Woman Bloody, Partially Naked in Mystery Death Investigation

What happened to Katie Garcia, a woman found outside her own home, according to family, bloodied, partially naked, and barely clinging to life. Number 18 responding to Medic 505. Patient should be outside. Fall patient. Katie would spend nearly a month fighting for her life in the hospital, but she never made it home. And now her death is left behind a haunting question. Honey, what are you listening to? Mom! Your teen might not share everything with you, but teens share everything with each other. And certain everyday behaviors like sharing food, drinks, or kisses could mean sharing bacteria that can cause meningococcal disease known as meningitis. Although meningitis is uncommon, about one in 10 who develop it will die. Ask your teen's doctor about missing meningitis vaccinations. Learn more at meningitis.com. Vaccination may not protect all recipients. Sponsored by GSK. What happened that night? Everyone. This is Kansas City. It's the biggest small town. Like, it's a small town. Somebody knows something. This is a mystery that is getting a lot of attention, and we just spoke to police what they told us about this investigation. We're on the case presented by Law & Crime. I'm Chris Stewart. You might have seen this story getting a lot of attention over the weekend. I know I did, which is why we wanted to look more into it today. It's a story out of Kansas City about a woman who was found dying right outside her house. Reportedly, according to family members, she was bloodied. She was barely clinging to life. And then four weeks later, after fighting in the hospital, she died. And yet there are still some major questions about how she ended up in that condition. Not to mention the blood alcohol level that she reportedly had at the time she showed up to the hospital. It is shockingly high. Now, we did just get information from police that I'll pass along here in just a moment. Let's talk about the person, though, that this story centers around. Her name was Katie Garcia. She lived in Kansas City. She worked as a massage therapist. She was married. She lived with her husband. And if you were to search her name on Facebook right now, you will see countless tributes from people who knew her and loved her. And many of them are raising serious questions about how she died. That is one of Katie's sisters and one of her closest friends. On TikTok, they launched an account called Justice for Katie G. They recorded this video. It appears from the hospital where Katie had been for 28 days. She lost the battle. She ended up passing away on August 27th. The family posted on social media that they, after several surgeries and treatment, they stopped medical intervention. And this is what they said. Though this story has gone to a new level because it is now a death investigation, the timeline of it goes back roughly a month. So let's lay out what the family is saying at this point. Then we'll talk a little bit about what police are telling us about what they believe happened on the night of July 29th. Now, that was a Wednesday and middle of the week. And according to family, Katie comes home from her job. She gets back home around 930 that night. She lived at home with her husband and Catherine McCleary, who is one of Katie's closest friends, told Fox 4 in Kansas City that Katie went to bed and quote, her and her husband say goodnight to each other. And that's it. Again, sounds like a pretty typical, frankly, boring night that most of us have. But this is where the story goes to a new level because of what reportedly happened after midnight. Now, this is a picture of the home where Katie lived with her husband on Google Maps. You can see very nice house and it also has a decent sized yard. Friends say at 1211 in the morning, just after midnight, the ADT security system on Katie's home shows her door opening. They also believe that her door was left open after that because there's some sort of ADT alarm that goes off at 1240 in the morning because the door, they say, had still been open. Now, Katie's husband wakes up the next morning. He can't find his wife. He looks around the house, can't find her. And then he steps outside. And friends say in the side yard of the house is where he finds Katie. Here's what dispatchers said when the call went out. Medic 505, Pumper 18, call A3. 18, Pumper responding. Can I get that address again, please? Pumper 18 responding with Medic 505. Call patient. Katie's husband found her body. Between 630 and 645. She was rushed to the hospital. And you can hear dispatchers on that call we just played there on Broadcastify referred to what happened as a fall. Friends tell Fox 4 that Katie was found bleeding. They also say she was not wearing pants. And they say that her blood alcohol level was at a shocking 0.400. Now, that is not just five times the legal limit. That is a medical emergency. According to the National Institutes of Health, that can cause someone's symptoms. If you're not wearing pants, you're not wearing pants. Now, on TikTok, Katie's friend and sister said this. She was not found with any alcohol or bottles or cans or any evidence of alcohol being with her outside. And so, regarding blood alcohol levels, in order to achieve a woman of her height and her weight, in order for her to achieve a level