Ventura County Cold Case Double Murder Defendant On Life Support After Jail Attack

Thursday April 18, 2024

(Tony Garcia)

     Update---The Ventura County Sheriff's Office revealed Thursday that a high profile cold case double murder defendant is on life support after being attacked in jail a week ago.

     On the morning of April 11th, deputies found 69-year-old Tony Garcia of Oxnard unconscious and unresponsive in the dayroom of his unit at the Todd Road Jail near Santa Paula and he was taken to VCMC.

     A preliminary investigation indicates that he was likely attacked by another inmate.

     Garcia was scheduled to have a preliminary hearing this month but all that was put on hold after what happened.

     Garcia is accused of killing two Ventura County women, Rachel Zendejas of Camarillo and Lisa Gondek of Oxnard, back in 1981.

(Rachel Zendejas/Lisa Gondek)

     These were cold case murders that were solved in part because of advances in DNA technology and the use of various genealogical data bases. 

     In addition to the two counts of murder, Garcia is also facing several special allegations including multiple murders, and in the case of one of the victims, murder while engaged in rape and kidnapping.

     In the early morning hours of January 18, 1981, the body of 20-year-old Zendejas was found in the carport area of an apartment complex in the 700 block of Mobil Avenue in Camarillo, across the street from her apartment.

     She had been strangled.

     Prosecutors also allege she had been sexually assaulted and kidnapped.

     In the early morning hours of December 12, 1981, the body of 21-year-old Gondek was found in her apartment in the 1200 block of West Gonzales Road in Oxnard by firefighters who responded to a fire.

     She was also strangled.

     During the past several decades detectives from the Ventura County Sheriff's Office and Oxnard Police Department worked to solve those homicides.

     In this case, it wasn't until 2004 that DNA and other evidence determined the women were killed by the same person.

     However, they did not get a direct match to anyone in the DNA database known as CODIS.

     Investigators then used what's called "Genetic Genealogy" to provide investigators with leads to people who might be related to the killer and from there they say the path led to Garcia.

     That was at the end of 2019 but it still took until early 2023 before they had enough evidence to arrest and charge him.

     The authorities say Garcia served in the Navy and was stationed at Point Mugu until his discharge.

     He then decided to make Ventura County his home and for many years he was a marshal arts instructor.