Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Maricela Garcia: Missing two weeks, but is LAPD looking?

Episode Date: January 27, 2017

The sister of Maricela Garcia, the California woman who disappeared while shopping at a Los Angeles area Goodwill Store, is desperately pleading with Los Angeles police to investigate the case that detectives labeled “voluntary missing.” A smashed cell phone, a torn necklace and a tracking dog’s reaction convinced her family that the 26-year-old woman was kidnapped. Nancy Grace discusses the LAPD’s reluctance to work the case with Alan Duke, who walked Maricela’s last path with her family. 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. That day was supposed to be like any other. They were shopping, Marciella and her sister Sarah, but by nighttime, the day had turned into something much more disturbing, much more nefarious. A gorgeous, talented, tender-hearted girl has been reduced, according to her mother, to one word, case. Case number 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. I'm talking about Maricela Garcia. absolutely beautiful young girl. And we are getting calls and emails like crazy about the disappearance of Maricela Garcia.

This is how it went down. First of all, thank you for being with us. My number one is to thank you for being with us. I'm Nancy Grace, and this is Crime Stories. We are also writing articles, giving tip lines, asking for you to give information on this or any other case at crimeonline.com. We're talking about Maricela Garcia and we're not giving up. The day she goes missing, she went shopping with her sister Sarah. They were going to a quote-unquote decades party where you dress in a particular way, and she was dressing for the 80s. So they went to a Goodwill store, which I have done many times,

to outfit the twins for various dress-up occasions. Imagine my shock when I saw a Nancy Grace t-shirt there. I immediately bought it. Back to Maricela. So she and Sister Sarah, younger Sister Sarah, are in the Goodwill, and she decides she wants a cigarette. She goes outside for a smoke. She says, quote, I'll be right back. You know the rest. She never comes back. She leaves her parked locked BMW in the parking lot with her purse inside. There's no trace of a ping on her cell phone. She vanished. Now they may have gotten there in daylight but when this went down it was 7 30 at night in California and it was dark. The family has brought in volunteer volunteer canines who led to a dumpster in the far corner of the Goodwill parking lot. It's kind of a strip center with other shops there as well, like a 99-cent and under type store.

They found where the dog led them to the dumpster. Maricela's choker ripped off her neck, broken at the dumpster. They found a smashed cell phone similar to Maricela's. They think it's hers. The SIM card had been removed. So we can't say, yes, that's it. But, I mean, let's just look at the evidence. With me is the Duke, Alan Duke, investigative reporter.

Alan, she's there in that spot having a cigarette. The canines go to that spot. They pass that spot. Her choker is found there ripped off her neck, her favorite choker that she would have worn in the shower if she could have, according to her mother. So it's more than likely given those facts, her smashed cell phone. Now, one of the calls I got on this call, on this case, is from Donna, Donna A.

And Donna A says, wait a minute. If she went outside for a smoke, wouldn't she have had her cigarettes in her pocketbook, in her purse? Otherwise, they would have been crushed. I don't know. Maybe she had them have been crushed. I don't know. Maybe she had them in a pocket. I don't know, but that made sense to me. She may have gone out to the car and gotten the cigarettes out of the car and locked the car back with her purse in the car, but where were the keys to the car? I'd like to know that. She never went back for her sister.

But that question about the car that Donna A. has called in, I think is significant. Because I'm wondering if we're going to learn anything more along that line from the surveillance video. It was dark, Alan. So I don't know where exactly they were parked. They were kind of over toward the 99 cent store i don't know if they had surveillance in the parking lot but if she had gone to the car to get her cigarettes and then she had was standing out by the building smoking i mean she could have been abducted near her car and not near the structure, which is a whole nother wrinkle in what happened. But you've been to the scene and you've met with the family.

We are investigating this case ourselves. What have we learned, Alan? I walked the entire route that the tracking dog indicated that Maricela followed that night. And we did it exactly to the minute, two weeks after she was last seen and when she apparently took that route. But there have been some changes there. First, there is now a security guard there. Second, the lights in the parking lot that were out, the bulbs have been replaced in the last two weeks. I was able to confirm that throughout that parking area.

