The murder of Sierra LaMar | Ep 245

Summary

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Crime and Coffee Couple: The Murder of Sierra LaMar | Episode 245

Original Air Date: May 17, 2026
Hosts: Allison (A) and Mike (M)

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Episode Overview

This episode of Crime and Coffee Couple dives into the tragic and unresolved case of Sierra LaMar, a 15-year-old who disappeared on her way to a school bus stop in Morgan Hill, California, in 2012. Allison, who researches overlooked true crime cases, presents the details to Mike, whose unscripted reactions and questions, along with the couple’s casual banter, offer both depth and approachability to a grim story. The episode explores the circumstances of Sierra’s disappearance, the investigation, the identification of a suspect, the eventual conviction of Antolin Garcia Torres, and the recent overturning of that conviction, all while reflecting on themes of parental vulnerability and the randomness of tragedy.

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Main Discussion Points & Insights

The Disappearance of Sierra LaMar

• [07:10] Sierra LaMar, 15, left her home in rural Morgan Hill, CA, for her bus stop on March 16, 2012, and vanished between her house and the stop.
• [08:32] Her disappearance highlighted how a normal day can instantly turn tragic, reminding listeners of life’s unpredictability.
• [14:34] The area around Sierra’s home was rural; she was the only student at her bus stop.
• [15:00–16:56] Her mother, Marlene, grew worried when Sierra didn’t respond to texts or calls and was absent from school all day. The alarm was raised with law enforcement about 12 hours after her usual departure.

Family Background and Emotional Weight

• [11:09] Sierra’s parents divorced after her father, Steve, was convicted in 2007 of acting inappropriately towards one of Sierra’s friends—a fact that fueled Mike’s (M) strong reaction against offenders.
  • Quote [11:09] (M): “These kind of guys need to be eradicated... just wipe them out. Like, I think we could all get together, let's take a vote ...”
• [11:53] The family’s move post-divorce imposed social and emotional adjustments on Sierra, but she was adapting, joining new school activities and making friends.

The Investigation and Search

• [17:21–20:21] Initial classification as a voluntary missing person due to lack of evidence for foul play delayed the abduction investigation.
• [20:21] Cadaver dogs traced her scent halfway down her street, where it abruptly ended—implying she was picked up.
• [21:49] Sierra’s cell phone, discarded and water-damaged, and her Juicy brand bag (with schoolwork, clothes, and personal effects), were found in rural locations near her home within days of the disappearance.
• [24:33] Forensics found glass beads (like those in road paint) on her clothing, suggesting she’d been dragged on the ground.
• [26:03] DNA from semen was found on Sierra's jeans, matching local man Antolin Garcia Torres.

Identifying and Building the Case Against the Suspect

• [29:10–31:13] Garcia Torres lived seven miles from Sierra, drove a distinct red Volkswagen Jetta with a black hood, and was off work the day of her disappearance. Surveillance and GPS placed him in the vicinity during the possible abduction window.
• [31:13] Initial confusion with the RV park security footage was cleared up by correcting for daylight savings time, confirming he’d left in the key window.
  • Quote [31:13] (M): “That's the first thing you check, you idiots.”
• [33:26] A search of his car found Sierra’s DNA; fibers in his car matched Sierra's clothes; purchases (bleach and a turkey baster) days before hinted at premeditation.
• [34:54] There was no evidence Sierra and Garcia Torres knew each other, reinforcing the random nature of the attack.
• [35:26] Cellular triangulation was of limited aid due to rural coverage.
• [36:24] Garcia Torres was later arrested and linked to three earlier attempted kidnappings in 2009 involving tasing and attacking women in grocery store parking lots.

The Legal Battle – Trial, Doubt, and Overturning

• [39:43]–[40:12] Prosecution leaned heavily on DNA. Garcia Torres tried to explain semen on Sierra’s jeans as accidental transfer from tissue he discarded; defense claimed the presence was trace and possibly contaminant.
• [41:59–42:19] Defense seized on notes found in Sierra’s locker suggesting she might have run away, but a handwriting analyst did not think she wrote them.
• [46:59–48:15] Defense contested the DNA’s validity (possible transfer, chain of custody, timing of finding hair on rope, lack of bleach evidence, possible contamination).
• [49:07]–[49:59] Jury deliberated; Garcia Torres was convicted on all counts, including first-degree murder, and sentenced to life in prison without parole (June 5, 2017).
• [50:11] Fast forward to February 2026: conviction overturned on appeal due to potential jury prejudice—unrelated kidnapping charges were bundled with Sierra’s case.

Reflection: The Human Toll

• [55:14–55:27] Allison and Mike emphasized the enduring pain for Sierra’s family, their inability to lay her to rest, and how easily routine days can become calamity.
  • Quote [55:19] (A): “That’s a special kind of hell for a parent to live through.”

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• On the Fear All Parents Face
  • [11:33] (A): “This is why parents don't want their children to go have sleepovers, because things like this happen and it's scary.”
• On the Delays in Notifying Parents
  • [16:56] (C): “That's also why it's important that schools update us immediately if they've missed like ours does, immediately.”
• On the Death of Sierra’s Father’s Involvement
  • [24:50] (B): “Sierra’s father, Steve, who was very transparent about the fact that he was a registered sex offender... was quickly ruled out.”
• On DNA Evidence & Legal Tactics
  • [41:59] (B): “However, a handwriting analyst ... testified that Sierra had likely not been the person to write this note.”
  • [47:44] (C): "Yeah, and then, like, I guess, you know, it always goes back to, well, what about your semen on her jeans? I think that's kind of the big thing here. That's really the... thing that keeps and ties everything together."
  • [55:51] (M): “DNA on those jeans, man, I don't care. I don't want to hear about anything else.”
• On Court Error and Retrial
  • [51:23] (B): “On Friday, February 27, 2026, the California 6 District Court of appeal overturned Garcia Torres's murder conviction. He may be entitled to a new trial because prosecutors improperly combined the unrelated 2009 kidnapping charges with Sierra's murder case...”

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Timeline of Key Case Events

• 07:11AM [13:27] – Sierra sends last text to a friend.
• 07:15AM [13:27] – Leaves home for bus stop.
• 7:24AM [14:50] – Scheduled school bus pickup; not seen by driver.
• 6:27PM [15:56] – Marlene calls 911, reports Sierra missing.
• Sat, March 17 [20:21-21:49] – Police and volunteers search; cadaver dogs lose trail mid-court; cell phone and bag found.
• March 28, 2012 [29:10] – DNA match leads Antolin Garcia Torres to become suspect.
• April 7, 2012 [33:33] – His car seized, forensic evidence secured.
• May 21, 2012 [36:24] – Garcia Torres arrested for Sierra’s abduction and murder.
• 2014-2017 [45:00-49:59] – Long trial covers Sierra’s presumed murder and unrelated earlier attacks; ultimately convicted.
• June 5, 2017 [50:03] – Sentenced to life without parole.
• February 27, 2026 [50:11] – Conviction overturned for improper merging of unrelated charges; status pending possible retrial.

