0:09

Friends and family are desperately searching for

0:11

twenty six year old mate Sella Garcia.

0:13

I'm really terrified. I don't even know what

0:16

to think. This is Crime

0:18

Stories with Nancy Grace. She's

0:20

like all gray buck there, I'm sum old sighted

0:22

to smoke a cigarette and when

0:25

I came out, she wasn't

0:27

there. She tried calling, no answer

0:29

in her phone was dead, so I

0:31

was like, okay, let's not overact. I

0:33

stood in the rain and by her car for like

0:36

I don't even know. I lost check of time, probably

0:38

over thirty forty minutes waiting for

0:41

her, and she did. I come back.

0:43

It is odd that she's walked away,

0:45

but we're still investigating it. And what

0:47

I am saying is that there's no evidence of foul play that we've

0:50

determined at this time. She would never leave me alone

0:52

like I was her younger sister. There's no

0:54

way I see her every day. She doesn't

0:56

just wander off by herself. This

1:02

is Alan Duke, Nancy's co host and

1:04

producer for this Crime Stories podcast.

1:06

Unfortunately, Nancy Grace is

1:09

not with us today because of the passing

1:11

of her father in law. I hope and

1:13

expect her to be back with us for the next episode

1:15

tomorrow, but I wanted to share some

1:17

exclusive information that Crime

1:20

Stories has received about missing

1:22

persons case Maricella Garcia.

1:25

We've been following this case closely in recent

1:27

weeks, this mysterious disappearance

1:30

of the twenty six year old Southern California

1:33

woman. On January twelfth,

1:35

twenty seventeen, Maricella

1:37

was on a shopping trip at a Goodwill store

1:39

in Recita, California. That's a community

1:42

in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles.

1:45

She told her sister Sarah she was

1:47

just stepping outside for a cigarette,

1:49

but she never returned. In fact,

1:51

her cigarettes were found unopened in

1:53

her pocketbook in her car, which she also

1:55

left behind. If you followed

1:57

Maricella's story on our previous podcast,

2:00

you know that a tracking dog indicated

2:02

she'd walked into a nearby Catholic church,

2:05

and that's where witnesses, two women say

2:07

they saw her praying in a pew before

2:10

running out in a panic. You also

2:12

know a cell phone believed to be hers

2:14

was found smashed sitting

2:17

nearby on the ground, with a battery

2:19

and simcard missing. A choker

2:21

necklace like the one Maricella was wearing

2:24

was found torn on the ground near a dumpster

2:27

in a parking lot. But now

2:29

thanks to a private investigator, Tanya

2:31

Kitchen of Kitchen Investigations,

2:34

Calabasis, we now have new

2:36

information which I expect would cause

2:38

Nancy where she to be here, to

2:40

declare bombshell tonight. While

2:43

Maricella has not been found. This new

2:45

information has given the LAPD detectives

2:48

new leads to follow, possibly new

2:51

persons of interest to investigate. This is

2:53

something with me now. Misty

2:55

Patten, who serves as a volunteer advocate

2:57

for the Garcia family, we'll talk with

3:00

or in just a moment, but first let

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4:14

Misty, you have new information

4:17

since we last spoke, and we've been talking now

4:19

a couple of weeks since not long after

4:21

Marisella disappeared. But

4:23

a lot has happened. Despite

4:25

all of the frustration with wondering

4:28

what was happening as far as the

4:30

LAPD, a lot has

4:33

happened and we're now able to

4:35

talk about it. So thank you for joining us.

4:37

First of all, let's acknowledge that

4:39

the LAPD has, contrary

4:41

to what we've been knowing, been investigating

4:44

this and especially right now

4:46

they're going full force on this. Is that your understanding,

4:48

Misty,

4:50

ally and that's the LAPD's

4:52

Missing Person's Unit, and they've

4:54

been assisted by a private investigator

4:57

that has been retained by the family

5:00

and has been working quite a

5:02

bit on this case and has presented

5:04

a lot of her information. So let's

5:06

first of all named the private investigator. That

5:08

would be Tanya Kitchen Investigations

5:11

of Calabasas. Tanya Kitchens,

5:13

who is a private investigator out of Calabasas,

5:16

came up with the idea of offering a reward

5:19

and putting out new posters advertising

5:21

the reward in the area

5:23

where she disappeared. And you believe that

5:26

is where this new information that's now propelling

5:28

the investigation to go forward is

5:31

coming from. Correct, The

5:33

family received an anonymous tip on

5:35

Saturday that was followed up

5:38

on by Tanya by Detective

5:40

Palmer the MBU, and

5:43

it was a credible tip and it has led to

5:45

all kinds of new information. Well,

5:47

let's start running down the information.

