Cold Blooded: Lost and Found

Summary

Podcast Summary: 20/20 – "Cold Blooded: Lost and Found"

Episode Information:

• Title: 20/20
• Host/Author: ABC News
• Description: Unforgettable true crime mysteries, exclusive newsmaker interviews, hard-hitting investigative reports, and in-depth coverage of high-profile stories. Listen throughout the week with the official 20/20 After Show, the True Crime Vault, and our spotlight of true crime originals.
• Episode: Cold Blooded: Lost and Found
• Release Date: August 6, 2025

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Introduction

The episode, "Cold Blooded: Lost and Found," delves into the mysterious death of Dr. Eric Garcia in Ketchikan, Alaska. Hosted by Chris Connelly and produced by ABC Audio and 20/20, the narrative unfolds through interviews, personal accounts, and investigative insights, painting a comprehensive picture of Dr. Garcia's life, his untimely death, and the ensuing mystery that baffled local authorities.

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Background on Dr. Eric Garcia

Dr. Eric Garcia was a dedicated surgeon who relocated to the remote town of Ketchikan, Alaska, from Puerto Rico and South Texas. He was recruited by the local hospital with an attractive salary package, intending to bring much-needed medical expertise to the community. Dr. Garcia's personal life was solitary; he was unmarried and immersed in his work, often traveling and indulging in luxurious hobbies to fill his extensive 3,000-square-foot home.

Key Details:

• Relocation: From Puerto Rico and South Texas to Ketchikan.
• Profession: Surgeon, one of only two working surgeons in town.
• Lifestyle: Unmarried, extensive collectibles, expensive hobbies.

Notable Quote:

“He knew what he wanted and what he wanted. There wasn't a lot of he wanted big and we have a lot of more moderate sized homes.”
— Jordan Joplin (00:55)

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The Day of the Incident: March 27, 2017

On March 27, 2017, Dr. Garcia's body was discovered in his home. Present at the scene were key individuals:

• Dawn Hink: Dr. Garcia's friend and colleague, often referred to as his "work wife."
• Jordan Joplin: A friend from Washington state who had flown in for a welfare check.
• Bob Jackson: A longtime realtor who had recently helped Dr. Garcia purchase his new home.

Discovery:

• Location: Driveway outside Dr. Garcia's house.
• Circumstances: Dr. Garcia was found deceased on a couch in his home, surrounded by unusual items like an open package of bacon, a piece of partially burned charcoal, and a barbecue grill propped open in the doorway.

Notable Quote:

“A good realtor knows how to sell a place, but it's rare to hear a sell that sounds so much like a nature documentary.”
— Chris Connelly (02:11)

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Initial Investigation and Theories

At first glance, the scene suggested a possible suicide. Evidence supporting this theory included:

• Pill Bottle: A prescription for diazepam (Valium) was found near Dr. Garcia's body, suggesting a potential overdose.
• Autopsy Findings: Initially, there was speculation about a possible heart attack, given Dr. Garcia's medical history.

Contradicting Evidence: Despite initial theories pointing towards suicide or a medical event, several peculiarities raised suspicions:

• Charcoal and Grill: The presence of a charcoal briquette and an open grill on a second-floor deck during the rainy, windy season of March in Alaska seemed out of place.
• Purple Residue: Dr. Garcia's shirt had mysterious purple stains alongside charcoal dust.
• Missing Smoke Detectors: Police sergeant Eric Mattson discovered that all smoke detectors in the house were missing, with only the wiring hanging from the ceilings.

Notable Quotes:

“He'd travel, sometimes taking his parents on lavish cruises. At home, he surrounded himself with beautiful objects.”
— Chris Connelly (05:21)

“If you started a charcoal briquette inside your house, I would wonder why. Maybe some smoke detectors didn't go off.”
— Eric Mattson (26:23)

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Dr. Garcia’s Personal Life and Collecting Habits

Dr. Garcia was known for his extensive and valuable collections, which included:

• Watches: Approximately 20 high-end timepieces, each meticulously cataloged with their purchase prices.
• Coins: A vast coin collection, some weighing hundreds of pounds, which he treated as serious investments.
• Rare Liquor: Hundreds of bottles of rare and expensive liquors.
• Valuables: Including designer watches, expensive vases, and other high-value items.

