{"id":1986,"date":"2025-10-14T05:10:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T05:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/1986\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T05:10:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T05:10:12","slug":"three-decades-after-14-year-old-girls-murder-houston-police-still-seek-leads-and-her-family-wants-closure-houston-public-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/1986\/","title":{"rendered":"Three decades after 14-year-old girl\u2019s murder, Houston police still seek leads and her family wants closure \u2013 Houston Public Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\"Houston<\/a><\/p>\n

Lucio Vasquez\/Houston Public Media<\/p>\n

Pictured is a Houston Police Department patrol vehicle.<\/p>\n

Twenty-eight years ago, 14-year-old Erica Garcia was lured away from a teen night club in Bellaire to the abandoned Alief General Hospital. There, she was raped and murdered.<\/p>\n

Her mother, Margarita Garcia, is still brought to tears at the mention of her daughter’s life being lost so young.<\/p>\n

The 1997 murder is considered a cold case by the Houston Police Department (HPD), which is still hopeful for leads. So is Erica Garcia\u2019s family. <\/p>\n

“There are people out there that are now anywhere between 40 and 50 years old. And it\u2019s high time for those that knew Erica to come forward and provide us with the piece of the puzzle to help us solve this murder,” HPD detective Ramon Cervantes said during a Monday news conference. “Now, you may have moved on with your life, but Erica did not have that opportunity to do so.”<\/p>\n

\"Margarita<\/a><\/p>\n

Thomas Perumean\/Houston Public Media<\/p>\n

Margarita Garcia, right, the mother of 1997 murder victim Erica Garcia, speaks during a news conference at Crime Stoppers of Houston on Monday, Oct. 13, 2025.<\/p>\n

Cervantes said police have a few potential suspects in mind. Andy Kahan, director of victim services and advocacy for Crime Stoppers of Houston, said a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the case is still being offered.<\/p>\n

Former HPD officer Derek Spier, who knew the victim, also spoke Monday.<\/p>\n

“I was assigned to Sharpstown Middle School at the time of Erica\u2019s death,\u201d Spier said. \u201cI spoke a lot with Erica and I\u2019m going to tag team on these other comments about the folks that are 40 and 50 that know something. They probably have children that were Erica\u2019s age. So definitely make the phone call because this does need to end. We need closure.”<\/p>\n

Anyone with information about the death of Erica Garcia is asked to call Crime Stoppers of Houston<\/a> at 713-222-8477.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lucio Vasquez\/Houston Public Media Pictured is a Houston Police Department patrol vehicle. Twenty-eight years ago, 14-year-old Erica Garcia…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[2539,294,2540,2541,56,58,2542,57,2543,66,223,672],"class_list":["post-1986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-cold-case","tag-crime","tag-crime-stoppers-of-houston","tag-erica-garcia-murder","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-murder-case","tag-houston-news","tag-houston-police-department","tag-local","tag-news","tag-police"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}