Chasing Justice: The Murder Of Christie Wilson

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 did you kill Christy Wilson no I had nothing to do with her disappearance how could she simply disappear after she was with you I don't have answers for that he's a consistent narcissistic manipulator the family of Christy Wilson say they've been tormented by her whereabouts since she went missing some 15 years ago now law enforcement officials are able to provide some closure for the family through their Discovery after returning to the place at the center of this mystery all that time ago [Music] the 5th of October 2005 Thunder Valley cassino in Lincoln California SAT at one of the blackjack tables enjoying her evening was Christy Wilson she was good at Blackjack having studied the game and how to play she was described as a whiz with numbers able to work out the odds and percentages quickly in her head she had been there for a while and after a call with her boyfriend she told him she would be home soon she never made it home the next day he filed a missing person's report and the search for Christy Wilson was on 27-year-old christe was the daughter of Debbie and Dennis after her parents relationship ended Debbie married a man called Pat who worked as a police detective in San Jose she was extremely close to her family and her best friend Tiffany described the pair as soul sisters doing everything together 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 said we were there for each other Christy was in a relationship with a man called Danny berlando Danny and Christy had met the year prior while playing Blackjack at the casino and they soon moved in together the relationship was described as a tumultuous one about a month prior a fight between the pair had become so aggressive and Loud the police were called to the apartment both were placed under arrest for domestic violence and now christe was missing they looked at the cor logs which showed that Danny had called her phone 78 times as a police officer pat said it didn't sit right with him and he had a gut feeling that something was majorly wrong nothing about this was adding up her car was still in the parking lot and the apartment didn't reveal any clues either nothing was missing there was no evidence of a fight or a struggle there was also nothing to to show that she had upped and left everything important to her including her beloved cat were all still there she wouldn't just leave and not tell anybody there was no way she also had an upcoming job interview in the next few days and she wouldn't have missed that either Danny said he had last spoken to her on Tuesday the 4th of October at 10:28 p. m. when she had received his call while at the casino they spoke for 55 seconds I told her to come home and she was like okay I'm finishing up I'll be home soon footage of her taking the call was captured on surveillance cameras inside the casino when she failed to come home he started leaving messages for her on Wednesday it's now 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 but there was still no response from Christie he decided to go to the police and file a missing person's report investigator merchon interviewed Dany and described him as being very Cooperative Dany said he had been having dinner with his parents at their house on the night Christy vanished but there were a few hours that nobody could account for from 11:30 p.

m. when he was dropped home to when he used his phone the following day the police decided to take the investigation back to where they knew she had last been scene the Thunder Valley Casino the casino was covered by a network of cameras and these would be able to give a minute by minute account of exactly what Christy had done that night Christy could be seen pulling into the casino parking lot and heading inside she sat at one of the blackjack tables and began to play as the footage continued something very quickly out sat next to christe was an older male he could be seen talking to her and attempting to put his arm around her but she quickly and firmly brushed him off she was drinking but not heavily the staff in the casino knew her quite well and found her behavior that night to be not like the christe they knew the abrupt change in her personality was very strange and some of the staff discussed asking her to leave due to it then the man sitting next to her got involved telling the staff he would look after her the pair left the casino and walked out together at 1:13 a. m.

