Employer ‘devastated’ by tragedy
Tom Price remembers one of the last times he saw Hector Garnica. Garnica was looking forward to his weekend trip. “I just saw him Wednesday at Circle K, and he had the two girls in the back seat, and he was telling me about how he was going up to Payson this weekend, and how he was so excited and asking me if I wanted to come with,” Price said.
Price had known Garnica for more than a decade — he had dated Garnica’s cousin for years and said Garnica was like a little brother to him.
Price, general manager at the Horny Toad Restaurant in Cave Creek, said he gave Hector Garnica a job as a buser and later as a cook at the
“Hopefully, (the family) can somehow move on past this. I mean, I don’t know how. It’ll take some serious time; I don’t even know how long it’s going to take me to get over it, let alone them.”
TOM PRICE HECTOR GARNICA’S EMPLOYER
Horny Toad. Several of Garnica’s family members — including his father, mother and sisters — work at the restaurant now.
Hector Garnica had moved on to work at another Cave Creek establishment, Harold’s Corral.
Price found out early Sunday that an unspeakable tragedy had befallen his friend.
Nine people — Garnica’s wife and three children, and five other members of his wife’s family — had died on that weekend excursion. They were killed in a flash flood at a swimming hole at Cold Springs near Payson.
Garnica, 27, was still missing late Monday.
“I was devastated,” Price said. “I don’t think I can cry anymore.”
Price met with reporters Monday at the restaurant, which features creaky wooden floorboards and a dimly lit, Westernstyle saloon motif.
The wooden walls surrounding its tables and booths include a line of stained-glass windows that give a distorted view of the patio outside.
Nothing looked or felt right anymore.
Price said Hector Garnica’s sister had contacted him at around 3 a.m. Sunday with the news. She sent a text that said simply, “My brother is dead.”
“And then she called me and tried to explain to me,” Price said. “I couldn’t understand what she was saying. She was so broken ... It’s just devastating.”
Price said Garnica had worked for him for eight years and was the hardest-working person he knew.
Price said he started a GoFundMe page because he wanted to help the family pay for funeral expenses. Even if he could not physically go up to Payson and aid the search there, it meant everything to him to help the family out, he said.
As of 7 p.m. Monday, the campaign had raised almost $45,000 of its $100,000 goal.
“They’re gonna have five bodies to bury,” Price said. “I’ve cared about this family forever, and, like I said, they’re all my employees so obviously I’m going to do everything I can to try to help them.”
He said he was overwhelmed by the community’s response.
“I’m blown away by the amount of people that have a heart and would donate even $5, $10,” he said. “It’s adding up very quickly, and the family cannot thank you enough for it .”
Though Hector Garnica’s mother asked Price to take down the GoFundMe page because she did not want people feeling sorry for the family, he said that, realistically, it would be difficult to pay for the expenses for both sides of the family.
Price said that he would be meeting with people from several of the other restaurants in the area where Hector Garnica had worked to try to arrange another fundraiser or other ways to cope with the tragedy.
“We hope that we find Hector’s body so he can be buried with his kids and his wife,” Price said with tears in his eyes.
“Hopefully, they can somehow move on past this. I mean, I don’t know how. It’ll take some serious time; I don’t even know how long it’s going to take me to get over it, let alone them.”
Family members were killed after a “6-foot tall, 40-foot-wide black wave” of water hit the swimming hole Saturday afternoon.
Relatives told The Arizona Republic that family members went to Payson for a weekend getaway birthday celebration for Garnica’s wife, Maria Raya-Garcia.
The Gila County Sheriff’s Office on Monday released the names of the family members killed:
» Maria Raya-Garcia, 27, and her children:
» Emily Garnica, 3 » Mia Garnica, 5 » Danial Garnica, 7 » Maribel Raya-Garcia, 24, Maria Raya’s sister, along with her daughter: » Erica Raya-Garcia, 2 » Javier Raya-Garcia, 19, brother of Maria and Maribel
» Selia Garcia Castenada, 57, the mother of Maria, Maribel and Javier
» Jonathan Leon, 13, Selia Garcia’s grandson
Another two adults and two children were rescued by helicopter Saturday. They were identified Monday as Julio Garcia, 29, Esthela Atonado, 28; Acis Garcia, 8; and Marina Garcia, 1.
A thunderstorm Saturday brought rain to a nearby remote area that had been burned over by the Highline Fire. There was no rain in the area where the swimmers were, but water raced down Ellison Creek, which rapidly flooded the canyon swimming area.
“They had no warning,” Water Wheel Fire and Medical District Fire Chief Ron Sattelmaier said. “They heard a roar and it was on top of them.”
Arizona Republic reporter BrieAnna J. Frank contributed to this article.
“I was devastated. I don’t think I can cry anymore.”