Going West: True Crime - Sierra LaMar // 180

Episode Date: March 5, 2022

In March of 2012, a 15-year-old girl in California disappeared without a trace while walking to her bus stop early in the morning. Police had no idea where she could have gone until her cell phone and clothing was found, which painted the picture of a ruthless abduction. This is the story of Sierra LaMar. BONUS EPISODES patreon.com/goingwestpodcast CASE SOURCES https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/226064762/sierra-mae-lamar https://www.newspapers.com/image/280672368/?terms=Sierra%20lamar&match=1 https://www.newspapers.com/image/280512984/?terms=Sierra%20lamar&match=1 https://www.davisvanguard.org/2020/08/no-body-no-weapon-no-crime-scene-how-disappearance-led-to-guilty-conviction/ https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/amzn1.dv.gti.6ab9a96c-6ac3-eebd-7c84-c27deea28d8a/ref=dv_web_auth_no_re_sig?ie=UTF8&tag=imdbtag_tt_wbr_pvt_aiv-20& https://abcnews.go.com/US/sierra-lamar-search-missing-california-teen-ramps/story?id=15992967 https://www.newspapers.com/image/195130859/?terms=Sierra%20lamar&match=1 https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2017/05/12/sierra-lamar-convicted-killers-home-life-included-father-raping-7-year-old-sister-beating-mother/ https://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Sierra-s-trail-went-cold-not-far-from-her-home-3583756.php https://www.newspapers.com/image/280672368/?terms=Antolin%20Garcia-Torres&match=1 https://www.newspapers.com/image/195130859/?terms=Sierra%20lamar&match=1 https://abc7news.com/sierra-lamar-verdict-trial-antolin-garcia-torres-morgan-hill-teen-kidnapped-killed/2066695/ https://www.mercurynews.com/2016/10/31/sierra-lamar-defense-seeks-to-raise-fathers-record/ https://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/A-mother-recalls-the-day-her-daughter-disappeared-10915422.php https://www.ksbw.com/article/defense-claims-sierra-lamar-was-a-runaway-from-morgan-hill/7665130# https://www.kron4.com/news/bay-area/kron4-exclusive-sierra-lamars-killer-breaks-silence-in-rare-prison-letter/ https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/sierra-lamar-timeline/1916138/ https://morganhilltimes.com/sierra-lamar-trial-investigators-arborist-testify/ https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2017/05/09/garcia-torres-guilty-of-first-degree-murder-in-sierra-lamar-slaying/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/280672368/?terms=Antolin%20Garcia-Torres&match=1 https://www.newspapers.com/image/635253997/?terms=Sierra%20lamar&match=1 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on to crime fans? I'm your host Heath. And I'm your host, Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Before we get into anything else today, I just want to give a big shout out to Grace for recommending this case. Yes, thank you so much Grace. Yes, thank you. We had never heard of this case before you sent it into our email, so we really appreciate you bringing it to our eyes. And if anybody else has a case recommendation, the best way to get it to us is to email us. It's just the most organized way to receive it. That is going West podcast at gmail.com. We have a very, very long list of case recommendations right now. Yeah, we're trying to get to all of them, but it's kind of tough because there's so many. There's so many and that's why it's great that

we're doing two episodes a week now. So if we haven't gotten to years yet, just know that's why, but we're always accepting cases because it's just nice to have them. So thank you so much to Grace. Hope everybody is having a great week so far. Thank you so much for tuning into Going West. And do we have any other announcements? Not really, no. This case comes to us from California,

and that's exactly where Daphne and I are going to be this week. So. Oh, yeah. So, yeah. Yeah, so, or actually, we will be in California by the time this episode drops. Yes, you will. Lots of us here we come.

Other than that, make sure if you wanna come see us at CrimeCon, you go over to CrimeCon.com and use our code going west for 10% off of your standard badge. Get it, wait to see all of you guys there. It's gonna be awesome. Yeah, if you haven't heard us talk about it yet, we're probably gonna bring it up kind of a lot over the next few weeks, so sorry about that. But just want everybody to be reminded

that we are going to be there. We're gonna be on podcast row. It's gonna be super fun. You get to hang out with us, and a bunch of other true crime podcasts and other guest speakers. It's gonna be super, super cool. So check it out. Yes, make sure that you use our code going west and a bunch of other TrueCram podcasts and other guest speakers, it's gonna be super, super cool.

So check it out. Yes, make sure that you use our code going west because it not only helps you out, but it helps us out as well. All right, guys, this is episode 180 of Going West. So let's get into it. In March of 2012, a 15-year-old girl in California disappeared without a trace while walking to her school bus early in the morning. Police had no idea where she could have gone until her cell phone and clothing was found

and started to paint a picture of a ruthless of duck shinn. This is the story of Sierra Lamar was born on October 19th, 1996, in Fremont, California, which is in the Bay area, to parents Marlene and Steven Lamar. Sierra grew up alongside her older sister Danielle, and she was described as being very outgoing, tough, but most of all, goofy. She absolutely loved to make people laugh and any moment that she could make someone laugh or smile she did.

