SAN ANTONIO – The family of a missing San Antonio woman hopes to find her alive despite a man confessing to his family that he attacked and killed her.
Crystal Garcia’s cousin, Luis Reta, spoke to the media Wednesday in front of Garcia’s apartment on Wurzbach Road.
“We just hope that she comes home and nothing bad happened to her,” Reta said as he tried to hold back tears.
Reta said Garcia, 32, is a mother of four. She was supposed to pick up her twin daughters from her mother’s house on Sept. 18, but Garcia never showed up. Her mother called San Antonio police for a welfare check.
“She has four kids that are waiting for her, and they want to see her. They want her home,” he said.
During the welfare check, police found the lights on in Garcia’s apartment but didn’t find anyone inside, according to an affidavit. Police also found her car in the parking lot.
Reta described Garcia as someone who was always laughing and as a loving mother.
“It just it breaks my heart that someone would think of doing this to someone,” he said.
San Antonio police arrested Francisco Javier Garcia Ventura Sunday, moments before he was due to board a bus headed to Mexico City, according to an arrest affidavit.
The arrest affidavit states that Garcia Ventura is Garcia’s boyfriend, but Reta disputed that.
“Maybe they did talk at one point, but I think she just didn’t want anything to do with him,” he said.
Garcia Ventura’s family called police after taking him to the bus stop, according to the affidavit. Family members told police that Garcia Ventura “confessed to them of beating his girlfriend to the point that she stopped breathing” before taking her body to San Marcos.
As of Wednesday, Garcia Ventura remained in jail on a $200,000 bond on a charge of tampering with evidence.