Despite his wealth, Dr. Garcia was generous, often giving away valuable items to friends, family, and even strangers, which raised eyebrows among those close to him.

Notable Quotes:

“He had a kind of a nook under his stairs. We put some shelves in, and we put a Schlage deadbolt, a lock on it, so that no one could open it, but no one would know what was in there unless he told them.”
— Jordan Joplin (15:54)

“It just throws red flags, you know, it just, you can collect some unsavory people that way. And that, I think, was the scariest part for me.”
— Dawn Hink (15:37)

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Discovery of Missing Valuables

Upon further investigation, it was revealed that over half a million dollars worth of items were missing from Dr. Garcia's residence. The removal of these valuables suggested that Dr. Garcia might have been either a victim of theft or possibly had arranged to give away his possessions.

Notable Quotes:

“We believe that more than a half a million dollars worth of items was stolen from Dr. Garcia's residence.”
— Chris Connelly (19:24)

“If it was a new coin that came out, he would order a set, so seven or eight of them. And then what he would do is he would keep one or two for himself. And then whenever he would meet somebody, he said, oh, you know, I got this one coin. So he would give them this coin.”
— Saul Garcia (13:44)

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Breakthrough in the Investigation: Missing Smoke Detectors

The turning point in the investigation came when Dr. Garcia's brother, Saul Garcia, discovered the missing smoke detectors. While walking through a ravine, Saul noticed white specks that turned out to be the missing detectors, which had been scattered among the brush.

Key Findings:

• Retrieval of Detectives: Six missing smoke detectors were found.
• Forensic Matching: Serial numbers on the retrieved detectors matched those missing from Dr. Garcia's home.
• Implications: The removal of smoke detectors suggested an attempt to eliminate evidence of foul play, shifting the investigation from a possible accidental death or suicide to a case involving potential homicide.

Notable Quotes:

“There were a lot of question marks that surrounded the doctor's death. In this moment, I was asked to come in and to start to try to answer some of those questions.”
— Eric Mattson (23:04)

“So, you know, whether people believe in some type of divine intervention or just stray dumb luck, Saul certainly got it that day.”
— Chris Connelly (32:23)

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Suspicions and Unveiling of a Secret Relationship

As the investigation deepened, the police uncovered an unexpected relationship that Dr. Garcia had maintained outside his known circle. This revelation added layers of complexity to the case, suggesting possible motives that were previously unexplored.

Notable Quotes:

“He was very secretive, he was intoxicating.”
— Dawn Hink (33:08)

“He was pretty proud of that stuff.”
— Jordan Joplin (15:54)

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Conclusion

"Cold Blooded: Lost and Found" meticulously unravels the enigmatic case of Dr. Eric Garcia, highlighting the intricate details that transformed a presumed natural death into a perplexing mystery fraught with unanswered questions and hidden facets of Garcia's life. The discovery of the missing smoke detectors and the subsequent identification of a secret relationship were pivotal in steering the investigation toward uncovering the truth behind Dr. Garcia's death. As the episode concludes, listeners are left contemplating the layers of deception and the depths of human complexity that often lie beneath seemingly straightforward circumstances.

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Notable Moments and Quotes

• Initial Welfare Check:

  “He was contemplating suicide. Nobody's heard from him. His parents? Yeah, ten days since then.”
  — Jordan Joplin (07:03)

• Realtor Friendship:

  “Our whole relationship was that way. I was always silly with him and I had fun with him and he seemed to appreciate it.”
  — Jordan Joplin (03:20)

• Valuable Collections:

  “If you look out off his balcony, you could see kind of for infinity. You'd be looking at Pinnock Island, Gravina island and out right out into the Pacific ocean.”
  — Jordan Joplin (05:04)

• Suspicious Scene Elements:

  “There were racks and racks that were empty.”
  — Eric Mattson (18:49)

• Saul Garcia's Discovery:

  “Sure enough, we found every smoke detector that was removed from that house and matched them all perfectly with what was missing.”
  — Eric Mattson (31:59)

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Final Thoughts

"Cold Blooded: Lost and Found" offers a compelling exploration of a true crime mystery, blending personal testimonies with investigative reporting to shed light on the perplexing death of Dr. Eric Garcia. The episode underscores the importance of meticulous investigation and the often-hidden complexities within seemingly straightforward cases.