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Reflections & Closing Thoughts

• Allison’s Reflection
  • [53:56] Emphasizes how rapidly life can change from normal to tragedy, encourages listeners to value their loved ones and not take time for granted.
• On Parenting and Loss
  • [54:50] (B): “When you give birth to a baby... and then somebody like Marlene comes home and never sees her daughter again and has no idea where she is or what happened to her. That's a special kind of hell for a parent to live through.”
• Mike’s Summary Judgment
  • [55:51] (C): “DNA on those jeans, man, I don't care. I don't want to hear about anything else.”
• Lingering Questions
  • Was the bleach/turkey baster purchase truly premeditation?
  • Was the attack random or planned, based on prior observation?
• Outlook
  • The case remains unresolved for the family, with the conviction overturned and a decision about retrial pending.

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 07:10 – Sierra’s last morning and disappearance
• 11:09 – Family’s background and previous trauma
• 14:34 – Sierra was only student at her bus stop
• 21:49 – Discovery of Sierra’s phone and bag
• 26:03 – Forensic DNA matches to Antolin Garcia Torres
• 29:10 – How Garcia Torres became a suspect
• 33:26 – Discovery of Sierra’s DNA in suspect’s car
• 36:24 – Arrest and connection to prior attempted kidnappings
• 39:43 – Defense strategies and possible contamination/transfer
• 49:07 – Deliberations and original conviction
• 50:11 – Conviction overturned (February 2026)
• 53:56 – Reflections on loss and importance of cherishing family

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Tone & Style

The episode maintains a thoughtful, empathetic, but conversational tone, balancing heavy subject matter with moments of levity and relatable personal anecdotes. Allison brings research and sensitivity; Mike offers real-time reactions, skepticism, and humor. Their dynamic weaves the case details into wider reflections on parenting, safety, and the unpredictability of life.

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End of Summary

Transcript

[A]

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[B]

Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode with the crime and coffee couple. My name is Allison.

[C]

And my name's Mike.

[B]

Hello, Mike.

[C]

Hey, Allison. Jennifer. How are you?

[B]

I'm good. How are you?

[C]

Michael Leonard just left out our middle names. That's not good.

[B]

We left him out. You didn't leave them out. You just put them in there.

[C]

Brought them out. Put them out there is what I'm trying to say.

[B]

Gives a flying hoot. And I friggin middle names are.

[C]

With all this in and out interaction, I have yet to make a joke about that sort of thing. So we're already like 10 to 15 seconds into the show, so I'm holding off.

[B]

Would you be making a joke about

[C]

in n out motions? What do you think?

[B]

Why are you making in and out motions?

[C]

You just said in and out, in and out or something.

[B]

I don't recall.

[C]

Oh, my gosh. Every. Every male listener listening to this is thinking what I'm thinking. But that's all right. So how's my beautiful wife?

[B]

Oh, pretty good. Happy mother's day to all you mommies out there.

[C]

Hey, congratulations. Well done.

[B]

You better take good care of me today.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Wait.

[C]

Oh, my God.

[B]

Oh, my God. I'm putting it out on a silver platter for him to just pick this up.

[C]

She's putting out. She's putting in out. And yeah, she's. Yeah, she's. She's a good lady. I think you're. Maybe we should take a little break here for like 30 seconds.

[B]

We're not going to take a break for 30 seconds. I'm just going to continue on don't touch me. So, yes, I hope you ladies are being pampered today because us mothers, it's a very thankless job. You know, we do and we do, and oftentimes we don't get thank yous back.

[C]

I always think back to the Bill Burr standup comedy Bill Burr. B I L L B U R R and he's like, oh, yeah, you know, it's, it's like politically correct to say the women do so much and stay at home moms do so much. He's like, really? Are you doing a lot? Are you, is it a lot to put in some laundry and watch some television, vacuum, watch some tv?

[B]

Is that really a lot laundry? That's what stay at home moms are doing.

[C]

He's like, is it a lot to make a dinner every once in a while and clean up some counters? Oh, I'm sorry. He's like, I think it's a little bit more high pressure to have billions of dollars, like, you know, in charge and everything. And he's, he just makes a joke. I don't agree, okay? I'm not saying I agree. I just think it's kind of funny, that's all.

[B]

Well, I have never been a stay at home mom because I worked full time when I had our children. They were in daycare. And I have no judgment either way. But I will tell you, on the days that I was home with the kids or whatever, it's a lot of work when they're little.

[C]

Yeah, it is a lot, you know,

[B]

because they need everything from you and it's not like you're at work and you could be like, oh, I'm going to clock out for lunch now. I'm going to go sit and read a book or eat my lunch or whatever. It could be a 247 job.

[C]

The little ones, babies especially. Oh, man, that's a lot of work.

[B]

So I watch shows where I'm watching the Valley and I think they have like four under four. It's like, oh, God, love them because.

[C]

Sounds tough.

[B]

That's tough.

[C]

Yeah. Well, happy Mother's Day to you mothers out there. Enough about you guys. More about me. I am wearing a shirt. If you're watching on YouTube here, I. It's got skulls and all sorts of colorful little things coming out of the skull. And I bought it for my first EDM concert, which is like electronic dance music, techno type stuff I think we

[B]

talked about in our last.

[C]

Right, right. I'm just catching everybody up. So I bought it, but it didn't arrive in time for the stinking show. Even though stupid Amazon told me I'd have it by Friday. It didn't even come to, like, late Saturday. So this is not even the first time this has happened.

[B]

It came about an hour after you left. I was like, oh, that hurts.

[C]

It does. And so we ended up having to buy a shirt at, like, Dick Sporting Goods or something.

[B]

It was a cool shirt.

[C]

It was cool, but not as cool as this. Yeah. And it was also, like, 45 bucks.

[B]

Like, it was like, this is sick. I am like, I can't believe we're spending $45 on a flipping t shirt. I think it was 50 with tax.

[C]

Yeah, it was like, a Nike shirt and everything.

[B]

And I mean, come on. And then you were saying that our girlfriends at the concert. Yeah. Had gotten a cocktail, and I was like, what were they, like, 20 bucks? And Mike's like, 30.

[C]

Yeah. They said they got, like, vodka and a soda and cranberry.

[B]

And you said it wasn't even a big cup.

[C]

Tiny. Like, smaller than your coffee cup. I'm talking, like, I don't know, like, those little cocktail glasses.

[B]

Can somebody please tell me. All right, what do you think? Two shots of vodka, one into each.

[C]

Let's assume two.

[B]

All right, let's just say two. So you're paying $30 for two shots of vodka and about six ounces of club soda. Maybe a splash of crayon.

[C]

I mean, I don't even know about that much. Like, it's like, because it's such a small cup and there's ice in there. So it's just like, yeah, you're just paying 30 bucks. And, you know, one of our friends, he's like, I'm glad you agree with me. It's crazy. I'm like, they. It's only crazy if people stop doing it.

[B]

So it's not crazy. It's insane. And I think the question is, like, where is the ceiling? Like, at what point are we going to say, I'm not spending 40, $50 on a cocktail?

[C]

It's a matter of economics, Alison. Once people stop paying a certain price, then that's when they start bringing it down. Kind of like chips and, like, fast food places. You'll notice that, like, all the. The prices are coming down a little bit because the economy is just tanking a little bit. So it just has. It's a. It's a bad sign. When you're starting to have more affordable deals, it means people aren't spending as much, so they bring it down, the prices.