I was mentioning to you there's part of it that's lighted, part of it that's dark. The lighting in the parking lot around the 99-Cent Store and the Goodwill Store have been improved, that it's a lot brighter now, two weeks later. Why does that always happen? There are these horrible circumstances, and someone gets kidnapped or killed, and then they fix it. You know, it's always like that. Okay, go ahead. Now, this was an odd discovery that I found. Now, when I walked it the night before, I've been there several times. I noticed there were a lot of security cameras around and the family is working on their own to get the video. But then I went over to this cathedral,

this church that the tracking dog indicated she had gone through. And you look all around the church and you see these cameras up on the roof surrounding almost like a fortress. That's the good news. The bad news is, Nancy, and are you sitting down for this one? Yes, maybe I better lay down. The father went to the church, asked for the video, and he was informed, oh, those are fake cameras. We just have them up there to deter crime. Oh.

Can you believe that? Oh, no. I cannot believe it, but they're fake cameras. But they are working to get camera video from several of the buildings. They can't do it as quickly as the police, and the police aren't involved in it, unfortunately, and we can get to that. Okay, wait a minute. You just threw that out there.

The police are not involved in it. That's exactly right. The police, according to the family, because they determined she was voluntary missing, they're not going out there getting warrants for video. How can it be voluntary missing with a choker ripped off your neck and a smashed cell phone? How can that be? That is the question. Those are questions that I asked last night, and I saw such frustration. I was able to walk along the path two weeks later with Sarah Garcia, her dad, her brother Edgar, and to talk to them about their frustration and what's going on. And I recorded it. Let's listen.

The route that the tracking dog took, does that make a lot of sense to you? It does. The dogs helped a lot, but I think the dogs helped more than the police did. Now, that's the thing. The LAPD, are they still calling this voluntary missing? Yeah, they're still calling it voluntary missing as if she's a runaway and she's an adult, which I think honestly is BS because that other girl went missing and they found her in three days. Yeah, and LAPD detectives actually traveled 60 or 70 miles up to help the search for her and not going down the street for you. Well, yeah, the detectives haven't done anything at all.

I called the detective today and I told her what has she actually done in the last two weeks and she couldn't say anything because she hasn't done anything. And, you know, you would think that they would actually go and try to find a missing person, but I just think that they're comfortable with people going missing, and they're comfortable with their jobs, and I think that's ridiculous because if it was somebody with the last name Jones or somebody with the last name, you know, just a white last name, it would have been different. And I'm not okay with that. Just because I mean, we don't really look Hispanic. We don't nobody ever knows what we are. But the reason that my last name is Garcia,

I feel like that on paper changes everything. So what reasoning did they give you for not investigating? She could be a runaway. There's no foul play. But when is there going to be foul play? When her body turns up dead? That's like not solving a crime is a crime in itself. And, you know, they're supposed to be there to protect and serve,

but they're not protecting and serving. They're letting someone be missing. They're letting someone possibly get raped and hurt. Yes, I know that there's, you know, so many things that could be happening, but what are they doing? Nothing. They're just waiting for something for their work to be turned, turned in for them. So, so you don't just think that maybe they know something they're not saying and that they're confident that probably, but that's ridiculous because how is it that I found out more information without credentials? And I'm not a professional. I'm the, I didn't go to school to be a cop, but how is it that I found out more information without credentials and i'm not a professional i'm i didn't go to school to be a cop but how is it that i know more than they do it just doesn't make any sense it just seems like they're just i don't know twiddling their thumbs

not doing anything about the situation yet some girl with some blonde hair blue-eyed girl goes missing in three days boom they have her yeah uh well, I guess your best hope is, in fact, that they're right, that your sister ran away. You know what? That's what I really hope it is, but I don't think she would just leave me alone. Logically, it doesn't make sense. Who leaves their little sister alone in, no offense, but the ghetto? I mean, you guys, this isn't your neighborhood, is it? It's not. And, you know, it was just, we were at the wrong place at the wrong time.

And, you know, I can think of all the reasons why I wouldn't want to come here. But we weren't thinking about, oh, you know, something's going to happen. We don't think, oh, we're in danger all the time, you know. It's America. You think you're safe everywhere. So we're just across the street from the 7-Eleven. From what I understand, I mean, you waited there for a long time just hoping to see her? Well, I waited around the plaza for a while waiting for her to show up, and she didn't show up.

