Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Missing Maricela Garcia: Are revelations relevant?

Episode Date: January 30, 2017

The family of Maricela Garcia hopes a private investigator will help them find the 26-year-old woman who disappeared while shopping at a Reseda, California, Goodwill store. Nancy Grace argues with reporter Alan Duke about the relevance of a new revelation -- that Garcia was arrested on a drug charge a year ago. The charge was later dismissed. 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 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 could turn around. 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. Still no answers in the search for a gorgeous young woman, Maricela Garcia. Joining me right now, investigative reporter Alan Duke. Alan, you told me you've got an update on Maricela's disappearance.

For those of you that aren't familiar with her disappearance, she goes shopping at a local Goodwill just to get um clothes for a costume for what's called a decades party everybody's dressing up like the 80s it's an 80s party she goes in she and her sister are in their shopping she says she's going to go out for a cigarette and she's never seen again her choker is found ripped off her neck near a dumpster at the far end of the parking lot. The car is still parked outside in the parking lot with her cell phone. No, no, no. Her purse, money in it.

A cell phone is found smashed, ruined in the parking lot. Her family says it's hers, but the SIM card had been removed. Her family says she would never have just disappeared this way. So, Alan, what's your update? Well, I found out several things. First of all, your hunch about her cigarettes was right on target. I have found out. You were wondering, did she have the cigarettes with her or were they in the car that, you know, you don't just carry the pack around. Turned out, it seems that she never made it back to her car to get the cigarettes. The cigarettes were found in her purse, in her car. So her reason for ostensibly telling Sarah that she's going out

to have a cigarette, she never, never had that cigarette. cigarette number one don't say ostensibly to suggest that that's not why she left she would not have left her little sister alone at night in a goodwill and just leave leaving her bmw her purse everything behind in the car now but i can't take credit for that that was from our caller don Donna A. That's true. Who was wondering about the cigarettes. Were they missing from the car? Was she just walking around with a pack of cigarettes in her hand? And I agree with Donna. But I think she could have gone to the car, gotten a cigarette, and walked away.

But I tend to think that you're right. She never made it to the car. So that's interesting between the Goodwill door, the entrance slash exit, and her car is where this happened. She wasn't around back smoking. She never made it to get a cigarette. Look, we're going on three weeks and she's missing. We have very few clues here. So people are trying to think what could have happened, right? So one of the things that has been done.

Yeah, everybody's thinking about it, but the cops. Well, we'll get to that in just a second. Why are the cops not so interested? I have to mention this and you're going to scream at me and I'm used to that. So go ahead and scream at me. But we did a search and we found out that she had a drug charge against her from one year earlier, exactly almost to the day. Wait a minute. Whoa, whoa the day. Wait a minute.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait a minute. Who's we? Me and some other people. I'm not the only one. These are online records you can get. Well, how do you know it's this Maricela? Same age.

Also, the family knew. Wasn't the same DOB? It's been confirmed. All right, you're telling me the family confirmed it. But the family says that the case was. Oh, because she had a drug charge a year ago that was never adjudicated. You know what? Right.

So what, am I not supposed to care that somebody has taken her and has probably killed her? No, it's a piece of information that suggests some things. What does it suggest? That she might have a drug problem? Or that she probably has some boyfriend that got her into a drug situation would be my guess. Maybe. You know, I don't know how many drug cases you've tried, Alan. None. Oh, zero. Well, let me clue you in on something. The few times that I have had women as a co-defendant on a drug case, it's because they happen to be in the car with their drug-dealing boyfriend or husband or in the home. So, you know what? I'm not throwing Maricela Garcia into that pot just yet. That's your update? That's supposed to help me find Maricela?

You know what? I'm not throwing her into that pot either, but listen to me. There is reason to believe that she, in her lifestyle, had been around some questionable people over the last several years. I am told I... Oh, like you haven't? I'm a journalist. I got the...

Oh, that makes you special. I've been around dopers, hookers, killers, grand theft, larceny, errs, you name it. Because they've been witnesses for me. We've gone out on the street looking for other criminals. So, you know, I guess I'm right in there with Maricela. Because let me tell you one thing, little boy. Well, this is. You've got to go to hell sometimes to get the witnesses to put the

devil in jail so just because she may have had a doper boyfriend I I don't care the thing is this may be what is influencing the LAPD because the Los Angeles police have have initially termed this voluntary missing. Now, I'm not sure that they're not investigating this today. Maybe over the weekend they saw the light and they're out there seeking the surveillance camera video and everything else. But maybe the fact that she had this, actually it was year ago, almost exactly to when she disappeared. And as you said, it wasn't adjudicated. It was dropped against her. A couple of co-defendants, however, apparently did a plea deal.

They were convicted in that case. So let me understand what you just said. The charges against her were dropped. Yes, they were never prosecuted against her. You know, you just wasted about four minutes of my life. Well, it's information about her life. Because it's just what I guessed, that she had probably a doper boyfriend or friend that was involved in dope. She was in the car with them, and they finally pled guilty to let her go because she wasn't involved.