5:50

First of all, some information I've already

5:52

mentioned Friday that we found

5:54

out that Marisella Garcia, contrary

5:56

to what we thought, was familiar

5:59

with the area in Racita

6:01

around that good Will store, that she regularly

6:03

went there for methodone treatment.

6:06

Correct, she was discharged back in

6:08

twenty sixteen from

6:11

the Methodone clinic there by

6:13

that church. Actually it's on the same blocks

6:16

as the good Will store where she disappeared

6:18

from and the church where some churchgoers

6:21

say that she was seen soon after she

6:23

walked out of the Goodwill. So there's

6:25

the method clinic. Now. She

6:27

was at the Methodone clinic because she

6:30

had been using heroine

6:32

I understand, correct, She had a

6:34

boyfriend back in two ten that

6:37

unfortunately introduced not

6:40

just the heroine as far as using, but

6:42

the whole buying, selling, dealing

6:45

lifestyle. And that's where these

6:48

drug charges that we found

6:50

on her criminal record came from,

6:52

several of them over the last several years.

6:55

Correct, since two ten years she

6:57

was being treated for a heroin addiction at

6:59

a Methodic clinic and also

7:01

on that same block where she disappeared

7:04

from, which we had previously thought was a strange

7:06

neighborhood to her. She had been going

7:08

to that Catholic church on a very regular

7:11

basis, as it turns out, is that not true? That's

7:14

correct. According to an employee of the church,

7:16

Marcella went there pretty much daily

7:19

at around one o'clock PM, which is

7:22

the same time that the methodone clinic closes,

7:24

and it is well known that people

7:27

get their methodone and then turn around and sell it

7:29

in those back parking lots right there in the

7:31

back parking lots, not very far

7:33

from where actually what we believed

7:35

to be her cell phone was found

7:37

smashed with the battery out in the simcard

7:39

gone in that exact area, in the

7:41

exact area. It's getting to be a very

7:43

small world for Maracella Garcia's

7:46

disappearance as we find out that these key

7:48

things that tie into the

7:50

theories that are now being discovered and followed

7:53

are all on that same city

7:55

block of Racita, California, where

7:57

she disappeared. I

7:59

unders stand went to that church

8:01

every day. You said at one o'clock that a

8:04

church worker said that she would be there praying.

8:06

Right. This really reinforces

8:08

the information that the tracking dog gave

8:11

you. Absolutely, yes, tell us

8:13

about what did the tracking dog tell you indicate

8:16

to you? The tracking dog indicated

8:18

that she not only went into the church, but

8:21

there was a particular pew that she sat in,

8:23

and I'm guessing that

8:25

that would be the place that she said and prayed and

8:27

waited to make her deals with this new

8:30

information, now that investigators have that

8:32

Marisella in fact, had

8:35

frequented that neighborhood where she disappeared.

8:37

And the information about the boyfriend.

8:40

Let's talk a little bit about the boyfriend. Now

8:42

we're choosing not to name him. Whether police

8:44

name him or not, we'll find out.

8:47

But he was her boyfriend

8:49

for it four or five years, but

8:52

she broke up with him in the last year, right,

8:54

that's right. He was very

8:57

like I said, he had really taken

9:00

control over her. I mean, she had just spiraled

9:02

downward, both mentally, emotionally

9:05

physically using

9:07

drugs, like I said, buying selling, and

9:09

she wanted out and she broke it off.

9:11

And since then she has made

9:14

great strides attempting to get

9:16

sober. And this man is just

9:18

relentless. He just doesn't leave her alone.

9:21

Another thing that I understand

9:23

is that it has been revealed that she

9:26

briefly disappeared once before, in

9:28

twenty fourteen. That's

9:30

true. She was

9:33

returned to the home by this man,

9:35

and she was almost dead from

9:38

an overdose. She required hospitalization.

