A (2:09)

Offer for first three months only. Speed slow after 35 GB of network's busy taxes and fees extra. See mint mobile.com. Our card this week is Tyra Garcia, the Queen of Diamonds from California. It was Memorial Day 1985 when 15 year old Tyra Garcia slipped out the front door to run to a neighbor's house, saying she'd be gone for only a few minutes. No one expected those minutes to stretch into hours and then days. And no one could have imagined that 40 years later, the case would still be unsolved. Especially when the answer seemed to be right in front of us. Because there are two very compelling suspects that were barely investigated by law enforcement, despite the fact that one matched a suspect composite sketch and drove the same kind of car she was last seen getting into. And even when it was found out that the bedspread her body was wrapped in was similar to one missing from their hotel room, little was done to find out what happened. Is it still too late for answers? Well, the current investigator would say no way. And he, along with a forensic scientist, are on a mission to find out what happened to Tyra and who is responsible. I'm Ashley Flowers, and this is the deck. On June 8, 1985, Margaret Marie Garcia, who everyone called Parky, saw a headline in the Ventura County Star Free Press that caused the floor to fall out beneath her. It read, body found in moore Park. Her 15 year old daughter, Tyra Garcia, had been missing for 12 days at that point. And though she prayed this wasn't the answer to where her daughter was, she had to know for certain. So Parky didn't hesitate. She made a call to the police department, who in turn asked her to come down to the medical examiner's office to see if she recognized the girl who'd been found in an orange orchard the day before. But Parky didn't even get that moment when she arrived. That one last look at her daughter. And that's because of how her body was found. The day before Parky read that disturbing headline, farm workers at an orange orchard had smelled a strange scent clouding the air. Decomposition. And when the two employees waded into a tangle in the brush, they found a figure wrapped in a floral comforter with an extension cord tied tightly around it. As Ventura county sheriff's detective Guy Moody explained, it was clear to first responders that from the onset, things were bad.

C (5:20)

They could, I think, tell by what they were dealing with, like this person wasn't alive and first aid wasn't necessary. But eventually, after they went up to look to see if there was any evidence around the body and take their pictures, the body was brought down to the dirt road where the orchard is, and they opened it up.

A (5:46)

At that time, the remains were severely decomposed, likely due to the length of time that they'd been outside in the Heat. And there was rampant insect activity. The deputy who arrived at the scene couldn't even tell if they were looking at a man or a woman. There was no way to determine how this person died. As in, was it even a homicide or was this something else? In fact, the medical examiner couldn't even get a blood sample to do toxicology screenings or take fingerprints to ID this person. The only clues they had were the floral comforter that the person was wrapped in, the extension cord that had been coiled around it about five times, and the victim's clothing, a shoe, and jewelry. That is what Parky was shown when she got to the medical examiner's office.

C (6:36)

They bring the jewelry out. She identifies every piece of it as her daughter's jewelry. They then contact Tyra's dentist, who had done some extensive work on her teeth, but that had been like six years earlier. But he looked at the work and identified it as his work. So between her mother identifying the jewelry and the clothing that she was wearing and the dentist, they made the confirmation it was Tyra.

A (7:09)

By that point, Parky had been looking for her daughter for close to two weeks. And she had already tried getting help from police. But now was the first time law enforcement took her seriously. Now is when they finally really took note of what Parky had to say about the last time she and her two other daughters saw tyranny. It had been Memorial Day weekend, and she told police that the whole family had celebrated the holiday with a barbecue at her oldest daughter Teresa's house. It was well into the evening when Tyra, her mom, and her sister Tanya and her youngest brother got home. So straight away, everyone started getting ready for bed. But at around 11 or 11.30pm Tyra said that she was going to run out really quick. She wanted to pop over to a neighbor's to chat about a possible babysitting job. Parky and Tonya tried telling her that it was too late, especially because Tyra was starting a brand new after school job the next day. So she needed to get her rest. But Tyra insisted that she wanted to go. Then it would only take a minute, and then she'd be right back. And that moment still plays on repeat for her sister, Tanya Garcia.