Fremont, California has a population of 230,000 residents making it the fourth largest city in the Bay area, behind San Jose, Oakland, and of course San Francisco. And this is where Sierra grew up. She absolutely loved it there, and she had made a ton of friends through school. Sierra was very confident as well, and she loved to dance, so it was only fitting that she joined her school's cheer team. But at some point during Sierra's early teens, her parents divorced and Sierra lived with her father in Fremont for a period of time, but after a few months in October of 2012, Sierra's mother moved to a completely different town, about 35 miles south of Fremont, called

Morgan Hill. Sierra's mother Marlene had met another man named Rick Gardner, and she decided that she wanted a change, so she moved into his house, and due to some legalities we will go into in a bit, Seira was forced to join her mother in this new town. So it's still not very far, but it is new to her. Yeah, it's a big change for her. So Morgan Hill hosts a population of around 45,000 residents today, and it's surrounded by picturesque mountain scenes with rolling green hills speckled with oak trees and beautiful

lakes and reservoirs. It's just seven miles south of the much larger city of San Jose, and some would call it a bit rural due to the large farming fields and and around the town. But even though this was Marlene's paradise, Sierra was not happy about this move. She was now 15 years old in the prime of her high school career, and she was suddenly torn from everything she knew. All of her best friends were back in Fremont, and Sierra was having a really hard time adjusting to her new life. But nevertheless, she was enrolled at Anne-Sabrato High School in Morgan Hill, which was about a 5-10 minute drive from her new home

nestled into a cul-de-sac on Paquita, Aspania Court. Sierra was now living with her mother, her mother's boyfriend, and his daughter, a girl named Ashley Gardner. But she didn't know anyone else in Morgan Hill and she was having a hard time at school being the new kid. It didn't help that Marlene and her boyfriend's relationship appeared to be a bit rocky at this time as well. Sierra like many other teenagers spent most of her time on social media, and that time was increased by the fact that she hadn't made any new friends at her new school.

She was constantly texting friends back in Fremont, essentially expressing her emotions about how unhappy she was about this move. But although things weren't exactly ideal with her new situation, there wasn't much Sierra could do, so she just made an honest effort to adjust to the change. And I mean, these changes are hard for anybody, but I feel like especially for teenagers and in high school when, you know, high school is supposed to be that fun time where maybe you start dating and you have a bunch of friends

and you're gonna go off to college and be an adult after this. So it's really hard to make that kind of adjustment when you're a teenager because she had all these friends who she had her whole life and now she's the outsider in this new place. And I can only imagine how hard that was. Yeah, and on top of that,

I mean, I don't know how well she knew Rick Gardiner, her mom's boyfriend and his daughter. So it's like essentially she's moving into this home of like people she doesn't really know all that well. Right, and it probably doesn't even feel like it's her house, you know, so even more difficult. So since Sierra had moved during the school year, she would always take the bus and near her new home was her local bus stop.

This bus stop was about a half a mile away from her house at the intersection of Palm and Doherty. To give you guys a visual, the bus stop is at two intersecting rural roads surrounded by fields and there aren't very many other distinguishing features in this area. So on Friday, March 16, 2012, Sierra's mother entered her bedroom at 6 a.m. and gave her a hug, told her she loved her, gave her $5 for school lunch, and headed out the door to Fremont, where Marlene worked as a physical therapist.

Frank Gardner, who again was Marlene's boyfriend at the time, had already left the house before 6am because he worked in San Francisco. Yes, so it was a little bit further drive for him. And not to mention the traffic and the, you know, general commute. Right. At 6.57am, Marlene sent Sierra a text message about cleaning the bathtub before she was supposed to leave for school. Then she sent another text asking Sierra, if she was gonna meet up with her classmate and friend,

a girl named Ali, to exchange some makeup and homework assignments. But Sierra never responded to those texts from her mother. That morning, Sierra posted on Twitter at 6.29 AM, so, you know, 30 minutes before her mom had sent the text about cleaning the bathtub. And then shortly before 7 AM, she texted her friend Ali about meeting up

before school started. After that, Sierra left her house to walk towards the bus stop that would typically pick her up around 7.25 a.m. every morning. So it's not clear why she didn't text her mom back if she was up, but maybe she was busy and figured she would text her on the bus or you know, later on. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, she's also a teen kid. So it's like, you know, but at 3.45 p.m. that day, Marlene got off work and the first thing

she usually did was call Sierra when she left the parking lot of her work to make sure that she made it home okay. But on this day, when she tried to call Sierra, Sierra didn't answer. Typically, Sierra would be at her school's bus stop waiting for her mom to pick her up, so Marlene was confused. But she wasn't initially too panicked because Sierra is again a teenager and she just figured that her daughter might just be hanging out with some friends. But Marlene continued to try to reach her daughter, making calls at 4-11, 4-15, 4-35, 4-40, twice at 4-41, and once at 4-44, but Marlene never got an answer or a call back.

