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Mother and officials hoping to find answers in teens death!
By Deborah Knapp
Kens 5 Eyewitness News
At this hour, emails are circulating around the country from
a San Antonio mother on a mission. She is searching for her daughter's killer. Emily Garcia was found murdered 10 years ago,
but her mother and police feel this cold case can be cracked with just one call.
If you have any information on Emily Garcias death, please
call the Comal County Sheriff's Department at 830-620-3400. (830) 620-3400.
It was a February day in 1993 when Sheila Smith-Ramirez put
her daughter on a city bus for some medical tests after the teen and her family learned she was pregnant. I never heard from
Emily again. As the mother searched for her daughter, a body was found in Comal County, but no one made the connection between
the murdered 15-year-old and the one listed as Jane Doe.
On the one-year anniversary of Emilys death, a television
report aired a picture of a tattoo on Jane Doe's hand. Smith recognized the tattoo and took her daughters fingerprint card
to the Comal County Sheriff's Office.
For the past 10 years, police have had this case, but they
haven't found the killer. All this time Emily's mother has lived in agony. I can't get on with my life, she said. You can't
have peace, you can't concentrate. I just haven't' been able to function. Last month Smith moved in with her sister and now
they work the computer looking for leads. They've contacted a lot of Texas and out-of-state police agencies and parents of
murdered children, "to see if other mothers have similar cases", Smith said. Smith sister Theresa Yeary added: Maybe after
all these years the guilt alone that they haven't talked or something will bring us some answers. Two weeks ago Smith received
Emily's autopsy report containing this picture. It confirmed the teen was strangled and sexually assaulted. After reading
the brutal details of her daughters death, Smith is more determined than ever to finding Emily's killer. She feels she is
not alone on this mission. She feels Emily's presence. I feel she's the one pushing this right now. I really feel she's helping
us with this. At the Comal County Sheriff's Office, the file on this case sits on the corner of Sgt. Tommy Ward's desk. This
is where it's been every day since he took over the case eight years ago. He thinks the time is right for a break.
Somebody knows who did this. Somebody knows Emily Garcia.
Someone has some info on the person who killed her, he said. Ward is hoping for that one call, but he does have something
more. He has a DNA sample.
When Emily was killed, the technology was not there to analyze
it, Ward said. He recently resubmitted the evidence. We got some DNA results back. However, right now those results
are not far enough advanced. It will catch up. Technology is improving every single day especially. In this forensic work.
One day I'll put someone in jail for killing Emily Garcia.
Police also are investigating a possible connection to another
unsolved child murder. Eleven-year-old Heidi Seeman was murdered two-and-a-half years before Emily. Both girls were last seen
in north San Antonio. Their bodies were found within five miles of each other in Comal and Hays counties. There are some other
similarities that police are keeping confidential.
If you have any information on Emily Garcia or her death,
please call the Comal County Sheriff's Department at 830-620-3400. | 
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