Missing Teen Cheerleader Presumed Murdered; Suspect Arrested

A 15-year-old Northern California high school cheerleader who
disappeared in March on the way to the bus stop is believed to have been
kidnapped and murdered, and a man has been arrested in the case.


"We believe this is the worst kind of crime – a stranger
abduction of a young girl," Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith told
a news conference Tuesday.


The body of Sierra LaMar has not been found and authorities have
not said how or when she was killed. Smith says only that investigators
have "strong facts" LaMar was murdered.

Antolin Garcia-Torres,
21, was arrested Monday night at a Safeway supermarket in Morgan Hill,
Calif., 70 miles southeast of San Francisco, and booked for
investigation of murder and kidnapping based on evidence that included
DNA, says Smith.


At the news conference, Sierra’s mother, Marlene LaMar, begged
Garcia-Torres to “come forward and say where she is, and end this
nightmare for us as a family.”


Garcia-Torres's sister says police have arrested the wrong man.


"It's not him," Lucero Garcia tells the San Jose Mercury News. "It feels like we're in a movie right now, an unfair movie."