Heidi Seeman was murdered two-and-a-half years before Emily. Both girls were last seen in north San Antonio. Their bodies were found within five miles of each other in Comal and Hays counties. There are some other similarities that police are keeping confidential.

http://theresayeary.tripod.com/id8.html

 

[Tugela]

Somehow I've missed all this - and she was found just 15 minutes or so from my home..

In 1993 Comal County was QUITE rural - especially the western end of the county. Being found in the county it would be handled by the county sheriff's department - and it doesn't surprise me that things would have been over looked even just one county away .. geographically where she disappeared and where she was found is VERY different.

We had just moved to the area in fall of 1992. It was a shock when I realized that for our "side" of the county there would only be ONE sheriff on patrol on the night shift .. during the day maybe 2 or 3 ..

Not defending them - just trying to explain - Comal County in the early 1990s was still VERY "small town" . .. so not terribly shocked that they'd miss what would probably have been considered a "runaway" at the time. I suspect that if there had been attempts to make her disappearance known in the media - then it would have been out there. This was only a few years after Heidi Seeman was snatched and killed (her body found out near Wimberley which is NORTH of Canyon Lake) They still talked about it on the news and the Heidi Search Center was already making a name for itself locally.

Actually, according to newspaper articles published on the same day she was found (linked here), they did check with other LE agencies to see if the body corresponded to anyone reported missing.

The real problem was that she was not reported missing until a year later, when her body was finally identified. If LE had known she was missing the body would have been identified within a day, and in all probability the case would have been resolved. But, since there was no report, they could not identify her, and by the time they did a year later all evidence that might have solved the case was long gone.

Because of that failure to report, this case likely will never be solved.

 

[Tugela]

People, groups, agencies, etc, the family have contacted regarding Emily's case:

TV Shows Specializing in Unsolved Homicide Cases such as: America's Most Wanted, Court TV, Crime TV, Crime Net, Crime News Two Thousand, MSNBC News, American Police Beat, and Cybersleuths.

Several professionals from Homicide Investigations, Cold Case Investigations, Forensics, DNA Testing, Profilers, Knot Analysis People, Vidocq Society, and Private Investigators.

Several offices for Victims Rights such as Texans for Equal Justice, People Against Violent Crimes, Dept. Of Justice for All, NOVA, Victims Assistance with the local DA's office, FBI Victims Assistance, National Center for Victims of Crime, and Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors in Washington, DC.

The Govenor's Office, State Senator and Representatives, Attorney General, Local DA's Office, Sheriff's Offices throughout Texas, FBI, Texas Rangers, Crimestoppers, Texas Marshall's, Approximately eighty Texas Police Departments, and also major city police departments within the US.

QUOTE from Emily's family: The problem we are having with this is that the people who are willing to help us and work on Emily's case have been refused permission from Det. Tommy Ward, the investigative office of Emily's case, saying that it is his case.

BBM. This is at least the second time the family has mentioned this fact on their site. IMO, he either has a massive ego, is stupid, is involved, or is covering for someone. It's been 20 years. I wonder if he's still the investigator in charge of the case. He was still the investigator quite recently because the family's info regarding him on their website is not that old and he is listed as a contact.

Twenty years.... Isn't this case cold enough? There can't be too many good/legal reasons why he won't let anyone else investigate. How long is he going to block other agencies, groups, and officials from having access to this cold case, which could very well be linked to other child murders?

Family's website, page 15 http://theresayeary.tripod.com/id5.html

That is what the family are saying, but they probably misunderstood or misinterpreted what they were being told. That appears to be a common theme throughout the story.

For example, on their webpage they claim:

Crime Stoppers also offered a reward for anyone who could help identify the Jane Doe, but once they found out that it was indeed Emily Garcia, they no longer offered the reward. We were told that this was due to Det. Sgt. Tommy Ward(who has been the investigating officer for the past several years) not allowing them to offer the reward.

Here is the problem: Investigating officers are not the ones who decide if a reward should or shouldn't be offered by an independent body. So this claim does not make sense.

Also, Investigators report to managers, and it is the manager who decides what happens to a case, not the investigator. The investigator works on the cases assigned to him/her within the time allocated to do so, and if the manager decides it should go into a cold case file (which is usually determined based on a standard operating procedure) then it goes into a cold case file. The investigator can't veto that.

Does anyone know what language Emily's family speak? If it is Spanish, that might explain why there is this long theme of apparent misunderstanding and miscommunication throughout the story. It starts with the failure to report her missing when they claim they thought they did, to the inability apparently to talk to anyone who knew her, to these very strange claims about all of the people involved in the investigation of the case.

 

[MsNancyDrew]

QUOTE from Emily's family: The problem we are having with this is that the people who are willing to help us and work on Emily's case have been refused permission from Det. Tommy Ward, the investigative office of Emily's case, saying that it is his case.
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Det. Ward behaviors seems SO odd and strange. He seems to be actively work AGAINST finding the truth...