Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Bombshell: Exclusive new details about missing Maricela Garcia

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Bombshell: Exclusive new details about missing Maricela Garcia · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Friends and family are desperately searching for twenty six year
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: old mate Sella Garcia. I'm really terrified. I don't even
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: know what to think. This is Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: She's like all gray buck there, I'm sum old sighted
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: to smoke a cigarette and when I came out, she
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: wasn't there. She tried calling, no answer in her phone
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: was dead, so I was like, okay, let's not overact.
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  Speaker 1: I stood in the rain and by her car for
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: like I don't even know. I lost check of time,
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: probably over thirty forty minutes waiting for her, and she did.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: I come back. It is odd that she's walked away,
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: but we're still investigating it. And what I am saying
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: is that there's no evidence of foul play that we've
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: determined at this time. She would never leave me alone
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: like I was her younger sister. There's no way I
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: see her every day. She doesn't just wander off by herself.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: This is Alan Duke, Nancy's co host and producer for
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: this Crime Stories podcast. Unfortunately, Nancy Grace is not with
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: us today because of the passing of her father in law.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: I hope and expect her to be back with us
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  Speaker 1: for the next episode tomorrow, but I wanted to share
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  Speaker 1: some exclusive information that Crime Stories has received about missing
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: persons case Maricella Garcia. We've been following this case closely
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: in recent weeks, this mysterious disappearance of the twenty six
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: year old Southern California woman. On January twelfth, twenty seventeen,
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: Maricella was on a shopping trip at a Goodwill store
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  Speaker 1: in Recita, California. That's a community in the San Fernando
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  Speaker 1: Valley of Los Angeles. She told her sister Sarah she
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: was just stepping outside for a cigarette, but she never returned.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, her cigarettes were found unopened in her pocketbook
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: in her car, which she also left behind. If you
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: followed Maricella's story on our previous podcast, you know that
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: a tracking dog indicated she'd walked into a nearby Catholic church,
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: and that's where witnesses, two women say they saw her
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  Speaker 1: praying in a pew before running out in a panic.
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  Speaker 1: You also know a cell phone believed to be hers
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: was found smashed sitting nearby on the ground, with a
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: battery and simcard missing. A choker necklace like the one
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: Maricella was wearing was found torn on the ground near
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: a dumpster in a parking lot. But now thanks to
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: a private investigator, Tanya Kitchen of Kitchen Investigations, Calabasis, we
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: now have new information which I expect would cause Nancy
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: where she to be here, to declare bombshell tonight. While
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: Maricella has not been found. This new information has given
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: the LAPD detectives new leads to follow, possibly new persons
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: of interest to investigate. This is something with me now.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: Misty Patten, who serves as a volunteer advocate for the
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: Garcia family, we'll talk with or in just a moment,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: but first let me thank our sponsor, Simply Safe. Thousands
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• 4:11
  Speaker 1: com slash Nancy. Misty, you have new information since we
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: last spoke, and we've been talking now a couple of
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: weeks since not long after Marisella disappeared. But a lot
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: has happened. Despite all of the frustration with wondering what
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: was happening as far as the LAPD, a lot has
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: happened and we're now able to talk about it. So
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  Speaker 1: thank you for joining us. First of all, let's acknowledge
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  Speaker 1: that the LAPD has, contrary to what we've been knowing,
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  Speaker 1: been investigating this and especially right now they're going full
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  Speaker 1: force on this. Is that your understanding, Misty, ally and
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: that's the LAPD's Missing Person's Unit, and they've been assisted
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  Speaker 1: by a private investigator that has been retained by the
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  Speaker 1: family and has been working quite a bit on this
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: case and has presented a lot of her information. So
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: let's first of all named the private investigator. That would
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: be Tanya Kitchen Investigations of Calabasas. Tanya Kitchens, who is
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: a private investigator out of Calabasas, came up with the
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: idea of offering a reward and putting out new posters
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: advertising the reward in the area where she disappeared. And
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: you believe that is where this new information that's now
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: propelling the investigation to go forward is coming from. Correct,
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  Speaker 1: The family received an anonymous tip on Saturday that was
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: followed up on by Tanya by Detective Palmer the MBU,
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  Speaker 1: and it was a credible tip and it has led
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: to all kinds of new information. Well, let's start running
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  Speaker 1: down the information. First of all, some information I've already
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: mentioned Friday that we found out that Marisella Garcia, contrary
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: to what we thought, was familiar with the area in
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  Speaker 1: Racita around that good Will store, that she regularly went
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  Speaker 1: there for methodone treatment. Correct, she was discharged back in
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  Speaker 1: twenty sixteen from the Methodone clinic there by that church.
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  Speaker 1: Actually it's on the same blocks as the good Will
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  Speaker 1: store where she disappeared from and the church where some
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  Speaker 1: churchgoers say that she was seen soon after she walked
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  Speaker 1: out of the Goodwill. So there's the method clinic. Now.
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  Speaker 1: She was at the Methodone clinic because she had been
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: using heroine I understand, correct, She had a boyfriend back
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  Speaker 1: in two ten that unfortunately introduced not just the heroine
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  Speaker 1: as far as using, but the whole buying, selling, dealing lifestyle.