[B]

I mean, it's gotten out of hand. But we. I know. Taking A right turn. We went to have conveyor belt sushi this weekend for the first time. We took our daughter and her girlfriends, and it was actually a lot of fun. But the one thing that was weird was I don't think our daughter was really thinking in the beginning. She just, like, pushed the button and took the plate and. And it was the. I think. Is it called nigiri? It's like the rice with the egg slice. And she took maybe one bite, and she's like, oh, I don't really like that. Like, why. Why did you take that?

[C]

A fat chunk of scrambled egg on a piece of rice, which.

[B]

She doesn't love eggs.

[C]

No. And that's like, everybody knew that's what it was. And she took it.

[B]

Like, why did you. I'm like, reese, that was probably $6.

[C]

It's like, I just want to try it.

[B]

I'm like, no, this is not a buffet. We have to pay for each item. That, like, we're welcoming you to try different things, but. And then the second thing she took had, like, these massive salmon eggs.

[C]

Huge. Huge. And, like, something she normally. I've never seen her eat this and never. She took it. I'm like, oh, in my head, I'm like, she's probably not gonna eat this one. And she tried a little bite. She's like, anybody else want to try? Meaning, like, I don't.

[B]

I don't want it. And all I could think about was Nemo. When, you know, the babies get taken away, it looks just like that. That's exactly what it looked like to me. So. But it was a fun experience, and I love getting to try different things.

[C]

Coolest part is the robot that brings you your drinks.

[B]

Yeah, we called him Kirby. Yeah, he would just come over music, and bring us our drinks. He was so happy.

[C]

He was. And he turned around, he's like, thanks. And it was such a nice little time when he was coming down the aisle.

[B]

Yeah, it was really cute. So anyway, shall we dive into this disgustingly hot cup of coffee?

[C]

Yes, let's do it.

[B]

All right. Let's do this. So this is the murder of Sierra Lamar. No matter what we do in life or how hard we work, we all have the same amount of hours in a day and days in a year. And none of us knows how much time we have in this world. And oftentimes, we. We take it for granted, assuming that there's always going to be more. Life doesn't send us warnings. There isn't a countdown clock or an alert that says, hey, this is going to be your last ordinary day on earth.

[C]

Imagine how terrifying that would be. Last day. Just last day. Here you go.

[B]

I don't want to know. So when we truly accept, though, that time is limited and not ever guaranteed, we get the push to take those long awaited trips to share our love more freely with those that we care for. To hug a little bit longer and to forgive a little bit faster. And I'll tell you, as somebody that's going to be turning 47 in just a couple of weeks, it wasn't until I hit maybe 40 ish that I started to realize, holy crap, time is not going on forever. I'm about halfway through my life. I better get my crap together and do what I want to do now.

[C]

What do you think the major driver to that was?

[B]

I think just stopping and realizing that's death. I mean, and again, I could die tomorrow. There's nothing that's guaranteed. But if I live an average life, I have about half of my life left.

[C]

Yeah, and there's some like Latin saying that's like we're all going to die.

[B]

I mean, that's guaranteed. No matter what we do in life, that's a guarantee. But the point is we never know how much time we have. And oftentimes we just assume, I'll do that later, I'll do that later, I'll call them later. But there's not always later. And this case reminds us that a normal day can disappear in an instant, even on a typical weekday morning that started out completely normally. So on Friday, March 16, 2012, 15 year old Sierra Lamar got up and she got ready for school as she did every single day of the week. And she headed out the door of her California home toward her bus stop. But somewhere between her house and her bus stop, something happened to Sierra. And her family has been searching for her as well as answers ever since. So each year in the United States, there are more than 350,000 missing children reports that are made to law enforcement. And children can go missing for various reasons. Some have run away, some are lost or injured, while others can be related to abductions, most of which are family related, since stranger abductions account for maybe 1% of missing children. So 15 year old Sierra Lamar sadly became a missing child statistic in 2012 when she left her Morgan Hill, California home that Friday morning for school. Despite the passage of 14 years, she has never been found and her family has been unable to lay her to rest. So they're left in limbo, not having any idea of what Sierra's Fate was between her house and the bus stop. They're left to just imagine what kind of a harrowing experience did Sierra, what happened to her. And you know, sometimes your imagination can make things so much worse than they actually are in reality. But either way, we can deduce that whatever happened to Sierra that day was not good. So. Sierra May Lamar was born on October 19, 1996 in Fremont, California to parent Steven Marlene Lamar. She had a sister, Danielle, who was four years older than her. And in October of 2011, after her parents split up, a judge officially ruled that Sierra would live with her mom full time. She could spend some time with her dad on the weekends, but full, full time care. It was her mom. So this decision as well as divorce itself actually came after Steve was convicted in 2007 after he was caught acting inappropriately towards one of Sierra's friends during a sleepover.

[C]

Like, man, we've said it a million times. I've said it a million times, but these kind of guys need to be like, eradicated. It's, it's unfortunate that the brains were made in a way that they're attracted to very, very young girls or whatever. Maybe it's a power thing or whatever. Either way, just wipe them out. Like, I think we could all get together, let's take a vote. And if it's over 80% of people that agree, then let's just wipe out anybody who's ever had any history of diddling or touc watching or doing anything to little kids.

[B]

And you know, you think about it, it's like, this is why parents don't want their children to go have sleepovers, because things like this happen and it's scary.

[C]

You weigh out the pros and cons and you say, okay, what are the pros? She's gonna have a great time and, you know, have a lot of fun with her friends. The con is she could potentially be sexually molested by somebody I don't even know. So I guess let's just stick with not doing it.

[B]

Yeah. So after their split, Steve stayed in Fremont while Marlene and Sierra relocated 38 miles southeast to Morgan Hill to live with Marleene's boyfriend. This is Rick Gardner. So being a very social teenager, obviously this was a really hard time for Sierra to move because she left all of her childhood friends, the place that she had called home her entire life, and she left all of her friends from Washington High School, where she was a cheerleader. So five months before she vanished, Sierra was now enrolled at Sabrado High School as a sophomore. And being just a really likable girl, she was popular. She easily made people laugh. Already she was establishing a solid friend group at her new high school. So Sierra made the 42 minute trip back to Fremont to catch up with her friends nearly every other weekend. And it seemed like she was startled, starting to settle into this new normal. And Marlene knew that her daughter wasn't initially happy at all with the move, so. But since joining the cheerleading squad at her new high school and growing her new friendships, she had noticed that in the weeks before her daughter vanished, Sierra was really starting to come around to their new home in their new town.

[C]

And I think activities are so important for kids in high school. Anything like literally the rule is just join anything because you already, you have built in friends and it just gives you something to do instead of sitting and scrolling or whatever you're doing.

[B]

I think it's a scrolling, you know, it's, I always tell our kids, I'm like stop watching what everyone else is doing in life and go do your own thing. It is, I mean, and downtime is fine, but you don't want to be scrolling all day long.

[C]

The problem is it's so easy.