of that, you're talking about seven years. You're talking about seven years. You're talking about seven to 19 alcoholic beverages per hour. Katie had approximately. Teens share everything. That may include the bacteria that can cause meningococcal disease known as meningitis. Even if your teen's been vaccinated in the past, they could still be missing meningitis vaccinations. Ask your teen's doctor or visit meningitis.com today. Sponsored by GSK. Less than three hours. So, if she immediately opened a beverage. At 9:39 PM, that's when she closed her door and immediately popped it open. She had until 12:11 to consume shy of 60 beverages. And we know a lot of people. Yeah. We know a lot of people. And I don't know a single person that could accomplish that. Now, that would just get her to that level. You have to somehow incorporate an additional level to maintain not consuming alcohol for the seven hour timeframe. Yeah. Seven hours. Yeah. Because it goes. It naturally goes down, right? Make it make sense. Yeah. The math isn't mathing. Mm-mm. And if she was outside drinking, where's her drink? Where's her drink? Where are all the drinks? Where are the bottles? Where are the. Where's any evidence of that? Yeah. It's very. Very strange. So, as we were putting this story together, we sent a list of questions to the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department. And one of them was about that blood alcohol content, the number 0.400. And in their response to us, which we're going to go through, they said that number didn't come from them. Now, that does not mean that it didn't happen. It's just not information that was released by police. They said that the investigation remains ongoing. They say they haven't determined Katie's cause of death. And at this point, they say there's no final determination of whether Katie's death was an accident. All of that is going to be up to the medical examiner and the autopsy they conduct and the toxicology test that will likely be done on Katie's body. Now, Katie's family also told Fox 4 that they're trying to figure out if Katie was the victim of a sexual assault. They say that she was partially naked when her husband reportedly found her. They say that hospital staff, though, didn't conduct a rape kit on her because she wasn't able to provide consent for that. Now, at the time of this recording, again, we don't know the cause of Katie's death. Now, as for the person who saw Katie alive last, her husband, and according to social media, Katie loved her husband. And we want to be clear that he hasn't been accused of any wrongdoing. But as we've seen a lot of cases, his name has become part of the online speculation that has surrounded this case as it's been getting more attention. In the local news report, Fox 4 actually had a reporter go to the home where the husband lives with Katie, and he ended up, and you can watch it online, like kind of shouting questions over a fence at Katie's husband. The man declines an interview and he goes back inside the house. Now, that, I want to be clear, that means absolutely nothing to this case. Maybe in mourning, he just did not want to speak with a reporter, especially someone who might be worried about Katie's death. I don't know. I don't know if that's true. I don't someone who might be rolling a camera and shouting questions from the sidewalk outside of a home. And even though in a lot of cases, people, it's, the cliche and true crime, right? The husband did it. The husband did it. We don't even know if we're talking about anything related to foul play at this point, which we'll talk a little bit more about what police told me about that here in just a moment. But Katie's friend addressed the speculation about Katie's husband on TikTok as they continue to raise awareness about her case. And it's really important that you listen to this part. Coming on here to answer a few questions. And this one keeps popping up about the husband not being cooperative. And I just want to clear that up now. He has been cooperative with police and has fulfilled everything that they have asked him to do. Our problem is with the depth in which the police have taken this investigation. And there are more avenues that they should be looking at, more leads, more details. And so that's where our problem lies is with the police department and not whether or not the husband has been cooperative. So to be clear, Katie's husband has not been accused of wrongdoing. And police told us in their response to our questions that as of right now, there's no sign of foul play in connection to Katie's death. That doesn't mean that something couldn't come up down the line as far as foul play and whether someone would be involved in that. But right now, there are no immediate signs of foul play. But you do have Katie's friends out there who are raising questions about what other evidence might be available. They have pointed to the number of cameras in Katie's neighborhood, including a daycare that's right next door. Could cameras on that facility? Show us anything about what may have happened to Katie. And they also brought up the fact, and this is a topic that's been getting a lot of attention, outside of crime cases, flock cameras. Kansas City does have flock cameras. We don't know if there's any close to where Katie lived, but the Kansas City