This really wasn't like Sierra, because not only was she pretty much constantly on her phone, but after this many calls, there was no reason why she wouldn't have answered, or at least called her mother back. Yeah, this is like seven phone calls in a 30 minute time span. So right her mom is it's clear that she's urgent to reach her. Yes, so when Marlene finally got home shortly before 5 p.m. She checked the house for Sierra, but she couldn't find her anywhere. With no sign of Sierra anywhere and no sign that she had made at home, Marlene decided to call Sierra's school to see if she could locate her there.

But when she did, she was shocked at what they had told her. Sierra hadn't been at school that day. Marlene, of course, at this point was in a panic, so the first thing she did was call Sierra's father, Steve, who was still living in Fremont, to see if it was possible that Sierra was with him. But Steve said he hadn't seen her or heard from her that day at all. Next, Marlene made a phone call to 911 at about 5.30 pm and told the operator, My daughter's missing, she didn't show up for school, were worried she's abducted.

She begged the operator to put out an amber alert, but due to the fact that a certain amount of hours have to pass before you report someone officially missing, they weren't able to do so. And even though she's only 15, you would assume they would have taken it more seriously, but I think to them again, you know, as many cases. They're thinking she's been gone for two to three hours at this point.

Yeah, like, oh, she's probably with friends. You know, they always kind of go to that. So Marlene then tried to reach Sierra's friends and parents of her friends to see if she was with any of them. But sadly, none of them had heard from Sierra or seen her that day. Eventually that night, a police officer was dispatched to Marlene and Sierra's house to see if they could get any further information about the situation. Their initial thought was that Sierra actually may have run away, given the fact that she was having a hard time after the move, and missed her friends and family back in free month.

They also asked Marlene if she knew what Sierra had been wearing earlier that day, but sadly, Marlene of course did not know because she had left for work before Sierra was dressed that morning. Steve Lamar, Sierra's dad, said that he didn't believe that his daughter would run away. He told police that he had spoken to her on the 15th, so the day before she went missing, and she seemed happy, and she told him about her homework and asked him to make a hero appointment for her. So things reportedly were normal with her around the time she disappeared. Yeah, and you know, as we mentioned earlier,

she was supposed to meet up with the classmates to exchange makeup and homework. So she did have a plan. But the weird thing here is that Ashley Gardiner, so Rick Gardiner's daughter that lived in the same house with Sierra, actually explained to police that she had seen Sierra pack a suitcase on a few occasions, like she was gonna leave. in the same house with Sierra, actually explained to police that she had seen Sierra

pack a suitcase on a few occasions, like she was gonna leave, but maybe that's just like a normal, natural thing. You know, Sierra was fed up and wasn't actually gonna run away, but she wanted to like kind of threaten that. Right, so that probably didn't help in the situation of the police thinking she ran away. There's probably just made them think that even more.

Exactly, and we're just very dangerous. Right, and we're gonna get into it a little bit more, didn't help in the situation of the police thinking she ran away. There's probably just made them think that even more exactly. And we're very dangerous. Right. And we're going to get into it a little bit more. But some of Sierra's classmates actually found one of her notebooks that was in her locker and wrote a bunch of stuff about, oh, I'm going to run away. And I'll be in San Francisco by three 16. And why would they do that? Just as a joke. Yeah, as a joke. So really fucked up.

That's awful. So Sierra's whole family just kind of hoped that maybe she was off with some friends or potentially even a boy that she didn't want her parents to know about. But then Sierra's sister Danielle tried to reach her and the call went straight to voicemail. Now this was strange because if Sierra was with a boy that she didn't want her parents to know about, why would she not answer her sister's call who she was very close with? It just didn't really make any sense and the Lamar's knew that something was wrong. 24 hours had now passed since anyone had seen Sierra and she was officially reported as a missing person to the Santa

