Accused Tri-Cities killer has been on the run longer than his teen victim was alive

Christa Garcia wanted to get her life together.

She had a rocky childhood. She dropped out of Eastgate Elementary School in Kennewick and never went back. She became a mother at 16.

But her father Juan Garcia said when she returned to Pasco after spending some time in El Paso, Texas, she planned to get her GED.

But the 18-year-old’s dreams came to an end when neighbor Jorge Siqueiros shot her once in the head after she rejected his romantic advances.

That was July 1998 and Siqueiros still is on the run. Investigators believe he fled to Mexico shortly after the shooting.

Twenty-two years later, Garcia wants justice for his daughter.

He feels she’s been forgotten and police could be doing more to track down her accused killer.

Garcia, a retired member of the military who spent another 28 years working with the Department of Veterans Affairs, told the Herald it’s frustrating to see other people extradited and brought to justice, but not Siqueiros.

“You just start feeling disgusted. I’m not putting down the police department. It’s incomprehensible that in 22 years they have no one,” Garcia said. “I’m trying to find some kind of closure on this.”

His grief is compounded by the fact that Christa’s son, who was 2 when she died and grew up with his father, was killed in a car crash when he was just 20.

Search continues

“I feel for the dad. It’s just terrible to lose a child that way,” said Pasco police Sgt. Rigo Pruneda. “It’s still an open case. We’re trying to look for him.”

He said they continue to follow up on leads when they hear them. And they believe Siqueiros still may be hiding in Mexico.

“We haven’t given up. If we have any information, we act on it,” he said. “It’s not over.”

While they can communicate with any of the local Mexican authorities, they don’t have a place to start looking.

Police need help finding him. Anyone with information on where Siqueiros is living now is asked to contact Pasco police at 509-628-0333.

22 years ago

Christa had moved into a basement apartment at West Shoshone Street just four months before she was shot.

Sisqueiros, then 20, also was a recent arrival in Pasco. He lived across the street.

At the time, Christa’s landlord Melvin Gosselin described her as an attractive woman, and that Siqueiros was an unsuccessful suitor she didn’t pay attention to.

On the night of July 26, 1998, Christa left her apartment and walked to a nearby store to pick up some food. She would never make it back home.

As she approached her door, Siqueiros called her over from his balcony.

She set down her purse and her meal and walked toward the apartment building, and Siqueiros walked part of the way down the stairs.

What she didn’t realize was Siqueros had grabbed a Glock 9mm handgun from his apartment.

Police found no one who heard exactly what they said to each other in the front yard of the complex. One witness reported seeing Christa Garcia talk to Siqueiros, and start to walk away before going back.

The encounter was reportedly quiet until the 9mm went off.

“I heard a bang, and she wasn’t there anymore,” a friend told the Herald at the time.

Siqueiros tossed the gun into his 1983 Ford Thunderbird and drove off. At the time, Pasco police suspected he was on his way to Mexico.

Two days after the shooting, a warrant was signed for his arrest on charges of second-degree murder.

Domestic Violence

In the years since, Tri-Cities domestic violence organizations have used Christa’s death along with many others to highlight domestic violence problems.

Less than a month before, Lucia Barela, 31, of Pasco, was killed by her husband Juan Carlos Vargas, say police.

Neither man was caught.

And Shannon Snapp with Domestic Violence Services of Benton and Franklin Counties said unsolved cases like those can make it hard for other women to come forward to report abuse.

When they don’t seek help, it can lead to more severe and more frequent cases of violence, she said.

Domestic Violence Services helps 3,000 people a year with various services including advocacy, safety planning, legal advocacy, support groups, prevention, shelter, housing and a 24.-hour crisis hotline.

Snapp urged anyone experiencing domestic violence to call the crisis line at 509-582-9841.