Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Bombshell: Exclusive new details about missing Maricela Garcia

Episode Date: February 6, 2017

Crime Stories breaks news on Maricela Garcia developed by the private investigator hired by the 26-year-old missing woman’s family. The new information suggests the dark world of drug addiction could be related to her disappearance while shopping in Reseda, California last month. Police want to talk to Garcia’s ex-boyfriend, who the private detective says hooked her on heroin. We’ve also learned the methadone treatment center where Maricela was treated was on the same block as the store and the church where she was last seen. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Friends and family are desperately searching for 26-year-old Maricela Garcia. I'm really terrified. I don't even know what to think. This is Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. She's like, I'll be right back, Sarah. I'm just going to go outside to smoke a cigarette. And when I came out, she wasn't there. She tried calling. No answer and her phone was dead. So I was like, okay, let's not overreact. I stood in the rain by her car for like, I don't even know, I lost track of time, probably over 30, 40 minutes waiting for her

and she didn't come back. It is odd that she's walked away, but we're still investigating it. And what I am saying is that there's no evidence of foul play that we've determined at this time. She would never leave me alone. Like I was her younger sister. There's no way.

I see her every day. She doesn't just wander off by herself. This is Alan Duke, Nancy's co-host and producer for this Crime Stories podcast. Unfortunately, Nancy Grace is not with us today because of the passing of her father-in-law. I hope and expect her to be back with us for the next episode tomorrow, but I wanted to share some exclusive information that Crime Stories has received about missing persons case Maricela Garcia. We've been following this case closely in recent weeks, this mysterious disappearance of the 26-year-old Southern California woman on January 12, 2017.

Maricela was on a shopping trip at a Goodwill store in Reseda, California. That's a community in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles. She told her sister, Sarah, she was just stepping outside for a cigarette, but she never returned. In fact, her cigarettes were found unopened in her pocketbook in her car, which she also left behind. If you followed Maricela's story on our previous podcast, you know that a tracking dog indicated she'd walked into a nearby Catholic church, and that's where witnesses, two women, say they saw her praying in a pew before running out in a panic. You also know a cell phone believed

to be hers was found smashed, sitting nearby on the ground with a battery and SIM card missing. A choker necklace like the one Maricela was wearing was found torn on the ground near a dumpster in a parking lot. But now, thanks to a private investigator, Tanya Kitchen of Kitchen Investigations Calabasas, we now have new information which I expect would cause Nancy, were she to be here, to declare bombshell tonight. While Maricela has not been found, this new information has given the LAPD detectives new leads to follow, possibly new persons of interest to investigate. This is something. With me now, Misty Patton, who serves as a volunteer advocate for the Garcia family. We'll talk with her in just a

moment, but first, let me thank our sponsor, SimpliSafe. Thousands of people seeking home security get ripped off every day. Home security industry wants you to believe it's your only option. They've gotten hordes of salesmen out there knocking on your doors, trying to scare you into signing one of their long-term contracts and you get stuck writing huge checks month after month with no way out. It's robbery by contract and it can cost you thousands but there's a better way to protect your home now. SimpliSafe Home Security. SimpliSafe has no contracts, none. You'll get award-winning 24-7 protection named best in the industry. Security professionals watching, ready to instantly send the police to your home.

And it's just $14.99 a month. That's less than half of what most companies charge. Protect your home the smart way. Visit simplisafe.com slash nancy to check out their high definition camera plus you can get 10 off any order but only at simplisafe.com slash nancy for that 10 discount so go now simplisafe.com slash nancy misty you have new information since we last spoke and we've been talking now a couple of weeks since, not long after Maricela disappeared, but a lot has happened. Despite all of the frustration with wondering what was happening as far as the LAPD, a lot has happened, and we're now able to talk about it. So, thank you for joining us. First of all, let's acknowledge that the LAPD has,

contrary to what we've been knowing, been investigating this. And especially right now, they're going full force on this. Is that your understanding, Misty? That is my understanding, Alan. And that's the LAPD's missing persons unit. And they've been assisted by a private investigator that has been retained by the family and has been working quite a bit on this case and has presented a lot of her information. So let's first of all name the private investigator. That would be Tanya Kitchens, Investigations of Calabasas. Tanya Kitchens, who is a private investigator out of Calabasas, came up with the idea of offering

a reward and putting out new posters advertising the reward in the area where she disappeared. And you believe that is where this new information that's now propelling the investigation to go forward is coming from? Correct. The family received an anonymous tip on Saturday that was followed up on by Tanya, by Detective Palmer, the NPU, and it was a credible tip and it has led to all kinds of new information. Well, let's start running down the information. First of all, some information I've already mentioned Friday that we found out that Maricela Garcia, contrary to what we thought, was familiar with the area in Reseda around that Goodwill store that she regularly went there for methadone treatment. Correct. She was discharged back in

