First responders who tried to save the life of Maliyha Hope Garcia said it was like working on a corpse.
“She looked like she’d been dead a little while,” said Redmond Fire & Rescue Battalion Chief Garrick Terry during the second day of testimony in the child-starvation murder trial of Maliyha’s parents, Sacora Horn-Garcia and Estevan Garcia. “She was just the most emaciated thing I’ve ever seen.”
Nearly a dozen first responders — police, firefighter-paramedics and a chaplain — took the stand Tuesday in Deschutes County Circuit Court. They said they struggled for 17 minutes to find a sign of life before taking the 5-year-old girl to St. Charles Redmond.
They told the court they were not prepared for what they saw when they arrived at the couple’s small three-bedroom home on SW Metolius Avenue in Redmond.
“I walked in, and I was absolutely shocked,” said Redmond firefighter-paramedic Beth Mitchell. “She looked straight out of photos from the Holocaust.”
When she died Dec. 21, 2016, Maliyha weighed 24 pounds. The state alleges she was treated differently than her adopted siblings, dehumanized and deprived of basic care before ultimately succumbing to starvation.
First responders testified
Maliyha was cold to the touch, with pale blue-gray skin, as if the post-mortem condition of lividity had set in. And her limbs were stiff and would not extend, as if affected by rigor mortis.
Her hair was “very” wet, but the rest of her body — and her onesie pajamas — were completely dry.
“It was not what I had prepared in my mind to walk into,” said Redmond Detective Jared Kirk, who was the first professional to attempt lifesaving care on Maliyha. “She was extremely underweight. All her ribs were showing, and the skin was hanging from her arms.”
He described for the court an image echoed by every other professional to witness the emergency response: Maliyha’s legs rising and falling with each chest compression, but staying frozen in the same position.
Terry, the Redmond fire battalion chief, testified that at one point, he turned to a nearby police officer and said: “Do you see this? This does not look right.”
The officer agreed with him.
“Good, because I’ve never seen anything like this before,” Terry recalled
Emaciated Oregon girl ‘looked straight out of photos from the Holocaust’
The officer was in such shock, he returned to his patrol vehicle, where for the first time in his career, he broke down emotionally, he told the court.
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Audio was played from an interview between Horn-Garcia and Redmond detectives conducted hours after Maliyha died.
“She’s always been real healthy and has never really been sick,” Horn-Garcia told them.
Maliyha’s last doctor appointment was her 4-year checkup in January 2016. That doctor, Mary Rogers with Central Oregon Pediatric Associates, expressed concern with Maliyha’s weight. The doctor suggested switching Maliyha to whole milk and giving her more snacks.
In May 2016, Maliyha was pulled from day care.
“She’s always been a little slender,” Horn-Garcia said, “a little more petite.”
Emaciated Oregon girl ‘looked straight out of photos from the Holocaust’
The officer was in such shock, he returned to his patrol vehicle, where for the first time in his career, he broke down emotionally, he told the court.
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