D (8:18)

We had a big picture window in our living room, and Tyra went out the front door and she walked by the picture window and we waved by to her, and she waved back. She says, I'll be right back.

A (8:31)

But Tyra didn't come back. Not in a few minutes or hours, not for the rest of the night.

D (8:39)

So the next day, I had woken up, and I noticed her bed was still made, was not slipping, and her purse was still sitting in the same spot. And so I was like, oh, that's weird, you know? So I went and woke my mom up, and I said, hey, did Tyra come home? I said, bed's not slipped in.

A (9:02)

And then something sort of eerie happened.

D (9:07)

My mom had all these pictures hanging up in the stairwell, and Tyra's picture fell off the wall, and it broke. And we are superstitious. We read all these little signs and stuff. My mom said, oh, my God. Oh, my God. Something happened to Tyra. Her picture's broken. Something wrong. And I was standing right there, and I told her, I go call the police department, report her missing. She said, okay, okay, okay. So she called, and she was mad. She was cussing. She was all like, they will not accept this. They will not put her as missing. They're trying to say she ran away. I told her she did not run away because her purse is here and her clothes is here. And they are not listening to me. And I was like. And I go, well, what else did they say? We have to wait 48 hours. And I was like, are you serious? You know, in that time, she can be dead in a. You know, in a ditch.

A (10:08)

Back in the 1980s, many departments had a policy. You couldn't officially report a person missing for at least 24 hours, sometimes up to 72, unless there was suspected foul play. And that is exactly what Tyra's family suspected. But police didn't see it that way. So just the suspicion of a mother who knew something wasn't right wasn't enough. Especially when they learned that Tyra had run away before. So Parky had to wait, even though she knew this was different from the other times that her daughter had left. Tyra's two older sisters, Tonya and Teresa, agreed. They were all really close, and both were kind enough to give us interviews for this episode. And if you ask either sister, they'll tell you the same thing. Something in Tyra changed when their dad left two years prior to her disappearance. Here's Tonya.

D (11:05)

It was just. It was really sad because he straight out told us to our face that he never wanted us and that he didn't want to be around us anymore. When this stuff happened with my dad, she instantly changed. It was crazy. You can see the change. You can see it happening.

A (11:28)

Tyra's oldest sister, Theresa Searing, remembered this, too.

D (11:33)

Something must have happened around this time, because she was. I mean, she was Always happy and smiling, and she was. She was all bubbly all the time. She was a good kid. And then she had issues. All of a sudden, there was just running away.

A (11:55)

Tyra started experimenting with drinking and drugs. And as Teresa said, she ran away more than once. In fact, there are four separate police reports that show Tyra running away over a year before her murder between 1983 and 1984. But like I said, everyone knew this was different right from the jump. So even if law enforcement wasn't ready to help, Parky and Tonya and their entire family didn't waste a second searching for Tyra on their own. They called friends and they knocked on doors, and they hoped that she would just walk through the door.

D (12:31)

So my mom called my sister Teresa up, crying and telling her what was going on. And my sister Teresa came over and she says, oh, I'll make flyers. And they made, like, thousands. I remember passing out thousands of flyers. Have you seen this girl? She was last seen and, you know, with a shirt like this, you know, you know, please call this number.

A (12:56)

And when that waiting period was finally up, Parky went back to the police department. Tanya was with her mother when this second report was made.

D (13:07)

So it was the 30th, May 30th. We went down to the Ventura Police Department, and my mom told her we wanted to file a missing persons report. And the lady argued with my mom and said, lady, she'll be back in a few days. You know, these teenagers are run away from home, and they're always back. And I said, no, there's something. There's something off with my sister going. I said, she didn't take her steps. She didn't take her purse. She doesn't have her brush with her or her makeup. This is not like her. She would not ever do this without taking her step.

A (13:43)

Despite the Garcia family's protests, Tyranny was at first considered a runaway. And that one word changed everything. It is likely the reason that Parky had to reach out to law enforcement when she read the newspaper instead of them reaching out to her when the body was found. Because at the bottom of one article about the then Jane Doe who was found in the orchard, it concluded with this quote. Authorities said they have not received any recent reports of a missing person. End quote, just 13 words. But those words meant that police had only started investigating Tyra's disappearance 12 days after her death. And by then, piecing together her last movements left far more questions than answers.

