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[Music] chrisy and I we were young we were happy we were enjoying our lives I never
00:00:18
really thought anything like this would have happened to Christie your best friend is
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missing how could you be missing we were just gamblers at the casino having a good time with other people the
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last we know is we see her walking out of uh Thunder Valley Casino at 1:13 in the morning on October 5th with a man by
00:00:47
the name of Mario Garcia and then she was never seen or nor heard from again do you remember the first time
00:00:58
that you saw the V video of Christy walking out with him I absolutely remember that she moved away she moved
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away from him look at that yeah I still remember her arm going like this and off
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me now surveillance cameras have captured her leaving the casino with an older man her family is understandably
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frantic and her parents Pat Debbie and Pat have been beacons of Hope in this situation they have endured the
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unimaginable of not knowing where your daughter is Debbie turned that pain into passion I want my daughter back and I
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want her back now I may be 5'1 and blonde but they've just met a barracuda and the fight's on I'm just going to ask
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you straight out did you kill Christy Wilson no I had nothing to do with her disappearance all right I think he
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thought he was going to beat the case the entire time he figed no body less evidence I can walk away from this he
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never never thought he was going to be convicted guilty of a violation and when he was convicted and
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went to prison he still had a piece of information and everyone wanted it and he knew
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it was she in an ocean was she in a ditch for 15 years I never went to bed without wondering where is she where did
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Mario Garcia put her we got some campgrounds here you'll have campgrounds on the other side
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too what happened to her Mario How Could she simply disappear after she was with
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you I don't have answers for that real hurts our feet how long have you been looking for
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Christy Wilson since October of uh 2005 we' pretty much have been continuing to look for her even after they knew she
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wasn't coming back alive they kept looking even after Mr Garcia was convicted they kept looking it was
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important to finally close the case and work on remembering Christie for the beautiful person she was and not a case
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we needed to take the mystery out of this for for Debbie and her family we wanted to find her to show Mario you're
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not going to win you're not winning this and we're going to find her and bring her home to the
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[Music] family [Music] [Music] Christin and I were definitely Soul Sisters for sure we grew up together in
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school and just loved pretty much doing everything together Tiffany de says her best friend
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Christy Wilson just had a knack for making her laugh I picture her in our front room
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just dancing and laughing and having so much fun I could be having the worst day
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and she would always be there for me we always knew that no matter what we were there for each
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other but Tiffany was not with christe in the early morning hours of October 5th 2005 that's when a surveillance
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camera in a California Casino captured Christy walking into a parking lot with a man she met that
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night that was really scary because we didn't know where she was or if she could be alive
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Christy was then only 27 years old her mother Debbie boy can hardly believe how much time has passed you know I I try
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not to think of it too much because it actually kind of takes me to a very sad place since the moment Christy vanished
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Debbie vowed not to rest until she knew what Christy's killer had done with her body I'm her mother forever and I was
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not going to give up please help us 48 Hours has been covering the Christy Wilson case since 2006 Christy and Mario
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come out here it began like so many of these stories do with a concerned boyfriend telling authorities that his
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girlfriend had gone missing I loved her and I know she loved me we cared about each other very
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much on the evening of October 4th 2005 Christy's boyfriend Danny berlando says she went to the Thunder Valley Casino to
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play Black Jack did it surprise you to hear she had been at a casino that night you know it
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it didn't um because recently she um she had been telling me she'd been you know
