The Search for Christie Wilson | Full Episode | Forensic Files

[Music] chrisy and I we were young we were happy we were enjoying our lives I never
really thought anything like this would have happened to Christie your best friend is
missing how could you be missing we were just gamblers at the casino having a good time with other people the
last we know is we see her walking out of uh Thunder Valley Casino at 1:13 in the morning on October 5th with a man by
the name of Mario Garcia and then she was never seen or nor heard from again do you remember the first time
that you saw the V video of Christy walking out with him I absolutely remember that she moved away she moved
away from him look at that yeah I still remember her arm going like this and off
me now surveillance cameras have captured her leaving the casino with an older man her family is understandably
frantic and her parents Pat Debbie and Pat have been beacons of Hope in this situation they have endured the
unimaginable of not knowing where your daughter is Debbie turned that pain into passion I want my daughter back and I
want her back now I may be 5'1 and blonde but they've just met a barracuda and the fight's on I'm just going to ask
you straight out did you kill Christy Wilson no I had nothing to do with her disappearance all right I think he
thought he was going to beat the case the entire time he figed no body less evidence I can walk away from this he
never never thought he was going to be convicted guilty of a violation and when he was convicted and
went to prison he still had a piece of information and everyone wanted it and he knew
it was she in an ocean was she in a ditch for 15 years I never went to bed without wondering where is she where did
Mario Garcia put her we got some campgrounds here you'll have campgrounds on the other side
too what happened to her Mario How Could she simply disappear after she was with
you I don't have answers for that real hurts our feet how long have you been looking for
Christy Wilson since October of uh 2005 we' pretty much have been continuing to look for her even after they knew she
wasn't coming back alive they kept looking even after Mr Garcia was convicted they kept looking it was
important to finally close the case and work on remembering Christie for the beautiful person she was and not a case
we needed to take the mystery out of this for for Debbie and her family we wanted to find her to show Mario you're
not going to win you're not winning this and we're going to find her and bring her home to the
[Music] family [Music] [Music] Christin and I were definitely Soul Sisters for sure we grew up together in
school and just loved pretty much doing everything together Tiffany de says her best friend
Christy Wilson just had a knack for making her laugh I picture her in our front room
just dancing and laughing and having so much fun I could be having the worst day
and she would always be there for me we always knew that no matter what we were there for each
other but Tiffany was not with christe in the early morning hours of October 5th 2005 that's when a surveillance
camera in a California Casino captured Christy walking into a parking lot with a man she met that
night that was really scary because we didn't know where she was or if she could be alive
Christy was then only 27 years old her mother Debbie boy can hardly believe how much time has passed you know I I try
not to think of it too much because it actually kind of takes me to a very sad place since the moment Christy vanished
Debbie vowed not to rest until she knew what Christy's killer had done with her body I'm her mother forever and I was
not going to give up please help us 48 Hours has been covering the Christy Wilson case since 2006 Christy and Mario
come out here it began like so many of these stories do with a concerned boyfriend telling authorities that his
girlfriend had gone missing I loved her and I know she loved me we cared about each other very
much on the evening of October 4th 2005 Christy's boyfriend Danny berlando says she went to the Thunder Valley Casino to
play Black Jack did it surprise you to hear she had been at a casino that night you know it
it didn't um because recently she um she had been telling me she'd been you know
playing some Blackjack back in 2005 Tiffany D was a young newlywed she's thought about why
christe left the casino that night with a stranger and she has a theory sometimes I think well what if you know
someone put something in her drink Debbie was aware her daughter had begun gambling partly because she was between
jobs and low on money her boyfriend Danny felt Christy was gambling too much when's the last time you actually
talked to her at 10:28 p.m Tuesday October 4th we had a 55c conversation this is the actual Casino
video of Christy taking that call I told her to come home and and she was like okay I'm finishing up I'll be home soon
but when Danny awoke there was no sign of christe he began leaving dozens of desperate messages on Christy's cell
phone qu after 10 on Wednesday it's now been 24 hours since I talked to you last
and I'm worried sick about you please call me if you're okay call me if you're not okay call me let me know what's