[B]

It is so. Marleene had always viewed Sierra as her miracle baby since she was told that the likelihood of her getting pregnant again was very slim due to her age. And during an ultrasound when she watched her baby basically doing somersaults in utero, she just knew in her heart that her girl was going to be super strong willed and she was completely right. So on Friday morning, March 16, 2012, Sierra got up for school at her usual time of 6am to get ready for the day. Her mom popped into her bedroom to be sure that she was up and getting ready. She gave her a hug, she told her she loved her, and then she headed out for work. Shortly after 6am Sierra was home alone at this point since Rick, her mom's boyfriend, had already left for work before she had gotten up, she posted a quick selfie to social media at 7am and and then 11 minutes later at 7 11am she exchanged a text message with one of her classmates. When Sierra left the house right about 7:15am she would have walked the flu few blocks, excuse me, to her unmarked bus stop at the intersection of Palm and Doherty where her bus was scheduled to pick her up by 7:24 in the morning. The land around her house was rural and it was unpopulated. So this meant that Sierra was the only child for the high school waiting at that particular stop.

[C]

Scary. It's a, you know, you never want your kid to be there, but if you're in a rural area, that's your only option.

[B]

Yeah, exactly. And you I. This is not the only story I've heard where, you know, a, a kid is taken from a bus stop. So Marleene sent her daughter a text message. First at 6:57 in the morning. She asked her to remember to wipe down the bathtub and then again at 9:45am asking if she was planning on getting together with one of her friends after school. And although Sierra hadn't responded to either message at the time, Marleene wasn't concerned because she just assumed that daughter had gotten wrapped up in her classwork and that sort of thing. Nowadays, Moving forward to 2026, schools have gotten a lot more strict with cell phones. A lot of them have no cell phone policy. If they see it, it's. It's trouble. So when Marleene left for work or she left for home, she left work at 3:45pm she called Sierra several times to check in, and she never answered once. And since she also hadn't responded to her text messages from that morning. So this is when Marlene started to worry. But, you know, she figured, okay, I'm heading home now. I'll see what's what when I get there. But as she pulled in, she realized that Sierra wasn't there either. And this was very, very odd because Sierra was always home when Marlene got back from work. So then she drove over to the high school, but Sierra wasn't there either. And that's when she started making phone calls. She was checking in with Steve. This is Sierra's biological father as well as Rick's daughter. This is her boyfriend's daughter because she stayed with them every other weekend. And the girls were close, but neither one of them had heard from Sierra. And it wasn't until 6pm One panic truly set in. And this is when the school had sent an automated email informing her that Sierra hadn't been there for the entire day she had been absent. So, panicking, she called 911 at 6:27pm to report her daughter missing. By this time, though, nearly 12 hours had gone by since she would have left for the bus stop. And just for that matter, crucial time had been lost in searching for her.

[C]

And that's also why it's important that schools update us immediately if they've missed like ours does, immediately. When our son's late to every single

[B]

class, we're like, why were you absent in second period? Oh, must have been a S.O.B. it's like, why do you have.

[C]

Why do you have nine absences in fourth period but none in any others?

[B]

Oh, you. Oh, you went for Taco Bell for lunch and you didn't get back in time. Oh, I see.

[C]

It's called priorities. Good job.

[B]

Job. But again, this is back in 2012, so I think things have become.

[C]

Because of things like this.

[B]

Exactly. So Deputy Fabian D. Santiago responded to the call and met Marlene, Steven, Rick at the house. And he contacted anyone associated with Sierra, but no one had heard from her or knew where she was. So of course they're contacting people not only in Morgan Hill, where she now lives, but also back in Fremont where she used to live.

[C]

Well, maybe she decided I'd miss them too much. I'm gonna go see them.

[B]

You never know. But each phone call, you know, they. Everyone they talked to said, we have no idea where she is. We did not talk to her. She never mentioned going anywhere. And then they continued to call her phone, but each time it went straight to voicemail. But on the final call that D. Santiago made at 3:48 in the morning. Now, on Saturday morning, March 17, the line rang numerous times. This suggested that the phone was turned on this time. So since there was no evidence of foul play at this point in time, the Santa Clara County Sheriff's office considered Sierra a standard missing person. But as time continued to go by and Sierra didn't come home or contact anyone, the investigation shifted to an involuntary missing person case, which was under the umbrella of kidnapping and abduction. So this is when they started to believe that something happened to Sierra after she left the house.

[C]

And how long after the initial disappearance?

[B]

This is probably 16 hours, I would guess.

[C]

So within a day.

[B]

Yes. So Marlene told investigators that things had been very typical on the Thursday evening as well as the Friday morning that Sierra vanished. She seemed completely herself there. Nothing had gone wrong. They didn't argue, nothing like that. On Thursday evening, they were talking about a school project that Sierra was actively working on that was related to teenage depression and suicide. And she was trying to figure out what she was going to write, but she loved writing, so she was really excited about the project.

[C]

And please hear that. That they're like, wait a minute, let's look further into that.

[B]

Yeah. And I think it was something that Marlene had suggested as a topic. So I don't even think Sierra came up with that topic. Marlene described her relationship with Sierra as very strong. Her daughter, you know, being a teenager, a lot of things are going on in life. And Sierra routinely confided in her mom about anything that was going on. So when investigators spoke with Sierra's bus driver, she indicated that she had not gotten on the bus that morning. And when she pulled up to Sierra stop, she did look around to see maybe Sierra was running late and she was going to just wait for her. But then when she didn't see her anywhere on the street, she continued on with her route. That Saturday, an extensive ground and air search was conducted using the Santa Clara county search and Rescue workers as well as all of their equipment. Tracking dogs were able to track her scent to a point about halfway down the court where she was. It wasn't a through street, but then the dog just suddenly lost her scent. Meaning was she picked up at that location.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

So according to Curtis Stenderup, this is the sheriff's deputy, he was trained in cell phone technology. Sierra's phone was off the network from sometime after 7:11am until 10:46pm on Friday. It turned on and off several times, but each time it turned on, it had only been for a moment. And it wasn't long, or, excuse me, it was long enough to establish a location. So this is how they were able to find her cell phone. It was a black Samsung Galaxy, and it was found later that Saturday. It was lying intact in a field on a road along the intersection of Scheller and Santa Teresa and Morgan Hill, less than a mile from where her house was and not far from her bus stop. So the phone was screen side up in the dirt. There was a small amount of water on the face as well as inside the battery. And it appeared as if someone had just chucked it out the window of a car, likely right after Sierra had been abducted and said since it had been exposed to water, it caused the phone to turn off and on by itself rather than a person doing so. An analysis of the phone determined that she received a text message from her friend Carissa at 7:05am on Friday. And it read, could you bring this stuff for me? And she was referencing Sierra's makeup. She was asking if she would bring it to school for her to use because her parents didn't allow her to wear makeup.

[C]

Kids will figure it out.

[B]

So they also plan to compare their homework before class.

[C]

And real quick, the stuff, she probably did that on purpose so that her parents couldn't see that it was the makeup.

[B]

But then of course, our minds are going to go to far worse. Yeah, worse things or worse drugs is exactly, exactly what I had thought.

[C]

It was definitely illegal material, but it was Just makeup.

[B]

Just makeup.

[C]

Not so cute.