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playing some Blackjack back in 2005 Tiffany D was a young newlywed she's thought about why
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christe left the casino that night with a stranger and she has a theory sometimes I think well what if you know
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someone put something in her drink Debbie was aware her daughter had begun gambling partly because she was between
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jobs and low on money her boyfriend Danny felt Christy was gambling too much when's the last time you actually
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talked to her at 10:28 p.m Tuesday October 4th we had a 55c conversation this is the actual Casino
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video of Christy taking that call I told her to come home and and she was like okay I'm finishing up I'll be home soon
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but when Danny awoke there was no sign of christe he began leaving dozens of desperate messages on Christy's cell
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phone qu after 10 on Wednesday it's now been 24 hours since I talked to you last
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and I'm worried sick about you please call me if you're okay call me if you're not okay call me let me know what's
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going on Danny filed a missing person's report investigator Don merchon interviewed Bando back in 2005 and says
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Dany was very Cooperative anything that I wanted from him when I was at that residence he
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allowed me to have merchon says investigators soon found their Prime Suspect when that casino video surfaced
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they were able to track down a 53-year-old man named Mario Garcia by his Player's Casino Card sheriff's
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deputies arrested and held him on a weapons charge christe Wilson came and sat on my left between me and another
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individual in 2006 Mario Garcia told 48 Hours what he says happened in the hours
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before Christy disappeared we were at that table for a period of time until that table got hot
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she asked me hey you want to go with me to another table and I said sure their night of gambling ended just past 1:00
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a.m. Wednesday October 5th Garcia claimed that he ined Christy walked to his car and then went their separate
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ways and he suggested that Christy may have met someone in the parking lot but wouldn't that be seen on camera well
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they don't see that she got in my car do they they don't see where she went correct some 3 minutes and 41 seconds
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later Garcia's car reappears on the cameras and it looks as though he's the only one
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inside she hasn't called any family any friends all the way up here investigations Commander George maem
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helped coordinate a massive search for Christie through the rugged and varied terrain of pler County we utilized
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search and rescue people in their vehicles and they drove every road that they could every driveway look then
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every cul that and still nothing was found among the Searchers was Christy's heartbroken an older sister Stacy you
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want to hear details but you don't it's just I get this image in my head of God what she must have been going through
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and the physical searches turned up nothing but then investigators began looking into Mario Garcia's past and
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what they found was chilling you don't cross Mario you don't cross him especially if
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you're a woman and you're alone you don't you don't cross him even though Mario Garcia was the
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last person seen with Christy Wilson to some he appeared an unlikely murder suspect he was a project manager for a
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local hospital married with two teenage boys I am and I have been happily married your husband is your
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destiny and with him I have that feeling I just have that connection Garcia's wife Jean defended
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him he is a family man if he's not working we will take the kids for sports and his son Chris then 19 said he's a
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great dad he was always there for us you know he'd always come home make sure you
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know we all sit at the table we're just a good family the family lived in a house on five beautiful acres in Auburn
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California Gold Country with Mario I always feel good about him but investigators were not about to take
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Jean's word for it 4 days after Chrissy disappeared they went to Garcia's home to questioned him and ran a criminal
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background check and that's how they found Wendy Ward a woman from Garcia's past when I first met him I found him to
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be very uh intelligent very articulate very warm Wendy Ward met Garcia in 1978 near
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Oakland when she was 26 and he was 27 and they began dating I would say a very supportive
