A Southern California man was charged Thursday with killing two girls in 1981 after DNA proof linked him to the crimes, prosecutors introduced Thursday.
Tony Garcia, 68, of Oxnard appeared in court docket however his arraignment was continued to Feb. 23, the Ventura County District Lawyer’s Workplace mentioned in a press release.
It wasn’t instantly clear whether or not he had an lawyer to talk on his behalf.
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Garcia, a Navy veteran and former martial arts instructor, is accused of kidnapping, raping and strangling Rachel Zendejas, 20, in Camarillo in January 1981 and strangling 21-year-old Lisa Gondek in Oxnard in December 1981.
Zendejas was discovered useless in a carport in Camarillo and Gondek was present in bathtub after a reported condo fireplace in Oxnard, authorities mentioned.
Garcia lived for many years only some miles away from the crime scenes till he lastly was linked to the killings, authorities mentioned.
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“The actual fact is, this suspect has been hiding in plain sight, for over 40 years,” Ventura County Sheriff Jim Fryhoff mentioned at a information convention Thursday.
In 2004, investigators decided that the identical particular person killed the ladies however could not discover a DNA match in a regulation enforcement database. Authorities mentioned Garcia grew to become a suspect in 2019 after chilly case investigators turned to genealogical DNA, which compares crime scene DNA with industrial databases which may embrace profiles submitted by relations of the killer.
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Garcia is charged with two counts of homicide with particular allegations that they have been a number of killings and that one concerned kidnapping and rape. The District Lawyer’s Workplace hasn’t determined whether or not to hunt the loss of life penalty or life in jail with out parole.