Police Find Cell Phone Of Teen Last Seen Walking To School Bus Stop

[Morbid]

MORGAN HILL, CA - Police have located the cell*phone*belonging to Sierra Lamar, the 15-year-old who went missing after walking to her bus stop last Friday morning. Lamar was first reported missing by her family when she failed return home from school and then later found to have never attended school that day at all. The bus driver stated they never saw Lamar that morning. That weekend, police search nearby creek beds and fields. Police dogs were also used in an attempt to track Lamar’s*movements*that morning, but they lost her scent at her driveway. On Sunday, police found her cell phone in a field a few miles from her home by tracking its electronic ping. They are now looking at the phone’s contents as well as her laptop. Her Twitter and Facebook accounts have not been used since the day she went missing. On Tuesday, police went door to door in Lamar’s neighborhood and are checking*up on 276 registered offenders in the area. Her father,*Steve Lamar, has a sex crime conviction but been*cleared in his daughter’s disappearance. Later that evening,*400 people gathered to attend a candlelight vigil for the teen. Police have the case listed as a missing person, not an abduction, but her sister says there’s no way her sister ran away. “She’s always in contact with family and friends. She wouldn’t leave everyone out of the loop,” Danielle Lamar said. Sierra Lamar is described as 5-feet, 2 inches tall, with brown hair. She was last seen carrying a pink and black purse. Anyone with information about Lamar is being asked to call Santa Clara County communications at (408) 299-2311. They can also contact the sheriff’s investigators at (408) 808-4500 or the anonymous tip line at (408) 808-4431. Tips can also be emailed totips@sheriff.sccgov.org. Gorgeous girl. Thank God my teen daughter was a late-bloomer and looked like this at 15-years-old.*Never worried much about her being abducted, but I did spend an awful lot of time helping her remove ear tags.
This article is from The Dreamin' Demon, the Internet's self-appointed buzzkill.


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[Dakota Valkyrie]

The car that may have been used to abduct 15-year-old Sierra Lamar seven weeks ago was found and is currently in custody, the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office said Tuesday.

The car is a 1990s red Volkswagen Jetta with a black sunroof and black hood, Sheriff's Sgt. Jose Cardoza said.
[...]

Investigators refused to say when or where they found the Jetta. Yesterday, Cardoza said witnesses and video surveillance images helped identify a suspicious car and driver that were in Sierra's neighborhood the morning she disappeared.

Sierra's mother, Marlene LaMar, said the car is the kind of solid lead and glimmer of hope her family has been hoping for.

"I know everybody out there is going to do everything possible to report the sighting of this car," LaMar said.

The mother said she is convinced her daughter is still alive, and she had a direct message for anyone involved with her disappearance.

"I am not looking for trouble or a conviction. I just want - we all want her safe return. We all want this nightmare to end, and that's my plea out there," she said.

Despite Sierra being missing for nearly two months, there are no indications that she is dead, Cardoza said.

On Tuesday, dive teams were searching private ponds and reservoirs in Morgan Hill.

http://www.ksbw.com/news/central-cal...j/-/index.html

[Nell]

She is most likely dead. If she took off on her own she wouldn't leave her cell phone. Damn. I have a 15 year old, dark hair and eyes the same. I saw her in this story. I feel so bad for Sierras mom. I can't imagine her pain.

[Dakota Valkyrie]

A 21-year-old suspect was arrested and charged with one count of murder and one count of kidnapping Monday in connection with the disappearance of Morgan Hill teen Sierra LaMar, according to authorities.

KTVU confirmed Monday evening that Santa Clara sheriff's deputies were holding 21-year-old Antolin Garcia-Torres in custody as a suspect in the case.

Garcia-Torres, a resident of San Martin, is the owner of the red VW Jetta that authorities sought and seized in connection with the case on May 8th.

Garcia-Torres was being questioned about the disappearance of the 15-year old girl from Morgan Hill.

Shortly after 10 p.m. when KTVU broke the story, officials confirmed that Garcia-Torres was booked on one charge of murder and one charge of kidnapping.

At the Santa Clara County sheriff's office Monday night, there were high hopes that the arrest is the break investigators have needed to solve the disappearance of Sierra LaMar.

A KTVU camera crew was at the Safeway store on Tenant Avenue in Morgan Hill at around 6 p.m. when sheriff's detectives took Garcia-Torres, a store employee, into custody.

KTVU followed the detectives to the sheriff's headquarters in San Jose and were outside at around 9 p.m. when detectives took Torres to the main county jail.