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person it felt like he cared a lot but Wendy says he also had a temper and he reached a boiling point after she ended
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the relationship he grabbed her one night and drove off with her in his van he was holding my neck or he was holding
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my head and he says if you do anything you do anything I will take your head and I will smash it I think he said to
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me take off your clothes or or something like that and I I said no I just was claing scratching whatever I could do
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then he started to choke me I couldn't I couldn't breathe I couldn't breathe did
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you think you were going to die I did I really did she says he raped her and then took
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her back to his apartment he pulled a gun out of his cabinet and he held it to my head then he pulled the trigger he
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says well it wasn't loaded this time but basically I can come and get you anytime
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I want Wendy says he raped her again and then he casually made himself a sandwich
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ate it and drove her home I'm surprised that I actually am alive I I'm very lucky Wendy immediately went to the
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hospital and police arrested Garcia but the court case stalled for 2 years before prosecutors offered him a deal I
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figured it's better than nothing and let's do this and then let's move on Garcia agreed to plead guilty to one
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count of assault with a deadly weapon and was sentenced to 18 months probation Believe It or Not Garcia says he's the
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one who has railroaded she made allegations that were not true there was a gun involved
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wasn't there there was no gun involved you plag guilty to assault with a deadly weapon and there was no gun involved you
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just I guilty I possessed guns but there was no we had a stormy relationship when you
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say stormy relationship did you hit her no I did not Wendy never forgot about Garcia but she moved on until October
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2005 not long after Christy went missing when she was tracked down by detective merchon and when you heard that Christy
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Wilson disappeared and the last person to see her alive was Mario Garcia what was your
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reaction I felt sick to my stomach Wendy told merchison what happened with Garcia
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and she said there was something else about Garcia they needed to know I felt after my own incident with him that he
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could very easily do this again with someone else it wasn't long before something
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terrible involving Mario Garcia happened again my uh younger sister and I were were Pals they were friends she was a
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lot of fun to be around she was very outgoing Tom Davis's sister Lynette dated Mario Garcia after Wendy in
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1979 it too was a volatile relationship and Garcia was upset with Lynette because she ended a pregnancy with his
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child but the couples still celebrated Christmas with lynnette's Mother after dinner the three of them
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got into lynnette's car the streets were dry weather was clear retired officer John cave was the
00:16:13
chief accident investigator for the Oakland Police Department that Christmas night he got a
00:16:19
call that a car had plunged into the water near the Oakland Airport the witnesses said the car pulled over to
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the right shoulder they drove by the car accelerated and there was a ledge like the end of the pier and the car shot off
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that ledge out in the water and that's where it [Music] sunk Garcia was the only
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Survivor I panick and eventually I took my seat Bel and I opened one of the windows
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all this Rush of water came into the car I got out and everybody else I presume get
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out he told police Lynette was driving but they couldn't confirm who was behind the wheel if in fact Mario Garcia was
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the driver and he intended to kill Lynette and her mother I mean it's not a very efficient way to get rid of
00:17:23
somebody is it it worked didn't it and if he was a driver he got away with it cave wanted to question Garcia further
00:17:32
but Garcia got a lawyer the next day why if it was just a simple accident would you not talk to the police and would you
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hire a criminal lawyer is is the thing to do it's the legal right of every citizen of the
00:17:48
United States and my attorney advised me not to talk to them after the accident a heartbroken
00:18:00
Tom reached out to an old friend from his hometown incredibly it was Wendy Ward as
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they talked she asked how his sister was doing I said yeah she was killed uh in a
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car accident involved with this guy named Mario Garcia Mario Garcia it goes beyond
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disbelief she says I used to date him I was involved with him I have rape charges again against
