Missing without a trace…
Did Antolin Garcia-torres kidnap and murder an innocent schoolgirl?
THE STORY SO FAR
In March 2012, Sierra Mae LaMar, 15, left her california home for school. She never arrived. Several of her belongings were found scattered around her neighbourhood days later but her body was never recovered. Antolin Garcia- Torres, a total stranger, was arrested for her kidnapping and murder. But with no crime scene, no murder weapon and no body, would he be convicted.
The case… Vanished
Sierra Mae Lamar had her whole life ahead of her. A star cheerleader at Ann Sobrato High School in California, she was confident and popular.
Online, 15-year-old Sierra posted countless selfies, her face always sporting a happy grin.
On the morning of 16 March 2012, she left her home in the city of Morgan Hill to walk to the school bus stop.
Only she never showed up for class.
On learning this, her alarmed mum Marlene reported her daughter missing.
Over the coming days, deputies from the local sheriff’s department discovered Sierra’s mobile a few blocks from her bus stop, as well as her bag.
Folded neatly inside were some of her clothes.
Sierra’s parents publicly urged their beloved daughter to come home, and launched search parties with friends and family.
But the police were already putting a picture together.
Two used condoms and an empty box with the label Handcuffs were discovered in the area.
The phone, bag and clothes had been sent to the crime lab for analysis, and results showed that they were marked with DNA from a man named Antolin Garcia-torres, 21.
Garcia-torres told police that he was fishing on the day that Sierra disappeared and that he didn’t know her.
It was true the two had never mixed in the same circles.
However, Garcia-torres did answer a question he was never asked. Despite detectives not specifying what kind of DNA had been found, he admitted to being a compulsive masturbator.
He said that he’d thrown a tissue containing his semen out of his car window while passing the field where Sierra’s bag and clothing were found.
Was he trying to get in early and cover his back?
While volunteers continued to search for Sierra, the police placed Garcia-torres under surveillance.
A search of his red VW Jetta led to a sinister discovery.
It contained traces of Sierra’s DNA, including a strand of hair attached to some rope found in the boot.
On 21 May, Garcia-torres was arrested for the kidnapping and murder of Sierra Lamar.
But there was still no sign of a body.
Police had searched local lakes and reservoirs, including the one where Garcia-torres had claimed he was fishing.
The Lamar family set up a Facebook page and offered a large reward for information.
Countless volunteers continued to join in the regular searches, often in T-shirts of Sierra’s face with
the caption
Everybody’s Daughter.
In the November, Garcia-torres was also accused of attempting to abduct three women in supermarket car parks three years prior to Sierra’s disappearance. This January, at Santa Clara County Superior Court, Antolin Garcia-torres, 26, was charged with murder,
Police searched lakes and reservoirs
kidnapping and three counts of attempted kidnapping. He pleaded not guilty. With no motive, crime scene, murder weapon or even a body, the prosecution had a tough job.
They relied heavily on the forensic evidence – the DNA found on Sierra’s clothing and the hair found on the rope.
Garcia-torres’ car had also been captured on CCTV close to Sierra’s home and the area where police had recovered her belongings.
The defence cast doubt on the reliability of the forensics, bringing up cases where an innocent person’s DNA has shown up at a crime scene.
They also questioned the origin of the hair on the rope.
There were months between the time when the rope was recovered and the hair was found by investigators.
Why was this? Could there have been crosscontamination during the evidence collection?
The defence argued that, just a few weeks before she vanished, Sierra had been unhappy with her mother’s decision to move the family to Morgan Hill from another town.
According to a friend, Sierra had also revealed worries about her sexuality, fearing that her religious mother wouldn’t accept that she was attracted to girls.
Other friends admitted that Sierra had been taking ecstasy and cannabis.
The defence suggested she’d run away.
‘Where’s the evidence she’s deceased?’ asked the defence attorney. ‘She’s missing and nothing else.’
However, the same friends of Sierra agreed with the prosecutor that these were fairly normal teenage experiences.
So, had Antolin Garcia-torres abducted and murdered an innocent girl?
Or was he just caught up in a teenager’s plan to run away from home?
It was up to the jury to decide…
Now turn over for the verdict…
the REAL Judge’s verdict GUILTY
The jury found Antolin Garcia-Torres guilty of kidnapping and murdering Sierra Mae Lamar, as well as the attempted kidnappings of three other women.
Instead of the death penalty, the jury decided he should serve life in prison without parole.
Sierra’s father Steve said, ‘I’d be lying if I didn’t say I am disappointed with the verdict. He’ll be able to live, Sierra won’t.’
Sierra’s body has still not been found.