Sierra LaMar’s parents speak during Garcia-Torres retrial

Fox-KTVU
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Nov 6, 2026
A 15-year-old Sierra Lamar went missing
while on her way to school in Morgan Hill.
That was back in 2012.
Her body has never been found.
But today, as the retrial of the man charged
with killing her continued,
Sierra Lamar's parents are speaking out about
how difficult it is to relive the tragedy.
KTVU's Mark Sayre was in court and has our story.
So it's a fortunate thing for our family to be here today
to just relive the horrific events that happened on March 16th.
14 years ago.
Marlene Lamar says going back over this case and this trauma
a second time has been hard for her and her entire family.
It just seems like it never ends, you know, when you feel
like you're being able to get over it and then this happens.
And it's...
Not any less painful.
Sierra Lamar disappeared on the morning of March 16, 2012,
while on her way to a school bus stop in Morgan Hill.
In 2017, this man, Antolin Garcia Torres,
was convicted of murdering Sierra,
even though her body has never been found.
But an appeals court overturned that verdict
because prosecutors had included past crimes,
which the appeals court found tainted the jury.
Now, he is on trial for a second time.
It's still a very...
unfortunate tragedy that occurred and affected.
Her friends, her family,
and we're all in shock that we're even having to be here today.
In court today, key witnesses included
Sierra's older sister, Danielle Lamar.
Danielle told jurors, we were really close.
When prosecutors asked if they had
a good relationship, her answer was, we did.
Prosecutors then asked if she had ever heard
her sister talk about a man in a red car.
Her answer, no.
And when asked about the last time the two saw one another,
Danielle Lamar answered her sister was just happy.
and content and just her usual self.
The red car is significant because prosecutors say DNA
evidence shows that Sierra was in the defendant's red VW Jetta.
Steve Lamar is Sierra's father.
Like I said before, it's...
Not really thrilled about being here. None of us are.
We don't think this should be happening again,
but there's not much we could do.
Late Thursday afternoon, Marlene Lamar took the stand relating
to jurors how the final morning that she saw her daughter Sierra,
everything was normal in terms of the routine getting to school.
It was during the workday
when she could not reach Sierra by text that panic set in.
She came home. Sierra was not there and she called 911.
Reporting in San Jose, I'm Mark Sayre, KTVU, Fox 2 News.