9:41

So there is a precedent for this. And

9:44

because of this and all of this information

9:46

you're telling me, which by the way, also includes

9:48

in this report that Maricella

9:51

had visited a drug dealer just hours

9:53

before her disappearance, is that right,

9:55

and purchased some drugs. We're

9:58

not sure how close

10:00

it was in her disappearance. We know that it was within

10:03

twenty four hours, but we're not exactly sure

10:05

on the exact timeframe. And

10:07

it was a drug dealer that she had been introduced to

10:09

by her boyfriend years earlier. Correct,

10:12

There's some history between that dealer,

10:15

the boyfriend, the boyfriend's uncle,

10:18

and unfortunately, we feel that by

10:21

her using this dealer, it was a way

10:23

for them to keep cabs on her

10:26

and know where she was going, even

10:28

though she had broken up

10:30

and wanted to separate, wanted to him

10:32

kept away. Now he moved out

10:34

of town apparently since her disappearance,

10:37

Is that right, He's not to be found at the moment.

10:39

The boyfriend, it was prior to her

10:41

disappearance. We feel that he got in over

10:43

his head with these people as far as on the

10:46

money. He moved seemingly

10:48

to escape them. Drug dealers.

10:50

These are some big dealers. There were

10:53

you know, we're not talking just a little bit of small

10:55

time stuff. We feel there might

10:58

be a potential

11:00

so that they appeared to

11:02

have broken it off so that Maricela was

11:04

not in debt herself. It was kind of like,

11:06

I wasn't really involved type thing. You know,

11:08

he's gone, I don't know anything. And

11:11

we feel that her recent activity she

11:13

might have actually been forced

11:15

to sell that. Maybe that

11:18

was their way of reclaiming their wanning, was by forcing

11:21

her to self instead of him, since

11:23

you obviously they can't reach him. So

11:25

after this dark slide into heroin

11:28

use that lasted over about five years,

11:31

parallel to her relationship with this man

11:33

that we're speaking up but not naming, the

11:35

theory is that there was some debt owed

11:39

for some reason to these bad people,

11:41

drug dealers, and perhaps

11:43

that is related to her current

11:45

disappearance. We feel that

11:48

these people, whether

11:50

or not it was the boyfriend himself or his uncle

11:53

or these people, we feel that someone

11:55

has abducted her in

11:57

retaliation for a drug debt. Don't

12:00

know if she's being trafficked. She's very

12:02

vulnerable, she's very fragilementally,

12:05

being addicted to heroin, she would be very easy

12:08

to control. We don't know if they're

12:10

trapping in her to repay that debt. We don't

12:12

know if they're holding her until he repays

12:14

his debt that we feel that these

12:17

people are somehow involved, and this

12:19

theory is exactly what we

12:21

know has happened in previous cases

12:23

with previous women who have disappeared. Correct,

12:25

this is not an untold story.

12:28

Absolutely Unfortunately it's now being said

12:30

about Maricella Garcia. There

12:32

is another theory, it's not necessarily that's

12:35

not the only one, but an easy

12:37

check of the sex offender registry,

12:40

which by the way, is posted on crime

12:43

online dot com. You can go there and

12:45

put in your zip code

12:47

and find out who's registered as a registered

12:50

sex offender. Some investigation has been

12:52

done by the private investigator into into

12:54

what's been going on in the immediate

12:56

area of about a mile around where

12:59

Marcella dis here. That's we're

13:01

not again we're not going to name names, but there is

13:03

a convicted sex offender that

13:05

is being looked at now. That's true. He

13:08

lives actually point seven miles

13:10

away from the Goodwill. His

13:13

picture is very very similar to

13:16

them. It was well publicized a rate

13:19

in an alley back in twenty sixteen

13:21

in the summer. His composite sketch

13:23

is spot on a rape that

13:25

was near where Maricela

13:28

disappeared. In the same general vicinity.

13:30

They were a mile apart, So it's not like

13:32

that the detectives and the private investigator

13:35

are just zeroing in on that

13:37

one possibility, but

13:39

there is that other. One

13:42

of the frustrations for me and I

13:44

know for you and the family has

13:47

been the early decision by

13:49

the LAPD to call

13:51

her voluntary missing, and we were all

13:54

wondering how could that be because

13:56

the smashed phone and other

13:59

suspicious things seem to indicate

14:01

there could be foul play involved. But

14:03

now what we do know is that they

14:05

have been working on this information and

14:07

they now have upgraded it. She

14:10

has not just now voluntary

14:12

missings. It's a much higher level of

14:15

concern for her. She's considered

14:17

missing in her suspicious circumstances, and

14:20

they still have not increased her

14:22

to a critical missing or an endangered missing,

14:25

because again, there's still not one percent

14:27

true that is

14:30

being she is in extreme danger.

