Garland police trying to solve senseless 2017 cold case murder

RAW: Garland police hope video will help solve 2017 cold case murder

Police need help solving the senseless murder of a 20-year-old Garland woman. She was fatally shot when she got home from work in 2017.

GARLAND, Texas - Garland police hope someone can help them solve a cold case from four years ago.

A 20-year-old woman was fatally shot in what may have been an attempted robbery, although her killers didn't take anything.

Jocelyn Sarabia-Marlon was found dead outside her home near Miller and Centerville roads on October 20, 2017.

Police still don’t know who shot the 20-year-old or why, but they do have security video from a nearby residence that shows two men and a car following behind them slowly.

One of the suspects was wearing dark pants and a long-sleeved shirt with ond reflective sleeve. The other was wearing a dark hoodie with light shorts. Their car was a small Nissan, possibly a Sentra or Altima.

FOX 4’s Shaun Rabb featured the case in his Trackdown series in 2017.

Garland homicide detective Gary Sweet said he thinks the murder could have been the result of an attempted robbery. Sarabia had just gotten home from work at 1:30 a.m. and was getting out of her car.

"There’s nothing taken, but there’s some things that happened here at the scene that I think might have stopped them from the robbery and caused them to shoot her and run," the detective explained.

Sarabia had been on the phone with a friend as she drove home from work. She saw the men and mentioned them on the call but told her friend she wasn’t worried about them, the detective said.

The video shows the men running toward her as soon as she gets off the phone and steps out of her car.

"Thinking maybe she had the night deposit or if they just saw a female driving alone at night in a car and thought she might be an easy target," Sweet speculated. "I think she may have tried to resist them."

Although the case is four years old, Crime Stoppers is still offering up to $5,000 for information that leads to an arrest and indictment in the case.

Anonymous tips are welcome by calling 972-272-8477 or at www.garlandcrimestoppers.org.