Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2017 | 12:24 a.m.
More than two years after Julia Garcia's body was discovered wrapped in plastic table covers and bags in a desert embankment, detectives arrested her daughter and two others for her murder, Metro Police announced Tuesday.
Police utilized phone and Facebook records, along with a forensic examination of computers obtained during the execution of a search warrant to obtain evidence that provided a break in the cold case.
Brenda Garcia, 18, told detectives she recruited her boyfriend, Joseph Sanchez, 19, and her neighbor, Michael Trieb, 19, to kill her parents and that it was part of Sanchez's gang initiation, according to an arrest report.
Sanchez, who also admitted to the crime, told police they had done it so Brenda Garcia could get out of a gang. Trieb said he had initially thought they were playing a prank on someone.
The plan was conceived the night before the Nov. 5, 2014 slaying when the trio gathered in Brenda Garcia's bedroom, police said.
According to the arrest report, Brenda Garcia let Sanchez and Trieb in her house early in the morning and they hid in her upstairs bedroom, one underneath a bed and the other inside a closet. Brenda Garcia momentarily left the house, pretending she was going to school.
The teens waited for Julia Garcia, 41, to be alone and went downstairs to the kitchen to confront her. One of them hit her with a metal pipe and Sanchez stabbed her. When the woman fought back, Sanchez strangled her while Trieb held onto her feet.
Brenda Garcia arrived to find her mother dead, police said. They loaded her into her own car's trunk and took her to a desert area near state Route 147 and Pabco Road.
Sanchez said that at one point, law enforcement was near them while they transported the body, so they decided to drive toward Lake Mead. According to Sanchez, he and Trieb stole money and jewelry from the woman, and were paid $50 each by Brenda Garcia.
The next day, when Julia Garcia's husband reported her missing, Brenda Garcia told him she found an email from the woman. In the email, which was purportedly written by one of the suspects, Julia Garcia allegedly said: "Sweetie, forgive me for leaving like this, but I don't want you all to see me suffer ..."
Julia Garcia's body was found by volunteers searching for another missing woman 10 days after the killing, police said.
The report shows inconsistencies in Brenda Garcia's initial statements to police. More than a year later, police were able to link trash bags found in the house and the ones wrapped around Julia Garcia's body.
The trio, which is expected to appear in court Wednesday morning, admitted to the crimes in the interviews with detectives during their arrest.
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