VENTURA, Calif. — A man in Southern California has allegedly been linked to two cold case murders in 1981 by DNA, officials say.
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In a news release, Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko said that Tony Garcia, 68, has been charged with first-degree murder for the 1981 cold case murders of Rachel Zendejas and Lisa Gondek.
Garcia is accused of kidnapping, raping, and strangling Zendejas, 20, in Camarillo, California, in Jan. 1981 and stringing Gondek in Oxnard, California, in Dec. 1981, according to CBS News.
Zendajas was reportedly found dead in a carport and Gondek was found dead in a bathtub after an apartment fire, authorities said, according to CBS News.
Both Zendejas and Gondek’s cases went cold for about 40 years until DNA analysis linked Garcia to the murders, the DA’s office said.
The Ventura County Sheriff’s Office in a news release said that in 2004 the Ventura County Sheriff’s Forensic Laboratory linked Zendejas and Gondek’s cases to the same suspect with DNA. That DNA was entered in CODIS but had no hits for years.
The Ventura County Sheriff’s Cold Case Unit reopened the two cases and through the investigation, investigators were able to identify Garcia as a possible suspect, authorities say. DNA analysis confirmed that Garcia was the suspect.
Garcia was arrested on Feb. 7, 2023, and his bail was set at $2 million, according to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office.
“After more than four decades, justice is finally coming to the families of Rachel Zendejas and Lisa Gondek,” said Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko in the news release. “As this case demonstrates, murder charges can be brought at any time and there is no statute of limitations for homicides. We thank the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office, the District Attorney’s Bureau of Investigation, and the Oxnard Police Department for never giving up on finding Rachel and Lisa’s killer.”
Garcia is expected to be arraigned on Feb. 23. He is currently being held without bail, according to the DA’s office.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Ventura County Sheriff’s Office Major Crimes Bureau by phone at 805-383-8704 or by email at coldcase@ventura.org.
No further information has been released.