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  Speaker 1: And that's where these drug charges that we found on
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  Speaker 1: her criminal record came from, several of them over the
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  Speaker 1: last several years. Correct, since two ten years she was
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  Speaker 1: being treated for a heroin addiction at a Methodic clinic
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  Speaker 1: and also on that same block where she disappeared from,
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  Speaker 1: which we had previously thought was a strange neighborhood to her.
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  Speaker 1: She had been going to that Catholic church on a
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  Speaker 1: very regular basis, as it turns out, is that not true?
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: That's correct. According to an employee of the church, Marcella
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  Speaker 1: went there pretty much daily at around one o'clock PM,
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  Speaker 1: which is the same time that the methodone clinic closes,
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  Speaker 1: and it is well known that people get their methodone
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  Speaker 1: and then turn around and sell it in those back
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  Speaker 1: parking lots right there in the back parking lots, not
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  Speaker 1: very far from where actually what we believed to be
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  Speaker 1: her cell phone was found smashed with the battery out
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  Speaker 1: in the simcard gone in that exact area, in the
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: exact area. It's getting to be a very small world
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: for Maracella Garcia's disappearance as we find out that these
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  Speaker 1: key things that tie into the theories that are now
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  Speaker 1: being discovered and followed are all on that same city
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  Speaker 1: block of Racita, California, where she disappeared. I unders stand
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  Speaker 1: went to that church every day. You said at one
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: o'clock that a church worker said that she would be
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  Speaker 1: there praying. Right. This really reinforces the information that the
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  Speaker 1: tracking dog gave you. Absolutely, yes, tell us about what
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: did the tracking dog tell you indicate to you? The
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  Speaker 1: tracking dog indicated that she not only went into the church,
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: but there was a particular pew that she sat in,
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  Speaker 1: and I'm guessing that that would be the place that
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: she said and prayed and waited to make her deals
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  Speaker 1: with this new information, now that investigators have that Marisella
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  Speaker 1: in fact, had frequented that neighborhood where she disappeared. And
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  Speaker 1: the information about the boyfriend. Let's talk a little bit
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  Speaker 1: about the boyfriend. Now we're choosing not to name him.
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  Speaker 1: Whether police name him or not, we'll find out. But
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  Speaker 1: he was her boyfriend for it four or five years,
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  Speaker 1: but she broke up with him in the last year, right,
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  Speaker 1: that's right. He was very like I said, he had
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: really taken control over her. I mean, she had just
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: spiraled downward, both mentally, emotionally physically using drugs, like I said,
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  Speaker 1: buying selling, and she wanted out and she broke it off.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: And since then she has made great strides attempting to
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: get sober. And this man is just relentless. He just
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  Speaker 1: doesn't leave her alone. Another thing that I understand is
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  Speaker 1: that it has been revealed that she briefly disappeared once before,
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: in twenty fourteen. That's true. She was returned to the
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: home by this man, and she was almost dead from
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: an overdose. She required hospitalization. So there is a precedent
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  Speaker 1: for this. And because of this and all of this
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  Speaker 1: information you're telling me, which by the way, also includes
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  Speaker 1: in this report that Maricella had visited a drug dealer
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  Speaker 1: just hours before her disappearance, is that right, and purchased
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  Speaker 1: some drugs. We're not sure how close it was in
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  Speaker 1: her disappearance. We know that it was within twenty four hours,
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  Speaker 1: but we're not exactly sure on the exact timeframe. And
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  Speaker 1: it was a drug dealer that she had been introduced
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  Speaker 1: to by her boyfriend years earlier. Correct, There's some history
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  Speaker 1: between that dealer, the boyfriend, the boyfriend's uncle, and unfortunately,
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  Speaker 1: we feel that by her using this dealer, it was
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  Speaker 1: a way for them to keep cabs on her and
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  Speaker 1: know where she was going, even though she had broken
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  Speaker 1: up and wanted to separate, wanted to him kept away.
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  Speaker 1: Now he moved out of town apparently since her disappearance,
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  Speaker 1: Is that right, He's not to be found at the moment.
