A man was arrested and charged decades after two young women were killed, California officials said.
Tony Garcia, 68, is accused of strangling Rachel Zendejas, 20, of Camarillo, and Lisa Gondek, 21, of Oxnard, months apart in 1981, the Ventura County District Attorney’s office said in a Feb. 9 news release. He is also accused of raping Zendejas.
Garcia, an Oxnard resident, is a Navy veteran and was a karate student and teacher “for many years,” Ventura County Sheriff Jim Fryhoff said at a Thursday, Feb. 9, news conference.
“This suspect has been hiding in plain sight for more than 40 years,” Fryhoff said.
Rachel Zendejas
Zendejas was born in Modesto, Fryhoff said. She was the youngest of six children.
Her family moved to Camarillo in 1974, where she attended Adolfo Camarillo High School, Fryhoff said.
At the time of her death, “she was a single mother of two daughters,” Fryhoff said. Zendejas was also taking classes in industrial arts at Oxnard community college “to make a better life for herself and her daughters.”
“But unfortunately, her life was cut short,” Fryhoff said.
On Jan. 18, 1981, two newspaper delivery boys found Zendejas’ body at around 6:30 a.m in a carport across the street from her apartment, Fryhoff said.
The night prior, Zendejas had gone out for the evening and hired babysitters to watch her daughters, according to Fryhoff.
She drove the babysitters home after coming back for the evening, Fryhoff said.
As she was getting out of her car once she returned home, Zendejas was attacked, according to Fryhoff.
An autopsy determined Zendejas’ was strangled, and her death was ruled a homicide, Fryhoff said. Evidence also showed she had been sexually assaulted.
“Detectives from the sheriff’s office investigated this case until all leads were exhausted, and the case became cold,” Fryhoff said.
The sheriff’s office was able to get a suspect DNA profile from Zendejas’ body in 2002 that was entered into the FBI’s criminal justice database, Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), Fryhoff said. There were no hits.
However, in 2004, the sheriff’s office learned the DNA profile form Zendejas’ case matched a suspect from another 1981 homicide cold case — Gondek’s case.
Lisa Gondek
Gondek, who grew up in Connecticut, took a trip to visit a friend in Oxnard who was in the Navy in mid-1981, Oxnard Police Chief Jason Benites said.
“This two-week trip changed, and she decided to stay in Oxnard,” Benites said.
After moving to North Oxnard, Gondek got a job in retail and “made some friends,” Benites said.
During the evening of Dec. 11, 1981, she went out with friends, according to Benites.
They went to a club at a naval base and later went to a disco, staying until about 1:30 a.m., Benites said.
“The group of friends left and dropped Lisa off at her apartment complex,” Benites said.
At about 3 a.m., a neighbor noticed a fire coming from Gondek’s apartment and called 911, Benites said.
After extinguishing the fire, the fire department found Gondek’s “body in the bathtub in the bathroom,” according to Benites.
The medical examiner determined Gondek died from strangulation and ruled her death a homicide the following day, Benites said.
Gondek’s case also went cold, according to the district attorney.
“Since Lisa’s murder,” Benites said, “two generations of detectives have been working on this case.”
Genetic genealogy leads to ID
The sheriff’s office reopened the two women’s cases in December 2019, according to a news release from the sheriff’s office.
Detectives “began using investigative techniques, including that of genetic genealogy,” Fryhoff said.
Genetic genealogy uses DNA testing coupled with “traditional genealogical methods” to create “family history profiles,” according to the Library of Congress. With genealogical DNA testing, researchers can determine if and how people are biologically related.
Leads pointed to Garcia as a suspect, Fryhoff said. DNA analysis confirmed he was a “suspect in both homicides.”
“After more than four decades, the long arm of the law has brought justice to the Gondek and Zendejas families,” Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko said. “And it has brought justice to Tony Garcia.”
Garcia “is currently being held in custody in the Ventura County Jail without bail,” according to the district attorney’s office.
Ventura County is about 70 miles northwest of Los Angeles.