2016 from the methadone clinic there by that church, actually. It's on the same block as the Goodwill store where she disappeared from and church, where some churchgoers say that she was seen soon after she walked out of the Goodwill. So there's the methadone clinic. Now, she was at the methadone clinic because she had been using heroin, I understand. Correct. She had a boyfriend back in 2010 that unfortunately introduced not just the heroin as far as using but the whole buying, selling, dealing lifestyle. And that's where these drug charges that we found on her criminal record came from, several of them over the last several years. Correct, since 2010, yes. She was being treated for a heroin addiction at a methadone clinic, and also on that same block where she disappeared from, which we had previously thought was a strange neighborhood to her, she had been going to that Catholic church on a very regular basis,

as it turns out. Is that not true? That's correct. According to an employee of the church, Maricela went there pretty much daily at around 1 o'clock p.m., which is the same time that the methadone clinic closes. And it is well known that people get their methadone and then turn around and sell it in those back parking lots right there. In the back parking lots, not very far from where actually what we believe to be her cell phone was found smashed with the battery out and the SIM card gone. In that exact area, yes. In the exact area. It's getting to be a very small world for Maricela Garcia's disappearance. As we find out that these key things that tie into the theories that are now being discovered

and followed are all on that same city block of Reseda, California, where she disappeared. She, I understand, went to that church every day, you said, at one o'clock that a church worker said that she would be there praying. Right. This really reinforces the information that the tracking dog gave you. Absolutely, yes. Tell us about, what did the tracking dog tell you, indicate to you? The tracking dog indicated that she not only went into the church, but there was a

particular pew that she sat in. And I'm guessing that that would be the place that she sat and prayed and waited to make her deals. With this new information now that investigators have that Maricela, in fact, had frequented that neighborhood where she disappeared, and the information about the boyfriend. Let's talk a little bit about the boyfriend now. We're choosing not to name him, whether police name him or not, we'll find out. But he was her boyfriend for four or five years, but she broke up with him in the last year, right? That's right. He was very, like I said, he had really taken control over her. I mean, she had just spiraled downward both mentally, emotionally, physically, using drugs, like I said, buying, selling.

And she wanted out, and she broke it off. And since then, she has made great strides, you know, attempting to get sober. And this man is just relentless. He just doesn't leave her alone. Another thing that I understand is that it has been revealed that she briefly disappeared once before in 2014. That's true. She was returned to the home by this man, and she was almost dead from an overdose. She required hospitalization. So there is a precedent for this.

And because of this and all of this information you're telling me, which, by the way, also includes in this report that Maricela had visited a drug dealer just hours before her disappearance, is that right, and purchased some drugs? We're not sure how close it was within her disappearance. We know that it was within 24 hours, but we're not exactly sure on the exact time frame. And it was a drug dealer that she had been introduced to by her boyfriend years earlier.

Correct. There's some history between that dealer, the boyfriend, the boyfriend's uncle, and unfortunately we feel that by her using this dealer it was a way for them to keep tabs on her and know where she was going. Even though she had broken up and wanted to separate from wanted him kept away. Now he moved out of town apparently since her disappearance is that right he's not to be found at the moment the boyfriend? It was prior to her disappearance. Is that right? He's not to be found at the moment, the boyfriend? It was prior to her disappearance. We feel that he got in over his head with these people as far as owing them money. He moved seemingly to escape them. Drug dealers. These are some big dealers.

There were, you know, we're not talking just a little bitty small time stuff. We feel there might be a potential that they appeared to have broken it off so that Maricela was not in debt herself. It was kind of like, I wasn't really involved type thing. You know, he's gone. I don't know anything. And we feel that her recent activity, she might have actually been forced to sell that maybe that was their way of reclaiming their money was by forcing her to sell instead of him since you know obviously they can't reach him so after this dark slide into heroin use that lasted over about five years parallel to her relationship with this man that we're we're speaking of but not naming right the theory is that there was some debt owed for some reason to these bad people, drug dealers,

and perhaps that is related to her current disappearance. We feel that these people, whether or not it was the boyfriend himself or his uncle or these people, we feel that someone has abducted her in retaliation for a drug debt. I don't know if she's being trafficked. She's very vulnerable. She's very fragile mentally. Being addicted to heroin, she would be very easy to control. We don't know if they're trafficking her to repay that debt. We don't know if they're holding her until he repays his debt. But we feel that these people are somehow involved. And this theory is exactly what we know has

happened in previous cases with previous women who have disappeared. Correct. This is not an untold story. Absolutely. Unfortunately, it's now being said about Maricela Garcia. There is another theory. It's not necessarily, that's not the only one, but an easy check of the sex offender registry, which, by the way, is posted on CrimeOnline.com. You can go there and put in your zip code and find out who's registered as a registered sex offender. Some investigation has been done by the private investigator into what's been going on in the immediate area of about a mile around where Maricela disappeared. That's correct.

