There is a break in the 9-month-old Colusa County murder case of Karen Garcia on Monday as investigators have found the van they believe her killer escaped in.
Garcia’s body was found in January. The suspect, her ex-boyfriend, has not been seen since the murder.
Officials hope the van will help them track him down.
“I mean, we’re very excited about the van,” friend Linda Quintero said. “Once we find the van, it will lead us to him.”
Friends of Garcia are reacting to the news the van believed to have been stolen by her killer has been found in Mexico.
The 21-year-old’s body was discovered in a car in a Woodland parking lot.
After searching the apartment where Garcia and her boyfriend Salvador Garcia lived in Colusa, investigators immediately determined Salvador was the suspect.
Colusa Police Chief Joshua Fitch says that van is now back in Colusa County after being towed back to Northern California on Friday.
“It was on the Mexican side of the border…is my understanding somewhere near Tijuana,” Fitch said. “It was a small town near Tijuana.”
Fitch says Mexican officials were the ones who found the van with the help of the U.S. marshals.
Interestingly, investigators say the van, although believed stolen, had been sold at some point, possibly by Garcia.
Because when it was located, the van was being driven by somebody else.
“But the person they located in it wasn`t the guy we were looking for,” Fitch said.
Quintero helps run the Justice for Karen Facebook Page.
Quintero says while finding the van is positive, thinking about the fact the suspect is in Mexico brings about other issues.
“We do, we do, we feel in Mexico, it`s such a big country,” Quintero said. “There’s so many different states there. We don`t have a guarantee of where he could be.”
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