Star did report that there are more than a thousand across the city. Now, again, there are so many questions that are unanswered at this point. And again, no one has been accused of any wrongdoing. This is an open and active investigation, according to police. And at this point, there are no immediate signs of foul play. But this is a case with a lot of questions. And it's one that deserves a lot of attention as friends and family of someone who was so loved. They all deserve to know what happened to Katie Garcia. Joining us now to talk more about this is pathologist assistant, Nicole Angemi. Thanks for taking the time to be with us here on Law and Crime. You know, this.400 BAC number is just shocking. I mean, that's as high as I think I've ever heard it. What does that tell you? You know, as far as what was obviously a lot of alcohol in your system potentially at the time, but like what stands out to you about that? Well, one question that I have that's I think could clear up a lot of things in this particular case is where, how did they test that blood? Because if that was done. Mom. Sponsored by GSK. Trying to be a bit more mindful of things you buy for you and your family? Well, when it comes to laundry, try to be a bit more mindful of things you buy for you and your family. Well, when it comes to a serology or a plasma blood test that was done, and that wouldn't necessarily give you a very accurate blood alcohol count as opposed to having it done on whole blood. So serum or plasma is kind of the liquid portion of blood, whereas a whole blood sample that you would think that would be done in a forensic case for a person that was possibly involved in a DUI accident or even after death, that would be done on whole blood. So serum or plasma is kind of the liquid portion of blood that would be done on whole blood, which is the liquid portion of blood along with all the blood cells that would give you that number that they use statistically speaking, right? So when you test blood alcohol level on plasma, the number is going to look significantly higher, maybe 10 to 20% higher than it actually is. So that's something that we need to take into consideration that it might be more likely to be a 0.4% alcohol. It might be closer to a 0.3 or a 0.3 or 0.3.6%. Because that would make a lot, because it just seems like, I mean, can you just put in from a science standpoint as you study this? Because I think a lot of times when we hear about BAC, it's like in DUI cases. But I mean, for her to, if the timeline is correct, where she gets home at 9.30, says goodnight, and then she's out of the door, she's out of the door, she's out of the door, at like 12 o'clock. I mean, like, is it even humanly possible to drink that much to be able to get that type of blood alcohol level and such? And then it's also like the test didn't happen until like seven hours later, where it's like, what would actually have to happen for someone to be able to consume alcohol like that for it to still be in her system at that high level? Well, if they actually tested her whole blood and at 7.30 in the morning, it was a 0.4%, then that would have meant that when she actually left the house, before midnight, it would have been higher than 0.5. And that's almost not consistent with life. So I just think that that that that number is a little is a little skewed right there. A lot of this depends, because if a person like me, who's had one alcoholic drink in the past three years drank that much, I would, I would be unconscious and in a coma and likely dead, honestly. But a person that drinks a lot of alcohol has a higher tolerance and could actually be up and walking around and would be drunk, but would be functional at that level. So I don't know anything about her history. I don't know if she has a history of alcoholism or anything like that, or if she drinks occasionally, I don't know any of that. So that you have to take that into consideration. First, it would still be a lot of drinks, but it could take a lot of time to technically be possible. Because like I was saying, if the blood alcohol level that was taken at the hospital was is actually really lower than a true blood alcohol level, then at night, she would have been more along the levels of where they thought she was when they found her in the morning. So it is possible that if she got home, I guess reports are that she got home around nine something at night. I mean, I just had questions about that, too, because how do they how do they know she came home at that time? That was, yeah, that was like kind of one question, you know, because, you know, police have not said much. And then like, we kind of sent them a list of questions of just from the reporting that had been out there. And, you know, at this point in time, it was a lot of it's an open investigation. And like, that's part of the investigation. But you know, you have family members who have been by Katie Garcia's side in the hospital for 28 days, and then are now, you know, trying to figure out, you know, how she she ends up passing away. We're like, one question is, you know, is it is it her husband who has not been accused of anything, and apparently has been very cooperative with investigators who is providing this timeline of everything? Is it investigators that's giving out that information to the family? It's unclear, you know, you know, one part that the family brought up in the news coverage was concerns about sexual assault. We don't know if it's true. But there were questions about whether she could have been tested to have been a victim of sexual assault in the hospital, but she couldn't give consent. 