The woman found dead inside her car in a Langley Park parking lot earlier this week was killed, Prince Georges County police said, and detectives don’t believe it was a random crime.
The victim, 29-year-old Hyattsville mother Maury Carias Garcia, had been reported missing Tuesday morning. A person of interest in her murder was found dead in his home that same morning.
On Wednesday, officers were called to the parking lot of a Dollar General store on University Boulevard for a welfare check on the woman, who was found suffering from trauma inside a red Honda SUV. That SUV matched the description of one belonging to a missing mother, News4 learned.
Police announced the name of the victim on Thursday morning. Carias Garcia had been reported missing Tuesday about 10:30 a.m., police said.
Evidence gathered during the preliminary investigation indicated she was murdered inside her car Monday night.
Detectives have already identified a person of interest in her murder, police said. That person was found dead inside his home Tuesday morning. He appeared to have died by suicide.
Police have not yet shared the identity of the person of interest, but police said the two knew each other.
Family members of Maury Carias Garcia, who went by Cecelia, say she was a happy, hardworking mom of a young daughter, but after she vanished, their search for her ended in heartbreak.
Hilda Lopez, who is assisting the family, said the victim’s daughter is 8 years old.
“It’s terrible,” she said.
Carias Garcia’s sister, who asked not to be identified, spoke to News4’s sister station, Telemundo 44.
“They took the life of a mother, a sister and a daughter,” she said.
Video obtained by T44 shows a man who appears to be grabbing at the driver’s side door handle of the red SUV as the vehicle moves forward and then hits a tree. That footage is from Monday night, according to the business owner who shared it.
T44’s Freixys Casado viewed additional video that shows the man getting into the SUV and parking it in a way that makes it less conspicuous, before leaving in a second vehicle.
Police have not yet confirmed that the man in the video is the person of interest. They’re continuing to investigate.
The Office of the Chief Medial Examiner in Baltimore will determine Carias Garcia’s cause of death.
“For me, when they told me she had been found, I expected her to be alive,” her sister said. But then, when I found out she was gone, I was in shock. I didn’t know what to think. I felt completely lost.”
Carias Garcia came to the U.S. from Guatemala four years ago. Relatives are hoping to be able to send her back home.