Sources tell KTVU detectives questioned Garcia-Torres for two hours about the missing teenager, trying to find out her location.

Authorities were mum when pressed for more details.

Sources said there is some DNA evidence linking Garcia-Torres to the clothing found in Sierra LaMar's backpack.

We have also been told that Garcia-Torres has been under around-the-clock surveillance since he was identified, including at his job and at his San Martin home.

http://www.ktvu.com/news/news/crime-...ar-case/nPBX3/

[Dakota Valkyrie]

The apparent slaying of a 15-year-old South Bay girl was a "purely random" crime committed by a man who did not know the teenager, the Santa Clara County sheriff said Tuesday.

DNA found on discarded clothes belonging to Sierra LaMar linked 21-year-old Antolin Garcia-Torres to the girl's March disappearance and apparent slaying, Sheriff Laurie Smith said at a news conference.

She would not specify the nature of the DNA, but said it was not blood. The girl's body has not been found, but Smith said "direct and circumstantial evidence, including forensic evidence, have contributed to our belief that Sierra is a victim of murder."
[...]

There is "no motive," the sheriff said. "It is my belief that this was purely random. It was an absolute stranger abduction, the worst kind of crime, a stranger abducting a young girl."
[...]

Garcia-Torres attended a Morgan Hill continuation school, Central High School. He lives in a trailer park in the city with his mother, wife and 18-month-old child, neighbors said. Several "Missing" fliers of Sierra are taped around the park, including one on a lamp post 25 yards from Garcia-Torres' home.

The Garcia-Torres property is strewn with garbage, baby strollers and sippy cups.

The suspect's mother, Laura Torres, arrived home from her night shift as a nurse at a convalescent home to find reporters waiting near her trailer.

She said she spoke to her son Monday night and was distraught about his arrest.

"He said, 'Don't worry about me, mom. I am going to be OK,' " Torres said. "I told my son, 'Well, if you didn't do it, you don't have anything to worry about.' "

She added, "He would say, "Mom, I have never seen that lady,' " referring to Sierra.

Torres said her son was "always quiet, always respectful, always close to me. It is unbelievable that this is happening to him. I feel like all of this is wrong. ... What parent wants to believe their son did something wrong?"

Garcia-Torres' father is in jail in Santa Clara County and his brother recently died in Mexico after a life of drinking and drug abuse, Torres said.
[...]

Before moving to the trailer park, Garcia-Torres and his family were thrown out of a Morgan Hill farmhouse in the summer of 2010 for keeping pit bulls on the property and allowing non-tenants to stay there, one of the landlords said. She spoke on condition of anonymity, saying she feared for her safety.

"They were the nightmare that never ended," the landlord said.

Garcia-Torres has a misdemeanor conviction for "interfering with an officer" and a separate felony arrest for assault, for which he was not prosecuted, the sheriff said.

Garcia-Torres is believed to be linked to a 2009 assault in Morgan Hill, Smith said. She did not specify whether that was the case in which he was arrested.
[...]

Smith said Garcia-Torres had been under 24-hour surveillance since March 28, the day she said evidence linked him to Sierra's disappearance. The suspect's mother said he was aware police were following him.

Investigators decided to arrest Garcia-Torres on Monday because they were worried he would notice the officers watching him and flee, said John Hirokawa, the county undersheriff. Investigators had hoped Garcia-Torres would lead them to Sierra's body.
[...]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...BA1P1OLN18.DTL

[AngelFire]

It is unbelievable that this is happening to him.

What's happening to him is peanuts compared to what he did to that pretty teen.

They were the nightmare that never ended," the landlord said.

Wow, sounds like a nice family.

[Dakota Valkyrie]

His arraignment will occur on May 31.

Court records paint a different picture of the man Garcia Torres’ mother and sisters call kind and a good father. A former classmate called Garcia Torres “a sweetheart.”
[...]

Around 6:15 p.m. on May 29, 2009, Morgan Hill police conducted a probation compliance check for a wanted man, Agustin Chavez, who had listed his address as Garcia Torres’ then address: 14245 Llagas Ave., a farmhouse in rural San Martin.
[...]

Once police went inside, four other people were there - including Antolin Garcia Torres, then 18 years old, who came out of a side bedroom and immediately “began yelling profanity at us,” court documents show.

Garcia Torres yelled, “Get out of my house you f----ing pigs!” and continued to yell “Get the f--- out!”