Transcript

[Debra Roberts]

This is Debra Roberts here with another weekly episode of our latest series from 2020 and ABC Audio, Cold Blooded Mystery in Alaska. Remember, you can get new episodes early if you follow Cold Blooded Mystery in Alaska on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Now here's the episode on WhatsApp. No one can see or hear your personal messages. Whether it's a voice call message or sending a password to WhatsApp, it's all just this. So whether you're sharing the streaming password in the family chat or trading those late night voice messages that could basically become a podcast, your personal messages stay between you, your friends and your family. No one else, not even us. WhatsApp message privately with everyone.

[Chris Connelly]

On March 27, 2017, the day police found the body of Dr. Eric Garcia, a handful of people were standing in the driveway outside his house. There was Dawn Hink, Dr. Garcia's friend and colleague at the hospital, who some called his work wife. Jordan Joplin was there too. He was a friend from Washington state who'd flown to town that morning for the welfare check on the doctor. Jordan was there with a woman he identified as his girlfriend. And last was Bob Jackson. Bob Jackson had met Eric Garcia several years earlier in his capacity as a realtor.

[Jordan Joplin]

The hospital calls us and says, we've got a physician coming to town and we need you to give them a real estate tour.

[Chris Connelly]

Bob gives a lot of these tours. He's been a realtor in Ketchikan for the last 30 years. Being a realtor, Bob knows it's all about location and he's very good at making you want to move here.

[Jordan Joplin]

You can walk right out underneath the tree line and you could walk for hours and, you know, pine cones and trails and probably gonna see a black bear at certain times of year eating the fish in the creek.

[Chris Connelly]

A good realtor knows how to sell a place, but it's rare to hear a sell that sounds so much like a nature documentary.

[Jordan Joplin]

If you're on the waterfront, you'll see seals, you'll see humpback whales. You know, when everyone says, you know, it's Alaska and it's the last frontier, this is Alaska and it's wonderful living here.

[Chris Connelly]

So Bob went and met his new client, a surgeon from the lower 48. There was only one other working surgeon in Ketchikan at the time. So this guy showing up, it potentially doubled the amount of life saving that could happen in town, which is the kind of thing that might make someone a local celebrity. But Bob wanted to make sure that wasn't going to his new client's head.

[Jordan Joplin]

I teased him, I don't know why, but I met him And I said, Dr. Schmachter doesn't mean nothing to me. And he said, oh. And that was our first conversation.

[Chris Connelly]

That bit of gentle ribbing began a friendship between the wisecracking realtor and the soft spoken surgeon.

[Jordan Joplin]

Our whole relationship was that way. I was always silly with him and I had fun with him and he seemed to appreciate it.

[Chris Connelly]

Bob Jackson's new friend was Dr. Eric Garcia. He was a long way from home. He'd grown up in Puerto Rico and his previous job had been in South Texas along the Rio Grande. But however distant this island in Alaska might have seemed, Dr. Garcia had a vision for his new life.

[Jordan Joplin]

He knew what he wanted and what he wanted. There wasn't a lot of he wanted big and we have a lot of more moderate sized homes.

[Chris Connelly]

Dr. Garcia was an unmarried man living on a surgeon's salary. And the local hospital had recruited him in part by offering him more than he was making in Texas. So if he wanted big, he could have big. One of the first houses Bob Jackson showed Dr. Garcia was on Summit terrace, nestled in the hills above downtown Ketchikan.

[Jordan Joplin]

Big, high ceilings in the garage and had a mezzanine in the garage. Lots of bedrooms and big house. Nice house.

[Chris Connelly]

The listing boasted four bedrooms including a quote, expansive master suite with beautiful bath fixtures. Large, well equipped kitchen, pantry, laundry room with sink and a heated two car garage with 10 foot doors. On top of that, Dr. Garcia had plans to add a bar and a walk in sauna. There was also lots of storage space including a sort of walk in closet nook underneath the first floor stairs. And then there was was the view.

