PASCO, Wash.-- The Franklin County Prosecutor filed charges of first degree manslaughter on Tuesday against Marnicus Lockhard. Other charges include first degree unlawful possession of a firearm.
Lockhard is one of four people involved in her disappearance. The three others who have been already charged with first degree kidnapping include Ashone Hollinquest, Andrea Parr and Verla Spencer.
It's been nine months, two days and still no body. Tiarra Garcia was last seen by her family on June 22, 2008. A month later we heard frustration from her mother.
"Angry, scared, sad," said Donna Garcia, Tiarra Garcia's mother, back in July 2008.
On Tuesday even without a body the prosecution was ready to move on.
"At this point we believe Mr. Lockhard is the person responsible," said Steve Lowe, the Franklin County Prosecutor.
31-year-old Marnicus Lockhard was last seen with Garcia on the night she went missing.
Ashone Hollinquest was also spotted with them. That night they were all noticed at a few bars in Pasco.
Court documents say at one point Lockhard grabbed his gun and fired a round, which hit the young woman. Soon after police also found blankets and a rug with stains of Garcia's blood.
"The fact that we don't have their daughter's remains to bring some closure is very important to anyone, it would be important to me as a father," said Lowe.
Pasco police think Garcia's body was dumped near Mount Rainier National Park. They've been there at least three times looking, but now they have to wait for nearly 12 feet of snow to melt.
"We've been given estimates that it would be as late May this year because of the area and the deepness of the snow," said Captain Jim Raymond, with the Pasco Police Department.
Lockhard was already sentenced to nearly seven years in federal prison. It's just a matter of time now for him to return to Franklin County.
Lowe says it could be two to three weeks for Lockhard to return to state custody from federal. The coroner says in the next few days he will file an official death certificate.