And, you know, at first i thought maybe i was over reacting and then once i realized she wasn't there and i knew something was wrong it's been two weeks two weeks tonight right two weeks tonight the phone that that one of the volunteer searchers found have you seen that i did I did. Did it look like hers? I actually found the phone. Oh, you found the phone. Did it look like hers? It did look just like hers and it was, it didn't have a battery. It didn't have a SIM card. Somebody had smashed it. It seemed like, seemed pretty aggressive. And if that's not foul play, then I don't know what is. Who just smashes a phone? And you're waiting for the police to confirm that was her phone? Yeah,

but they haven't confirmed anything. But you know, you would think that they for the police to confirm that was her phone? Yeah, but they haven't confirmed anything. But, you know, you would think that they have the resources to do all these things, but they're not doing anything. And the choker that was found, tell me about that. What does that mean? They found a necklace cut up. Like, it seems like it was teared, and they found it near the dumpster. They also have that in the evidence room, but it's like, I feel like I'm doing all the work when, I mean, yeah, I'm the sister and I don't mind looking for all this stuff. But, you know, I'm not the detective. That's not my job. Like, I'm stressed out as it is being her sister and not knowing where my sister is, not knowing if my sister's alive, not knowing if something happened to her.

And the police isn't helping. Have you gone any higher than just that detective have you maybe even tried to get the mayor's attention or anything like that i didn't think that i'd have to but i think i'm going to because it's ridiculous i mean prosecutors somebody somebody beyond that go go political i mean i thought about it um I'm still deciding what I want to do but streetlights everything they're gone this whole situation is just yeah I see that you you guys put up hundreds of posters with your sister's picture on them and a lot of I was here last night impressed with how many were around here they seem to be ripped down and I understand you also put some up around the Goodwill store, and those are gone?

Yeah, most of them are gone. Maybe because of the rain or people just taking them down. You indicated that she went catty-four across that intersection. So the intersection we just crossed. Very busy intersection. So we're probably several hundred yards away from the Goodwill store. Yeah, you're not inside of the Goodwill at all. Yeah.

But to cross an intersection diagonally without waiting for the lights indicates she was running. So that's what the dog said. After she left the church, went down the street and came back, she crossed over Sherman Way diagonally, a very busy six-lane road. Okay, everybody listen up. Okay. Again, we're following the scent the dog followed. It seemed that Maricela went up here and behind the little wall right there.

Her scent was behind there, not just on the foyer thing. We don't know how long she was behind there, why she was behind there not just on the foyer thing um we don't know how long she was behind there why she was behind there if it was raining if she was hiding whatever and then we don't know if she went through kaiser to the back parking lot or around the side so again not to chase through a building we're going to go around the side but there's a security guard right there not only the security guard but there's tons of cameras they won't give them to anybody but the police and the police aren't asking for it correct they're not asking even though we've told them we think she might have run through here we think she was in that parking lot they won't ask just to say whether she was in there and she was happy dancing and got to a car and drove off or whether

somebody took her or whatever they won't say they won't tell this family where their child is so i understand your your father is going around collecting working to collect uh video they're collecting all the footage they can we've gone to every place that the dogs went through um not everyone's, you know, really helping out but I mean you need you need a certain clearance to get certain footage so I mean I don't have any kind of experience being a cop or detective so they won't give it to me. And once you get it you got to have

somebody look at it and analyze it. I mean, I've been through that and it's not an easy thing even there. Well, maybe after this and the embarrassment of not doing anything, they'll think again about it. Is that what you're hoping? Well, that's what I'm hoping for. Honestly, all I want is for them to help me find my sister. Tell me about your sister. My sister was very protective over me. Always. She always wanted to know where I was, always wanted to know where I was going. She always wanted me to be safe.

And being, you know, the last person who saw her and her not being safe right now, because obviously she's not, she hasn't had any kind of contact with anything. Her accounts are frozen. Her phone is not working. If she was out partying or a runaway like they say she is, somebody would have spotted her.

