CHARLOTTE, N.C. — 36-year-old Mara Garcia: a beautiful woman, mother of three, and girlfriend to 29-year-old Lenin Turcios. A picture of the couple smiling together at the Epicenter was posted online October 1st. We now know that Garcia was dead by then.
Her decapitated, dismembered body was discovered Tuesday, October 6th inside two bags sitting in an SUV in a north Charlotte parking lot. Police were led to it after neighbors called to complain about a strong odor. A search warrant says there was a gas can, shovel, and hatchet in the car, and there were maggots crawling out of the duffle bag and suitcase.
Neighbors told cops they remember hearing loud music coming from Garcia’s apartment around September 30th. The music continued all night. They say the next morning, Turcios cried on the front step and said Garcia had left him, moved back to Mexico, and was never coming back. Cops say Turcios murdered Garcia. He was later found dead in the apartment from an apparent suicide.
Garcia’s cousin drove from Florida Friday to place two candles outside her apartment. Jose Gutierrez says, “She was a wonderful lady. A wonderful lady.” Neighbor Luis Leyva remembers the night of that loud music and wishes he’d checked on the couple. Leyva says, “I do, because there was some point in the week where I would walk by and it just seemed dead in there, so you wonder what happened to the people that live in there?”
Gutierrez is relaying information to family across the country. He says they don’t know all of the awful details. He says, “The people that knew her, they know how she is. How she was. How she’ll still be, cause, rest in peace, she’s in a better place.”
Gutierrez says Garcia’s remains will be cremated and her ashes will be sent to Mexico, where her mother and father still live
