Tony Garcia, a 68-year-old Navy veteran and karate instructor in the Southern California city of Oxnard, has been charged in two cold case murders from 1981. Garcia, who investigators say was “hiding in plain sight,” is accused of strangling two women, Rachel Zendejas and Lisa Gondek, and sexually assaulting Zendejas. Investigators believe Zendejas, a 20-year-old mother of two, was accosted in the middle of the night on the way to her car after driving her children’s babysitters home. Eleven months later, Gondek, 21 at the time, was found dead in her bathtub after a night out with friends. Detectives say they finally cracked the two homicides using a technique called “genetic genealogy,” which enables investigators to employ DNA evidence to map out family histories. “Two generations of detectives have been working on this case,” Oxnard Police Chief Jason Benitez said. “We’ve been familiar with this case for many years and are glad to see it closed.”
Read it at Los Angeles TimesncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tbTEnZiipKmXsqK%2F02eaqKVfmK6ttcWoqaehkWK4or7ArZxmoZ6owbPBwq2mq2WkpLu6ecaaqZyhkWKwqa3RoJydZZmjerXDzmZocnBhYrCwuMNmmpqrlWK6tr7Dnqms