Again, we're not going to name names, but there is a convicted sex offender that is being looked at now. That's true. He lives actually 0.7 miles away from the Goodwill. His picture is very, very similar to the, it was well publicized, a rape in an alley back in 2016 in the summer. His composite sketch is spot on. A rape that was near where Maricela disappeared, in the same general vicinity. They were a mile apart. So it's not like that the detectives and the private investigator are just

zeroing in on that one possibility, but there is that other. One of the frustrations for me, and I know for you and the family, has been the early decision by the LAPD to call her voluntary missing. And we were all wondering, how could that be? Because the smashed phone and other suspicious things seem to indicate there could be foul play involved. But now what we do know is that they have been working on this information and they now have upgraded it. She has not just now voluntary missings. It's a much higher level of concern for her.

She's considered missing under suspicious circumstances. And they still have not increased her to a critical missing or an endangered missing. Because again, they're still not 100% sure that she is being, she is in extreme danger. We feel that way. The FBI feels that way. I've never met Maricela Garcia. I hope someday that will be possible. But I've talked to a lot of folks who knew her, especially her family, and they describe her as a very loving sister, daughter, really a good kid, but for the drug addiction that they blame on the boyfriend

and all the manipulation and emotional abuse that she went through in that relationship. But I also understand that in the recent years, she was really trying to get it together. Absolutely. She was attending outpatient treatment. She was really becoming more independent. She was building her self-confidence back up. I mean, she just seemed to be becoming a different person. Misty, I want to thank you. You're a volunteer advocate. You not only work with the family of Maricela Garcia, helping with their social media and getting the mainstream media out there for the searches and helping put out the, I know you and your husband have worked tirelessly to

put out the posters all over the area. Also, let's thank Tanya Kitchen of Tanya Kitchen Investigations of Calabasas, who's been helping the family. We should recognize Detective Palmer with the LAPD, who has quietly gone about the work, despite everything, and has carried the investigation forward. We don't have an arrest, but we do have a lot more information and a much better picture of what has been going on with Maricela Garcia. This information, let's hope that it helps bring forward new tips, new information, because there is a reward offered. How do people find out more about the case? There is a Facebook page for this right now, I understand.

Correct. It is Facebook Bring Maricela Home. And we share all the information that we are able to here. And that's a great way to get into the discussion, find out about new events. There is a massive search planned for both Saturday and Sunday this weekend. We need large scale. We have a lot of specific areas to cover. We need everybody that is able to to come out one or both days so that we can bring her home.

While you've been doing the search previously, it was with a certain focus. Now with the new information, in light of that, there will be a renewed search for any clues and information about Maricela Garcia. When is the search? When are the searches planned? The searches will be Saturday and Sunday, both beginning at 10 a.m. There we will meet at the Goodwill there on Sherman Way in Reseda and go from there. Thanks again, Misty. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace is possible because of our sponsor, Simply Safe Home Security. Thousands of people seeking home security getting ripped off every day, and the home security industry wants you to believe it's your only option.

They've got hordes of salesmen out there, these companies do, trying to scare you into signing one of their long-term contracts, and you get stuck writing the huge checks month after month with no way out. Robbery by contract can cost you thousands. But now there's a better way to protect your home. Simply Safe Home Security. It has no contracts. You'll get award-winning 24-7 protection that's named best in the industry. Security professionals watching, ready to instantly send police when there's an alarm tripped. It's just $14.99 a month, less than half of what most companies charge. So protect your home the smart way.

Visit simplisafe.com slash nancy to check out their product. Plus, you can get 10% off on any order. But if you go to simplisafe.com slash Nancy, that's where you get the discount. Go now, simplisafe.com slash Nancy. We post a new Crime Stories podcast Monday through Friday. Tomorrow, we plan a very important follow-up to Nancy's interview of last week

with the father of Karina Vetrano, the woman murdered while jogging in a Queens, New York park last summer. Her father's been pushing for New York officials to allow a new type of DNA analysis to be used to identify a suspect. Well, now since that interview, 20 year old Chanel Lewis has been arrested, charged with Vetrano's murder based on DNA evidence. And police are also saying there's a confession. Watch for that episode coming up. Also, help your friends find Nancy's new podcast by sharing it on Facebook. And writing a review on iTunes, that's very helpful in letting others,

people you don't even know, know about it. Again, I hope and expect Nancy Grace will be back at the mic tomorrow. Until then, this is Alan Duke for Crime Stories. Take care. This is an iHeart Podcast.