going on Danny filed a missing person's report investigator Don merchon interviewed Bando back in 2005 and says
Dany was very Cooperative anything that I wanted from him when I was at that residence he
allowed me to have merchon says investigators soon found their Prime Suspect when that casino video surfaced
they were able to track down a 53-year-old man named Mario Garcia by his Player's Casino Card sheriff's
deputies arrested and held him on a weapons charge christe Wilson came and sat on my left between me and another
individual in 2006 Mario Garcia told 48 Hours what he says happened in the hours
before Christy disappeared we were at that table for a period of time until that table got hot
she asked me hey you want to go with me to another table and I said sure their night of gambling ended just past 1:00
a.m. Wednesday October 5th Garcia claimed that he ined Christy walked to his car and then went their separate
ways and he suggested that Christy may have met someone in the parking lot but wouldn't that be seen on camera well
they don't see that she got in my car do they they don't see where she went correct some 3 minutes and 41 seconds
later Garcia's car reappears on the cameras and it looks as though he's the only one
inside she hasn't called any family any friends all the way up here investigations Commander George maem
helped coordinate a massive search for Christie through the rugged and varied terrain of pler County we utilized
search and rescue people in their vehicles and they drove every road that they could every driveway look then
every cul that and still nothing was found among the Searchers was Christy's heartbroken an older sister Stacy you
want to hear details but you don't it's just I get this image in my head of God what she must have been going through
and the physical searches turned up nothing but then investigators began looking into Mario Garcia's past and
what they found was chilling you don't cross Mario you don't cross him especially if
you're a woman and you're alone you don't you don't cross him even though Mario Garcia was the
last person seen with Christy Wilson to some he appeared an unlikely murder suspect he was a project manager for a
local hospital married with two teenage boys I am and I have been happily married your husband is your
destiny and with him I have that feeling I just have that connection Garcia's wife Jean defended
him he is a family man if he's not working we will take the kids for sports and his son Chris then 19 said he's a
great dad he was always there for us you know he'd always come home make sure you
know we all sit at the table we're just a good family the family lived in a house on five beautiful acres in Auburn
California Gold Country with Mario I always feel good about him but investigators were not about to take
Jean's word for it 4 days after Chrissy disappeared they went to Garcia's home to questioned him and ran a criminal
background check and that's how they found Wendy Ward a woman from Garcia's past when I first met him I found him to
be very uh intelligent very articulate very warm Wendy Ward met Garcia in 1978 near
Oakland when she was 26 and he was 27 and they began dating I would say a very supportive
person it felt like he cared a lot but Wendy says he also had a temper and he reached a boiling point after she ended
the relationship he grabbed her one night and drove off with her in his van he was holding my neck or he was holding
my head and he says if you do anything you do anything I will take your head and I will smash it I think he said to
me take off your clothes or or something like that and I I said no I just was claing scratching whatever I could do
then he started to choke me I couldn't I couldn't breathe I couldn't breathe did
you think you were going to die I did I really did she says he raped her and then took
her back to his apartment he pulled a gun out of his cabinet and he held it to my head then he pulled the trigger he
says well it wasn't loaded this time but basically I can come and get you anytime
I want Wendy says he raped her again and then he casually made himself a sandwich
ate it and drove her home I'm surprised that I actually am alive I I'm very lucky Wendy immediately went to the
hospital and police arrested Garcia but the court case stalled for 2 years before prosecutors offered him a deal I
figured it's better than nothing and let's do this and then let's move on Garcia agreed to plead guilty to one
count of assault with a deadly weapon and was sentenced to 18 months probation Believe It or Not Garcia says he's the
one who has railroaded she made allegations that were not true there was a gun involved
wasn't there there was no gun involved you plag guilty to assault with a deadly weapon and there was no gun involved you
just I guilty I possessed guns but there was no we had a stormy relationship when you
say stormy relationship did you hit her no I did not Wendy never forgot about Garcia but she moved on until October
2005 not long after Christy went missing when she was tracked down by detective merchon and when you heard that Christy
Wilson disappeared and the last person to see her alive was Mario Garcia what was your
reaction I felt sick to my stomach Wendy told merchison what happened with Garcia
