A Pinon Hills man suspected of killing his 9-month old son before committing suicide apparently posted details of the plans on his Facebook page in an emotional, rambling letter beginning with, “So This Is Goodbye.”
“I led everyone on my side of the family to believe I wouldn’t have done this because I did not want them to know.... ,” reads the post attributed to Stephen Garcia, 25. “I did this out of love for our son, to protect him and myself. I am sorry.... Do not dwell on what I did, it’s something you could not fix.”
San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department investigators found Garcia and his son, Wyatt, at 1:30 a.m. Sunday inside his car on a dirt road in Twin Peaks. Both had sustained “traumatic injuries” and were pronounced dead at the scene.
Earlier that day, deputies had received a report that Garcia had taken his son during a court-ordered visitation and threatened to kill the boy and commit suicide.
Garcia was apparently distraught over having to share custody of the boy with his former girlfriend, Katie Tagle.
He had set up an elaborate website with photos, text messages, love letters and angry denunciations of Tagle’s family and friends, people he thought were breaking up his family.
The site included pictures of himself, his son and Tagle in happier times.
“You are THE missing piece in my life,” he wrote. “I hope we can be a family together forever and I will be there for you every day.”
But his efforts to get back together failed.
The suicide note was discovered on Garcia’s Facebook page Sunday, after deputies found the bodies.
“Do not blame her.... ” it says of Tagle. “Our deaths are a lot for her. It will have to suffice as her punishment.”
–David Kelly in Riverside County