“As he yelled, he postured as if he wanted to physically fight with us,” court documents say. An officer told Garcia Torres to step aside so police could arrest a felon, but Garcia Torres refused and stood in the officer’s path, according to court records.

As Garcia Torres continued to walk in a threatening manner, the officers grabbed his arms in a wrist lock and attempted to escort him outside, but he continued to yell and resist. Once outside, he was placed into handcuffs, though he still yelled profanity and tried on two occasions to stand up, when asked to sit down.
[...]

“(Garcia Torres) said he did not think we handled the situation very well. He stated we had no right to run into his house ... He said police should not be allowed to just run into someone’s residence,” court records show.

At about 7:48 p.m. the same day, Garcia Torres was placed alone in a cell at MHPD, waiting to be transferred to Santa Clara County Main Jail.

While inside, Garcia Torres apparently stuffed an entire roll of toiler paper into the toilet bowl until it was about to overflow, court records show.

When asked to remove it, Garcia Torres did and said he tried to flood the cell because he was bored.

Also while in the cell, Garcia Torres removed his shorts and using the metal rivets on his shorts etched “I seen it” on the bench inside the cell. The graffiti was about 2 inches tall by 20 inches long. After police saw it, he said he was sorry and requested to write an apology letter.

“I’m sorry for what I did by writing ‘I seen it’ on the seet (sic) I was there for a long time and didn’t know what to do I got bored in there,” Garcia Torres wrote.

He was arrested for willfully resisting, delaying and obstructing a peace officer and vandalism (less than $400 in damage.) Both misdemeanors.

Antolin Garcia Torres chose to represent himself in court and waived his right to an attorney. In that document from Aug. 13, 2009, he stated he went to Central Continuation High School but had not graduated and had a job working at Safeway.

He was sentenced to serve five days in jail.
[...]

Garcia Torres was back in handcuffs roughly a year later when he was arrested at the age of 19 for felony battery resulting in serious bodily injury.
[...]

The altercation occurred around 9:20 a.m. at the property in San Martin, which Garcia Torres' mother owned. Garcia Torres was renting the house to his sister and his sister's friend, who had not been able to pay rent. The two claimed to have made an agreement with Garcia Torres, which would have given the tenants more time before moving out, according to court documents.

Garcia Torres, however, became “frustrated” with the tenants. He removed the air conditioning unit from the home and threw it through one of the windows the morning of June 16, 2010, according to court documents. He then told the tenants they had two hours to move out, reports state. When his sisters’ roommate asked Garcia Torres for more time, Garcia Torres replied “get the (expletive) out. You're pissing me off,” according to the police report.

A brawl ensued between Garcia Torres and the roommate. Garcia Torres later justified his hurry to get the tenants off the property by explaining to police he had a baby on the way, and didn’t “want no tweakers around,” according to the report.

Police reports state Garcia Torres threw the first punch and hit the victim multiple times. The scuffle caused the victim to suffer nausea, vomiting and a laceration that required multiple stitches, according to court documents.

Garcia Torres was arrested, slapped with a $25,000 bail, served five days in jail and was ordered to take a 16-week parenting and anger management class after being convicted on a misdemeanor charge for battery.
[...]

Garcia Torres’ arrest in 2009 and 2011 are unrelated to a third assault in which Garcia Torres has been implicated. Authorities also believe Garcia Torres was the suspect in at least one event in a string of attempted assaults on women in the parking lots of both Safeway grocery stores in Morgan Hill in March 2009, Sheriff Laurie Smith said.

In those incidents, a man approached three different women at night as they were entering their parked vehicles, or while they were sitting in the cars by themselves preparing to drive away. In one incident the suspect used a stun gun to attempt to subdue a woman after he entered her vehicle through the rear passenger's door.

In another, he entered an 18-year-old woman's vehicle in a similar fashion, and when the woman grabbed a pocket knife to try to defend herself he grabbed her hand that was holding the knife and placed it close to her throat, police said.

In all three incidents the suspect was frightened away by the screaming victims or passersby, and was unable to inflict serious injuries or assault, police said.

http://www.gilroydispatch.com/news/c...9bb30f31a.html

[malq]

I suppose rape charges will be pending if they can prove he raped her. Why else would he kidnap her and then have to kill her?

[Dakota Valkyrie]

The Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office is now only going to conduct searches for missing Morgan Hill teen Sierra LaMar based on tips or new evidence in the case. Authorities have conducted an exhaustive search effort since Sierra disappeared on March 16th.