[Jordan Joplin]

If you looked out off his balcony, you could see kind of for infinity. You'd be looking at Pinnock Island, Gravina island and out right out into the Pacific ocean. I mean the view from the home is spectacular. I mean he locked onto it and said this is it, I'm buying it.

[Chris Connelly]

Dr. Garcia would live in that house for the rest of his life. It was a big house for just one man. But Dr. Garcia kept busy. Working long hours at the hospital. He'd travel, sometimes taking his parents on lavish cruises. At home, he surrounded himself with beautiful objects. Expensive vases from faraway lands, designer watches and colognes, bottles of rare liquor, state of the art appliances and electronics. But at the end of most days, it was just him with 3,000 square feet all to himself. After Dr. Garcia died, his brother Saul came to Ketchikan. He stayed in the big house on the hill.

[Saul Garcia]

I was by myself there cleaning, and it was so lonely there. There's no lights outside. It's so quiet. And inside that house, I just felt the loneliness that, you know, even though I'm married and everything, I just could not imagine him living in there, being so lonely, Even being there for 20, 30 minutes. It was horrible.

[Chris Connelly]

Was Dr. Eric Garcia lonely? And if so, did this loneliness drive him to find connections outside of Ketchikan?

[Jordan Joplin]

Hi, this is Jordan Joplin.

[Chris Connelly]

Jordan Joplin, the friend from Washington state, had called police asking for a welfare check. He said he was worried and hadn't heard from Dr. Garcia in days.

[Jordan Joplin]

He was contemplating suicide. Nobody's heard from him. His parents? Yeah, ten days since then.

[Eric Mattson]

We, as the police department here had thought that it could have been some type of a suicide.

[Chris Connelly]

Police sergeant Eric Mattson, the officer, had.

[Eric Mattson]

Found some evidence of a pill bottle that was by Dr. Garcia.

[Chris Connelly]

It was a bottle for a prescription sedative. It seemed possible Dr. Garcia had taken too many and overdosed. And like we said in episode one, police found other things near his body. An open package of bacon, A piece of charcoal, partially burned. A barbecue grill placed in the doorway to the second floor deck. And on Dr. Garcia's shirt, stains left by charcoal dust and some mysterious purple residue. Police say they found the scene odd, but the idea that Dr. Garcia wanted to hurt himself. Some of his loved ones found this very unlikely. It was not where their minds went. When they got the news of his death, they had figured it was some sort of medical event. Here's Dr. Garcia's friend Don Hink, speaking to officers at the scene.

[Dawn Hink]

He's had a couple things with his heart. Heart surgery. Almost like a temporal bypass.

[Jordan Joplin]

Okay.

[Chris Connelly]

Dr. Garcia's brother Saul had the same thought. He remembered a few years earlier when his brother had taken a trip and experienced shortness of breath. When he got back to Ketchikan, doctors were so alarmed that they medevaced him to Washington state for surgery.

[Saul Garcia]

So my first impression is like, oh, maybe there was an event with his heart to the point that now he passed away.

[Chris Connelly]

But shortly after police found Dr. Garcia's body, they made another discovery, One that opened the door to theories more sinister in nature.

[Eric Mattson]

In my gut, this death didn't appear as to what it looked like.

[Chris Connelly]

From ABC Audio In 2020, I'm Chris Connelly, and this is Cold Blooded Mystery in Alaska. Episode 2 Lost. And.

[Jordan Joplin]

When I heard that Dr. Garcia had passed away, I went from disbelief to suspicious to angry.

[Chris Connelly]

Bob Jackson, the realtor, had known Eric Garcia for years. And over that time, Bob says, he became Dr. Garcia's unofficial maintenance guy. Loved ones say Dr. Garcia was pretty much clueless when it came to home improvement projects. He was more interested in stuff like organizing his coin collection. That made Eric Garcia a little unusual in Ketchikan. This is a small frontier town where rugged self reliance is the norm. But to Eric Garcia's loved ones, that kind of quirk was part of his charm. Sure, he might not know a Phillips from a flathead, but there was something refreshing about that. It was almost endearing. Besides, whatever Eric Garcia lacked in fix it up, know how he made up for it? With his passion for his favorite hobby, collecting.