14:32

We feel that way, Yeah, I feel that

14:34

way. I've never met Maricella

14:37

Garcia. I hope someday that will

14:39

be possible, But I've talked to

14:41

a lot of folks who knew her, especially her family,

14:44

and they describe her as a

14:46

very loving sister, daughter

14:49

really a good kid, but for

14:52

the drug addiction that they

14:54

blame on the boyfriend and

14:57

all the manipulation and emotional

14:59

abuse that she went through in that

15:01

relationship. But I also

15:03

understand that in the recent

15:06

year she was really trying to get it together.

15:08

Absolutely, she was attending outpatient

15:11

treatment, she was really becoming

15:13

more independent, she was building her self

15:15

confidence back up. I mean, she

15:18

just seems to be

15:20

becoming a different person, MISSTI. I

15:22

want to thank you. You're a volunteer advocate.

15:24

You not only work with the family of

15:27

Marcella Garcia, helping with their

15:29

social media and getting the mainstream

15:32

media out there for the searches and

15:35

helping put out the I know you and your husband

15:37

and worked tirelessly to put

15:39

out the posters all over the area.

15:42

Also, let's thank Tanya Kitchen of

15:44

Tanya Kitchen Investigations of Calabasas

15:47

who's been helping the family. We should

15:49

recognize Detective Palmer with the

15:51

LAPD who has quietly

15:53

gone about the work absolutely despite

15:56

everything, and has carried the investigation

15:58

forward. We don't have it at but

16:01

we do have a lot of more information

16:03

and a much better picture of what has

16:06

been going on with Marasella Garcia.

16:08

This information, let's hope that

16:11

it helps bring forward

16:13

new tips, new information because there is a

16:16

reward offered. How do people find out

16:18

more about the case. There is a Facebook page for

16:20

this right now, I understand correct.

16:22

It is Facebook, Bring Maracella

16:25

Home and we

16:27

share all the information that we are able to hear

16:30

and it's a great way to get into the discussion,

16:32

find out about new events. There

16:35

is a massive search plan

16:38

for both Saturday and Sunday this weekend.

16:40

We need large scale. We have a lot of

16:43

specific areas to cover. We need

16:45

everybody that is able to to come out one

16:47

or both days so that we can bring our

16:49

home. While you've been doing the search

16:52

previously, it was with

16:54

a certain focus. Now with the new

16:57

information in light of

16:59

that, there will be a renewed

17:02

search for any clues and

17:04

information about Marasella

17:06

Garcia. When is the search? When

17:09

are the searches planned? The searches

17:11

will be Saturday and Sunday, both beginning

17:14

at ten am. There we will

17:16

meet at the good Will downs from and wayh and Recida

17:18

and go from there. Thanks again, Misty

17:21

Crime Stories with Nancy Grace as possible

17:23

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18:30

We post a new Crime Stories podcast Monday

18:32

through Friday tomorrow. We plan a very

18:34

important follow up to Nancy's interview of

18:36

last week with the father of Karina

18:39

the Toronto, the woman murdered while jogging

18:41

in a Queen's New York Park last summer.

18:43

Her father's been pushing for New York officials

18:46

to allow a new type of DNA analysis

18:48

to be used to identify a suspect. Well

18:50

now, since that interview, twenty

18:53

year old Chanel Lewis has

18:55

been arrested, charged with the Toronto's murder

18:57

based on DNA evidence, and

19:00

police are also saying there's a confession watch

19:02

for that episode coming up. Also,

19:05

help your friends find Nancy's new podcast

19:07

by sharing it on Facebook and writing

19:09

a review on iTunes. That's very helpful

19:12

in letting others, people you don't

19:14

even know know about it. Again,

19:16

I hope and expect Nancy Grace will be back

19:18

at the mic tomorrow. Until then, this

19:21

is Alan Duke for Crime Stories. Take

19:23

care