SAN ANTONIO – A man who allegedly confessed to family members that he killed a woman was charged with murder Tuesday after a body found in Comal County was identified as a missing San Antonio mother, according to Bexar County Jail records.
On Tuesday, a medical examiner at Central Texas Autopsy in Lockhart positively identified the remains of Crystal Garcia, 32, and said her death was a homicide.
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That led police to upgrading the charges against Francisco Javier Garcia Ventura, records showed.
Garcia’s body was found last week inside a plastic toolbox in an area between the city of New Braunfels and San Marcos near I-35 and York Creek Road during a search conducted by SAPD, New Braunfels police and the Comal County Sheriff’s Office.
Garcia Ventura, was arrested on Sept. 18 at a bus station in the 7900 block of Interstate 35 Access Road and was initially charged with suspicion of tampering with evidence in connection with Garcia’s disappearance.
His family called the police after taking Garcia Ventura to the bus stop, according to the affidavit. They told police that Garcia Ventura “confessed to them of beating (Garcia) to the point that she stopped breathing” before taking her body to San Marcos. Garcia Ventura then asked them for a ride to the bus.
Police secured a search warrant for his apartment and found blood spatter on the bedroom wall and on “a security camera that was affixed to a kitchen wall that has been ripped off,” according to the affidavit.
Investigators then examined the apartment with a chemical designed to “reveal blood stains that have been washed out, wiped off, or are invisible to the naked eye,” according to the affidavit. That test confirmed “a heavy presence of human blood” throughout the apartment.
Officers were also able to review CCTV surveillance, which showed Garcia Ventura leaving the apartment near the time of Garcia’s disappearance with a heavy-duty garbage bag, according to the affidavit.
Garcia Ventura did not cooperate with investigators when he was taken into custody and asked for an attorney.
Jail records showed Garcia Ventura’s bail was raised to $350,000.