[Jordan Joplin]

This is one of the things I teased him about. He bought lots of stuff for himself. He had many, many watches. Well, I don't know the exact number. Probably about 20 high end watches. And he'd show off his new watch. I got a new watch, take a look at this one. And every time he'd show me one, he would tell me how much it cost. This one was $1,600. This was $2,400. I bought two of these and they were this much money. He bragged about it, and I ate it up. I loved it that he would brag about his stuff.

[Chris Connelly]

And it wasn't just watches. Eric Garcia collected all sorts of valuables. He was very open about it, and he did it with a kind of obsessive zeal. This collecting began when he was a kid. Here's his brother Saul.

[Saul Garcia]

Coin collecting. My dad also used to coin collect. You know, it could be gold coins or silver coins, gold ingots and stuff like that.

[Chris Connelly]

Eric Garcia's coin collection was vast. Bob Jackson says when Dr. Garcia was buying his house, they went to the bank together to figure out the mortgage. Dr. Garcia asked the teller whether he could borrow against the value of his coin collection, which made Bob wonder, how many coins does this guy have? He soon found out when I moved.

[Jordan Joplin]

Him from his rental to Dr. Garcia's new house that he purchased. I had a Lincoln aviator and it sagged the back of my car down. He had so much gold and silver in there with the packaging and all, it was hundreds of pounds. I moved every one of those coins and, you know, during the court proceedings, asked if I helped Dr. Garcia do it. I said, no, I didn't help him. I did it. He didn't lift a finger.

[Chris Connelly]

Dr. Garcia was drawn to beautiful things, the finer things. He had an appreciation for that stuff. And he had the money, but also all that money he spent on collectibles, he saw it as an investment, and it was an investment he took seriously. All those watches, the coins, the hundreds of bottles of rare liquor, all of it. Dr. Garcia meticulously tracked how their value was rising or falling. He made spreadsheets, and he would go line by line, item by item, spending hours poring over how much his assets were appreciating. But there was something else about Dr. Eric Garcia's collecting. His loved ones. Say yes. Eric always seemed to be unboxing some shiny new object, but he also delighted in giving things away.

[Saul Garcia]

If it was a new coin that came out, he would order a set, so seven or eight of them. And then what he would do is he would keep one or two for himself. And then whenever he would meet somebody, he said, oh, you know, I got this one coin. So he would give them this coin and. And, you know, people were, oh, great. I mean, this is awesome. He thought of me. The same thing with the liquor. He had this huge liquor collection. And he would give you a bottle. Bottle, you know, cost 200 bucks or whatever it was. That was his way to connect with people.

[Dawn Hink]

I mean, he had no bounds. He just, you know, hey, you like that? Is that cool? Have it.

[Chris Connelly]

Dawn Hink, Eric's friend and de facto assistant at the hospital.

[Dawn Hink]

And it's a gold nugget. It's an expensive piece of jewelry. It's something that you don't. Normal people don't just give to whoever. A lot of times that just. It struck me as an odd thing. It was like, oh, that could be bad.

[Chris Connelly]

Giving gifts to friends and family is one thing. But don Hincks says Dr. Garcia's gift giving was often pretty indiscriminate. Like he'd give a near perfect stranger some valuable item. And there were other things that friends found worrying. Here's Don's husband, Will.

[Eric Mattson]

We came over to dinner there one time, and directly in front of his front door, he has a small table. And there in the middle of it was a two troy ounce block of gold. I'm like, eric, why is this here? And you know, kind of, he's like, well, it is a rock.

[Jordan Joplin]

It is not a rock.

[Eric Mattson]

The pizza delivery guy can see this.

[Chris Connelly]

The price of gold fluctuates. But during the time The Hinks knew Dr. Garcia, 2 ounces of gold was worth at least $2,000. Today, it would be worth about $6,000.

[Dawn Hink]

It just throws red flags, you know, it just, you can you can collect some unsavory people that way. And that, I think, was the scariest part for me.

[Jordan Joplin]

He had a kind of a nook under his stairs.

[Chris Connelly]

Bob Jackson, Dr. Garcia's realtor, who became his friend.

[Jordan Joplin]

We put some shelves in, and we put a schlage deadbolt, a lock on it, so that no one could open it, but no one would know what was in there unless he told them. The problem is, I believe Dr. Garcia told everyone what was in there. He was pretty proud of that stuff.