Sergeant Jose Cardoza says tips spiked following the arrest of the suspect accused of murdering LaMar. He says they have averaged 20 to 30 tips a day. To date, they have received more than 2,000 tips.
[...]

The Sheriff's Office dive team has searched more than 40 bodies of water for Lamar, some several times.

Meanwhile, two more volunteer searches for LaMar are scheduled this week. The KlaasKids Foundation has organized the searches for Wednesday and Saturday between 8am and 1pm.

http://kliv.com/Policy-changes-for-L...earch/13335655

[Dakota Valkyrie]

Santa Clara County sheriff's dive team will conduct a re-scan of the Chesbro Reservoir in search of clues in the Sierra LaMar case.

The Morgan Hill teen has been missing since March 16. The reward in the case has been recently increased to $35,000, as well.

The re-scan is not based on tips, according to authorities. The detectives in the case "requested the Dive Team to conduct a re-scan ... with the new Side-Scan Sonar equipment the team recently acquired," according to a release.

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local...159454455.html

[Dakota Valkyrie]

Sick people.

A Monday night Facebook posting in which missing teen Sierra LaMar purportedly pleads for a rescuer was the creation of a prankster who hacked into her account, the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office said.

In the post, a Saratoga address is given, along with the message "please call the police he's coming back."

Investigators confirmed the address is real, albeit an empty lot, but that the rest of the entry is a hoax, sheriff's Sgt. Jose Cardoza said.
[...]

The fakery is the latest instance of someone infiltrating social media and purporting to be the 15-year-old. In the days after her March 16 disappearance from her Morgan Hill-area neighborhood, hackers posted messages from her Twitter account. The culprits in those cases have not been identified.

Cardoza said such acts put an undue strain on investigative resources.

"We have to follow up on each and every tip. Detectives have invested thousands of hours in the case, and so has the community," he said. "It pulls away valuable resources from our main
objective, which is locating Sierra and any other evidence we can find."

http://www.mercurynews.com/sierra-la...-lamar-posting

[Dakota Valkyrie]

Like father, like son???

The father of the man accused of murdering a Morgan Hill teenager appeared in court himself Wednesday. A judge found enough evidence to try Genaro Garcia Fernandez for sexual assault charges. Garcia Fernandez is the father of Antolin Garcia Torres who's charged in the murder of Sierra LaMar.

Garcia Fernandez was arrested last July on numerous counts of sexual child molestation. A little more than nine months later, Sierra disappeared, and now his son is charged with her murder.

Garcia Fernandez is accused of crimes which could send him to prison for the rest of his life. His son is accused of a murder which makes him eligible for the death penalty. The journey of father and son have collided in the court system.

"It sometimes is passed on and sometimes it is not," said Deputy District Attorney Murat Ozgur. "It's one of those things that is very much unpredictable, just like sexual abuse itself."

Prosecutors say Garcia Torres kidnapped and murdered 15-year-old Sierra in March. His father is now accused of crimes that date back decades. Investigators arrested Garcia Fernandez last year for raping and sexually molesting a family member starting in 1990 when she was between the ages of 5 and 14.

A very young Garcia Torres heard about the accusations during a family confrontation when the abuse was happening, but at the time, Garcia Fernandez denied everything by swearing on a Bible before his family.

Ozgur says abusers are often convincing. "They will swear to God, they will swear on their family, they will swear on their mother, they will swear on everything, and that denial is very, very common," he said.

Detectives say last year, Garcia Fernandez confessed to the crimes in a recorded phone conversation and even wrote a letter of apology to his victim. In powerful testimony Wednesday, the now-adult woman said she came forward last year because she was afraid another generation of young girls in the family could become victims as well.

"They have now a new family member that may be exposed to this risk that oftentimes does trigger a disclosure," said Ozgur.

The judge ordered Garcia Fernandez to be held to answer on 25 counts of child molestation, including seven counts of raping a young girl.

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?sec...bay&id=8733195

[Dakota Valkyrie]

Sierra LaMar suspect's father convicted of child molestation

After deliberating for two days, a jury on Wednesday convicted the father of teenager Sierra LaMar's suspected killer for sexually molesting a female relative when she was a child, including repeatedly raping her starting when she was just 7.

The case against Genaro Garcia Fernandez, 51, offered a glimpse into the dysfunctional childhood of his son, Antolin Garcia-Torres, who is charged with kidnapping and killing LaMar, 15.

