A breakdown of the events before and after 4-year-old Ariel Garcia's disappearance, murder
EVERETT, Wash. (KATU) — A 4-year-old who was reported missing under "suspicious circumstances" was found dead earlier this week, and his mother is charged with his murder.
The paper trail KATU unearthed began Monday, when Ariel Garcia's grandmother, Maria Garcia, filed a petition for guardianship of Ariel.
She wrote that her daughter Janet's “behavior had become very violent and unpredictable,” and that she “has a long history of alcohol and substance use that has gotten worse in the last months."
She also wrote, “I love my grandson and I want to protect him from whatever his mom is capable of while she is on drugs.”
Then came Wednesday, when KATU obtained court documents showing that police received information that Janet and Ariel stayed overnight with a friend in Everett, and that when her friend returned, there was blood at the home, and Ariel and Janet were gone.
KATU obtained surveillance video of what appears to be Janet Garcia on Wednesday, at around 3:40 p.m., parking what police had identified as a car of interest in the case. The car was parked in a parking lot of a taproom in Ridgefield. She appears to be walking out of the car toward Northeast 10th Avenue.
That night Clark County deputies found Janet at a rehabilitation center in Ridgefield, which was walking distance from where the car was parked.
In court documents a detective noted blood splatters on Janet's shoes and shirt.
A man named Daniel was at the center that night and saw Janet. He said Janet's mom called someone who attends the center looking for her.
I guess that they were looking for the son, that he was missing. I think she didn’t know where her daughter was, she didn’t know where Janet was. She had given little details, like they couldn’t find the little boy,” said Daniel.Daniel gave that information to deputies.
“So I had initially called it in and told them that she was here, because I got informed that she was here, then I got here a little bit later,” said Daniel.
Once Daniel got there, he did see Janet.
“She was calm. She was calm. She seemed normal,” said Daniel.
But he was also helping the authorities.
Janet was later booked into Clark County Jail on a charge of making a false statement to a public servant.
In an affidavit, a detective says Janet claimed she left her car in Seattle, and took a bus to Ridgefield. But police found her car parked nearby. She also told police that her son hit his head, but could not tell them how. She then claimed she took Ariel to a hospital, but the wait was too long, so she dropped him off with a friend in Seattle.
Then at 7:45 p.m. Thursday night, Everett police shared that they found Ariel's body off the side of Interstate 5 in Pierce County.
“I have a son, and I mean it's just to think that happened to that little boy. It hurts. It hurts,” said Daniel.
On Friday, Janet was arrested on charges of murder in the first and second degree, and assault of a child in the first degree and booked at the Snohomish County Jail.
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