28 days later, during the autopsy process, I mean, are they able to potentially figure that out of whether or not that's something that could have been a factor in this, even though it's been roughly a month since she first came to the hospital injury? Well, do investigators believe that she had a sexual assault? Or does the family believe that she had a sexual assault? I don't know. I don't know. I she had a sexual assault because that's two different things for sure um reports are as of now that they found no signs of foul play correct that's what the police are saying as of right now we just got that in yeah so i know that it seems suspicious to find a person outside without their their underwear and their pants on especially a woman you're automatically going to think that it's sexual assault. But what happens is when your blood alcohol level is that high, you could have something. So a lot of different things happen with your body when your blood alcohol level is that high. You have confusion, you could have delirium and things like that. But another thing that happens, and you've known this if you drank in college or anything like that, that you get really hot, right? Like your blood vessels dilate and you could get really hot. Now, I looked up the temperature on that night, which was a low of. cockle disease known as meningitis. Sponsored by GSK. Well, when it comes to laundry, choose All Free Clear. 100% free from dyes and perfumes. All Free Clear uses only essential ingredients that tackle tough stains and odors. And it's gentle on the skin. It's a powerful clean you can feel good about. So go on, pick up a bottle of All Free Clear for your next laundry day. 76 degrees. So that's what it was when she was found. It was like 76 degrees outside. And at midnight, it was 81 degrees still. So it was already hot out. And she clearly had a lot of alcohol in her system. And just being that drunk too can lower your body temperature. Your body doesn't have the ability to handle it. So it's a powerful clean you can feel good about. ability to shiver anymore to keep your body warm. So you think that you're hot, but really your body temperature is dropping. And sometimes when your body temperature drops really, really low, you have something called paradoxical undressing with hypothermia. So you could appear that you're very, you're very, very hot, but you're not indeed very hot. And you see that sometimes in cases where people are found outside when it's really cold. But with the alcohol, and we have to think about some other things too, like there's a because we don't have any toxicology on her yet, except this hospital level. Was she taking any kind of drugs like benzodiazepines or some other kind of drug that would suppress the central nervous system? Was she on any medications like antipsychotics and stuff could also cause your body temperature to drop. So when you mix those things together, that could be that could be why she didn't have pants on because she could have taken them off herself. We didn't hear anything about where they found her. Right next to her. We heard that there was no alcohol found next to her. There's just a lot of questions here, obviously. So she goes to the hospital and the family just automatically thinks that she was sexually assaulted because all we heard was she was undressed and she was bleeding. But was she bleeding vaginally? Like, did she appear to have sexual assault? Or did she look like she was drunk and fell and hit her head and was bleeding from her head? Like, we don't know what the trauma was they found. It could have been anything. We don't know. Right. 100%. And we don't know. You know, again, police are saying, well, we're not going to tell you specifically, you know, what the injuries were, you know, at this point. But even with when it comes to, you know, what's commonly referred to as a rape kit, like what typically goes into whether like you have this person who comes in, apparently she was unconscious, you know, she's not able to consent. But like, what typically is the process of that being administered to a person to figure out whether or not that would be something that would be something that should be looked at in a case like this? Well, luckily, I have a friend who's actually a sexual assault nurse. So I was able to speak with her about this. And she said in most cases that that's correct. I mean, I'm sure it varies from state to state as far as what they allow, because she is unconscious and can't give consent. But if the investigators and detectives are are highly suspicious of a sexual assault, they can go right to the court and get an emergency to be able to perform this testing on a person, even if they can't give consent. So at least in her experience. So the fact that that hasn't happened makes me think that the investigators aren't even thinking about that. And, and if she if they're saying that there was no evidence of trauma, you would expect to see some things associated. Obviously, you would see external genital