Family talks one-year anniversary of Thermal woman’s death

It’s been a tough year for Bertha Garcia Duarte, the mother of Elilia Garcia Valdez.

I still can’t believe it,” Duarte said. “I still want to see her. Sometimes I think I’m dreaming, and I’m going to wake up and she’s going to surprise me.”

The same goes for her brother, Adolfo Valdez.

“We’re still trying to comprehend why all of this happened,” he said.

Valdez is remembered as a loving daughter, sister and mother who always spending time, and staying connected to family.

“She was always happy, smiling, laughing, joking around with everybody,” Adolfo Valdez said.

“She was like a little kid, when she would always see me,” Duarte said. “She would become a little girl. She was my little girl. And she would always be happy.”

But on March 18, 2017, Valdez was found dead in Thermal.

Her boyfriend, Christian Pacheco, 23, was charged with her murder and setting her mobile home on fire.

“The pain I have, I think that she suffered, when she realized that she wasn’t going to see her kids anymore, and she was going to die, it hurts,” Duarte said.

This week, Pacheco was ruled mentally incompetent to stand trial for Valdez’s death.

Something her family said they refuse to believe.

“He knew,” Duarte said. “He took away my grandkids’ mother. They’re never going to making plans with her. They’re going to wake up every day, and never see her. Only in pictures. Just memories.”

But since last year, Valdez’s family has spent every day remembering her.

Even making a memorial where she was found one year ago, continuing to stay in touch with her.

“I always try and keep it to let her know she’s always in our mind and our hearts,” Duarte said. “I have faith, and I believe in God. And I’m at peace at that, because I know there’s God. And I know there’s going to be justice for her. I don’t know when, but I know. I know.”

Pacheco is expected to be back in court in May where he’ll be referred to a state mental facility.

Duarte said their family will have a mass in Valdez’s honor in her hometown of Heber, California before visiting her gravesite in El Centro.