B (14:36)

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A (15:46)

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C (17:06)

Well, on this walk, she ends up running into Renee Lambert.

A (17:11)

Renee was a friend from the neighborhood, and she and tyra decided to walk to the nearby 711 just around the corner, which, of course, in 1985, had no cameras. But according to Renee's account, the two girls walked into the store, and Renee went in to buy something while tyra stood by the door.

C (17:30)

These two hispanic males in a tan colored Monte carlo or buick type regal pull up. They honk. Tyra waves, and Tyra's standing by the door. The passenger of the car comes in and starts talking her up and, you know, asking her where she lives and if she wants to party. And he's telling her, I have a lot of money and I've got, you know, I get the best coke. And you, you know, do you want to party? The 711 clerk, also here is part of this conversation. And this is somewhere between 11:30 and midnight on Memorial Day, the 27th.

A (18:13)

Tyra said, yes. The plan was for the guys to go get some coke and then come back.

C (18:19)

And so her and Renee walk back to the alley that runs behind Tyra's house and Renee's house. And she asks Renee, hey, I want you to. Will you wait for me for these guys to come back? And she goes, do you even know these guys? And Tyra says, no, but I'm going to. You know, I'll give you the high sign if it's okay, but will you wait with me till they get back? So Renee reluctantly does, but she tries to say, why don't you forget these guys and go home? But she doesn't. They come back about 45 minutes later. It's still the same two guys, same car. They back in to the apartments facing the 711 in the alley. So they're right across from the 7 11.

A (19:08)

Renee said that Tyra approached them while she hung back, but she could hear one guy say that he couldn't get any coke. And then she sees Tyra take a beer from them. A few minutes later, she gives Renee that sign to tell her she's all good. So she left. Detective moody said that according to an old report, either Renee or a neighbor, Sally, told police that they saw Tyra down in that same area of the alley. And at one point, she was making out with one of these guys. And eventually they saw her get in the car with them. Sally told police that at one point, she saw a man get out, and the two men may have even argued.

C (19:48)

And then that's the last anybody sees.

A (19:51)

Of Tyra, it at least gave detectives a starting point. Kind of no names, no license plate, but they knew that they were looking for a tan colored car, maybe a Monte Carlo, maybe a beauty regal, and two Hispanic men, one of which, luckily, the 711 clerk had gotten a good enough look at to help them create a composite sketch. And we're going to post that on our blog post. So police began showing the people in Tyra's circle, friends, acquaintances, even people she dated, this picture. And though Tyra told Renee that she didn't know the men in the car, a number of people told police that the sketch resembled two specific guys that she did actually know. Ones that she had been romantically linked to. The first was James Jimmy Zuniaka, a boyfriend that Tyra had dated on and off for around three years. And the second was Mark Albiar. He was a few years older than Tyra and was supposed to take her on a date a few days before she went missing, according to police reports. But both of these guys were quickly ruled out. Jimmy had been arrested earlier in the morning hours of Memorial Day and was believed to still be in police custody when Tyra went missing. And then Mark had been released from juvenile hall sometime within the first 24 hours of her going missing. So they figured with how tight of a time window they were working off of, it didn't seem likely that either of them could have done it. Plus, Mark was really cooperative with police, passed a polygraph, and actually joined community searches for her. And luckily for police, that's not where the lead stopped. One of Tyra's friends said some guys in a nearby town were interested in tyranny. The guy had asked about her at a skating rink where Tyra and her sister used to hang out. And then this friend described the two guys as being younger, between 14 and 19, and said that their names were Berto and Jessie. I guess they were known to drive around in a tan Monte Carlo, but they didn't have a last name for Berto and Jesse, though this friend knew that they were from Santa Paula. And interestingly, Santa Paula popped up again when police interviewed a different acquaintance.

C (22:07)

He was like, there's only one guy I know that she knew in Santa Paula, and that was Daniel Cabral.

