Slaying Victim’s Co-Worker Sought

A manhunt is underway for a Barstow-area man suspected of killing a co-worker and dumping her body near the desert town of Yermo, authorities said.

The body found in the Mojave Desert near Fort Irwin Road is that of 26-year-old Kristina Garcia of Barstow, San Bernardino County coroner officials said Friday. The cause of death had not been determined because of decomposition, said Randy Emon of the coroner’s office.

Garcia, a Raytheon employee at the Army base, was last seen May 14.

Authorities are searching for Lawrence Rivera, 30, who works at Raytheon. He has been named as a suspect in Garcia’s disappearance and death, said Chip Patterson, a spokesman for the San Bernardino Sheriff’s Department.

“This is a guy we need to get in custody,” Patterson said. “We have concerns about his involvement in this crime and in the potential for further violence.”

Rivera is the last person known to be with Garcia, Patterson said. His car was found in Los Angeles this week.

When Garcia failed to show up at her job May 15, worried co-workers went to her apartment in Lenwood, a town near Barstow. They found the door unlocked and her 2-year-old daughter, Aurianna, alone, said Patterson. Garcia’s car and cell phone were still there.

The toddler will live with her father, Brandon Garcia, 26, and her grandparents in Tuscaloosa, Ala., family members said.

“She was a beautiful person, a wonderful mother with a beautiful voice. She used to sing,” said Linda Garcia, Brandon Garcia’s mother.

Authorities described Brandon and Kristina Garcia as estranged, but Linda Garcia said they kept in contact and were working through their differences. They spoke the night before her disappearance.

The couple met more than five years ago at Ft. Sill in Oklahoma while both were in the Army.

She came from a military family. They had been at Ft. Irwin for about the last three years, and Garcia was happy with her job, though “she wasn’t crazy about the desert,” her mother-in-law said.

Like the Garcias, Rivera had been in the Army, authorities said. He’s known to have ties in San Diego and Lakewood. Authorities tried to contact him after Garcia’s body was found Wednesday afternoon, but they couldn’t find him. Rivera, who also goes by the name Lawrence Hale, is about 5 feet, 10 inches, with hazel eyes.

Anyone with information on the case is asked to telephone San Bernardino Sheriff’s homicide detectives at (909) 387-3589 or (800) 782-7462.