So, you know what? Think about this. With your analysis, with your analysis, that would put the Holy Jesus Christ in jail. You know who he hung around with, right? Everybody, nobody else liked. Well, with Maricela. Yeah, you're not touching that with a 10-foot pole, are you? So you want me to back off the search for Marisol Garcia because she had a boyfriend or a friend that was a doper.

But this should be something that should be considered in figuring out where she is. Okay, I agree with that. Let's say she was shopping in Goodwill for this costume for her 80s or 90s party and she got a text message from somebody and somebody she didn't want her sister Sarah to even meet or know about she got it just making this up yeah I'm making this up and she said well it's called speculation it's called theories okay which is not allowed in a court of law thank god I'm not under oath so she got a text message and the guy or a woman or whoever said hey look uh okay i'm outside in the parking lot come out here i need to talk to you or whatever and she didn't want sarah to know who it was she's just hey sarah i need a cigarette

i'll be right back and she went out she never got the cigarette but whatever or whomever that was that she went for it went bad however might be, and she's missing now. That's just the idea that it wasn't a cigarette that she was going after. That's just your idea that you came up with. I mean, what else do we have? There's not a shred. The same way women go missing every day of the year, they are outside and they get kidnapped and or murdered for what reason no reason and now you're extrapolating from the company she kept a year ago that somehow

that's connected to her disappearance you know what it may, but the bottom line is I don't think this girl did anything wrong. And I don't want to be a part of dragging her through the mud on charges against her that were dropped in a court of law. No mud here. I'm trying to clear away the mud. I'm trying so that we can see what might have happened with her. I want to thank someone for being with us today. It is Simply Safe. Simply Safe home protection and alarm system. You know, thousands of people across America every day want a security system, but they think they cannot afford it. I have a security system, got a security system for my mom. is called simply safe and i love it as a matter of fact a lady in our neighborhood miss shirley her husband passed away recently

he was a world war ii vet like my father she's all alone and she's been very concerned because somebody will come and ring her doorbell at like three o'clock in the morning and the other morning she woke up around three o'clock in the morning and she could hear someone outside whistling whistling and it scared her so much well she got a simply safe it's $14.99 a month and this is one of my mom's best friends okay i feel so much better knowing she has it the thing about it is you can afford it doesn't have any contracts it's 24 7 365 protection there are security professionals watching and they react instantly and send the police, you can get 10% off by going to simplisafe.com slash Nancy. simplisafe.com slash Nancy. And I certainly would not have suggested this to my mom or her friends

if I did not believe that home alarm systems stop crime like SimpliSafe. That's what I think. Alan, is it true that the family feels the LAPD is not really looking for Marcella, and they're trying, even though they don't have the money, to hire a private investigator? Yes, I talked with this private investigator who works out of New Jersey who specializes in finding missing people. Unofficially, he's on the case. Officially, he's not because they've not come up with any kind of funds to bring him out here. He's not going to charge them. He just needs some expense money. And they're trying to get a private detective to just even to communicate with the police for them

because they're having a very difficult time. I know when Sarah calls the detective up, she gets too emotional and, or maybe not too emotional, understandably. And the father is not getting a lot of information from the police. And even a private investigator may even help them know, well, what are the police thinking and what are they doing? But I do know that there's a private investigator they're trying to raise funds for in order to get on the Maricela Garcia case, or at least help the police get onto the case. Do you have anything else for me? Yeah, here's a bad news, good news thing over the weekend. You know, the Maricela Garcia case and all of these other things are bringing more attention to missing people,

missing women, especially in our community. The one out here in Los Angeles where I live, we got information this weekend about a young lady missing in Ventura County, about 20 miles away. Good news is I'm not even mentioning her name because she was found safely. But what happened, and this is an example of what happens, is apparently there was an older guy who lured her away, took her out to another part of Los Angeles, and eventually they tracked her down, and she is safe. We are really on edge out here in Los Angeles. I know people I talk to are about these women going missing. With us today, our sponsor, Simply Safe.

We've gotten this for a lady in our neighborhood, Miss Shirley, who has been our lifelong friend as the age of my mom, as a recent widow. She did not have an alarm system, and she's had some scary incidents just recently, and there have been some break-ins in our neighborhood, and I think about her every night. You know, I don't live in Macon anymore. I think about her being there alone without an alarm. My mom has an alarm. We have an alarm. But we got Simply Safe from Miss Shirley and I, even I'm sleeping better, much less, you know, her. You get 10% off everybody. SimplySafe.com slash Nancy. You just can't be safe enough. Guys, we are taking your calls on this and any other topic that you want to tell us about or ask us about. The call in is 909-492-7463.

909-492-7463. Call us. Nancy Grace, Crime Stories, signing off. Goodbye, friend. This is an iHeart Podcast.