Sierra LaMar Suspect Another John Gardner?

The Sierra LaMar suspect, Antolin Garcia-Torres, appears very similar in many ways to John Gardner, the man accused and convicted of the rapes and murders of Amber Dubois and Chelsea King, which also occurred in California.

Just like the LaMar case, the disappearance of Chelsea King drew national attention. And as the public hoped the missing high school girl would be found alive several years ago, they continue to hope the same now, despite law enforcement's belief that LaMar is dead.

It is a sad, sad time for LaMar's parents, as they hope--like Gardner's victims did--that the suspect will talk and reveal where their loved one can be found.

Will Torres do it? Will he give this family the information they need at a cost to him legally?

Amber Dubois and Chelsea King's parents wanted answers from their daughter's killer too, pleading for those answers themselves.

After Dubois' mother met with Gardner, following his arrest for the Chelsea King murder, she said Gardner admitted forcing her daughter into his vehicle, ABC News reported.

Admitting such things to the victim's family, however, isn't the same as admitting them to police or prosecutors. So it isn't like the Sierra LaMar suspect will start talking out of contrition.

Sheriff Laurie Smith of Santa Clara County believes LaMar's abductor Torres used his red VW Jetta to whisk away the Morgan Hill 15-year-old at the time of her abduction, too, even though Torres is maintaining his silence on the subject.

And the similarities between Antolin Torres and John Gardner don't end there. In fact, just as Gardner was prowling California in mid February of 2009 for a victim, it now appears that so was Antolin Torres, who Sheriff Smith believes found one in March of that year for sure.

Mercury News reported that "Forensic evidence leads investigators to believe Garcia-Torres committed at least one" of the three assaults that occurred in the Morgan Hill area in 2009, according to Smith.

John Gardner enjoyed a similar reprieve from the judicial system prosecutor in an earlier case of his, too, setting the stage for him to reoffend again soon thereafter. And Amber Dubois was the one to pay the price for that mistake.

Comments: 5

Mollee Maines May 23, 2012, 6:50pm UTC

Thinking about the Amber Dubois case, why don't the authorities bring in the same dogs that were able to track Amber some 20+ miles from her home to Pala, Calif. to where she was located? Those dogs were stopped after the first day of worked because they were on the Indian Reservation where laws differ. The dogs ended that day of work less than a half of a mile from where Amber was buried.

So why aren't those dogs not helping Sierra's family to find their beloved daughter? Maybe someone should let the family know about them - this doesn't mean that there is anything wrong with our resources on the west coast - this is just bringing in specialists to help. Each day is agony for this family, and god forbid that Sierra isn't found right off - the family doesn't need to live with the "what ifs" or why they didn't get those other resources in.

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Hillary Hill May 23, 2012, 7:05pm UTC

Thanks for reading and weighing in Mollee. Law enforcement techniques differ between agencies. And how the leadership wants to proceed in one case, based upon information they have and what's worked for them in the past, can differ too. Likewise, if the FBI or other agencies assisting have, for some reason, not wanted to go that route yet, they may now consider it. In addition, sometimes the public doesn't learn things have been tried in such case investigations until everything comes out in court.

Mollee Maines Jun 10, 2012, 10:57pm UTC

Thanks Jane. Normally this is the route that law enforcement use right off as the information that is garnered from what those dogs do, determine what other resources to use, rather than vice versa (using the scent specific trailing dogs after). Thinking about this, it makes sense - think about the areas that have searched now. If the trailing dogs went completely out of that area and trailed "X" amount of miles away, then the area searches would have been done in areas "X" miles away. In other words, the searching that is now being done might be 20 miles away from where Sierra is and without the trailing dogs being used, the searchers chance of finding her, is not very good. It's more of looking at a map and choosing a place that "just looks good" to search.

Hillary Hill Jun 11, 2012, 7:08am UTC

Yes, Mollee, I agree that dogs have been helpful in the past. And at this stage in the investigation I know that they have been used by police in the Sierra LaMar case. For some reason known only to LE, however, they don't feel the dogs are helpful now. It can be a particular LE leader's mindset--or the failure of the dogs used to convince them otherwise.

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Mollee Maines Jun 11, 2012, 9:29am UTC

Yes, I totally agree with you, which is why I prefaced the 'specially-trained-scent-specific trailing dogs' as opposed to the traditional search and rescue trailing dogs which were used early on. The type of dogs that were used on the Amber Dubois case, and dogs like that, are what need to be used now (should have been used earlier on) as unfortunately Sierra has not been located.

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Sierra LaMar Suspect Another John Gardner?

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