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him no charges were ever filed against Garcia for Lynette and her mother's deaths but Debbie Boyd had heard all she
00:18:38
needed to about Mario Garcia you're not fooling anybody and especially not me and I will continue to pursue you and
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pursue you and pursue you after 3 weeks of searching plaster County authorities made a tough decision
00:19:12
to charge Mario Garcia with Christy's murder even though they hadn't found her body her mother Debbie Boyd worried
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there wasn't enough evidence the thought of him getting off on this case once again scares a live in daylight side me
00:19:28
for every woman it was a large case to put together Garen hores the plaster County Deputy District Attorney at the
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time had the unenviable task of Prosecuting the County's first nobody murder trial in September 2006 so what
00:19:46
do you believe happened to Christy Wilson she went out of the casino with the defendant at some point in the vehicle
00:19:54
at the casino he incapacitated her he was probably putting her in the back seat um so that when he drove away
00:20:01
nobody would see as far as what he did afterwards that's anybody's guess was she in your car no she never was inside
00:20:10
my car at some point in time she says that she left her cell phone in the casino and we embraced and that that was
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the end of the conversation investigators did later find Christy's phone in the casino but there's no
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footage of her returning to at it and no footage of Christy getting into Mario's
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car but horse says the evidence proves that Christy was inside the vehicle one of Christy's pulled hairs was found in
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that trunk crime scene investigators also found tiny drops of her blood on the back seat and the door why is it that
00:20:49
the DNA on the door claimed to be of Christy Wilson was the only thing that was found why is it that the DNA from my
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son's my wife and other people that were in the car were not found by your own admission you cleaned the car I've
00:21:03
cleaned everybody else's DNA except Christy Wilson that's the only thing they found
00:21:09
so how did it get there what's your reaction when the defense insinuates that was planted it greatly angers me
00:21:16
they couldn't defend what was there so they had to say it was [Music] planted the prosecution says the
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evidence that incriminates Garcia is as plain as the scratches on his face and his body left by Christy as she fought
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for her life did you get the scratches from Christy Wilson no absolutely not but the morning after that trip to the
00:21:40
casino several of Garcia's co-workers say they saw scratches on Garcia's face and he visited the eye doctor those are
00:21:48
injuries that I received through poison o and falling from a tree yet Robert Royer an emergency room doctor who sat
00:21:57
at the same table as Garcia at the casino told investigators he could clearly see Garcia's face that night how
00:22:04
far is Mario Garcia from you 2 feet less than a meter did he seem to have any injuries on his face I didn't see any
00:22:12
injuries no and I'm reasonably good at making those kind of observations because that's what I do for a living
00:22:18
why wouldn't the emergency room doctor see those I cannot answer what he saw or didn't see and no one can answer why
00:22:27
chrisy left the casino with Garcia those who knew her had wondered if he had put
00:22:33
something in her drink and the prosecution presents evidence to support that theory a week after christe
00:22:40
disappeared Garcia searched online for information about how authorities test for date rape drugs but when Garcia
00:22:49
takes the stand he insists he's done nothing wrong I wanted to tell the court that I am very sorry that Christa Wilson
00:22:59
is missing but I don't know where she's at the jury doesn't get to hear about Garcia's violent pass even though he
00:23:09
comes face to face with a reminder to show her support Wendy Ward travels to Sacramento to meet Debbie and
00:23:19
christe's family for the first time I couldn't stop hugging her I just wanted to just hold her and hugger and
00:23:29
and all the family they're just going through so much Wendy heads to court with the boyss
00:23:40
for closing arguments where Garcia's lawyers suggests that no one even knows if Christy is dead are you saying that
00:23:50
Christy Wilson may still be alive do we know it she's dead all right the jury concluded would you please hand the
00:23:57
verdicts to the Bay please that it did know we the jury in the above entitled action find the defendant Mario Flavio
00:24:05
Garcia guilty of a [Music] violation absolutely justice has been served it's about
00:24:20
time now if he's any kind of a man he'll tell us where he disposed my [Music] daughter
00:24:29
at Garcia's sentencing in January 2007 the Boyd still held out hope that Garcia would disclose where he left christe's
00:24:39
body in exchange for a lesser sentence I suppose that at this hearing I'm supposed to ask for Mercy for
00:24:49
forgiveness and to show remorse however I will not do such thing I did not kill Christy Wilson I am
00:25:03
[Music] innocent Garcia's sentence 25 years to life is doubled because of his assault
00:25:11
on Wendy when other charges were added his total sentence became 59 Years to Life at this point I I don't ever expect
00:25:24
that he'll disclose what he did with Christie the truth is out there and morio told me that we have to
00:25:32
found Christie and that's only hope he has Jean Garcia did not know that her own family would play a key role in the
00:25:42
search for Christy what do you think happened the night Christy Wilson disappeared see the timeline of her