Fernandez's victim testified he first fondled her when she was 4 years old -- in the same small San Martin home where his son, Garcia-Torres, grew up. Fernandez confessed in a phone call recorded by police and wrote a letter of apology to the young woman.

He was charged with 18 felony counts involving two victims. The jury found him guilty of 17 counts against the primary victim. But it acquitted him of one count of molesting another child, meaning the multiple victim allegation also doesn't stand.

He faces a life sentence after the jury of 10 women and two men found him guilty.

His son would also face a life sentence if he is convicted. LaMar disappeared from Morgan Hill on March 16. Her body has never been found. But her DNA was in Garcia-Torres' car.
[...]

Garcia-Torres' family background may ultimately be seen as grounds for sympathy or merely as the pathological root of his suspected criminality. But his father's case helps illuminate what life was like in the family home where Garcia-Torres was raised.

According to court documents, Fernandez was convicted during the 1980s of vehicular manslaughter while under the influence of alcohol. It was unclear Tuesday how much time he served in prison away from his family.

The female relative who claims Fernandez molested her for years came forward last summer, about 11 months before Garcia-Torres was arrested on suspicion of killing the Morgan Hill teen. The molestation charges against Fernandez were also filed well before his son was arrested.

The young woman reported the abuse to protect her own children after living for years with an unbearable secret that poisoned her childhood.

Prosecutor Murat Ozgur said Fernandez eventually apologized to the young woman, but essentially claimed it was her fault.

"He explained, she wanted it, she liked it, " Ozgur told an attentive jury of 10 women and two men. "He claimed he didn't take her virginity."

According to the prosecutor's translation of the letter Fernandez wrote in Spanish, Garcia-Torres' father also said, "You know we did have sex, but it was for the pleasure of the two."

The case was so strong against Fernandez that his defense attorney, Thompson Sharkey, did not put any witnesses on the stand or make an opening statement.

During the trial, witnesses testified that the 5-feet-4-inch Fernandez ruled his house with an iron hand.

"He hit me, " his wife Laura Torres tearfully testified, "a lot."

Speaking in a monotone that belied the gravity of her words, the second accuser said she once saw Fernandez whip the other victim with a "cord." She also said the primary victim would basically barricade her bedroom by pulling out the drawers of a bureau to block the entryway.

When she was 5 years old, the primary victim first reported that Fernandez had been touching her inappropriately.

"When I confronted her father, he said she had been swinging outside on the swing and maybe just had a rash, "on her bottom," Torres testified.

But she remained mistrustful, recalling one incident when she came home to a terrified little girl. Fernandez's wife said she was so suspicious, she finally took out a figurine of Christ and asked her husband to speak the truth.

"He swore to me by Christ and his mother he had never touched her," Torres said.

But her worries didn't disappear entirely, especially after her husband became inexplicably enraged when the accuser -- by then a teenager -- went out on a date.

When Torres tried to reassure him teen dating was normal, "He would tell me what I wanted was for her to be a whore like I was."

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-...onvicted-child

[Dakota Valkyrie]

The man accused of killing Morgan Hill teenager Sierra LaMar has been charged with trying to kidnap three other victims during three separate carjackings.

Authorities learned of the previous incidents dating back to 2009 while investigating LaMar's March 16 disappearance.

Antolin Garcia Torres, now 21, was 17 at the time. But a juvenile court judge has granted the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office permission to charge him as an adult.

Two of the incidents took place on March 19, 2009, one of which involved a stun gun, sources said. The other incident occurred a few days later, on March 26, 2009. Investigators previously said they were looking into whether Garcia Torres -- who once worked at Safeway -- was behind attacks at Safeway stores in the Morgan Hill area in March 2009.

Those three 2009 attacks made some residents afraid to to go to the grocery store and led police to issue automated phone alerts to keep residents up to date.
[...]

Garcia Torres' DNA was discovered on Sierra's clothes that were found discarded in a field not far from the bus stop. Sierra's DNA was found in the suspect's red Volkswagen Jetta. He was arrested in May.

Prosecutors are still weighing whether to seek the death penalty if Garcia Torres is convicted of LaMar's murder. Technically, with the additional charges, an extra 14 years and eight months would be appended to either the death sentence or life without the possibility of parole.

Nearly six months after his arrest, Torres still has not entered a plea to the charges, which is not unusual in a case of this magnitude. He is expected to be arraigned December 10.

http://www.mercurynews.com/crime-cou...ed-kidnappings