and she said there was something else about Garcia they needed to know I felt after my own incident with him that he
could very easily do this again with someone else it wasn't long before something
terrible involving Mario Garcia happened again my uh younger sister and I were were Pals they were friends she was a
lot of fun to be around she was very outgoing Tom Davis's sister Lynette dated Mario Garcia after Wendy in
1979 it too was a volatile relationship and Garcia was upset with Lynette because she ended a pregnancy with his
child but the couples still celebrated Christmas with lynnette's Mother after dinner the three of them
got into lynnette's car the streets were dry weather was clear retired officer John cave was the
chief accident investigator for the Oakland Police Department that Christmas night he got a
call that a car had plunged into the water near the Oakland Airport the witnesses said the car pulled over to
the right shoulder they drove by the car accelerated and there was a ledge like the end of the pier and the car shot off
that ledge out in the water and that's where it [Music] sunk Garcia was the only
Survivor I panick and eventually I took my seat Bel and I opened one of the windows
all this Rush of water came into the car I got out and everybody else I presume get
out he told police Lynette was driving but they couldn't confirm who was behind the wheel if in fact Mario Garcia was
the driver and he intended to kill Lynette and her mother I mean it's not a very efficient way to get rid of
somebody is it it worked didn't it and if he was a driver he got away with it cave wanted to question Garcia further
but Garcia got a lawyer the next day why if it was just a simple accident would you not talk to the police and would you
hire a criminal lawyer is is the thing to do it's the legal right of every citizen of the
United States and my attorney advised me not to talk to them after the accident a heartbroken
Tom reached out to an old friend from his hometown incredibly it was Wendy Ward as
they talked she asked how his sister was doing I said yeah she was killed uh in a
car accident involved with this guy named Mario Garcia Mario Garcia it goes beyond
disbelief she says I used to date him I was involved with him I have rape charges again against
him no charges were ever filed against Garcia for Lynette and her mother's deaths but Debbie Boyd had heard all she
needed to about Mario Garcia you're not fooling anybody and especially not me and I will continue to pursue you and
pursue you and pursue you after 3 weeks of searching plaster County authorities made a tough decision
to charge Mario Garcia with Christy's murder even though they hadn't found her body her mother Debbie Boyd worried
there wasn't enough evidence the thought of him getting off on this case once again scares a live in daylight side me
for every woman it was a large case to put together Garen hores the plaster County Deputy District Attorney at the
time had the unenviable task of Prosecuting the County's first nobody murder trial in September 2006 so what
do you believe happened to Christy Wilson she went out of the casino with the defendant at some point in the vehicle
at the casino he incapacitated her he was probably putting her in the back seat um so that when he drove away
nobody would see as far as what he did afterwards that's anybody's guess was she in your car no she never was inside
my car at some point in time she says that she left her cell phone in the casino and we embraced and that that was
the end of the conversation investigators did later find Christy's phone in the casino but there's no
footage of her returning to at it and no footage of Christy getting into Mario's
car but horse says the evidence proves that Christy was inside the vehicle one of Christy's pulled hairs was found in
that trunk crime scene investigators also found tiny drops of her blood on the back seat and the door why is it that
the DNA on the door claimed to be of Christy Wilson was the only thing that was found why is it that the DNA from my
son's my wife and other people that were in the car were not found by your own admission you cleaned the car I've
cleaned everybody else's DNA except Christy Wilson that's the only thing they found
so how did it get there what's your reaction when the defense insinuates that was planted it greatly angers me
they couldn't defend what was there so they had to say it was [Music] planted the prosecution says the
evidence that incriminates Garcia is as plain as the scratches on his face and his body left by Christy as she fought
for her life did you get the scratches from Christy Wilson no absolutely not but the morning after that trip to the
casino several of Garcia's co-workers say they saw scratches on Garcia's face and he visited the eye doctor those are
injuries that I received through poison o and falling from a tree yet Robert Royer an emergency room doctor who sat
at the same table as Garcia at the casino told investigators he could clearly see Garcia's face that night how
far is Mario Garcia from you 2 feet less than a meter did he seem to have any injuries on his face I didn't see any
injuries no and I'm reasonably good at making those kind of observations because that's what I do for a living
