Man charged with two Central Coast cold-case murders
February 11, 2023
Tony Garcia
By KAREN VELIE
A man is in jail after DNA linked him to the 1981 murders of two Central Coast women, according to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office.
On Jan. 18, 1981, patrol deputies responded to the 700 block of Mobil Avenue in Camarillo, after the body of a woman was found in a carport. Rachel Zendejas, 20, had been kidnapped, raped and strangled.
On Dec. 12, 1981, firefighters battling an apartment fire in Oxnard found the body of Lisa Gondek, 21, in a bathtub. She had been strangled.
Rachel Zendejas and Lisa Gondek
In 2004, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Forensic Laboratory linked both cases to the same suspect through DNA.
In Dec. 2019, investigators identified 68-year-old Tony Garcia, a Navy veteran and former martial arts teacher, as a possible suspect. DNA analysis further confirmed Garcia likely killed both Zendejas and Gondek.
Deputies arrested Garcia last week. He was booked in a detention facility with his bail set at $2 million.
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