Clara County Sheriff's Office. Investigators first wanted to take a look at Sierra's friends in Morgan Hill and in Fremont to make sure that she didn't have any plans to run away. Sierra's best friend in Fremont, a girl named Channa, was questioned by police to see if she had any information that can lead them to Sierra. But Channa explained that she didn't know of any plans that Sierra was going to run away. But she did say that Sierra had mentioned it once before, and that she was unhappy being in Morgan Hill. So again, this is kind of like not really helping the investigation because at this point,

investigators are leaning towards, okay, she's, she's runaway. And I do understand why this is being brought up because it's totally fair if these feelings were real, if she did have, you know, even any potential thought of running away at any point that is important to know. And hindsight's 2020, obviously this is a true crime podcast. We know she didn't run away, but at the time they have no idea what happened to her. So it is fair that they're thinking that. Yeah. And it's also fair at this point, police don't know that the the notes

that were in Sierra's notebook were like written by someone else like a classmate. So they're like, she did. Yeah, she probably did. Right. So the next step for investigators was to try and put together a timeline of the day that Sierra went missing in order to put the pieces of the puzzle together. Police were able to find out that Sierra sent a text to her friend about meeting up to exchange the homework and the makeup before school at 7-10 a.m. and that was the very last text she sent. Police believe this is approximately when Sierra left the house. And they knew the route that Sierra would have taken to get to the bus stop that morning and also how long it would have taken her so this gave them a window of time to work

with. Investigators wanted to check and see if there were any cameras along the route, which was very smart, you know, because maybe they could spot Sierra on cameras and kind of track her movements that way. But as we mentioned, this bus stop was at the intersection of two fairly rural roads, so that was unfortunately a no-go. But police got smart here and figured that if Sierra had made it to the bus stop that morning, the bus she would have taken most likely would have had a camera on it. And that would help police determine if she did indeed make it to her bus at all. Police were quickly able to find out that Sierra's bus actually did have a camera, which I, before this,

I didn't even think that buses had them. Like school buses, I know a lot of regular buses do, but that's amazing. They should. You know, as they should. Yeah, absolutely. And I think it's, you know, for legality and safety reasons. I absolutely.

So because of this camera being in there, they played it back for the morning, you know, the tape for the morning of March 16, 2012. But get this, Sierra was not captured on the bus. This was a huge break in the case because with all the information they had acquired up to that point, this This told investigators that sometime between 7-10 AM and 7-25 AM, Sierra Lamar had likely been abducted. Unfortunately, with no security footage of Sierra getting on the bus that day, there was really no way for police or anyone else to know what she had been wearing that morning. But knowing that Sierra was a teenage girl that she probably was on social media, police got the idea to check her accounts.

Marlene knew that Sierra used Twitter and Facebook at the time, so police started there. And to their surprise, Sierra actually did post on Facebook that morning. But it wasn't just any post. It was a selfie picture of what she was wearing to school that morning, which was a black pullover, San Jose Sharks hockey sweatshirt. This would prove to be extremely helpful to the search. Now Sierra's cell phone was going straight to voicemail, indicating that it had been turned off, and police were making sure to monitor just in case it had been turned back on at any point, so they would be able

to intercept cell tower pings and then locate it. That day, which again was March 17, 2012, so the day after Sierra went missing, police started to see some very strange action pertaining to Sierra's cell phone. At 3.45 am, Sierra's phone would turn on for a few seconds and then abruptly shut off. Then a few minutes later, it turned on again. Then seconds later, after that, it shut off again. Investigators thought that maybe Sierra was being held somewhere and she was trying to turn on her phone, but you know there wasn't enough battery to do so. But they were able to track Sierra's phone using those quick blips to sell towers, but when they arrived to the

area of the pings and searched it, they didn't find Sierra. But but instead they found her Samsung Galaxy phone lying in a big grass field in the mud as if it had been discarded there perhaps. So you may be wondering how her phone was magically able to turn on and off. Well, this is crazy. So because the grass in the field was wet, it seeped into the charger port of Sierra's phone, which made the phone think that it was trying to be charged, so it would turn on. But then after a few seconds, it would turn off again. And while police were dealing with this new discovery, more than 300 volunteers showed up to the area to conduct a search. But sadly, nothing else was found that day.

search, but sadly, nothing else was found that day. Also, upon checking her text messages and other various apps in her phone, they weren't able to obtain any other clues that would lead them to Sierra. And I also just wanted to mention that the field Sierra's cell phone was found in was just about a mile or two from her house. Yeah, so it was pretty close. Well, this blows my mind, just not only the whole, you know, phone turning on and off because of the water seeping and like this is like This is a crazy situation because if it if that had not done that They probably wouldn't have found her phone. Yeah, exactly and it was right there Just a mile or two away that blows my mind and then also that you know