There's a lot of media involved. It just doesn't make sense so we're in the parking lot the last place the dogs picked up the scent is that right misty right there's a lot of cars here and this is probably and this is exactly pretty much two weeks to the close to the minute maybe right two weeks close to the minute that's what we're hoping for uh Uh huh. And there's nobody in the parking lot really. There's a lot of cars but not really... Oh, there's a liquor store open right there. I didn't know...

We'll go talk to that liquor store when we need it. And we're gonna search the dumpster and we're gonna wait for people to get out of Kaiser. Right. Now, the dumpster down here, did you find any kind of evidence of her other than the dog saying that she was down here? In the corner was what appeared to be her torn choker. But it has not been confirmed. Oh, this is where... This is where her scent ended. This was it.

And they said she's gone at this point. She's either in a car she's something gone and now we're probably a long way a long way 500 yards away from the goodwill store come all the way to this corner why why would you come all the way back here there's no logical reason Nancy, this was a very emotional and disturbing evening last night for me, but I'm so glad that I went out there and saw for myself. And I've got my Marcela Garcia poster posted right here at my desk in front of my microphone, so I keep her in mind all the time. Based on what you learned from the family and what you saw as you walked the walk that we believe she took,

what did you learn? I learned that there should be surveillance video to confirm what the tracking dog indicated, but that it's taking time to get it and this is the other problem with that is a lot of these DVRs these recording devices will keep it digitally stored for about two weeks and then it gets the hard drive gets erased and recorded over do you remember when that came to light, Alan, that practice and procedure? It was during Chandra Levy. Remember, she left her apartment, her, I guess it was a high-rise apartment complex in D.C., and they record over the video every three days. I believe it was every 72 hours. So by the time the police got there, it was too late.

It had already been recorded over. Well, fortunately, hard drives are getting less expensive and bigger. And I think the window now is, I talked to a detective, a private investigator who was out there last night about this. And he said that it's gotten better, that it's now about two weeks, but it puts a window for you to capture that video. Oh, here's another thing that I found out. This private investigator, he's not officially working on the case,

but he was just curious and he went out there last night. He said he ran a check, you know, the sex offender registration that every place is required and you can search it geographically. Within Reseda, California, there are 500 registered sex offenders, 50 of them within a two-mile radius of the Goodwill store. I wonder what they're, what I don't get, I started to say I wonder what they're doing about it. Nothing, apparently.

I hope you could get all that information on crimeonline.com. Hello, we have a sex offender registry map by zip code. But why does she say, the sister and the mother say, police are insisting this is a voluntary disappearance because her ATM, her credit cards, her checking account have not been touched. Her cell phone is either destroyed, powered off, or dead. And now we're going on over a week. So how can that be a voluntary disappearance?

They don't understand that. I don't understand it. But in contrast to this case of Ms. Stacy. Laurel and Stacy, yep. She disappeared without any sign of foul play. It was just a call to 911 by her roommate who said she didn't come back tonight and I'm worried about her. And that was on Sunday. Well, there was a search going on by Monday. And by Tuesday night and Wednesday, the LAPD went out of their jurisdiction 70 miles up

the highway to Lancaster, California, out in the desert near the salt flats to help with the search. And they actually found her walking along a street near a freeway. The LAPD sent detectives up there, and there was no sign of foul play with her, no evidence that they don't have with Maricela. Why did they do that? And the sister raises that question. I'd love to know the answer, and I'm hoping the answer will be, you know what? We're going to start taking this thing as a possible kidnapping.

You know what's interesting? The fact that the family has not heard from her since she went missing and she just left her sister there shopping. I want to go back to what Donna A. called in about the cigarettes. The fact that she said, I'm going to go have a cigarette. If she went to her car to get the cigarettes, do you think she made it to the car? Were the cigarettes in the car?

I mean, I'm just wondering if she ever made it to the car. That is a really good observation, a really good question, because you leave your pocketbook in the car. By the way, I wouldn't leave my pocketbook in the car in anywhere in Los Angeles in the car unless it's in the trunk. Oh, can I tell you a story? When I was a brand new prosecutor in inner city Atlanta, I had driven to Midtown, where I coincidentally lived at the time. Very high crime rate. But I was there to investigate a burglary. And I stupidly put my pocketbook in my car. There were a bunch of notebooks and school books over because I was teaching school at night as well. And of course, somebody broke in the car

and took my pocketbook. Guess what I had in the pocketbook? My social security number. Well, you know what happened after that? My ID was taken and there was a whole, not a gang, but I guess it would be a gang that was busted in Chicago with a whole new Nancy Grace and a bunch of other people too. My point is, you really don't get it until it happens to you. I wouldn't leave my pocketbook or anything like that in a car anywhere even out in the church parking lot no absolutely not the other day I took my iPad into church and I was asked you're actually going to go online during church I'm like no but I don't want my car window bashed in in the parking lot while I'm in here for 45 minutes. So, yeah, don't leave anything in the car.