[B]

So at 7:11am Sierra responded. Y E meaning yeah. Although Carissa responded almost immediately, Sierra did not text back. And then her phone was off the network from that point. So about 7:11am until 10:46pm so the next day now is Sunday, March 18th. And this is when her Juicy Brand bag was located two intersections away from where her cell phone had been found at Laguna and Santa Teresa. It was lying between a barn and some cacti, and it held her school papers. A black sweatshirt, jeans, a bra, a pair of gray shoes with a pair of underwear and a sock inside. Is inside one of the shoes, I should say. And all of these things had been neatly folded inside the bag. And as was the case with her phone, it looked as if the bag had been thrown out of the car. Of a car, I should say. And according to Sergeant Randall, he thought that her jeans smelled like urine. So because Sierra had taken a selfie that morning, right around 7am Investigators were able to see the black San Jose Shark sweatshirt that was in the bag matched what she had been wearing in that photo. She'd borrowed the sweatshirt from her friend at school the day before, and she planned it to. She planned to wear it to school that Friday, and then she was going to return it to her friend that same day. All of the clothing in the bag had likely been what Sierra had been wearing when she left the house that day, meaning at some point in time, she had been stripped naked. So there were hundreds of microscopic glass beads that were found in her clothing that are often found on roadway paint to make the surface more reflective. The evidence gave investigators the impression that she had been lying on her back and someone was dragging her by her feet. So after locating the bag, Santa Clara investigators began performing new, more extensive searches of that exact area, which spanned a radius of about three miles, involving 50 searchers, plus dogs, as well as divers that were searching the nearby reservoirs. Parts of nearby Henry W. Coe State park were also searched. This is an area with over 87, 000 acres of expansive, rugged land that's only 35 minutes from Sierra's home. I pulled up Sarah's house on the map, and I saw this huge park, and I just pulled up images of it, and I was like, oh, man, there's so much land there that could be anywhere. Exactly. So they also looked into an extensive list of area sex offenders. However, each person that they spoke with had a solid alibi.

[C]

Wow, that's probably rare.

[B]

Sierra's father, Steve, who was very transparent about the Fact that he was a registered sex offender like the others, he was looked into and they quickly ruled him out as a person of interest by this stage. So meanwhile, students and teachers from both her current school as well as Washington high school posted hundreds of missing person signs all around the Bay area. Not only had all of her social media activity ceased after that morning that she left for school, but no one had seen or spoken with sierra since around 7:11am that was the time. So prior to this point, Sierra was a very typical teen who was highly active on social media, extensively communicating with her friends. So the fact that every piece of communication stopped says something terrible happened to her right after she left the house.

[C]

Yeah. So we can basically just say she's not going with her friends.

[B]

No. So since she had no car, no driver's license, no cell phone with her because they found it, no bank account or any source of income beyond what her parents provided her with, she was only 15 years old. Investigators were aware that she would have had no way of running away and supporting herself by herself.

[C]

It's like one of our kids, right? It's like, unless you have access to that Apple credit card I give you, then you don't have anything.

[B]

You have no money. So this made the idea that Sierra had voluntarily run away very unlikely, basically impossible. It's. It didn't happen. Of course. Everyone who knows Sierra, they're like, she didn't do this. So all of her belongings, including her money, her house keys and the clothing that she was wearing when she left the house that Friday morning, they've all been found.

[C]

That's the other part. Right. Like, she would have those things.

[B]

She would have taken those things. She was home alone at that point in time. If she was going to voluntarily leave, she would have taken everything with her. They wouldn't have found her cell phone lying on the side of the road or her bag with her clothing inside of it. So there was also her asthma inhaler that she hadn't taken with her. And this was something she often used when, especially during cheer competitions when she was exerting herself. But either way, she always kept it on her. After Sierra's clothing was sent to the crime lab for analysis, forensic examination revealed the presence of DNA that was foreign to Sierra, specifically on her genes that was determined to be from semen. So when the profile was entered into the combined DNA index system, or codis, a search of the database identified a strong association to the DNA profile of a 21 year old man named Antolin Garcia Torres. Torres. Excuse me. This is a father of a toddler who was expecting another baby in about two, six months. So the man's DNA had been collected and submitted into the database two years earlier in 2010 when he was arrested for a felony crime. This ended up being dismissed while he was on probation following a misdemeanor conviction. Although the felony was dismissed that same year, his misdemeanor probation was extended. But regardless, his. His DNA was entered into the CODIS database.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

So when his DNA came up as a match to Sierra's case, he had no record of a felony conviction in California or any other state for that matter.

[D]

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[E]

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[B]

So investigators were notified of the match and Antalynn Garcia Torres officially became a suspect suspect on March 28, 2012. This is 12 days after Sierra went missing. They came to learn that Garcia Torres lived about seven miles from Sierra's home. And he drove a 1998 red Volkswagen Jetta that had a black hood. So it was very distinguishable because the hood did not match the rest of the car. Authorities began monitoring his movements 247 in hopes that he might lead them to Sierra, potentially finding her alive. So detectives tracked his movements with a GPS that they placed on his Jetta. And they also scoured his Morgan Hill trailer that he shared with his mom, his toddler daughter and his pregnant fiance. This is Francine Sarmiento. He was questioned multiple times beginning on April 4th. And he was monitored around the clock for about two months. Months he claimed that he did not know Sierra. He never had any interaction with her. She had nothing to do with his car. He worked in San Jose as an arborist, normally working Monday through Thursday. He started his shift at 8am he was familiar with the area where Sierra lived, where she would have been abducted from her bus stop because he often utilized a bait and tackle store that was nearby. I guess he liked to go fishing. So since he worked Monday through Thursday and Sierra went missing on a Friday, he was actually off that day. So the maple leaf RV park where he lived monitored the single entrance and exit with a security camera that proved that he had left the morning of Sierra's disappearance at 7. 00am Initially, the video made it look like he hadn't left until 8am this would have ruled him out as a suspect because Sierra would have already been abducted by this point. But then investigators realized that the camera hadn't been adjusted for daylight savings time, Meaning he left at 7am oh, that's

[C]

the first thing you check, you idiots.

[B]

Well, they may have done that very quickly. Yeah. So since the RV park was a 10 minute drive to Sierra's bus stop. Excuse me. This would have placed him right there in the window of when they presume she was abducted, which was sometime between 7:11 and 7:25, because her last last text was at 7:11, and her bus was scheduled to come right around 7:25. And we know she wasn't at the bus stop. So he claimed to have gone out fishing alone at the Chesbrough reservoir, Where he worked his way around to Uvas Reservoir. However, he indicated that when he headed out that morning, he mistakenly drove past his normal turn and he took a different route. Okay, you know, this is a place where he lives. He's not on vacation here. And it's like, okay, have I ever made a wrong turn? Sure. But just so happen on the morning of a girl's abduction when you could have been right there at that spot

[C]

and your DNA was on her skirt. So, like, really, jeans, Right.

[B]

Skirts.

[C]

Right. So you got to do the best you can to prove that. There's no doubt you were there. So otherwise he was there.

[B]

So he said, I don't even know

[C]

how that would happen, but go ahead.

[B]

He made. He missed his turn and he took a different route. And this placed him on Palm. This was the road that Sierra's bus stop was on. Okay, so multiple surveillance videos captured images of Taurus's car in the area of Sierra's house and where her belongings were recovered. So after he went fishing, he said that he stopped off at bank of America, and this was something that authorities were able to prove he had done, you know, based on their cameras. He was there at the bank at 12:50pm Video evidence depicted him coming back to his RV park at 1pm this would have given him about five to six hours to complete the crime. Meaning he drove around, saw Sierra, kidnapped her, did whatever. God knows what he did based on what they found on his jeans. On her jeans. Excuse me. And then disposed of her body somewhere. Five to six hours of time. It's a lot of time, is a lot of time. And of course, the places he's saying he went fishing, they can't prove that he was there because it's a rural area. There's no CCTV cameras out there.