They searched this area and they found nothing else So her phone is just randomly there and there's no trace of Sierra. But obviously this is kind of devastating for the family because they're like, she's a teenage girl. Oh yeah. She would not be anywhere without her cell phone. With this discovery, it's pretty concrete

that okay, something happened to her. Yes. So the next day, which was Sunday, March 18, 2012, a group of detectives continued watching the school bus surveillance footage from previous days before Sierra's disappearance, hoping that maybe they could catch a person in the background, either like following or stalking Sierra. But sadly, there was nothing on camera that showed anyone following her. But that same day, while searching near the area where investigators found Sierra's cell phone, a startling discovery was made. Just a few blocks from the field where the phone was found, was another field that had three sheet metal buildings on the property. There investigators found Sierra's black, juicy, coat-tour handbag that she always had

on her against the outside of one of the buildings among some cactus plants. Inside the bag were Sierra's rainbow-colored polka dot socks, her gray, roxy slip-on shoes, her underwear, her bra, blue jeans, and the black sharks pull over sweatshirt that we mentioned earlier. All the clothing items had been folded neatly and placed inside the bag, along with her school items which included a black notebook, a set of chopsticks, her makeup bag, her keys, a hair clip, five dollars in cash, and Sierra's in Hailer. So now this is really alarming because this, you know, collection of items of hers include the clothes she was wearing the morning she disappeared, and they're just in this random

field. So that is very, very concerning. Yes. And even her in Hailer, like, you know, these are important items that she would need at any time. Her keys. Exactly. She would never leave these items behind ever. Yeah, this is a huge deal.

So now a huge search group was put together that consisted of over 583 volunteers, which is badass, who combed the fields and lakes in the area, and a command center was set up at a local-abandoned elementary school where volunteers could get organized. The fact that they had found Sierra's clothes stuffed into a bag made the entire situation feel way more tragic by the minute, so everyone knew they needed to locate Sierra fast. Tracking dogs were brought in to see if they could catch a scent of Sierra, but the scent stopped at the end of Sierra's driveway and a local reservoir where teens often hung out, called Calera Lake, that was searched on land and water, but still there

were no clues. The FBI even joined in, actually, and they searched 12 square miles from Sierra's house, as well as the Class Kids Foundation, which is a non-profit organization that provides resources to families of missing children, endangered children, and crimes against children. And this organization was created in 1994 after Mark Class, who created the Foundation's daughter, 12-year-old polyclass was kidnapped and murdered in Petaluma, California. And we did cover her case a couple years ago, so that's a very tragic story.

But so, so amazing that they are there to help. And amongst those that helped in the search efforts as well were San Francisco 49er stars, Patrick Willis, and Delaney Walker. And missing posters were placed on nearly every building and pole in the town, and there was even a QR code on the posters that you could scan with your phone in order to obtain more information and photos about the case.

Yeah, I thought that was so cool when I read about that. I was like, wow, that's really neat that you could scan this QR code. Yeah, even in 2012. Yeah, and it'll give you all this information and photos of Sierra. And you can, you know, obviously it's on your phone. You can take it with you, you have it.

So if you see anything, you can refer back. Yeah, exactly. Super, super smart. Yeah, and there was about 12,000 man hours put into these multiple searches for Sierra. Wow, I mean, that's a lot. And obviously there are so many people out there looking for her, so many people care about finding her.

But even after so much exposure, it was really tough to develop any real leads. Detectives had to think of new ways to try and create momentum. And one idea that they had was to begin to look at registered sex offenders in the area that Sierra lived. Within a five mile radius, there were nearly 250 of them. Jesus! The theory that Sierra could have run away was now a thought of the past, and it was pretty clear that Sierra was abducted. So police actually formed groups of two, 20 teams in total, and started going door to door to see if they could uncover any information.

They started with the immediate area surrounding Sierra's residence, and when those people were cleared, they began to expand out, mile by mile. And this is when police are hit with an absolute bombshell. Remember earlier when we said that Sierra was forced to live with her mother for legal reasons? Well, the reason why Sierra wasn't allowed to live with her father, Steven, is because he was a registered sex offender. In 2009, Steve was charged with 10 counts of lured acts with a child under 14 when he molested Sierra's friends at sleepovers that took place at his home. God, that is just so so terrifying.

Yeah, yeah. So police are starting to think, you know, could Steve be involved in this? For those charges, Steve spent a year in jail and was ordered to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. Steve said that he needed to come forward to police with this information so that he could be transparent with them, about his past, and clear his name of any wrongdoing pertaining to his daughter's case. And police were eventually able to clear him as a suspect because he did have an alibi,

and on top of that, every sex offender in the area that was questioned had a solid airtight alibi, and none of them were found to be connected to Sierra's case. And without any new leads, police were stumped. They had Sierra's clothing and her phone, but who could be responsible for Sierra's disappearance. It really felt like the investigation was beginning to stall a bit. That is, until the clothing item Sierra was last seen wearing had been looked at a little closer. The first thing that was noticed was a type of Lycan, which for those who don't know is essentially plant and fungi,

found on Sierra's blue jeans. Investigators had a botanist come forward to identify the liking and it matched similarly to like and found in the grassy field near Sierra's bus stop. Furthermore, glass road beads that are used to create a reflection on a roadway were uncovered on Sierra's clothing, and that indicated that Sierra likely had been dragged by her attacker along a paved road and possibly through a field. But the last thing police found in the most important discovery to date was traces of Seaman found on Sierra's blue jeans.