why wouldn't the emergency room doctor see those I cannot answer what he saw or didn't see and no one can answer why
chrisy left the casino with Garcia those who knew her had wondered if he had put
something in her drink and the prosecution presents evidence to support that theory a week after christe
disappeared Garcia searched online for information about how authorities test for date rape drugs but when Garcia
takes the stand he insists he's done nothing wrong I wanted to tell the court that I am very sorry that Christa Wilson
is missing but I don't know where she's at the jury doesn't get to hear about Garcia's violent pass even though he
comes face to face with a reminder to show her support Wendy Ward travels to Sacramento to meet Debbie and
christe's family for the first time I couldn't stop hugging her I just wanted to just hold her and hugger and
and all the family they're just going through so much Wendy heads to court with the boyss
for closing arguments where Garcia's lawyers suggests that no one even knows if Christy is dead are you saying that
Christy Wilson may still be alive do we know it she's dead all right the jury concluded would you please hand the
verdicts to the Bay please that it did know we the jury in the above entitled action find the defendant Mario Flavio
Garcia guilty of a [Music] violation absolutely justice has been served it's about
time now if he's any kind of a man he'll tell us where he disposed my [Music] daughter
at Garcia's sentencing in January 2007 the Boyd still held out hope that Garcia would disclose where he left christe's
body in exchange for a lesser sentence I suppose that at this hearing I'm supposed to ask for Mercy for
forgiveness and to show remorse however I will not do such thing I did not kill Christy Wilson I am
[Music] innocent Garcia's sentence 25 years to life is doubled because of his assault
on Wendy when other charges were added his total sentence became 59 Years to Life at this point I I don't ever expect
that he'll disclose what he did with Christie the truth is out there and morio told me that we have to
found Christie and that's only hope he has Jean Garcia did not know that her own family would play a key role in the
search for Christy what do you think happened the night Christy Wilson disappeared see the timeline of her
disappearance on Facebook at 48 hours [Music] Mario Garcia's murder conviction in 2006
was hardly the end of the case for Christie's mother Garcia was sent to prison and the years dragged by but he
refused to say what he did with her body it's been the mystery at the center of this case and it has noded at Deb's Soul
Debbie's forever changed Mario Garcia changed that he changed me the loss of her daughter was crushing but Debbie
knew she couldn't allow Garcia to control her life we made a commitment he is not going to take our marriage he's
not going to take the marriages of our children he's not going to disrupt our jobs we are not giving him anymore that
was not easy as Garcia filed one appeal appeal after another you can't move forward completely when you have all
these appeals you know it's like you move forward five steps and then you're back in it again Pat boy Christy's
stepfather and a former San Jose detective knew the stakes were high cuz it's not like we had a tremendous amount
of evidence a small amount of evidence being lost the case would have been lost the concern is always there for the
appeals but it was not a distraction that it took us away from our our tasks and our mission to try to find Christie
Nuno Tavaris an investigator for the pler County District Attorney's office and fellow investigator Don merchon had
been on the case from the beginning and never let go why is it so important to the two of you to bring her home cu the
family needed her they needed a place where they could go and to spend time with her we wanted to give Debbie and
her family back control up until this point he controled controlled the location of Christy's remains and that
didn't sit well with me they are incredibly dedicated they are very experienced their balance
between Tough Cop and teddy bear is is the appropriate balance plaster County district attorney Morgan Guyer gave Nuno
and merch as Debbie calls them the green light to keep looking for Christie and they Ram with it going to extraordinary
lengths to find her no matter how dirty the job we actually pumped an entire septic
tank out we pumped out the entire 2,000 gallons of sewage and went through it by
hand that is determination first of all good morning and thank you all those searches over all those years turned up
nothing but the investigation entered a new phase in 2017 when Tony Lopez an anchor for the
CBS station in Sacramento conducted an interview with Debbie she directed some carefully chosen words to
Garcia I now view him as a lost soul and that I just often wonder I want him to know that I often
wonder how he ever became the man that he did if Mario were to pass away with me not having had the opportunity to sit
and just talk to him uh I know I would forever regret it Debbie says Garcia spotted that
interview and began writing letters to her and plaster County officials Garcia apologized for what Debbie had gone