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  Speaker 1: The boyfriend, it was prior to her disappearance. We feel
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  Speaker 1: that he got in over his head with these people
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  Speaker 1: as far as on the money. He moved seemingly to
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  Speaker 1: escape them. Drug dealers. These are some big dealers. There
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  Speaker 1: were you know, we're not talking just a little bit
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  Speaker 1: of small time stuff. We feel there might be a
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  Speaker 1: potential so that they appeared to have broken it off
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: so that Maricela was not in debt herself. It was
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: kind of like, I wasn't really involved type thing. You know,
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: he's gone, I don't know anything. And we feel that
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  Speaker 1: her recent activity she might have actually been forced to
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  Speaker 1: sell that. Maybe that was their way of reclaiming their wanning,
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: was by forcing her to self instead of him, since
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: you obviously they can't reach him. So after this dark
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  Speaker 1: slide into heroin use that lasted over about five years,
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: parallel to her relationship with this man that we're speaking
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  Speaker 1: up but not naming, the theory is that there was
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: some debt owed for some reason to these bad people,
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: drug dealers, and perhaps that is related to her current disappearance.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: We feel that these people, whether or not it was
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: the boyfriend himself or his uncle or these people, we
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  Speaker 1: feel that someone has abducted her in retaliation for a
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: drug debt. Don't know if she's being trafficked. She's very vulnerable,
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: she's very fragilementally, being addicted to heroin, she would be
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  Speaker 1: very easy to control. We don't know if they're trapping
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: in her to repay that debt. We don't know if
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: they're holding her until he repays his debt that we
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: feel that these people are somehow involved, and this theory
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  Speaker 1: is exactly what we know has happened in previous cases
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  Speaker 1: with previous women who have disappeared. Correct, this is not
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  Speaker 1: an untold story. Absolutely Unfortunately it's now being said about
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  Speaker 1: Maricella Garcia. There is another theory, it's not necessarily that's
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: not the only one, but an easy check of the
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: sex offender registry, which by the way, is posted on
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: crime online dot com. You can go there and put
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: in your zip code and find out who's registered as
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: a registered sex offender. Some investigation has been done by
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: the private investigator into into what's been going on in
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  Speaker 1: the immediate area of about a mile around where Marcella
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  Speaker 1: dis here. That's we're not again we're not going to
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: name names, but there is a convicted sex offender that
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: is being looked at now. That's true. He lives actually
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: point seven miles away from the Goodwill. His picture is
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: very very similar to them. It was well publicized a
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: rate in an alley back in twenty sixteen in the summer.
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  Speaker 1: His composite sketch is spot on a rape that was
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: near where Maricela disappeared. In the same general vicinity. They
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: were a mile apart, So it's not like that the
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: detectives and the private investigator are just zeroing in on
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: that one possibility, but there is that other. One of
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: the frustrations for me and I know for you and
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: the family has been the early decision by the LAPD
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: to call her voluntary missing, and we were all wondering
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: how could that be because the smashed phone and other
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: suspicious things seem to indicate there could be foul play involved.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: But now what we do know is that they have
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: been working on this information and they now have upgraded it.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: She has not just now voluntary missings. It's a much
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: higher level of concern for her. She's considered missing in
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: her suspicious circumstances, and they still have not increased her
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: to a critical missing or an endangered missing, because again,
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: there's still not one percent true that is being she
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: is in extreme danger. We feel that way, Yeah, I
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: feel that way. I've never met Maricella Garcia. I hope
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: someday that will be possible, But I've talked to a
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: lot of folks who knew her, especially her family, and
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: they describe her as a very loving sister, daughter really
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: a good kid, but for the drug addiction that they
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: blame on the boyfriend and all the manipulation and emotional
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: abuse that she went through in that relationship. But I
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: also understand that in the recent year she was really
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: trying to get it together. Absolutely, she was attending outpatient treatment,
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: she was really becoming more independent, she was building her
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: self confidence back up. I mean, she just seems to
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: be becoming a different person, MISSTI. I want to thank you.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: You're a volunteer advocate. You not only work with the
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: family of Marcella Garcia, helping with their social media and
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: getting the mainstream media out there for the searches and
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: helping put out the I know you and your husband
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: and worked tirelessly to put out the posters all over
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: the area. Also, let's thank Tanya Kitchen of Tanya Kitchen
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: Investigations of Calabasas who's been helping the family. We should
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: recognize Detective Palmer with the LAPD who has quietly gone
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: about the work absolutely despite everything, and has carried the
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: investigation forward. We don't have it at but we do
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: have a lot of more information and a much better
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: picture of what has been going on with Marasella Garcia.
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: This information, let's hope that it helps bring forward new tips,
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: new information because there is a reward offered. How do
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: people find out more about the case. There is a
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: Facebook page for this right now, I understand correct. It
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: is Facebook, Bring Maracella Home and we share all the
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: information that we are able to hear and it's a
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: great way to get into the discussion, find out about
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: new events. There is a massive search plan for both
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: Saturday and Sunday this weekend. We need large scale. We
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: have a lot of specific areas to cover. We need
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: everybody that is able to to come out one or
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: both days so that we can bring our home. While
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: you've been doing the search previously, it was with a
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: certain focus. Now with the new information in light of that,
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: there will be a renewed search for any clues and
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: information about Marasella Garcia. When is the search? When are
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: the searches planned? The searches will be Saturday and Sunday,
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: both beginning at ten am. There we will meet at
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: the good Will downs from and wayh and Recida and
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: go from there. Thanks again, Misty Crime Stories with Nancy
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: Grace as possible because of our sponsor simply Safe Home Security.
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: Thousands of people seeking home security getting ripped off every day,
• 17:31
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• 17:36
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• 18:30
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• 18:36
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• 18:39
  Speaker 1: the woman murdered while jogging in a Queen's New York
• 18:42
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• 18:45
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• 18:48
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• 18:52
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• 18:56
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• 19:21
  Speaker 1: Alan Duke for Crime Stories. Take care