It had now been 10 days since Sierra had gone missing, and police knew the DNA sample could be a long shot, but they sent it off to a state crime lab for analysis with their fingers crossed, but it would take a few days for results to come back. So in the meantime, family members gathered for prayer vigils and everyone held onto hope that Sierra would be found alive, although the more time that passed, the more defeating that thought became. But then, miraculously on March 28, police got their first really big break.

The DNA sample had come back and was processed into the Codus system, and they were able to identify that the Sample belonged to a 21-year-old man from Morgan Hill named Antolin Garcia Torres. So with that, investigators knew that they needed to track him down and see how or if there was a prior connection that Antolin had to Sierra. But before police brought Antelun in for questioning, they had the thought that if Sierra was still alive and being held captive, it would be best to follow Antelun's every move to see if he would give away her location or possibly slip up. So detectives put a tracker on his car, which was a red Vaux-Swaggin Jedi with

a black hood, they wiretapped his phone and essentially followed him around 24 hours of the day. But nothing appeared out of the ordinary. Antelun worked as an arborist in Morgan Hill, but had previously worked as a courtesy clerk at a Safeway grocery store located in a strip mall in Morgan Hill. When Sierra went missing, Antelun Garcia Torres was living in the Maple Leaf RV Park located in South Morgan Hill with his then girlfriend and their infant child. And this RV park is about one mile north of Sierra's house.

And not that it's important to this case, but just in case anybody wants to know and Arborist is basically somebody who maintains trees and, you know, and sure is that they're healthy and safe. Like a limb cutter, like a, yeah. Possibly. I don't know. I don't know.

It's more of like maintaining plans. I'm not, I'm not, especially, I read that it's like a tree. You're not an Arborist. No, I'm not. I read that it's like a tree surgeon. So that is what the guy did. So police began to look into Antelins past

and realized that he did have a prior police record. He had been charged in 2009, so three years prior, when he was 18. For having sex with a minor, who later became the mother to his child, and in 2010, he was arrested for obstructing a police investigation when officers went to his house to arrest another man in his home. And Antelun shouted at the police, get out of my house, you fucking pigs, and resisted a rest.

So he landed himself in jail for a short period of time. And while he was locked up, he vandalized his cell and clogged the toilet so it would overflow everywhere, which is disgusting. Yeah, gross. He was ordered to write a formal apology in which he stated, I'm sorry, I got bored in there. You got bored in your jail cell? So let me just, yeah.

So let me just, yeah. I mean, does that only like negatively affect him? Is it in the toilet in your cell? I mean, yeah. It's just bad for you. Yeah, well, it's maybe because they have to remove him from the cell so they can clean up. It gets to do something outside the cell for a sec.

So while investigators were keeping tabs on Antelene, they came up with a plan to have two undercover officers pose as a married couple and move into a trailer located diagonally to Antelins, which is like that's a they're doing a lot here. They're going all the way in. But investigators followed him almost every hour of the day. And Antelin never showed any signs that he was responsible for Sierra's disappearance. I mean, he never slipped up one time. But I don't really know what he would have slipped up doing, especially if he, you know, this would indicate

that he probably wasn't keeping her hostage, maybe, but that doesn't mean he didn't do something before. Yeah, well, I think the thought here is that possibly, he could have had Sierra like held capture, like somewhere else, like away from his home, and that possibly if they were surveilling him, they would tail him to, you know, because maybe he's, or maybe he had killed her

and put her body somewhere and he wants to go back to the place. But since days had passed and she went missing, he could have done something before, and you know, it's not like they're ruling that out, but they at least know, okay, he's not currently doing something with her. Yeah, he's not currently doing something with her.

Yeah, he's not leading us to her whereabouts. Right. But then, detectives noticed something that they thought might lead them to more clues. Within the Maple Leaf RV park where Antelun lived, the property had a lone security camera that had a view of every car and person coming and going. The thought here was that if detectives could play back the tape from the morning that Sierra disappeared and possibly see Antelun's car leaving the RV park shortly before Sierra would have been abducted, they could place him within a time frame making their case even

stronger. When they played back the tape from March 16th, they did indeed see Antelun's red jetta leaving the park, but the time stamp on the video said 8am, which would have been after the time slot between 7am and 7.25am when investigators believed that Sierra was abducted before making it to her bus stop, so this is a whole hour later. And this blew a huge hole in Detective's theory, and they were incomplete disbelief because they were sure that the surveillance footage would help them put Antelin at the scene, but just when all hope had seemingly been lost, detectives found out that the timestamp

from the video was actually incorrect. See, most people forget to change the timestamp on their surveillance camera during daylight savings, and this had been the very case with this particular camera. The property management had forgotten to set it back, so with that, the camera actually showed Antelun leaving the RV park at 7am and not 8am shortly before Sierra was taken. Furthermore, Antelun had a job in which he would usually have an early start time, like he would usually leave the park at about 7am. But on that particular day, Antelun wasn't scheduled to work. So why was he leaving the RV park so early

as if he was going to work? Well, investigators had a pretty good idea as to why. Detectives also noticed that there was a five hour time gap and that Antelun returned to his residence shortly before noon that day, so he was out like all morning. So with all this new information and police creating a solid picture, they felt that it was time for them to let Antelina know that they were onto him. At this point, police had been watching Antelina for about six days, so they headed over to the Maple Leaf RV Park and spoke with him. Two detectives approached Antelina and explained that they were there to ask him some questions and that he didn't have to talk to them if he didn't want to.