[Chris Connelly]

And so on March 27, 2017, when Bob Jackson was standing in Dr. Garcia's driveway and learned that his friend had died, the contents of that locked closet were at the top of his mind.

[Jordan Joplin]

When I walked up towards Dr. Garcia's house, I saw that there was the police officer, Devon Miller.

[Bob Jackson]

Bob Jackson came up to me, and he said he needed to talk to me.

[Chris Connelly]

Bob approached officer Miller in the driveway outside the house shortly after police had found the body.

[Jordan Joplin]

I tried to tell the police that I knew that there was a lot of stuff in the house, valuable stuff. This house needs to be secured. Yeah, we'll take care of it. I mean, what I'm saying is there's stuff in there that needs to be locked up. Yeah. And they said, don't worry about it. You don't need to worry about it.

[Bob Jackson]

Mr. Jackson, he's a very passionate person.

[Jordan Joplin]

I said, well, we do need to worry about it. I said, plenty. And I said some stuff that I can't say on television, but I was very foul.

[Chris Connelly]

Remember, this was just minutes after police found Dr. Garcia's body. They were a little busy. Some valuables in a closet. It seemed like this could wait. But after some not so gentle prodding from Bob Jackson, officer Devin Miller agreed to check the closet under the stairs.

[Bob Jackson]

I went to a friend of Dr. Garcia's by the name of Jordan Joplin.

[Chris Connelly]

Jordan Joplin, the friend from Washington state. He was there outside the house with Bob Jackson and Dawn Hink.

[Bob Jackson]

And I said, do you have a key to this lock storage unit? And he said that he had a key to everything. And so we had him open up the storage unit.

[Chris Connelly]

Jordan and the officers walked inside while Bob Jackson waited in the driveway.

[Jordan Joplin]

A few minutes later, officer Miller, he came out and gestured me with his finger to come on. Come this way. Come on in.

[Chris Connelly]

Bob Jackson stepped inside and made his way across the hardwood floors.

[Jordan Joplin]

I walked in the house and went right to the room. And as soon as I opened that door, I knew he had been robbed. I said, everything's gone. It's all gone. There was nothing, nothing left.

[Eric Mattson]

There were racks and racks that were empty.

[Chris Connelly]

Sergeant Eric Mattson.

[Eric Mattson]

The amount of alcohol that would have filled that space was enormous. There was no gold. There was no silver found.

[Chris Connelly]

First a mysterious death. Now gold, silver, alcohol, watches, and more. Gone. And not just hundreds or thousands of dollars worth.

[Bob Jackson]

We believe that more than a half a million dollars worth of items was stolen from Dr. Garcia's residence.

[Chris Connelly]

To police, this no longer seemed like a typical death investigation. And as they looked closer at the walls and ceiling of Eric Garcia's palatial home, the case became even stranger.

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[Eric Mattson]

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[Chris Connelly]

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[Chris Connelly]

Hundreds of thousands of dollars in valuables were missing from Dr. Eric Garcia's house. It was a bombshell discovery, but it was not clear what the connection was between Dr. Garcia's death and his missing valuables. Police did not know whether the valuables were stolen from Dr. Garcia or given away by him or maybe it was something else entirely. No one was sure. What was clear was that this mysterious death had just gotten even stranger.

[Eric Mattson]

There were a lot of question marks that surrounded the doctor's death. In this moment, I was asked to come in and to start to try to answer some of those questions.

[Chris Connelly]

Back in 2017, Eric Mattson was a sergeant in the Ketchikan Police Department working in the investigations unit. On March 28, a day after police found Dr. Garcia's body and his valuables missing, Matson went to the house to see if he could make sense of the evidence.

[Eric Mattson]

When the officers observed Dr. Garcia deceased, there's a few theories that you come up with. Was it natural? You know, did the doctor have a heart attack?

[Chris Connelly]

That theory that Dr. Garcia died from a heart attack was quickly ruled out by an autopsy that left other theories. I mentioned earlier that police found a pill bottle next to Dr. Garcia's body. It was for a prescription made out to him, a sedative called diazepam, better known as Valium. Police took note of that, but a full toxicology report would take weeks to come back. In the meantime, police had to theorize based on what was found in the house. And like we talked about in the last episode, what police found was confusing.