[C]

No, he wasn't with anybody. There's no cameras. I mean, and then why did he stop at the. The atm? Like, is that a normal thing for him? You got to look into all these,

[B]

you know, people go to banks. Anyone can say, oh, I needed cash, you know? So on April 7, his car was seized by investigators and submitted to the crime lab for processing and analysis. Criminal lists found DNA that was foreign to Garcia Torres in the car that, when tested, had a strong association to Sierra's DNA profile. So this suggested that she had been in his car. The evidence came from a hair that was found on a rope as well as on the outside of a glove, each of which were found in the trunk of his car. A match for her DNA was also found on one of the car's armrests, as well as on the interior rear door handle. Three polyester floor mat fibers and two carpet fibers from Garcia Torres's car were similar to those that were found on Sierra's sweatshirt and her pants. So investigators also discovered that he had purchased potential cleanup tools three days before she disappeared. Now, if that was the case, that shows that this would have been something that was premeditated.

[C]

Sure.

[B]

So this included bleach and a turkey baster. So they said that one item could destroy DNA, while the other could be used as the applicator. The weird thing was, is that when they searched his trailer, where he lived, they never found these items in his house. That was the suspicious part to me.

[C]

Well, yeah, because he probably got rid of them because obviously they had evidence on them. And who the hell's buying a turkey baster in April?

[B]

Yeah, exactly. And the thing with bleach is, bleach lasts a long time unless you're using it on a big project. But like typical household things, you're usually diluting it. It should still be in his house, you know? So there was no evidence whatsoever to suggest that Sierra had previously known Anselyn Garcia Torres, Nor did they have a single friend in common. She's a 15 year old sophomore he's a 21 year old father who's expecting a second baby.

[C]

It lives like seven miles away.

[B]

These people have no. No relation to each other. So her family and friends had never seen nor heard of him prior to his arrest, which. Which suggests. Excuse me. That this had been an entirely random attack. Evidence painted the picture that he forcibly kidnapped Sierra on her way to the bottom bus stop. Although her body had not been found, investigators were certain that he murdered her. He had been driving near her bus stop in the time frame that she vanished. His DNA was found on her clothing. Her DNA was found in his car. And there was no evidence to support that she was still alive at this point. So when his cell phone was analyzed to determine if he had been in what is known as a digital intersection with Sierra's phone, this was not connected. There was no connection there. I did look this up because I was like, well, what did his cell phone show? They're in a more rural, ish area here, so there's not a whole lot of towers.

[C]

Right.

[B]

To ping and support, like a triangulation of where he was. So I think that's why there was a little bit of unknown there with his phone. So, Garti. Excuse me. Garcia Torres was arrested in front of a Morgan Hill Safeway grocery store, and he was charged with Sierra's abduction and murder on May 21, 2012, a little bit more than two months after Sierra vanished on November 13, 2012, about six months after his arrest. In relation to Sierra's case, he was also charged with three counts of attempted kidnapping and carjacking for incidents that happened three years earlier in March of 2009. This involved three women in two different Morgan Hill Safeway parking lot. Thoughts?

[C]

And why didn't these come up before? Maybe they just didn't have any evidence, like DNA. They didn't. Maybe. Yeah. I don't know. It's no murders, right? It was.

[B]

No, it was just attempted carjackings and potential kidnappings.

[C]

Okay, so maybe they started processing some older crimes to try to find if he was part of them.

[B]

Maybe. So in one of these cases, the attacker actually reached into a woman's car and tased her in the neck while she was just sitting there in the parking lot ready to leave. So he began punching her in the face until another customer came around and the man ran away. But when he did, he dropped the taser in her car. And Garcia, Torres's fingerprint was found on a 9 volt battery that was inside the Taser, dumbass. So in each of these cases, the suspect was frightened away by the woman's screams because, of course, we're talking about a grocery store parking lot here. We're not in the middle of nowhere. We're in town. And, you know, whether she was screaming or someone was parking and coming by, this frightened him away. So thank goodness nothing ended up happening to these women. Not to say they weren't traumatized.

[C]

Right.

[B]

He tased this woman in the neck and was punching her in the face. That's horrible. So I'm not discounting that, but it could have escalated a lot more. However, not one of these women were able to identify him in a lineup. But I will say everything happened very quickly. They were able to see, like, his arm, and they could say that he was a Hispanic man, but because they were, like, looking forward, and all of a sudden, this woman's tased, she didn't have time to even turn and look.

[C]

Well, you're like trying to drive away to save your life.

[B]

Yes.

[C]

Because clearly this guy's not up to anything good.

[B]

So. On February 11, 2014, the Santa Clara grand jury indicted Garcia Torres, charging him with Sierra's kidnapping and murder, as well as the attacks on three women in 2009. Two days later, he entered a not guilty plea. Although Sierra's body had not been found despite continued extensive searches for more than two years, nor had they established a crime scene or a murder weapon. There were so many unknowns here. Santa Clara prosecutors indicated that they intended to ask for the death penalty against him. So on July 11, 2014, the court in Santa Clara county released an over 1900 page grand jury transcript to the San Jose Mercury News. And this was something that Garcia Torres's defense attorney fought against because he argued that it would allow him to have a fair trial because of the extensive media attention, would not allow him to

[C]

have a fair trial, which.

[B]

Excuse me. Thank you. Would not allow him to have a fair trial because, Again, this is 19 pages of all this information, and some of the graphic details it contained had even been news to Sierra's family. So according to the grand jury testimony, even before investigators brought up the physical evidence they had against him, Garcia Torres was trying to explain it away, making the assumption that they had found his semen. They never told him that he started doing some damage control.

[C]

Really.

[B]

So he went on to say that he was embarrassed to admit it, but he liked to pleasure himself, something he did multiple times a day and oftentimes in his car. So he would either throw this tissue that he had used to clean himself up in a garbage can or even just chuck it out the window of his car. So he was assuming that when he threw this saturated tissue out of his window after Sierra disappeared, the material may have somehow got on, gotten onto Sierra's clothing, which had been lying on the side of the road. However, the DNA evidence was found on Sierra's jeans, and Sierra's jeans had been folded neatly inside inside of a bag. So even if he had done this disgusting thing and just chucked his nasty ass tissue out the window, it wouldn't have gotten on her jeans because it was inside a bag. So that doesn't explain that Garcia. Torres's defense team argued that the indictment should be dismissed, accusing prosecutors of omitting evidence indicating that Sierra had planned to run away on the day that she went missing. They also argued that the physical evidence that linked them together was weaker than they were portraying, claiming that misleading statistics were presented in regards to his DNA being found on Sierra's genes. So I mentioned that they were arguing that Sierra had planned to run away on the day she went missing. So when they were talking about this, they were pointing out that after police searched Sierra's locker, two notebooks were found with her writings inside and her Spanish class notebook. She wrote, I hate my life. No one ever sees this. I will be in San Francisco by 3:16, 12. And this is the actual day that she disappeared.

[C]

Interesting.

[B]

In another, she wrote, I really just want to run away. She went on to write that she would want to take a road trip to Las Vegas or Hollywood just to get away from her problems. However, a handwriting analyst from the Santa Clara crime lab testified that Sierra had likely not been the person to write this note.