My point is, did she, Maricela, go to the car to get the cigarettes? If she had had her pocketbook in the car, I just don't see her walking around with a pack of cigarettes in her hand. Do you? I don't smoke, and nobody around me smokes, so I don't know the smoking. Well, you're a reporter for Pete's sake. Haven't you ever seen nobody around me smokes, so I don't know the smoking. Well, you're a reporter for Pete's sake. Haven't you ever seen a smoker? Yes, I have.

Do you see women walking around with nothing in their hand but a pack of cigarettes? No, you don't. There's the cell phone now. That's what you're always carrying. You've got that in your pocket. Let's talk about the cell phone. Tell me what the family is saying exactly about the cell phone. The sister and the brother both insist that, yeah, that is the kind of cell phone that she had. And by the way, we're putting a picture of it up on CrimeOnline.com along with the story I'm writing about this case today with the podcast.

So you can see for yourself how it was smashed. I mean, it was not like you drop it and it breaks the screen. This was like somebody took not a hammer, but maybe smashed it on the ground several times, took the battery out and took the SIM card out and left it there near the parking lot. You know, I'm wondering if she also wore glasses because I've looked up a lot of pictures of her and in some of them she's wearing glasses. But back to the pocketbook and the cell phone and the cigarettes. Does the family – no, she does not wear glasses.

Does the family say that's her cell phone? Because I know the SIM card was taken. They say it is hers. They insist that it is, but, of course, they're deferring to the police. It's in the police evidence locker. Their concern, though, is that the police aren't doing the investigation to confirm it. I'm hoping that there are two possibilities, that A, the family doesn't understand it, but the police are, or B, and I asked the sister, as you know, this question, I said,

don't you hope the police are right? Don't you hope this is voluntary missing? Maybe the police know something that they're holding close to their vest that they're not even sharing with you or the public about this case. And she says, yeah, that's my hope. That is my hope. And by the way, I do know that Maricela has disappeared for brief periods before when she was younger, but now she's 26. Guys, if you have information, I'm going to give you the LAPD tip line in just a moment. Call us at CrimeOnline.com. Now, Alan, I've gone over and over with you not to just say crime and expect people as they're driving along to spell it on their cell phone. What's the tip line?

909-49-CRIME. That's 909492 7463 492 7463 909 492 7463 We need to make that into a jingle. I kind of have one, but

I've been criticized over my as I call it, my singing voice. So I'm just going to go with repeating it over and over. You know, I'm getting, I'm just, I didn't ask you this when I wanted to hear it. When you were speaking, I mean, you went with a whole family. You went with Eduardo, you went with the sister. What is their demeanor? How are they taking this?

When we stopped at the Catholic church and they lit candles inside, it was during the confessional period last night, they were very sad and they stopped for 10 minutes and just prayed. They are praying. The father, I will tell you, while you heard Sarah talk a lot, the father is not talking a lot. He doesn't want to rile up the LAPD, but you can't stop Sarah from saying what's on her mind. The father is much more reserved about this. But they are spending all of their time and resources on this investigation that they're doing themselves. So they are absorbed in this, sad, and they're perplexed, and they're getting desperate.

And that's why they really need help. They need people to help them solve this. Find Maricela Garcia. I'm just taking in everything you're saying. Everyone, if you have information about Maricela Garcia, she's 5'5". She weighs around 120, brown hair, brown eyes, absolutely gorgeous. Dial LAPD at 213-996-1800. Between a choker ripped off her neck, smashed, turned off, or lost, her purse, her car left behind. I just don't see how this can be voluntary.

I'm with you, Alan. I'm just hoping the LAPD knows something they're not telling us. Nancy Grace, Crime Stories, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.