but as the police knew her car didn't move she had seemingly vanished from the parking lot search and rescue teams were organized and deployed and were searching everywhere they could think of they searched by car by foot and by helicopter and people were coming from all over to help find christe and bring her home Debbie was determined she was going to find her daughter I want my daughter back and I want her back now I may be 5' one and blonde but they just met a barracuda and the fight's on so who was the man in the footage luckily for the police it did not take them long to track him down earlier in the night and only a few minutes before Christy arrived he had used his Casino Card at one of the slot machines the card was registered to a 53-year-old man Mario Garcia Mario Garcia was a married father of two teenage sons and had a good job at the local hospital working as a project manager his wife Jean called him a family man and a great dad as did one of his sons Chris the police went to his property and grounds that covered 5 acres in Orban California to conduct searches of the home and vehicle when they arrived he had scratches on his chest and face nobody who had been at the casino remembered him having those scratches on the night he sat with Christen one of those was an emergency room doctor SAT 2 ft away from him I didn't see any injuries no and I'm reasonably good at making those kind of observations cuz that's what I do for a living he said it was also revealed the day after christe had disappeared he had gone to the eye doctor and his co-workers had noticed the injuries too he said they had come from Poison Oak and falling from a tree I be smacking under your eye I had a little AC with the tractor in the tree I got poen up on my face but this would have meant he would have been doing yard work after arriving home from the casino and before going to work in the early hours of the morning these were not random scratches one would expect to find in a yard accident these had a distinct pattern they looked like they had been caused by someone dragging their fingernails across his face and chest he was subsequently arrested on a weapons charg and held he said he had absolutely nothing to do with whatever had happened to Christie he said they had simply played blackjack together and that was it they walked to his car said goodbye and went their separate ways footage showed his car leaving the lot four minutes later and it looked like there was nobody else in there with him he said that maybe her boyfriend had something to do with it although her relationship with Dany had not been good there was just nothing to link him to her disappearance and he seemed to be genuinely worried for her welfare all eyes were now firmly on Mario Garcia as part of their inquiries they looked into his criminal history and what they found made them even more concerned in 1978 near Oakland California the then 27-year-old Mario met his neighbor 26-year-old Wendy Ward and the pair soon began dating although things initially appeared to be okay he showed he had an extremely nasty temper when she tried to call time on their relationship the 12th of January 1979 Mario had grabbed Wendy and forced her into his van he was holding my neck or he was holding my head and he says 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 I said no I was just clawing scratching whatever I could do then he started to choke me I couldn't breathe I couldn't breathe she added that she thought she was going to die after driving her back to his apartment Mario raped her he pulled a gun out of his cabinet and he held it to my head and he pulled the trigger he says well it wasn't loaded this time but basically I can come and get you anytime I want he then raped her for a second time he then calmly made himself a sandwich and drove her home I'm surprised that I actually am alive I'm very lucky Wendy later said Wendy went straight to the hospital and Mario was soon in handcuffs the alad County District Attorney's Office made the recommendation that he be charged with two counts of forcible rape one count of kidnapping one count of burglary and one count of assault with a deadly weapon the case however would go nowhere for 2 years and he would then be offered a plea deal pleading guilty to one count of assault with a deadly weapon his punishment he was given 18 months probation after Christy went missing detective merchon went to talk to Wendy about her time with Mario she later said she felt sick to her stomach when she heard that christe had disappeared she told the detective about her experience of being with him and also told him something else something extremely worrying in 1979 after his relationship with Wendy had ended he began seeing another woman called Lynette Smith Lynette was described by her brother Tom as outgoing and fun to be around just like Wendy the relationship was extremely volatile Mario was angry with Lynette after she chose to tell at a pregnancy after falling pregnant by him but they decided to celebrate the holiday season with each other and with Lynette's mom Violet too after having Christmas dinner all three of them got into lynnette's vehicle that Christmas night A call came into the emergency services by Oakland Airport a car had plunged into the Oakland estery when they arrived Lynette and her mother were deceased Mario had survived he later said that he had panicked and took his seat Bel off opened a window and climbed out as the water rushed in everybody else I presumed got out he said he told the officers that Lynette had been the driver but the police were not able to confirm who had been behind the wheel he hired a criminal lawyer when the police went to talk to him and his lawyer advised him say nothing following this lynnette's devastated brother Tom would later reach out to an old friend none other than Wendy when Wendy heard that she had been in a relation relationship with a man called Mario Garcia and that she and her mother had been killed in a car crash Wendy was stunned she told him that she two had been in a relationship with him and told Tom what had happened to her during their time together no charges were filed against Mario for the deaths of Lynette and her mother for the officers looking into The Disappearance of Christy Wilson this was all painting an extremely disturbing picture of an extremely disturbing pattern of behavior they now turned their attention to his Toyota his car had been cleaned out and the mats in the trunk had been removed but not all of the evidence was lost in the trunk of his car and on a door handle they found hairs that were consistent with Christie they were compared against the DNA found on the hairs on Christy's hairbrush they matched the chances of these hairs belonging to someone else were one in 720 quintilian there was was a small stain on the back seat and presumptive testing indicated that this was blood but due to the stain repellent it couldn't have DNA analysis performed on it to try and piece more of this baffling puzzle together the officers went back to the security cameras at the casino they knew they had left together at 1:13 a. m. so would the cameras from the parking lot show them anything else as they walked away she could be seen pushing his arm away as he attempted to put it around her for frustratingly the cameras that covered the parking lot were not fixed they moved and scanned the lot periodically causing different sections to come in and out of view however when his Toyota was unlocked the lights would flash four times 3 minutes and 41 seconds later the headlights went on and he began to pull out of the space he told the police that she had left her phone in the casino and had gone back inside to pick it up none of this was backed up by the surveillance cameras she hadn't gone back in meaning that the last confirmed sighting of her was the footage that showed her walking away with Mario officers believed that she was incapacitated in the vehicle possibly in the rear seats meaning she wouldn't have been visible to the cameras he said he had driven straight home but if this was true why did the cameras show him driving the wrong way he said he got home went to bed and then left for work at around 8:30 but his phone records said otherwise he had actually called his wife at 7:51 a.

m. and this call pinged off of a tower north of his property his wife would not cooperate or talk with the police the more they looked into his story The more holes they found he was adamant that he had made it into work for an appointment he had scheduled at 9:00 a. m.