[C]

So who the hell is writing this?

[B]

Well, the high school's assistant principal testified that he could not recall who turned the notebook in because I'm. I'm sure he was in a meeting or something. And then the notebook was brought down to the office or something like that. So he couldn't. He could. He had no idea who turned it in before administrators gave it over to investigators. So this was something that prosecutor David Boyd dismissed as a cruel prank, that someone had gotten a hold of Sierra's notebook and knew that she disappeared on 3 16, 12 and wrote that.

[C]

That's also, like, highly illegal, right?

[B]

But of course, we're talking about teenagers here. They don't think about the consequences of their actions. So the defense also argued that tips had come through from people who believed that they had seen Sierra after she vanished. One person said they saw her in Meyer park in Fremont, where she's from the other said Connor State College in Oklahoma. So dog sent evidence was also brought up as they tracked Sierra's scent halfway down her court, which was not what they say was in line with Garcia Torres's path that morning. And the street that she was on, it was a court. It was a dead end. So because it wasn't a through street, they argued that he would have had no reason to drive by that location because they're suggesting if this was random, he wouldn't have even had a reason to drive down a dead end street. But my question is, did he know Sierra from seeing her maybe get off the bus one day and he's like, oh, she's really pretty. I'm gonna follow her home and see where, you know, her bus stop is or whatever. And then maybe he did specifically drive to that street. Because if they're saying that that bleach and turkey baster, which was purchased three days before she vanished, again, that's premeditation. But if he didn't know Sierra was going to be at her bus stop and it was just a crime of opportunity, you know, that to me, he must have seen her before.

[C]

Absolutely. It wasn't my guess. Random popped up. That's. Yeah, I'm sure he's pining on her.

[B]

They said there was no evidence that he knew where Sierra lived or was where she was when she disappeared. But how would they have that evidence, you know? So they also accuse investigators of depositing Sierra's hair on the rope that was found in his trunk because they said that initial images of the rope depicted no hair on it. In regards to the bleach and turkey baster that he purchased three days before she vanished. They argued that the grand jury was never told that Sierra's clothing showed no signs of damage from bleach, but she could have been stripped down by that point, you know what I mean? So the. The bleach may have had nothing to do with her clothing.

[C]

Who knows what he did with the bleach? He can't say. So it's like, it's possible it was used on her.

[B]

So in the meantime, after conducting 1130 searches over the course of three years on expert advice, Sierra's family made the really hard decision to stop searching for her on a weekly basis, as they had been up until that point. In that time, more than 54, 000 volunteer hours were spent, making it the longest search center open in the United States. So Garcia Torres's trial began on January 30, 2017. And since the trial covered not only Sierra's abduction and presumed murder, but also these three other kidnappings that happened from. Or attempted kidnappings, I should say, that happened in 2009. So his defense attorney, Alfonso Lopez, was arguing that there was an innocent reason as to why his thumbprint had been found on that battery inside the Taser from 2009. So he said that at the time, he was working at Safeway, and his job was to restock the items that shoppers ended up not purchasing. And it was common that this battery packaging would bust open, so Garcia Torres would tape it shut and then restock it. So he's saying, well, that's how the thumbprint got on this 9 volt battery.

[C]

That's going pretty far.

[B]

I mean, you know, you could say that, but how do you prove that that's. That's really what happened?

[C]

Or he had a thing for touching batteries, so he just went like you could make up anything.

[B]

Right. So since neither Sierra's body, a crime scene, nor a murder weapon had been found, prosecutors were relying heavily on the trace DNA during the trial. So when referencing the DNA that was involved in Sierra's case, Lopez argued that it was found in such small amounts that it could have been transferred to these items by a third or fourth party from transfer contamination. When specifically mentioning the rope that was found in his trunk, yet again, he's arguing that these photos of the rope did not show hair on it.

[C]

Well, you're basing it on a photo, but, I mean, if it was found, then it was on there, right? You know, I mean, you gotta. You gotta hope it wasn't planted.

[B]

So are they saying they went to Sierra's bedroom and found her comb and pulled out hairs and put them on the rope? Because that would be really shady if that was the case.

[C]

Well, yeah, but they needed more DNA,

[B]

so they also said that the rope had been in evidence for four months before they found the hair. Lopez argued that although microscopic glass beads had been found on Sierra's clothing, none of these beads were found in Garcia Torres's car or on his belongings. Although prosecutors suggested that the beads had gotten there when she was dragged across the pavement. No drag marks were seen on her clothing that contain these beads.

[C]

Yeah, and then, like, I guess, you know, it always goes back to, well, what about your semen on her jeans? I think that's kind of the big thing here. That's really the. The thing that keeps and ties everything together.

[B]

Right. And that's how his name came up in this case, was because of the DNA that Was found on her jeans.

[C]

Yeah. And if you're the prosecutors, it's like, okay, these are all, like, the little things that are bringing it. But let's get back to this. This beard, pair of jeans here.

[B]

And that's why they're arguing. They're saying, yeah, okay, his DNA was there, but it's in such a small amount that somehow it could have gotten transferred there. That's what they'. Arguing.

[C]

Sure. That's possible.

[B]

They're not arguing that it's not there. They're arguing that it could have gotten on there somehow. Else.

[E]

Sure.

[C]

And, yeah.

[B]

Lopez dismissed the prosecution's theory that Garcia Torres purchased bleach and a turkey baster to destroy evidence, saying that he just used the bleach for typical household chores, and the turkey baster was used for the illegal manufacturing of cannabis oil. But they never could locate either of these items.

[C]

So if it was used for manufacturing, you'd probably still have it around. Which one of us have not purchased a turkey baster and a bleach at some point in our lives? It's like, nobody here.

[B]

It seems like a turkey baster wouldn't be a great way to do the whole cannabis oil thing. Like, it seems like it'd be very messy.

[C]

Yeah, absolutely.

[B]

I've tried to use a turkey baster on Thanksgiving before, and it was very messy.

[C]

Yeah, we probably did it wrong.

[B]

So over he probably.

[C]

No, we probably did it wrong.

[B]

Probably. We'll just say it's user error. So over three months after the trial began, the jury started their deliberations on May 4, 2017, and five days later, they came back with a verdict on May 9, 2017. So, Mike, what do you think? Because, of course, this trial is not just in company encompassing Sierra's kidnapping and murder, but also these other three potential kidnappings, attempted kidnappings.

[C]

Yeah. Then all they had for the kidnappings was that thumbprint, right? Yeah, that's it. Like nothing else?

[B]

No, not really.

[C]

That's. I mean, that's kind of a stretch. I don't know if I'm a jury. And are they going after premeditation, too, with that?

[B]

Yes.

[C]

That's a lot. They are really going after a lot. My logic says not guilty also because it's in California, a little bit more laid back over there. But my. My passion, my heart says guilty as hell.

[B]

So they found him guilty.

[C]

Good for you guys.

[B]

On all four counts, including first degree murder.

[C]

Wow.

[B]

So one month later, on June 5, 2017, he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

[C]

Wow.