[Eric Mattson]

There were some other things that seemed a little bit odd and out of place.

[Chris Connelly]

For starters, the door to the second floor deck. It was open, propped open with a pillow. And just outside the doorway was a charcoal grill. Across the room, Dr. Garcia had been found dead on a couch with a coffee table alongside it.

[Eric Mattson]

On that coffee table was a partially burned charcoal briquette.

[Chris Connelly]

Dr. Garcia's white T shirt had a charcoal smudge on it. The shirt also had some mysterious purple staining. The grill and charcoal explained the smell.

[Eric Mattson]

There was a strong, distinct odor to me, and it really smelled like lighter fluid.

[Chris Connelly]

To sergeant Matson, the whole setup made no sense. Police had found the grill, charcoal and an open pack of bacon, but no barbecue tools and grilling there on that deck, that made even less sense. Like I said, the deck was on the second floor with a view that was basically unobstructed. An unobstructed view looking out means unobstructed wind coming in. And it was March, which in southeast Alaska is a rainy, windy season with highs in the low 40s. Not exactly grilling weather. All this was not necessarily suspicious. After all, loved ones say, no one took Eric Garcia to be a seasoned grill master. Was all this just evidence of rookie grilling mistakes? Still, the whole scene struck Sergeant Eric Matson as weird. And as he was poking around the house on the second day of the investigation, something occurred to him.

[Eric Mattson]

If you started a charcoal briquette inside your house, I would wonder why. Maybe some smoke detectors didn't go off.

[Chris Connelly]

Mattson looked up at those high ceilings, and that's when he saw them. Well, the lack of them.

[Eric Mattson]

Every single place that a smoke detector was located or should have been was just the base with a piece of. With the wiring harness essentially sticking out of that. There was not one smoke detector inside that house. They were all missing.

[Chris Connelly]

Police counted six missing smoke detectors. Where they had gone was anybody's guess.

[Eric Mattson]

Having the smoke detectors missing was very, very odd.

[Chris Connelly]

Had Eric Garcia taken them down? If he did, why? And where were they? Police would spend weeks puzzling over these questions. When the toxicology report came back, they found a clue. The toxicology report revealed a few things. Most Significantly, it identified Dr. Garcia's cause of death. A lethal dose of morphine. That was odd because no morphine was found in the house. So where was it? How did it get into Dr. Garcia's system? The autopsy had found no injection site on Dr. Garcia's body. That meant the morphine had to have been swallowed. But that was about all that police could say for sure. Everything else about the morphine was Just one more mystery in a case that was full of them. But that wasn't the only significant finding in the toxicology report. It also showed trace amounts of diazepam in Dr. Garcia's blood, which tracked with that pill bottle found at the scene. And the report found something else that was troubling Officer Miller.

[Bob Jackson]

The toxicology report revealed a 9% value of carbon monoxide.

[Chris Connelly]

A 9% value of carbon monoxide. That's more than four times the normal limit. That finding, combined with the charcoal briquette, the oddly placed grill, the smell of lighter fluid, and those missing smoke detectors, it seemed to point towards something ominous. But to Dr. Garcia's loved ones, it also sounded totally out of character.

[Saul Garcia]

My brother getting on a ladder to take it down. A smoke detector. That doesn't sound like him. That just didn't add up.

[Chris Connelly]

I mentioned earlier that Dr. Garcia's friends knew him to be less than handy around the house, but it went further than that.

[Dawn Hink]

I would spend a fair amount of time trying to help him organize small things, just little things in his house.

[Chris Connelly]

That's Dawn Hink, Dr. Garcia's friend and co worker. Dawn says colleagues often called her Dr. Garcia's work wife because of the many household tasks he would delegate to her.

[Dawn Hink]

Go set up his artificial Christmas tree, get out the Christmas lights, you know, picking up dry cleaning, you know, making and bringing his lunch.

[Chris Connelly]

Dr. Garcia's loved ones remember a generous man and skilled surgeon who they also say seemed helpless to do basic things for himself. Again, his brother Saul, I think he.

