Irving police reopen 36-year-old cold case of murdered pregnant woman

IRVING, Texas - Irving police are reopening a nearly 40-year-old cold case with new DNA technology that could help finally catch the killer. 

Patricia Wilson Garcia was seven months pregnant with her second child when someone stabbed her to death at an Irving shopping center in 1988.

Irving police are dusting off a 36-year-old unsolved murder that shook the community and the family of 22-year-old Garcia. 

Terri Wilson Starwalt still remembers the last time she spoke to her younger sister, who the family called ‘Trish,’ on April 29, 1988. 

"She had called me at work that day and was telling me a joke," she recalled. "And I just said, ‘Haha, gotta go!" And she said okay. That was the last time I ever talked to her." 

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Later that day, Garcia went to Plymouth Park Shopping Center in Irving, which has since closed down. 

Garcia bought a gift for someone and then stopped at the postal service kiosk for stamps. Archived FOX 4 footage shows what that area looked like in 1988. 

Police say that is where someone stabbed her multiple times in the back of her neck, killing her and her unborn baby girl. 

"She’s just been such a void in our lives since she’s been gone," Starwalt said. "It’s just one of those things that you never think will happen to you or your family." 

Garcia was 7-and-a-half months pregnant with her second child when she was killed. Her other daughter was just 2 years old. 

FOX 4 covered her funeral in 1988. 

"It was at St. Luke’s Catholic Church, and there were people standing on every wall you could. That’s the kind of person she was," Starwalt said. "

The killer took Garcia’s purse and a necklace but left behind DNA evidence. 

Thanks to DNA technology advancements, Irving police are reopening the case with this lead.

"It would be such a relief for us to have closure," Starwalt said. "To know who did it and why, it would be wonderful." 

Those are the questions the family has asked for more than three decades and prayed for answers.

"We deserve to know," Starwalt said. "Just that they solve it for all of us. That closure, it would mean the world to all of us." 

Starwalt says their parents passed without knowing what happened to their youngest daughter. She hopes that she and her other siblings will see it solved. 

Anyone who may have information on the case is urged to contact the Irving Police Department.