Detectives say a karate teacher had a gruesome secret. It took 42 years to make their case

LOS ANGELES — Were it not for his sister’s killing, Roy Rodriguez might have left Camarillo.

Rachel Zendejas was sexually assaulted and slain in the small, sleepy city in Ventura County in 1981, her naked body found across the street from the apartment she shared with Rodriguez. Every year on Jan. 18 — the anniversary of her death — Rodriguez made the solemn call to detectives, asking for updates and begging to continue the search for her killer.

He kept calling long after the case went cold. His parents died without any answers. His brother too. Rodriguez could not move away. He wondered whether the killer lived in the area or was someone he knew.

Now, 42 years after her killing, police say the man who ended Zendejas’ life was close at hand for all those years. Tony Garcia, a children’s karate instructor, was arrested Feb. 9 in Oxnard, about 10 miles from where Zendejas’ body was dumped.

The 68-year-old Navy veteran was charged with murder not only in Zendejas’ slaying but also in the death of another woman, Lisa Gondek, the same year.

“It’s just like she died all over again,” Rodriguez said. “It just makes you wonder if we ever were in the same place. ... He was hiding in plain sight. We used to drive by that karate place all the time.”

While prosecutors have not provided a specific motive in the slayings, Ventura County Deputy District Attorney Richard Simon said Garcia — whom he called a “serial killer” — had been suppressing his violent tendencies.

“He’s been holding it in. The desires that he has, the urges that he has, have been held in for a long time,” Simon said in court.

Garcia has denied the charges,