Psycho Dad Stephen Kills His & Katie Tagle's Baby Wyatt Garcia & Himself

Suicide Note Goes on Facebook Hours After the Deaths

Rik Merchant, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Feb 20, 2010 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here."

Twin Peaks, California. At 1:19am on Sunday January 31 2010, two shots were fired. After a slow lengthy vehicle pursuit along icy mountain roads, aided by a department helicopter, Twin Peaks Sheriff Deputies reached the fleeing white Toyota Tacoma pickup truck, now pulled up in a snow-bank along Old Toll Road in Blue Jay, just seconds after the shots. Inside the truck, they found the bodies of nine-month-old Wyatt Garcia and his father, Stephen Garcia, 25, along with Garcia's Walther P-99 pistol. Wyatt was of Yucca Valley; Garcia was of Pinon Hills.

The Hesperia Sheriff Station had received a 911 call from the baby's mother, Katie Tagle, 24, on Saturday afternoon. She said Garcia had taken their son and threatened to kill him. Hesperia Sheriff Deputies trailed Garcia into the mountains and then Twin Peaks Sheriff Deputies took over the cautious pursuit.

The homicide-suicide case seems clear-cut. But it holds mystery. About eight hours after the fatal shootings, someone posted Garcia's lengthy suicide letter on Garcia's Facebook page. Police are looking for that someone.

In the suicide letter, Garcia addressed family, friends, and Katie Tagle. He explained his murder-suicide motivations, expressed his loving feelings for the letter's recipients... except for Tagle's family at whom he shouted in capital letters that they are to blame for his and Wyatt's deaths-that they are the ones who pulled the trigger. In the letter, he called Tagle his 'true love'. He also expressed his wish that they could have had Wyatt's first birthday. And he gave burial instructions for himself and Wyatt.

Behind the homicide-suicide and the Facebook mystery lie tragic details and fateful court decisions.

Pyscho Stephen Garcia shared fifty-fifty custody of Wyatt with ex-girlfriend Katie Tagle. But he was unhappy with that. He wanted to be with his son one hundred percent of the time and he wanted Tagle back. He wanted to have a whole family again.

Garcia was insanely jealous. In his rantings on Facebook, MySpace, and his website, he accused Tagle of cheating on him with another man, even though she had broken up with him before taking up with Narcizo Rodriguez. The breakup with Garcia came during August 2009 after he punched her in the face thus knocking her unconscious.

Garcia made menacing phone calls to Rodriguez, which Garcia himself recorded, and he besieged Tagle with text messages and letters begging her to return to him. At times he told her he loved her. At other times, he swore at her and cursed her. He documented all his love/hate feelings for her. And he detailed how he would kill their son and himself. He posted his highly-disturbed rantings on Facebook, MySpace, and his website. Facebook has put Garcia's page into a 'Memorial State'. His MySpace page has disappeared.

Garcia has no court records of domestic violence but Tagle had kept track of his physical abuse toward her. In an e-mail to Tagle, Garcia said, "I'm sorry for hitting you." Tagle made a number of court petitions for 'Domestic Violence Prevention' and restraining orders. In December 2009, she appeared before Judge Debra Harris. In January 2001, she appeared before Judge David Mazurek. And finally, on Thursday January 21, Tagle appeared with Garcia in a Victorville courtroom before Judge Robert Lemkau. She petitioned to replace Garcia's unsupervised visits with Wyatt with supervised ones.

A court document shows that Tagle had barely given her name to Judge Lemkau when he told her she was lying. "Okay, I'm inclined to deny your ex parte [in this case, an emergency restraining order]. I feel that if you're lying, Ma'am, there's going to be adverse consequences. Mr. Garcia claims it's total fabrication [Garcia's physical abuse and death threats] on your part, but I'm going to deny ex parte basis...," said Judge Lemkau.

Tagle told the judge of Garcia's homicidal threat to her son's life. "He sent my mother a text message asking me to go to the lake with him and Wyatt, and when I get home from work at 11:00, I have these e-mails saying that he's going to take his life and our son's life at the lake the next time he gets him," said Tagle. Garcia denied Tagle's claim. Judge Lemkau stated several times that he believed Tagle was lying. He barely let her speak. The next court dates were February 4 for mediation and March 3 for a hearing.

After the January 21 court meeting ended, Tagle handed over Wyatt to Garcia in compliance with the court-ordered visitation rights. Three days later, after Garcia refused to return Wyatt to her, Tagle called a deputy, who forced Garcia to return Wyatt to his mother.

On January 28, Tagle drove Wyatt to his scheduled visitation with Garcia.

On Saturday January 30, at around 2pm, Tagle received Garcia' five-page homicide-suicide letter via e-mail and immediately called 911. A pursuit of Garcia and his baby son by Hesperia Sheriff Deputies and then Twin Peaks Sheriff Deputies ended early Sunday morning at 1:19 am with the shooting deaths of Stephen and Tagle's son Wyatt Garcia. Tagle has a son, Dakota, with her ex-husband, Richard Tagle.

For Garcia's entire suicide letter, click here. Garcia ended his letter as follows:
^{I'm sorry. We love all of you. Be with your family. Live out your lives, be happy. Do not dwell on what I have done. Move on with your lives and cherish every minute of it. HOLD AND LOVE YOUR FAMILY! PLEASE IT'S MY FINAL WISH. Please respect all my wishes and everything I have asked for in this letter. We love all of you, We miss all of you, We are watching over all of you.}

^{Sincerely,your broken-hearted son, brother, friend, boyfriend,
Stephen Charles Garcia 12/21/1984 - 01/31/2010
& OUR son, our precious and beautiful baby boy with a heart of gold:}

^{Wyatt James Arthur Garcia 04/04/2009 - 01/31/2010
Stephen Charles Garcia 12/21/1984 - 01/31/2010}

^{Anyone who has info about this case is asked to call Detective Ryan Ford or Sgt. Frank Montanez at the Sheriff's Homicide Detail at (909) 387-3589 or call WeTip at (800) 78-CRIME.}

^{^Sources: ^{facebookvideo}^; ^cbsnews^; ^{centerforjudicialexcellence}^; ^hidesertstar^; ^mountainnews^; ^thecurvature} ^{Judge Lemkau's Readymade 2-Min. Apology to Baby Wyatt Mom Seemed Just a Bid to Keep His Seat} ^;^{Lemkau Sacrificed Baby Wyatt to Psycho Dad; Protest March Says 'Lemkau Must Go!'}^; ^{Community Wants Judge Lemkau Out & Hosking in After Psycho Dad's Murder of Baby Wyatt Garcia}^; ^{Baby Wyatt Garcia- Judge Lemkau May Lose to James Hosking Over Murder of Katie Tagle Son}^;