00:25:53
disappearance on Facebook at 48 hours [Music] Mario Garcia's murder conviction in 2006
00:26:11
was hardly the end of the case for Christie's mother Garcia was sent to prison and the years dragged by but he
00:26:19
refused to say what he did with her body it's been the mystery at the center of this case and it has noded at Deb's Soul
00:26:29
Debbie's forever changed Mario Garcia changed that he changed me the loss of her daughter was crushing but Debbie
00:26:38
knew she couldn't allow Garcia to control her life we made a commitment he is not going to take our marriage he's
00:26:46
not going to take the marriages of our children he's not going to disrupt our jobs we are not giving him anymore that
00:26:54
was not easy as Garcia filed one appeal appeal after another you can't move forward completely when you have all
00:27:02
these appeals you know it's like you move forward five steps and then you're back in it again Pat boy Christy's
00:27:08
stepfather and a former San Jose detective knew the stakes were high cuz it's not like we had a tremendous amount
00:27:16
of evidence a small amount of evidence being lost the case would have been lost the concern is always there for the
00:27:22
appeals but it was not a distraction that it took us away from our our tasks and our mission to try to find Christie
00:27:29
Nuno Tavaris an investigator for the pler County District Attorney's office and fellow investigator Don merchon had
00:27:37
been on the case from the beginning and never let go why is it so important to the two of you to bring her home cu the
00:27:45
family needed her they needed a place where they could go and to spend time with her we wanted to give Debbie and
00:27:53
her family back control up until this point he controled controlled the location of Christy's remains and that
00:28:01
didn't sit well with me they are incredibly dedicated they are very experienced their balance
00:28:07
between Tough Cop and teddy bear is is the appropriate balance plaster County district attorney Morgan Guyer gave Nuno
00:28:16
and merch as Debbie calls them the green light to keep looking for Christie and they Ram with it going to extraordinary
00:28:24
lengths to find her no matter how dirty the job we actually pumped an entire septic
00:28:31
tank out we pumped out the entire 2,000 gallons of sewage and went through it by
00:28:38
hand that is determination first of all good morning and thank you all those searches over all those years turned up
00:28:47
nothing but the investigation entered a new phase in 2017 when Tony Lopez an anchor for the
00:28:56
CBS station in Sacramento conducted an interview with Debbie she directed some carefully chosen words to
00:29:05
Garcia I now view him as a lost soul and that I just often wonder I want him to know that I often
00:29:14
wonder how he ever became the man that he did if Mario were to pass away with me not having had the opportunity to sit
00:29:23
and just talk to him uh I know I would forever regret it Debbie says Garcia spotted that
00:29:29
interview and began writing letters to her and plaster County officials Garcia apologized for what Debbie had gone
00:29:37
through but did not accept responsibility for christe's murder I wanted christe back so bad that
00:29:47
I thought you know what let's see how far this goes Deb had struggled with the idea that you know what what do you
00:29:54
negotiate with a man who has been convicted of the murder of your daughter who knows where she is but ultimately
00:30:00
Debbie changed her mind she could not bring herself to negotiate with Garcia I was sitting there thinking what
00:30:09
on Earth are you doing Debbie get a grip this would be such a disgrace he will not use my daughter's body as a
00:30:21
bargaining chip and we certainly weren't going to agree to let him out in exchange for uh the location of her
00:30:29
remains so really the only option was find her Nuno and merch re approached Garcia's family investigators knew Jean
00:30:38
Garcia had divorced Mario after his conviction she had reached a point where she no longer believed Garcia she said
00:30:47
she was very convinced that Mario had something to do with Chrissy's disappearance and murder the
00:30:53
investigators also reached out to Garcia's Sons Chris and Andy and walked them through the 4 days in
00:31:00
October 2005 after Christy went missing but before police began questioning Garcia what did they see how did their
00:31:11
father behave we went through every day Wednesday Thursday Friday then it got to
00:31:18
Saturday and that's where the story got a little bit interesting Chris had an important soccer game he saw his dad
00:31:26
working on a track working kind of frantically and had kind of a crazed look in his eyes as he was
00:31:32
working around the property and he told Chris I'm not going and it was a very firm I'm not
00:31:41
going Chris found that out of character from Mario the investigators asked Chris to
00:31:47
accompany them back to his childhood home which the family lost in 2007 to pinpoint the spot where he had seen his
00:31:55
father working on the track ctor he said it was right next to our detach garage right along the road it was barely 100
00:32:04
yards from the Garcia house but if he had been digging in that very spot with a tractor just days before deputies
00:32:12
searched the property why hadn't anyone noticed it wasn't just a small area where he had landscaped and there was
00:32:19
Landscaping all over the all over the property you got to remember he has time Mario has four or five days to really
00:32:27
really do this right Mario did a extremely good job making the train uh look like it just fit the area and Nuno
00:32:35
and merch also knew that kadaver dogs had roamed the property back in 2005 and had found nothing cadav dogs are a tool
00:32:45
like any other tool that we use sometimes they work sometimes they don't a year passed and in August
00:32:51
2020 investigators decided they would take another look this time they brought with them a company that's specialized
00:32:59
in ground penetrating radar or GPR nearly the entire 5 Acres were scanned and technicians pinpointed eight spots
00:33:09
where there were voids or Pockets beneath the surface the first two holes produce