through but did not accept responsibility for christe's murder I wanted christe back so bad that
I thought you know what let's see how far this goes Deb had struggled with the idea that you know what what do you
negotiate with a man who has been convicted of the murder of your daughter who knows where she is but ultimately
Debbie changed her mind she could not bring herself to negotiate with Garcia I was sitting there thinking what
on Earth are you doing Debbie get a grip this would be such a disgrace he will not use my daughter's body as a
bargaining chip and we certainly weren't going to agree to let him out in exchange for uh the location of her
remains so really the only option was find her Nuno and merch re approached Garcia's family investigators knew Jean
Garcia had divorced Mario after his conviction she had reached a point where she no longer believed Garcia she said
she was very convinced that Mario had something to do with Chrissy's disappearance and murder the
investigators also reached out to Garcia's Sons Chris and Andy and walked them through the 4 days in
October 2005 after Christy went missing but before police began questioning Garcia what did they see how did their
father behave we went through every day Wednesday Thursday Friday then it got to
Saturday and that's where the story got a little bit interesting Chris had an important soccer game he saw his dad
working on a track working kind of frantically and had kind of a crazed look in his eyes as he was
working around the property and he told Chris I'm not going and it was a very firm I'm not
going Chris found that out of character from Mario the investigators asked Chris to
accompany them back to his childhood home which the family lost in 2007 to pinpoint the spot where he had seen his
father working on the track ctor he said it was right next to our detach garage right along the road it was barely 100
yards from the Garcia house but if he had been digging in that very spot with a tractor just days before deputies
searched the property why hadn't anyone noticed it wasn't just a small area where he had landscaped and there was
Landscaping all over the all over the property you got to remember he has time Mario has four or five days to really
really do this right Mario did a extremely good job making the train uh look like it just fit the area and Nuno
and merch also knew that kadaver dogs had roamed the property back in 2005 and had found nothing cadav dogs are a tool
like any other tool that we use sometimes they work sometimes they don't a year passed and in August
2020 investigators decided they would take another look this time they brought with them a company that's specialized
in ground penetrating radar or GPR nearly the entire 5 Acres were scanned and technicians pinpointed eight spots
where there were voids or Pockets beneath the surface the first two holes produce
nothing you've struck out twice we've been going for a long time three is now my favorite hole it's my favorite
hole because that's where Mario was working that day and how far did you go we started pulling back about 25 ft
pulling just a couple of inches at a time uh went about 18 ft wide and out of the corner of my peripheral I see a bone
popping up out of the ground I was a little bit short of breath I'll tell you that the blood was
rushing and we stopped everything we froze everything it was the Moment of Truth
had Nuno and merch found Christy Wilson buried on what was once Mario Garcia's property Nuno and merch had found what
looked like a human bone but they needed confirmation so they called in archaeologist Cindy Arrington she
immediately told them the bone was human but the detectives weren't convinced he's like you're not close enough I said
oh yes I am and he said get closer so they had me get down in the trench really double check triple check okay
yes it's human human but was it Christies more identification work needed to be done
but finding any human bones on Garcia's property was big news and they immediately shared it with the sheriff
and the DA they came to to the conclusion that we need to get this news to Debbie
quickly and they knew how they needed to get it to her for years Debbie and Wendy
Ward have helped the detectives teach a class for homicide investigators and just two months earlier someone in the
class asked Debbie a question no one had ever asked before Mrs Boyd if your daughter was ever recovered how would
you want to be notified and I just said you know please don't ever just call me on the
phone noo and merch flew to Scottdale Arizona it was nearly midnight when the Boyd's doorbell rang Debbie was asleep
on the couch Pat answered the door he opened up the door and he looked at us and he got a big smile on his face and
he said hi guys how's it going and then you could see him pause and you could see things starting to click the gears
in his head and I got up and I just was in a fog and I looked at them and they said Debbie it's merch it's
Nuno I said what are you doing here so that's when we told her that we had found human remains on maro's property
that we believed we were Christies but we couldn't confirm that I remember her that night saying is