A (22:15)

Here's the frustrating part. It doesn't seem like police back then ever got in front of Daniel Cabral, despite the fact that he had numerous arrests for theft, drugs, alcohol, and discharging a firearm. Nor did they even find Berto and Jesse. Looking at the file now it all sort of just feels like one big dead end. Instead of chasing people, it looks like they were chasing evidence. Maybe if they could find out where that floral comforter and the extension cord came from, it would lead them to someone who knew something.

C (22:53)

The blanket or the bedspread she was found wrapped in, it had a wash tag on it like it came from a motel. So the investigators started going around to different motels. They went to the Motel 6, they went to the Shores Motel, and they ended up going over to the Wagon Wheel Motel, which was across the freeway from where Tyler lived. One of the maids reported a bedspread, blankets and towels missing from the room when the people that had been in the room checked out.

A (23:28)

And get this. Once police honed in on this lead and went to that specific room at the motel not far from Tyra's home, they noticed something strange. A lamp in the room looked odd. It sat so far from the wall that it couldn't even be switched on. Like the cord didn't reach all the way to the outlet. Whatever might have once connected the two say an extension cord was gone. So, million dollar question, who stayed there when the comforter went missing?

C (24:03)

It turned out the two guys that had been in the room there was a construction or a heating and air conditioning and plumbing company from Arizona that was doing work in Oxnard at the time, and they had been here for several months. And the two guys staying in that room had worked for this company.

A (24:24)

We are using a pseudonym for both of these men, Jake and Brian, because they both are still people of interest. Detective Moody described Brian as being a white guy with strawberry blonde hair. Nothing like the composite sketch they had. But Jake, on the other hand, that's a different story.

B (24:50)

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A (26:58)

Jake, who had no known connection with Tyra, was Hispanic. And he was reported to have recently bought a gold color Buick Regal type car similar to what Tyra was seen getting into that night. Now, we know that Jake was given a polygraph back in the 80s, but we don't know much more. There is almost nothing documented. No formal interview, no report, no detailed statement. Just one sheet of paper saying that he passed a polygraph and the word truthful. There's no way to know if investigators at the time dropped the ball or if there was more information that made them believe Jake wasn't worth pursuing. Now, what I know is that Jake and Brian had been living at the Wagon Wheel Motel for several months when Tyra went missing, and they didn't check out until June 5, days after Tyra disappeared. Investigators also confirmed that both had been in the Ventura area on Memorial Day. Now, it appears that law enforcement at the time didn't focus Much on Brian because he wasn't Hispanic. Even though Brian straight up told the deputies that he took a comforter from the hotel room, although he said he took it to work on his car. Now, Detective Moody is the first to admit that he has a lot more questions for Brian. Like what exactly is his alibi? What happened to that comforter that he took with him? All very good questions. And if you're wondering why these guys haven't been spoken to since the Reagan administration, you're not alone. It is bananas to me that two super Sus dudes have garnered such little interest. At least until Detective Moody took over. He said that today Jake is still considered a person of interest. Brian, on the other hand, is just somebody he wants to talk to. This 40 year old cold case file left a lot to be desired. And Moody knew that if he was going to have any shot at solving this thing, it would be through DNA. A report from 2013 showed him that the department did take a stab at retesting some of the evidence, which gave him something to work with. A decade later, some DNA.

C (29:11)

Degraded DNA was found on the knot of the extension cord that tied the comforter. It wasn't enough to get a full profile or anything.

A (29:25)

Not then, anyway. But in 2023, the department had better technology and their own full time forensic scientist working on cold cases named Kristin Kanko. When she started looking into it, all that she had were those swabs that had been collected from the extension cord, yielding low amounts of DNA. She told our reporter Nicole Kagan, that in her experience, sending things out for new testing was a massive long shot.

B (29:55)

Were you able to get something? Yes. Viable for codis?

D (29:59)

Yeah.

B (30:00)

Okay.

A (30:02)

Detective Moody told us that a male profile has been uploaded to codis and they also found a secondary contributor. The DNA profile from that second person is incomplete, though Kristin said that this was one of the cold case unit's earliest successes.

D (30:19)

It was the kind of the start of the unit.

B (30:21)

And I told him, don't expect this all the time.