00:33:18
nothing you've struck out twice we've been going for a long time three is now my favorite hole it's my favorite
00:33:26
hole because that's where Mario was working that day and how far did you go we started pulling back about 25 ft
00:33:33
pulling just a couple of inches at a time uh went about 18 ft wide and out of the corner of my peripheral I see a bone
00:33:42
popping up out of the ground I was a little bit short of breath I'll tell you that the blood was
00:33:47
rushing and we stopped everything we froze everything it was the Moment of Truth
00:33:53
had Nuno and merch found Christy Wilson buried on what was once Mario Garcia's property Nuno and merch had found what
00:34:16
looked like a human bone but they needed confirmation so they called in archaeologist Cindy Arrington she
00:34:24
immediately told them the bone was human but the detectives weren't convinced he's like you're not close enough I said
00:34:31
oh yes I am and he said get closer so they had me get down in the trench really double check triple check okay
00:34:38
yes it's human human but was it Christies more identification work needed to be done
00:34:46
but finding any human bones on Garcia's property was big news and they immediately shared it with the sheriff
00:34:54
and the DA they came to to the conclusion that we need to get this news to Debbie
00:35:01
quickly and they knew how they needed to get it to her for years Debbie and Wendy
00:35:07
Ward have helped the detectives teach a class for homicide investigators and just two months earlier someone in the
00:35:15
class asked Debbie a question no one had ever asked before Mrs Boyd if your daughter was ever recovered how would
00:35:24
you want to be notified and I just said you know please don't ever just call me on the
00:35:33
phone noo and merch flew to Scottdale Arizona it was nearly midnight when the Boyd's doorbell rang Debbie was asleep
00:35:42
on the couch Pat answered the door he opened up the door and he looked at us and he got a big smile on his face and
00:35:49
he said hi guys how's it going and then you could see him pause and you could see things starting to click the gears
00:35:57
in his head and I got up and I just was in a fog and I looked at them and they said Debbie it's merch it's
00:36:05
Nuno I said what are you doing here so that's when we told her that we had found human remains on maro's property
00:36:12
that we believed we were Christies but we couldn't confirm that I remember her that night saying is
00:36:24
it okay to be happy or joy she kept looking around going is that okay we didn't know whether we should open a
00:36:31
bottle of champagne what there was just a lot of hugs some quietness sometimes just sitting there letting it sink
00:36:38
in Debbie made plans to fly to California to tell her daughter Stacy and before she left for the airport the
00:36:46
next morning Nuno and merch heard that their team had found nearly an entire skeleton and it was definite the bones
00:36:55
were chrisy detectives say they found the remain scene in 2005 in the Killer is already
00:37:03
in custody serving more than 50 years for her murder it was the first days later Debbie shared the news
00:37:12
with the world and made sure to thank Nuno and merch today is a day that absolutely reflects some of the greatest
00:37:23
level of perseverance and police work that a Vic family could ever ask for they brought two people home they
00:37:33
brought my daughter home they brought my wife home you feel that you got Deb back tell me about she can think of more
00:37:46
than just where is christe Chris and Jean didn't want to speak publicly but they're grateful to
00:37:53
have closure for Christy's family and their own Chris Andy Jean they didn't ask to have
00:38:03
a dad and a husband who was a murderer who buried his victim on their property where they lived and played they didn't
00:38:12
ask for that and then there were the other victims of Mario Garcia who were hit hard by Christy's murder like Danny
00:38:20
berlando her boyfriend at the time didn't realize how much i' really been bottled up for 15 years I think I may
00:38:29
have been judged misjudged misunderstood through the process and that didn't really allow me to to grieve
00:38:38
and be a victim in this in this whole thing Wendy Ward was also relieved she knows how lucky she is to have survived
00:38:46
her own encounter with Garcia and has used art to help transform the feelings that she's held on to for all these
00:38:54
years it helped shift those feelings into something positive what came up in me to create that and to survive and to
00:39:04
say no more everyone involved takes Pride that christe was found without making a deal
00:39:14
with Garcia and the discovery lays to rest any doubts about Garcia's guilt I mean there's no greater proof the
00:39:23
autopsy revealed that Christy's hand and nose were broken but it couldn't establish a cause of death do you
00:39:31
believe he strangled her I think that's very likely what what occurred that day but we just don't
00:39:37
know those who loved christe try to focus on the life she [Music] lived her best friend Tiffany D says
00:39:48
she's reminded of Christy by the little thing she loved a song on the radio or the way Christy danced for me christe's
00:39:57
never been completely gone I've been carrying her spirit with me every day Debbie and Christy's father Dennis
00:40:15
had Christy's remains cremated in October 2020 to Mark the anniversary of her death Debbie visited the pier in
00:40:23
Capitola where the family put a plaque many years ago this is a place that Christie just absolutely loved it was
00:40:32
what she called her happy place Debbie says no longer having to wonder where Christy is changes everything we can
00:40:41
grieve the way that we should have been able to grieve 15 years ago there's a piece about
00:40:50
that I was so blessed to be her mom for 27 years and that I will carry with me me
00:40:59
[Music] forever listen to the My Life Of Crime podcast with me Aron Mori know is the Doomsday mom her two
00:41:22
children murdered Lori started referring to her children as zombies inside the lorri bow DeBell trial how the jury
00:41:29
found her guilty 48 Hours next on [Music] CBS