Police: Woman killed after abortion threat

EDINBURG — Claudia Zamora claimed to have terminated her pregnancy to make her common-law husband mad.

But her lie may have pushed him over the edge.

Enraged at the news, Nelson Garcia choked her to death, washed off her body and then tried to cover it up with a car crash, police said.

He was charged with capital murder Tuesday, after authorities say he made a full confession to officers.

“The victim was expecting and that is why the (charge is) capital murder,” Edinburg police Chief Quirino Muñoz said.

Investigators believe Zamora, 33, discovered Garcia, 44, was having an affair and confronted him about it at their Pharr apartment late Sunday.

He later told officers that Zamora made the abortion claim during their fight and that he had no idea the fetus was still viable when he strangled her.

Nevertheless, Zamora and the fetus died during the struggle.

Garcia then poured water over her body to hide signs of the fight and sat her in the front seat of their compact Chevrolet, authorities said.

As he drove around early Monday morning looking for a place to dump the body, Garcia had what he thought was a better idea.

He told investigators he slammed his car into construction barriers along U.S. 281, hoping emergency responders would think Zamora died in the impact. It didn’t appear he was trying to commit suicide.

Officers responded to the crash site, near the highway’s intersection with Farm-to-Market Road 2812, just after 3:45 a.m. But it quickly became clear that they were dealing with something far more serious.

Zamora mysteriously bore no injuries from the wreck and her body was still wet from Garcia’s earlier attempts to clean it up, according to authorities.

Autopsy results would later indicate she died of severe trauma around her neck. She had been three months along in her pregnancy.

Garcia, who survived the impact, was arrested Tuesday after recovering at McAllen Medical Center from the minor injuries he sustained in the wreck. He was arraigned later that afternoon and taken to the Hidalgo County jail on a $1 million bond.

Yellow police tape still cordoned off the doorway to the couple’s brick duplex apartment late Tuesday afternoon, as curious residents wondered in awe.

“I don’t know what to say,” neighbor Bela Martinez said in Spanish.

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Jared Taylor covers Edinburg, the Delta region and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4439.

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Jeremy Roebuck covers courts, law enforcement and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4437.