A 33-year-old man is facing decades in prison for murdering his ex-girlfriend, tossing her body down a Maryland bridge before driving to Philadelphia to ring in the New Year and then reporting her missing.
The Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office announced that Francisco Lara-Garcia has been sentenced to life in prison with all but 40 years suspended for the death of 20-year-old Keylin Chavez Dominguez. Lara-Garcia pled guilty in March to first-degree murder.
According to a probable cause affidavit, the couple began dating in early 2021 while living in Honduras and continued to live together in an apartment in Rockville, a Washington, D.C. suburb. Chavez Dominguez started dating another man in August 2022, making Lara-Garcia jealous. However, the former couple continued to live together.
The victim was last heard from on December 30, 2022, when she texted her new partner. They had agreed to hang together the next day, but when Chavez Dominguez did not contact him, he became anxious and began looking for her. He called Lara-Garcia, who said he didn’t know where she was.
On January 2, 2023, Lara-Garcia reported her missing at the request of her family. Lara-Garcia’s remarks to cops “revealed inconsistencies and inaccuracies which indicated Lara-Garcia was not being truthful about the circumstances surrounding the victim’s disappearance,” cops said.
On January 28, 2023, a guy walking his dog beneath the eastbound Intercounty Connector between New Hampshire Avenue and Columbia Pike in Silver Spring discovered a woman’s body partially hidden by trash bags. It was Chavez Dominguez. An autopsy revealed that she had been strangled and beaten.
Shortly thereafter, Lara-Garcia began fleeing the area, leading investigators to suspect he was attempting to depart the country for Honduras. On February 1, 2023, the United States Marshals Service arrested him in Missouri.
Lara-Garcia acknowledged to murdering the victim in an interview conducted after he was granted Miranda rights. He stated that on the evening of December 30, 2022, the duo were listening to music in their apartment when he decided to change up the playlist. She refused, and he became enraged. The defendant hit her in the face.
“He knocked her down to the ground and straddled her, continuing to punch her and hit her head on the floor,” according to the police. “He then manually strangled her, and when he stopped, she was dead.”
Lara-Garcia packed the victim’s body into two trash bags and placed them in the back seat of his car. He drove around seeking for a place to dispose of the body before settling on the Intercounty Connector. He dumped her body down the bridge and then traveled to Philadelphia for New Year’s Eve.
“We thank Montgomery County Police and the United States Marshals Service for their assistance in bringing justice to the victim’s family.” “This defendant lied to police and Chavez Dominguez’s loved ones for nearly a month while they desperately hoped she would be found unharmed,” State’s Attorney John McCarthy said in a statement.
