This week on See No Evil, the team travels to California to investigate the disappearance in 2012 of schoolgirl Sierra LaMar who vanished one morning as she walked towards the school bus. Five years later, a jury convicted Antolin Garcia-Torres of her murder.
On March 16, 2012, 15-year-old Sierra LaMar left her home in Morgan Hill, California, to take the bus to high school. She never made it to the bus or school, and she has not been heard from ever since. No remains have ever been found, and she is presumed dead.
However, after two months of searching for Sierra without success, the police made an arrest. They suspected Garcia-Torres of abducting Sierra for sexual gratification and of then murdering the teen.
Sierra’s DNA was discovered in various spots of Garcia-Torres’s car, and a strand of her hair was found on a rope in his trunk. And when her pants were found abandoned in a field, his DNA was on them as well.
Garcia-Torres incriminated himself when officers told him they’d found his DNA on Sierra’s clothing. He said to them, “I like masturbating, so, ha, that’s it,” he further explained that he must have masturbated into a tissue before dropping it into the dirt from his car window. The police hadn’t even mentioned that the DNA found was from semen.
Antolin Garcia-Torres had previously attempted kidnapping
The police also implicated him in the attempted kidnapping of three women from a grocery store parking lot in 2009. His fingerprint was discovered on a battery from a stun gun dropped from one of his victims.
Prosecutors would later tell a jury that Garcia-Torres used these attempted kidnappings as a training ground for his abduction of Sierra. They also said he’d offend again if released.
Watch the Latest on our YouTube ChannelIn June 2017, a jury in Santa Clara County Superior Court convicted Antolin Garcia-Torres of second-degree murder and sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Prosecutors had pushed for the death penalty, but the lack of Sierra’s remains and murder weapon combined with no witness statements meant that the evidence was mostly circumstantial, this made the death penalty unlikely to be used in this case.
More from See No Evil
Follow the links to read about more murders profiled on See No Evil.
Christopher Whitaker abducted, raped, and murdered 14-year-old Alianna DeFrezze as she made her way to school. Investigators caught up to Whitaker because he left his DNA, fingerprints, and a blood shoe print at the crime scene.
Previously on See No Evil, Michael Russo had been harassing staff members at his local 7-Eleven store for some time. Then in 2015, he entered the store and shot dead 18-year-old store clerk Kyle Farishian before attempting to set the premises on fire.
See No Evil airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on Investigation Discovery.
Sir you have it wrong he got convicted for First Degree Murder for Sierra LaMar. He was eligible for the death penalty and at the sentencing phase the jury gave hm Life Without Parole. If it wasn’ for 1 juror he would have gotten death penalty
I am so sorry for the loss of sierra Lamar. Just watching the story on TV about her, What an angel to be taken too soon.
I couldn’t agree more; it’s truly a tragedy to learn of the horrible fate Mr. Garcia-Torture cursed her with. Sierra seemed like such a sweet innocent girl & was the same age as my son & daughter at the time. I can’t begin to fathom how I’d cope with such a loss without wanting revenge.
It just underscores the sad fact that psychopathic predators can be anywhere, no matter how good a community or neighborhood one lives in. I certainly hope Mr. G-T deservedly enjoys regular visits from Karma during his extended penal vacation from free & civil society.
He should have been executed. Anything else isn’t enough.