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March 12, 2009
HOUSTON-Inside an abandoned hospital back in 1997, a security guard made a horrifying discovery: the body of a dead teenager.
The untimely death of 14-year-old Erica Garcia was front-page news. Police said the Sharpstown Middle School student was raped - likely by several people - and then strangled with her own underwear.
But all these years later, Erica's family is still waiting for justice.
"Whoever did this, I hope you are watching, because you are going to pay, and you are going to pay deeply," Erica's mother, Margarita Garcia, said.
Police said they never arrested anyone in Erica's murder, despite having two of HPD's top homicide detectives on the case.
"They were like the ideal. These are the guys you wanted to be as good as. They talked to everybody, they went everywhere, they did everything. And they had all of the evidence processed," Sgt. Mike Peters said.
What police do know is that Erica was trying to grow up fast.
On a Friday night in June of 1997, police say Erica went to a nightclub on Beechnut called Dimension.
She went there with her boyfriend and several other people.
At the end of the night, police said one of her friends asked Erica how she was getting home.
"One of her friends said she was getting on the bus and said, ' Do you want to ride home with me?' And she said, 'No, I have someone picking me up,'" Peters said.
The next time anyone saw her, she was dead inside the Alief General Hospital Building.
After the murder, Erica's mother moved out of town and, as you can imagine, has never been the same.
"I go to bed thinking about her. I wake up at night, like tomorrow is my birthday and she is not here," Garcia said through tears.
Peters says he feels like some teenager probably knew what happened back then. After all, word travels fast through the halls of middle and high schools.
Peters and Garcia are hoping that someone, now in their 20s, still has that information on their mind and will give police a call.
They are hoping for help, because they need justice for a grieving mother and a teenage girl who was taken too soon.