D (30:24)

Like I was shocked that we had.

A (30:25)

Something that was eligible for.

D (30:27)

And I said, guys, lower your expectations.

A (30:32)

Of all the people Detective Moody read about in the case file, there was one that he was able to rule out immediately. Tyra's on again, off again boyfriend, Jimmy, because he had his DNA in CODIS and it's not a match. The guy she was supposed to have gone on a date with shortly before her death, Mark, he's died and his DNA isn't in codis. So he has not been ruled out yet. But if we're being honest, Mark falls lower on the list for elimination. Brian and Jake do not have profiles in CODIS either, and they are both still very much alive and should be very much looked into. As of this reporting, Detective Moody is in the process of securing an interview with these two guys, which they will hopefully agree to and maybe even voluntarily give their DNA for. For comparison. But even if one or both of their DNA were to match, that's not really the end of the line for Detective Moody. The sample on the extension cord tells us that there was a man who wrapped Tyra's body in a comforter, but it doesn't help anyone determine how she died or if foul play was involved. No cause of death was ever able to be determined, and they weren't able to get blood for a tox screen. So Detective Moody is well aware that there is always the possibility of an accident overdose. Especially considering that her friend Renee noted that Tyra had been waiting for those two guys to come back with coke that evening. There is more testing that they might be able to do on the comforter and possibly even her shoe if it was touched by the person who disposed of her body. But it's unclear if those results would strengthen their case. It is very possible that the only way we will ever find out what really happened to Tyra after she went missing is if someone comes forward and finally shares the truth. Only two of Tyra's siblings are still alive. Parky and most of Tyra's family have passed away. One of the many things that makes this so hard for her remaining sisters is feeling like Tyra's death might have been preventable or at the very least, solvable. Her oldest sister, Teresa, believes that law enforcement didn't do their job from the jump.

D (32:46)

Well, I think they screwed up at the beginning. I think they didn't do all that they could have done. I think they wrote her off as just a runaway in a bad area. I mean, in a low class area, you know, low class family, low class area. And she, you know, last name Garcia. And I think at first they wrote her off until they found her body.

A (33:15)

Tyra's other sister, Tanya, says that the homicide caused this generational loss and wound that didn't stop with Tyra.

D (33:25)

Tyra's passing affect not only my life, but my kids. And it's affected everybody really in the family. I mean, when my kids wanted to go outside, I had to be right there. When my kids wanted to do this, I'm all like, no, no, no. You can't go to somebody else's house, but they can come to ours. And that was because the fear that I had of my kids, you know, disappearing. I kept finger clippings a kid's teeth, their umbilical cords, just in case they go missing. This is not normal. I'm sorry, but this is the length that I went to to keep my kids safe in case they needed to be identified.

A (34:12)

For Tonya, the loss isn't just that her sister's gone. It is all the life that Tyra never got to live.

D (34:19)

Tyra's missed out on my kids. And seeing my sister's kids grow up and, you know, graduations and birthdays and anniversaries and just milestones in everybody's life, she missed on everything. It's been really hard. Really, really hard.

A (34:43)

Tanya says that it isn't justice that she's searching for anymore. What she's looking for is, is answers.

D (34:51)

I just want to know the details about it and why they really did it. You know, what was going through their head. Why did they, you know, even if it was an accident, say, like if it was an accident because we don't know if it was accidental. We don't know if it was purposely done. You know, what happened, what lit up to my son sister's demise. That's all I want to know all these years. It's very, very simple who it is and why.

A (35:26)

If you know anything about the murder of Tyra Garcia, please be that call that brings her family justice. After 40 years with no answers, you can call the Ventura county cold case unit at 805-383-873 or you can email coldcaseventura.org if you want to remain anonymous, you can call in a Crime stoppers tip at 1-800-222-8477 or visit venturacountycrimestoppers.org and Detective Moody says this anything you bring in, he'll run it down. The Deck is an audio Chuck production with theme music by Ryan Lewis. To learn more about the Deck and our advocacy work, visit thedeckpodcast.com I think Chuck would approve. VRBO Last minute deals make chasing fresh mountain powder incredibly easy.

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