[Saul Garcia]

Just focused on his career so much that, you know, he's not doing anything else, so his house could be on fire. He has to call somebody else to go, hey, can you check on that fire and maybe see if you can call the police or something?

[Chris Connelly]

Shortly after police found his brother's body, Saul Garcia traveled to Ketchikan. He stayed in that lonely house, and he thought about his brother.

[Saul Garcia]

Throughout this whole time. I always feel like Eric is very close to me. I always talked to him and said, eric, you need to help us. We need to get this thing to a resolution. Are we missing something?

[Chris Connelly]

One day, Saul took a walk. He headed down the road into a typical Ketchikan day. Gray skies, wind rustling in the trees. Off in the distance, through a veil of mist, Saul could see mountains. He came to an overpass with a view down into a leafy ravine.

[Saul Garcia]

As I'm walking, you know, over this bridge, my phone rang. So I pulled out my phone, and when I did that, for some reason, it caught my eye that I saw these white specks down there. And, you know, with the zoom on my phone, I took some pictures, increased it, and I said, these look like the smoke pictures.

[Chris Connelly]

Saul called Ketchikan police officers descended into the ravine and strewn among the brush, they found six smoke detectors.

[Eric Mattson]

We collected the smoke detectors. We brought those back to the police department.

[Chris Connelly]

Sergeant Matson took the smoke detectors to Dr. Garcia's house. He re examined the plastic harnesses on the ceiling, noting their serial numbers.

[Eric Mattson]

Sure enough, we found every smoke detector that was removed from that house and matched them all perfectly with what was missing.

[Chris Connelly]

It certainly looked like someone was trying to get rid of evidence. Saul's chance discovery was a huge step toward uncovering the truth.

[Eric Mattson]

I would say Saul probably felt he was led that day. So, you know, whether people believe in some type of divine intervention or just stray dumb luck, Saul certainly got it that day.

[Chris Connelly]

Police now believed that Dr. Eric Garcia's death involved foul play. And so the search began for a suspect. But as that search unfolded, the private became public, and the Ketchikan police unearthed a relationship that was totally unexpected.

[Dawn Hink]

Who is this joker?

[Bob Jackson]

He was very secretive, he was intoxicating.

[Jordan Joplin]

His physique was very well built, and he had a shirt that looked like it was painted on.

[Dawn Hink]

He started making some movies in the adult industry.

[Chris Connelly]

Cold Blooded Mystery in Alaska is a production of ABC Audio and 20 20, hosted by me, Chris Connelly. Produced by Camille Peterson, Shane McKeon and Kiara Powell. Edited by Gianna Palmer. Our supervising producer is Suzy Liu. Music and mixing by Evan Vaill. Special thanks to Liz Alessi, Katie Dandas, Janice Johnston, Joseph Reed, Gary Wynn, Xander Samaras, Chris Donovan, Michelle Margulis, Tom Berman, Sandy Evans and Pat Lalon. Josh Cohan is our director of podcast programming. Laura Mayer is our executive producer.

[Ryan Reynolds]

The twisted tale of Amanda Knox is coming to Hulu and Hulu on Disney plus on August 20th.

[Chris Connelly]

Amanda, where did you go the night of Meredith's murder?

[Dawn Hink]

Do I need a lawyer right now?

[Ryan Reynolds]

Inspired by the infamous story.

[Jordan Joplin]

We cannot do our jobs unless you.

[Bob Jackson]

Are honest with us.

[Dawn Hink]

I swear to God I'm innocent.

[Ryan Reynolds]

You only thought you knew.

[Dawn Hink]

For 15 years, I've been defined by something I didn't do.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Watch the new Hulu original series, the Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox. August 20th. Streaming on Hulu and Hulu on Disney plus for bundle subscribers. Terms apply.

[Chris Connelly]

We have a down spacecraft.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Tuesday, August 12th. The premiere of FX's Alien Earth. This ship collected specimens from other worlds. Invasive species predatory. From creator Noah Hawley and executive producer Ridley Scott.

[Chris Connelly]

If we don't lock them down, it.

[Jordan Joplin]

Will be too late.

[Debra Roberts]

What did you do?

[Ryan Reynolds]

FX's Alien Earth premieres August 12th on FX and Hulu.