And Antelin's response was, I would like you to get to the point. Yeah, he was very such a fucking condescending dickhead. Yeah, he had said that in a very cocky and condescending way. So detectives then explained that they were investigating the disappearance of a local 15 year old girl named Sierra Lamar and that they asked if, you know, there was any reason that anyone would say that somehow you and her had a relationship going and get this. Until and responded with, I doubt it why. Like I doubt it. Such a fucking weird response, I doubt it why. Like I doubt it?

What do you mean you doubt it? Such a fucking weird response, I doubt it why? Like do not know who you see. Anyway, so this helped investigators because they knew that Antelun Seaman was found on Sear's pants. So Antelun essentially separated himself from the crime, even though his DNA was found on Sear's clothing

because he's like, oh, I doubt it. But it's like, you doubt it because your semen was found on her pants. So something obviously happened between you two in some regard. Right. And like you just said, you know, that was great for police because they're like, you're lying. You're lying. You're trying to distance yourself, you know, and saying like, you never knew her, you

never had any contact with her. Well, it's interesting to me that he didn't say no. He said, I doubt it. And I wonder if that was his way of kind of keeping things a little bit open, you know, in case they had something on him. Because obviously they're coming to you for a reason. They must know that you potentially might be involved

in something with her. So, just bizarre. Absolutely. And, you know, on top of that, like investigators said during this investigation that Antelun basically thought he was smarter than police. So three days later on April 7, 2012, police felt that they officially had enough to at least bring Antelun in for questioning and also to search his residence and seize his car. First, they asked Antelun what he did on the day of March 16, 2012, to which he said he

went fishing. He told detectives that he left his house at around 7am or 7.15am and got to his fishing spot shortly before 8am. Then he said that he drove back into town and cashed his paycheck at a local bank of America. But investigators knew one thing that Antelun didn't, and that was that they had his DNA. So they asked him why his semen would be

on a 15-year-old girl's pants who had gone missing a month prior, and Antelun's response was fairly stupid and also bizarre. He told detectives that it was embarrassing, but that he would often masturbate in his car. His claim was that he masturbated in his car, and then cleaned up with some napkins he keeps in his car, and tossed them out the window, and that's supposedly how his semen got on to Sierra's pants. Like, uh, okay, fucking no. Not only is this just the dumbest thing I've ever heard, but it is absolutely disgusting. It's disgusting and stupid. Like, uh, but this is what's so funny is when, you know, people are

questioned and they come up with these things. These elaborate stories. They're gonna believe that. Like, oh yeah, I threw the napkin out the window, that's probably how it got on her clothes. Yeah, it's what? Yeah, it's just really dumb. So with this weird and elaborate story from Antelun, police wanted to see if they could verify his movements for the day. So they went to the Bank of America where Antelun said he cast his check on the 16th.

And sure enough, he was caught on surveillance footage there. So they went to the Bank of America where Antelun said he cashed his check on the 16th, and sure enough, he was caught on surveillance footage there. He was wearing a black shirt and light colored cargo pants, and when investigators looked closer, they noticed that the bottom of Antelun's pants looked darker than the rest, which seemed as though he had been by a body of water. Now, as we know, Antelun claimed that he had gone fishing, but that story didn't seem

likely given the DNA evidence, so detectives now wonder if he had possibly taken Sierra to a lake or nearby river. The next step was to search Antelun seized Redvoke's Wagonjeta, which they found inside a trailer on his mother's property. Inside, police were not able to find any evidence of blood, but when a forensics crew got a hold of the car, they were able to determine that Sierra's DNA was found on the inside handle in the back seat of Antelun's car. Not only this, but they

found her DNA on the inside latch of his trunk, as well as a strand of Sierra's hair, on coiled up rope in the trunk. So this is very devastating knowing that her DNA was in the trunk and it only gives you all these terrifying visuals. So this is a big deal. Yeah, but at this point, it's police just have enough. They've got everything they need. So like we said, obviously this is huge, but it wasn't the only giant discovery that detectives uncovered for all the work that they had done.