trauma, but you would also see indications that she was restrained or any kind of bruising, injuries, broken bones, abrasions, you know, contusions, anything like that, which they're saying as of right now didn't happen. So my my only assumption at this point is that the investigators obviously know way more to the story than than we all do. Right. And that's so often the case, you know, in so many of these situations, they are going to, you know, now that she's passed away, you know, in the process of, of an autopsy and figuring things out, we know that the toxicology is going to be really important with what's been looked at as far as blood alcohol levels concerned. But then there are these, you know, allegations that she was bloodied. And I don't know, you know, bloodied can mean a lot of different things, you know, that she, you know, we don't know what parts of her body, you know, may have been, you know, the signs of trauma. But as somebody who's an expert in this field, when you have someone who may be on the surface to somebody like me, it might look like a punch wound, it might look like something that someone could inflict on someone. Like, what specifically are you looking for in an autopsy that would determine whether or not this is like foul play, you know, something that someone did to somebody else, or it may be something that might have been accidental to get to the point where police, you know, even ahead of this autopsy feel comfortable enough to put out into the public, that there are not any immediate signs of foul play. And I know that that could change, obviously, with an autopsy and what someone could find. Yeah, I mean, the fact that she's been in the hospital for a month, so when when a person dies in this situation, we would also get the hospital chart along with everything that she came in with and everything that was done. So as far as trying to do a sexual assault kit, a month later, just like, I feel like that's not that's going to be useless at this point, they might, if it was a severe sexual assault, you might still see signs of trauma a month later. But I mean, you know, cuts and wounds heal and things and she's alive still. So technically, they would heal. We did know when she got to the hospital that they did say that she had multiple wounds. And so we did know that she had multiple wounds. And so we did know that she had multiple surgeries for whatever injury she had. I'm just assuming, based on what I've seen that, you know, when I see people who drink alcohol, especially at that level, they fall and hit their head often. And I feel like that, that that's probably likely what happened to her. Because otherwise, if she had other kinds of broken bones, you would think, well, like, how did she get those if she was by herself? You know, something at this. Mom. And certain everyday behaviors like sharing food, drinks or kisses could mean sharing bacteria that can cause meningococcal disease known as meningitis. Sponsored by GSK. They would probably do some kind of postmortem imaging on her to see if there were any broken bones. But like, it's just a lot different because she was in the hospital and they they've already rolled all that stuff out. So we would just look for any evidence of any kind of brain bleed fractures that were healing anything like that. But like, like I said, like all of that stuff should have already been documented in the hospital. So now it's just you're kind of looking at what interventions they did to treat her. And I think that's a good way to kind of look at it. And I keep her alive. They'll probably just mention that, you know, she has changes that are consistent with somebody being on ventilation for a month and things like that. But I don't know that they're really going to come up with any more details than they already have at the hospital for the month that she's been there with the exception of like, it's going to be really strong with the investigation. And if they did take additional blood to send it out to like an actual toxicology lab to get more specifics. Yeah. And we'll see what happens next. A lot of questions, but, you know, more so, you know, waiting for information, I think from police to just see like really what this investigation was and like kind of filling in the blanks on, on everything as, as this family is raising questions about what happened to Katie Garcia, Nicole and Jemmy. Great to have you here on Law and Crime. Know your first time with us here, a pathologist assistant, but you also have your own podcast. Where can people find it? Yeah, we have a podcast. I have one with my daughter where we talk about all of this kind of stuff that's going on in the news every week. And we kind of explain what's going on and you can find me on Instagram at Mrs. Underscore and Jemmy. And I have a celebrity death book that's coming out around this time next year. So stay tuned for that. Hey, we'll keep a close eye on it. Great. It would be great to have you on again. Thank you for taking the time to be with us, Nicole and Jemmy, a pathologist assistant. Great to have you on Law and Crime. Awesome. Thanks for having me, Chris. That will do it for this episode of On the Case. Presented by Law and Crime. Subscribe to us on YouTube and Spotify. And we're also streaming on Peacock. I'm Chris Stewart. We'll see you next time.