[B]

Don't get too excited. Fast forward to nearly nine years after his sentencing. This happened very recently. On Friday, February 27, 2026, the California 6 District Court of appeal overturned Garcia Torres's murder conviction. He may be entitled to a new trial because prosecutors improperly combined the unrelated 2009 kidnapping charges with Sierra's murder case case, something that could have caused prejudice within the jury. According to legal analyst Steve Clark, the additional charges spilled over to him getting convicted of first degree murder because it basically said, okay, if he's guilty of these three potential, you know, kidnappings or attempted kidnappings, this is probably what happened to Sierra, you know. So Garcia Torres remains in prison while prosecutors decide if the case will return to Santa Clara county superior court or if they're going to appeal the decision to overturn the conviction and take it to the California Supreme Court. So obviously, we're up in our. We're. We're in limbo right now because we don't know what's going to happen. But either way, right now, he is still behind bars.

[C]

That's good news because he can't hurt anybody else, and he will hurt somebody else. And if they let him out, they're idiots now that they can retry him. And it was stupid to kind of bring him together.

[B]

Yeah, I thought that was really interesting.

[C]

Like, you got the DNA on the jeans. Let's just go with that.

[B]

What, like, what did those other ones have to do with Sierra's case?

[C]

Proving that he's a.

[B]

He's capable of. To me, it seems like they should have been done separately. That was my opinion.

[C]

Hindsight for sure. But in reality, it's like just. Just put them away for whatever, 50, 40 years, whatever they're going to give them for that and then be rid of them.

[B]

So what started as a normal school day for Sierra and a normal work day for Marleene, it morphed into the worst day of their lives. Nothing about that morning suggested that it would be the last time they would ever see her. Sierra got up. She was getting ready, texting her friends, taking a selfie. Her mom sent her a text saying, honey, please clean up the bathtub. You know, very normal things that we do every single day, these are things that you don't believe that your life is going to flip upside down by end of day. So within seconds, this ordinary Mormon be moment. Excuse me. Became a mystery that gripped a community and launched one of the largest search efforts. Efforts in California history, leaving a family devastated and living each and every day with unanswered questions. Although more than 14 years have gone by since Sierra walked out of her house on that Friday morning and never came home. Her family still has no idea where she is. They're left to wonder what happened to her, and they haven't been able to bring her home or lay her to rest. 15 year old Sierra Lamar would be celebrating her 30th birthday this October. She had been an outgoing, funny, engaging girl who countless people loved. Cases like her remind us that when we wake up each morning, we believe that life is going to carry on as it always does. We never realize that as we say goodbye and give a kiss to a loved one as we walk out the door that it could be for the last time. It's a reminder to take an extra moment to make that phone call, send that text, do those. A small little thing that we sometimes rush past because we're busy. And again, we assume we'll always have more time. This case is a reminder too, that life is precious. And sometimes it can be heartbreakingly short because for Sierra, she only got to live 15 years of her life. And that is the sad and tragic abduction and presumed murder of Sierra Lamar.

[C]

That's. I mean, I'm glad that they found the guy eventually. Most likely allegedly the guy. Stupid court system. But yeah, it's. It's terrible. And yeah, we can always say, you know, it might be that last kiss. You don't want to keep on thinking of your kids dying every time you say goodbye.

[B]

Oh, my gosh, that'd be like living in torture. But I think it's more of the point of like, express your love and celebrate the little things in life and

[C]

not just kids, but everything that means something.

[B]

Your parents. I mean, I look back at the last text I sent to my mom. Never in a million years did I think I would never have another text after that. Thoughts?

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

And, you know, we all wish that we had those moments to do more, but, you know, it's just a reminder to just take that extra time. It could be 10 seconds of your

[C]

time, just also even like little things like have that morning cup of coffee or something and just like take a breath. Like there's a one in a billion chance that we even made it to be alive, like in this, you know, living on earth, like that's a one in trillion chance.

[B]

Basically. When you give birth to a baby, you're like, you just stare at them because you can't believe it all came together and they're here and they're alive and well, and, you know, then we raise our Kids, Kids. And we just had these goals in our mind of what we hope their life is going to turn out. And then somebody like Marlene comes home and never sees her daughter again and has no idea where she is or what happened to her. That's a special kind of hell for a parent to live through.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

And really, my heart breaks for Sierra's family because it sounds like she was just a remarkable young lady. And the fact that she never got to live out her days or celebrate her 30th birthday this year, it's just.

[C]

Just.

[B]

It's really sad.

[C]

Yep. Hug your kids and family extra tight,

[B]

and it's just one of those things. We'll have to keep an eye out to see what happens here with Antolin Garcia Torres's upcoming trial, when that's going to be, what. What happens there. But.

[C]

Well, hopefully he rots in a prison cell forever and then eventually rots in hell. And anybody that's ever touched a kid could also join him.

[B]

And I'm curious to know, Mike, what do you think? What's your opinion on. You think he was guilty?

[C]

DNA on those jeans, man, I don't care. I don't want to hear about anything else.

[B]

What about the DNA in his car, too, From Sierra?

[C]

Too little for me, really, to kind of bring it in, maybe. I mean, it's like, it probably is her, right? I mean, but they live within seven miles of each other. Maybe they rubbed against the safe. I don't know. Like, you can. Maybe you can't explain it really, necessarily.

[B]

Rubbed against what?

[C]

I don't know. Like, maybe somehow, you know, you touch humans and DNA.

[B]

But this was, like, from semen on her jeans.

[C]

The jeans I'm talking about. You said it in her car.

[B]

Oh, I see. Okay.

[C]

What I'm saying is it's possible somebody rubbed up something, transferred her jeans. That's definitely gross.

[B]

So. Yeah. And I guess the other question I have for you is, do you think that this was premeditated? Do you think he. He had seen Sierra before this morning?

[C]

You have to think probably. There's no evidence. There is evidence because he bought all the bleach from the turkey baster, if

[B]

that had anything to do with it. My guess is he had seen her at some point in time. He. He may have been driving along, and maybe he was behind her bus and he saw her get on or off

[C]

or something like that, pleasuring himself in his disgusting way.

[B]

Disgusting. Also, don't freaking litter if you're gonna be touching yourself in your car.

[C]

That's not the main problem.

[B]

Don't litter. No, obviously that's not the main point of this case, but it's still a disgusting.

[C]

If you're gonna be using semen rags, then get rid of them responsibly, please.

[B]

Oh, gosh.

[C]

Disgusting and like. So we're very sorry, but I did want to mention quickly, Fremont, California. We know somebody from Fremont, California. Oh, I believe Lauren is from Fremont.

[B]

Oh, I have no idea. We'll have to ask her.

[C]

Either Lauren or Jason. You guys let us know. I think we have a friend from Fremont.

[B]

We may. So who knows?

[C]

I'm sorry. I wonder if they heard of this case.

[B]

At the heart of this case, Sierra Lamar lost her life. And we just want to take a moment to just remember Sierra because she was a vibrant young teen who lived. And now she's no longer here. And, you know, we'll see what happens with this case. But we thank you guys for being here so much. And if you don't mind leaving us a five star review on Apple, we would greatly appreciate it. Maybe hop on over to YouTube, check out what our ugly mugs look like and subscribe while you're there.

[C]

Yep.

[B]

And we appreciate you all. We hope you have a wonderful Mother's Day. Have a great and safe week.

[C]

All right, wrap it up.

[B]

Until next time.

[C]

Bye.

[B]

Bite me. Bite me.