Mario Garcia

My recent television kick is watching old episodes of 48 Hours and Dateline. As is customary for me I often do a search on the case while I am watching the show. Most of these that I have watched recently are ones that I have seen in the past and some were already on my list, while others made their way to that ever growing list of cases to look over. I had seen this particular case more than once in the past but when I looked if there were any updates I was pleasantly surprised that there had been and some were rather recent.

On the night of October 5, 2005 twenty-seven year old Christie Wilson disappeared after leaving a casino in Lincoln California. She was seen on surveillance video leaving the casino next to another man. Police were able to go back to the casino and were able to identify the man as fifty-three year old Mario Garcia. The video footage had shown Christie and Mario walking out of the building towards the parking lot. At one point Garcia attempted to put his arm around Christie but she had flinched away. The camera did not show enough of the parking lot to see what may, or may not have occurred there but they did see Garcia's car leave the lot while Christie's car did not. The video was too grainy to determine for sure if there was anyone else in his car with him at the time he left the parking lot. When investigators talked to Garcia he would maintain that the two parted ways in the parking lot and he had not seen her again.

Authorities were not convinced that Garcia was telling the truth partly by the fact that when they interviewed him he had scratches on his face and chest. They got a search warrant for his vehicle. Inside his car they would find hair and small traces of blood that would be determined to belong to Christie. Three weeks after her disappearance, despite not having a confession, or even a body, Mario Garcia was arrested and charged with murder.

Garcia's trial took place in Sacramento. Prosecutors showed the jury the video and the evidence they had found in Garcia's car. The jury would also learn that Garcia had a history of violence against women. The prosecutor also let the jury know that people from the casino and apparently others testified that on the night that Christie disappeared Garcia did not have the scratches, but they had appeared just after. He would claim they came from a fall but a medical expert claimed the injuries were not consistent with his story. Garcia's computer was searched and there were searches made such as “rape drug screening,” “blood typing,” and “forensic toxicology.”

The defense, and Garcia steadfastly clung to the idea that he and Christie parted ways in the casino parking lot and kept pointing a finger at Christie's boyfriend, Daniel Burlando. Christie and Daniel did apparently have some relationship issues but he was quickly ruled out as a suspect. Last ditch efforts were made to claim that since her body had not been found that Christie was still alive.

After a two month trial, in late 2006 Mario Garcia was found guilty of first degree murder. This was the first time a conviction had occurred in this county without a body. It is unclear if it was the first time someone had been tried without a body. In January of 2006 he was given a sentence of fifty-nine years to life. He still clung to his innocence. Many of the television shows about this case interviewed him and he continually professed that he was not involved and still pushed the idea that Daniel Burlando was the true perpetrator.

Over the years Garcia made several appeal attempts but they all failed. Sometime in 2017 Christie's mother, Debbie Boyd, decided she wanted to reach out to Garcia just to see if time had softened him and if he would reveal the location of her daughters body. It was said that through their correspondence Garcia indicated that he would be willing to give her information if it meant he could be released early from prison. Debbie Boyd decided that while she wanted to find her daughters body she was not willing to allow her murderer to get reduced time and she stopped speaking with him.

This next issue is a bit confusing. What I can say is that at some point Garcia's son, Kris, contacted authorities. What I cannot say is whether that occurred in 2017 or in 2020. At the time of Christie's disappearance/presumed murder the Garcia family lived on 4.6 acres of property. There were indications that this property was searched several times over the years. But, Kris had more information. He told authorities that after Christie's disappearance his father was acting “odd” and had spent many house in the backyard of the home digging with a tractor. He pointed out two areas for investigators to look at in his former backyard. The confusion is based on whether in 2017 they searched those areas based on the information Kris provided or whether they had simply done a search in 2017. However, in August of 2020 authorities searched the area again and it is indicated the two places Kris mentioned were looked into, hence why it appears he may have just come forward. Fairly quickly investigators found skeletal remains. It was later determined to be the remains belonging to Christie. Kris has been given credit in leading investigators to the remains, which again leaves confusion on when this all occurred. Due to the fact that her body had been in the ground for fifteen years an autopsy could not determine a cause of death. It was able to show that both her hand and her nose had been broken.

There were reports that at some point, and I have to guess that it was after Christie's remains were found, that Garcia confessed. However, I found nothing for sure on this. On December 24, 2020 Mario Garcia died in prison. Most reports say that he died after contracting COVID-19 where a few others simply say pneumonia was his cause of death. In my opinion it could not have happened at a better time. By this time Christie had been found and the fact that she was found on his previously owned property left no doubts that he killed her and he had lied for more than a decade. In a span of less than six months Christie's family was able to finally find her and give her a proper burial, knew without a doubt that Mario Garcia was her murderer and saw that murderer die in prison.