it okay to be happy or joy she kept looking around going is that okay we didn't know whether we should open a
bottle of champagne what there was just a lot of hugs some quietness sometimes just sitting there letting it sink
in Debbie made plans to fly to California to tell her daughter Stacy and before she left for the airport the
next morning Nuno and merch heard that their team had found nearly an entire skeleton and it was definite the bones
were chrisy detectives say they found the remain scene in 2005 in the Killer is already
in custody serving more than 50 years for her murder it was the first days later Debbie shared the news
with the world and made sure to thank Nuno and merch today is a day that absolutely reflects some of the greatest
level of perseverance and police work that a Vic family could ever ask for they brought two people home they
brought my daughter home they brought my wife home you feel that you got Deb back tell me about she can think of more
than just where is christe Chris and Jean didn't want to speak publicly but they're grateful to
have closure for Christy's family and their own Chris Andy Jean they didn't ask to have
a dad and a husband who was a murderer who buried his victim on their property where they lived and played they didn't
ask for that and then there were the other victims of Mario Garcia who were hit hard by Christy's murder like Danny
berlando her boyfriend at the time didn't realize how much i' really been bottled up for 15 years I think I may
have been judged misjudged misunderstood through the process and that didn't really allow me to to grieve
and be a victim in this in this whole thing Wendy Ward was also relieved she knows how lucky she is to have survived
her own encounter with Garcia and has used art to help transform the feelings that she's held on to for all these
years it helped shift those feelings into something positive what came up in me to create that and to survive and to
say no more everyone involved takes Pride that christe was found without making a deal
with Garcia and the discovery lays to rest any doubts about Garcia's guilt I mean there's no greater proof the
autopsy revealed that Christy's hand and nose were broken but it couldn't establish a cause of death do you
believe he strangled her I think that's very likely what what occurred that day but we just don't
know those who loved christe try to focus on the life she [Music] lived her best friend Tiffany D says
she's reminded of Christy by the little thing she loved a song on the radio or the way Christy danced for me christe's
never been completely gone I've been carrying her spirit with me every day Debbie and Christy's father Dennis
had Christy's remains cremated in October 2020 to Mark the anniversary of her death Debbie visited the pier in
Capitola where the family put a plaque many years ago this is a place that Christie just absolutely loved it was
what she called her happy place Debbie says no longer having to wonder where Christy is changes everything we can
grieve the way that we should have been able to grieve 15 years ago there's a piece about
that I was so blessed to be her mom for 27 years and that I will carry with me me
[Music] forever listen to the My Life Of Crime podcast with me Aron Mori know is the Doomsday mom her two
children murdered Lori started referring to her children as zombies inside the lorri bow DeBell trial how the jury
found her guilty 48 Hours next on [Music] CBS

She was last seen leaving a casino. Her killer was convicted without saying where he left her body. Could her mother and investigators team up to find her body 15 years later? "48 Hours" correspondent Erin Moriarty reports. Watch more full episodes of "48 Hours" on Pluto TV.

True crime. Real justice. "48 Hours" investigates the most intriguing crime and justice cases that touch on all areas of the human experience including greed and passion. "48 Hours," which premiered in 1988, has developed a rich history of original reporting and impact journalism that has helped exonerate wrongly convicted people, caused cold cases to be reopened and solved, and along the way changed lives.

Brief Summary

The case of Christy Wilson's disappearance and Mario Garcia's conviction unfolds, revealing years of investigation and emotional turmoil for her family.

Key points

Debbie Boyd's Fight for Justice. Debbie Boyd vows to find her daughter and pursue justice against Mario Garcia.
The Disappearance of Christy Wilson. Christy Wilson goes missing after leaving a casino with a man named Mario Garcia.
Mario Garcia's Conviction. Mario Garcia is convicted of Christy Wilson's murder, but the mystery of her body remains.
The Search for Christy. Investigators go to extraordinary lengths to find Christy, including pumping out a septic tank.
A Breakthrough Discovery. In 2020, investigators find what appears to be human bones on Garcia's property.
Closure for the Family. Debbie receives the news of her daughter's remains being found, leading to mixed emotions.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I want my daughter back and I want her back now.

Debbie Boyd's plea for her missing daughter.

1:32WatchJan 5, 2024

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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