Remember earlier when we mentioned that Antelun previously worked at a Safeway grocery store? Well, we didn't mention that for no reason. A few years before Sierra disappeared in 2009, police responded to two different attempted abductions from the strip mall where the Safeway that Antelun worked at was located in Morgan Hill. Unfortunately,

police were never able to figure out who the attacker was, but there was one piece of evidence that was located at the scene of one of the attacks that Detective still had in their possession. A taser or stun gun was found lying on the ground after an attempted abduction, but it appeared that someone had messed with the battery cover on the back of it. Just inside the battery cover was a single fingerprint, but it hadn't previously been matched to anyone. Then police noticed the composite sketch that was created after this string of attacks,

and they were shocked. The composite looked almost identical to Antelun Garcia Torres. Originally, the fingerprint wasn't all that substantial because police didn't have anyone to match it to. But now they had Antelun's fingerprint, and when forensics conducted analysis, it came back as a perfect match. Which just only goes to prove further that Antelun is a predator. He's a predator. Exactly. So on May 21st, 2012, Antelling Garcia Torres was arrested and charged for the murder of 15 year old Sierra Lamar. Now, of course, they don't have her

body yet, but this is enough to lead them and us to believe that she was murdered by him. A $10, that she was murdered by him. A $10,000 reward was offered by the Lamar family for information pertaining to Sierra's whereabouts, because sadly, Antelun pled not guilty and maintained his innocence. When Antelun was arrested at his residence, the only word he muttered was, really? Like, yeah, really, bitch really bitch like what do you mean? Well, yeah really So the district attorney sought the death penalty, but knew that that would be tough

Because although there appears to be a mountain of evidence See her as body like I said had not been found the defense tried to make Antelun look like a victim claiming that he had been exposed to pesticides at an early age Stunting his brain growth. Wow, that's a reach. Yeah, and that he came from a troubled home, but it's like, okay, you came from a troubled home that doesn't give you the right to murder people. Yeah. So, the defense said that Antelun's father was an alcoholic who beat his mother and himself,

and that he is currently incarcerated for sexually abusing a family member under the age of 14, which is terrible, of course. But although the prosecution called for the death of Antelun, the jury ultimately spared him, but he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Sierra's father Steve said this after the sentence in quote, Seara's father Steve said this after the sentencing quote, I would be lying if I didn't say that I am disappointed in the verdict. He'll be able to live. Seara won't. He'll be able to breathe.

Seara doesn't. He'll be able to eat every day, see his family, and we don't have that. The crime I thought deserved the maximum sentence, not the minimum." To this day, Antlin still maintains his innocence, and he remained silent for many years until 2017 when he finally opened up to a reporter who wrote him a handwritten letter. A reporter named Amy Larson asked four questions to Antlin, but he only answered one. She asked, Do you still maintain your innocence? To which Antlin responded, Yes, Amy, I hold fast to my innocence.

When asked other questions, Antlin replied with, quote, I'm not going to talk about the case. I have no trust in the news. There's a lot of selective reporting which paints a picture not always true. I too believe that every person has the right to have their voice heard, but unfortunately those days are long gone. Ask your questions, some if answered, may not sit well with others. I don't wish to start shit with others. I'm going to do my time." To this day, the body of Sierra Lamar has never been recovered. An Antelun Garcia Torres refuses to say what he knows despite desperate pleas of Sierra's family and friends.

But one thing that we do know is that a serial predator is off the streets and will remain in prison for the rest of his life. Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode and on Tuesday we'll have an all new case for you guys to dive into. This case is so frustrating because obviously there is so much evidence against Antelun and the fact that he and other people in this type of situation refuse to tell the truth and give Sierra's family the ability to have closure in some way and know what their

daughter endured, where she is, give her a proper burial, all that stuff. Obviously, I don't expect him to be the nice guy that does that, not even the nice guy, but the decent guy, because he's a piece of shit, but just very disappointing. Yeah, you're right, and he's never gonna get out of prison, so I don't see why.

Wait, so what's the point? Why not? What's the point of holding that information and not letting this family have anything? And for him to say, I'm gonna do my time. Like, okay, you're going to be in there for the rest of your life without the possibility of parole, and you're just gonna sit there and do your time and do for what you did, but you're not gonna say what you did,

it makes no sense. Yeah, like, buddy, your time is fucking forever. Yeah, so you're gonna be in there forever, so... So disappointing and so sad, obviously as we know Sierra was just trying to get to school and I guess we can kind of speculate that he picked her up, maybe offered her, offered a takeer to school or he just snatch her off the streets like there's, there's so many questions we really don't know what happened. But obviously based on the evidence she endured something terrible and it's extremely unfair.

Yeah and people are still looking for her to this day. Yeah, like that's such a big FU from Antelun and I know he doesn't care anyway, but oh god, I hate him. I hate him too. But we love all of you guys. Thank you so much for listening to this very devastating episode of Going West. I hope you guys have a wonderful weekend and we'll see you next week. Alright guys, so for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger. you you