Rockville Man Who ‘Searched’ For Missing Ex Was Her Killer All Along, Prosecutors Say

By Zak Failla From Daily Voice

A Maryland man who pretended to be worried about his missing ex-girlfriend — even calling police to report her disappearance — will spend decades in prison after admitting he beat and strangled her in their apartment before dumping her body off an ICC bridge.

Francisco Lara-Garcia, 33, was sentenced to life in prison, suspending all but 40 years to serve, for murdering his ex-girlfriend and abandoning her body, the Montgomery County State's Attorney's Office announced on Thursday, Nov. 20.

Lara-Garcia pleaded guilty in March to first-degree murder for killing 20-year-old Keylin Chavez Dominguez, whose disappearance gripped her family and the Rockville community for nearly a month.

Chavez Dominguez was reported missing on Jan. 2, 2023. 

She had last been seen on Dec. 30, 2022, at about 8:30 p.m., when she texted her new boyfriend from the apartment she shared with Lara-Garcia on Braxfield Court in Rockville, according to charging documents.

Prosecutors said the victim continued living with Lara-Garcia after their breakup because he depended on her and her family financially. A roommate recalled that Lara-Garcia rarely worked and that the victim “primarily paid the rent.”

He also noticed Lara-Garcia’s growing jealousy of the victim’s new boyfriend, and remembered an argument on Dec. 29 — one day before she disappeared — during which the victim found an old photo of the two of them that Lara-Garcia had stuck sewing needles into.

After killing her, investigators said, Lara-Garcia lied to detectives and the victim’s family, pretending he had no idea where she was while they searched desperately for answers.

Four weeks later, a man walking his dog below the Intercounty Connector near New Hampshire Avenue made a grisly discovery: human remains inside two plastic trash bags, officials said.

An autopsy confirmed that Chavez Dominguez died from strangulation and blunt force trauma. Investigators later noted postmortem injuries consistent with her body being thrown from a bridge after she was killed.

When detectives notified Lara-Garcia of her death on Jan. 28, 2023, he told them he didn’t know what happened. Within an hour of their leaving the apartment, he fled Maryland.

According to court documents, Lara-Garcia eventually admitted what really happened.

He told detectives he and the victim were alone in the apartment on Dec. 30 when she was listening to music and he wanted to change it. They argued. 

He “got so angry that he began to punch the victim in her face,” according to the Statement of Charges. 

Lara-Garcia said he knocked her to the ground, straddled her, continued punching her, and hit her head on the floor. He then "manually strangled" her. When he stopped, she was dead.

He said he put her body inside two trash bags and placed them in the back seat of his car on the morning of Dec. 31. 

He drove to McLean, Virginia, looking for a place to dispose of her body but “could not find a place he felt was suitable,” according to charging documents.

He returned to Rockville, then left again “in search of a disposal site in Montgomery County.” 

Along the way, he threw her phone out of the car near her boyfriend’s apartment “to pass suspicion onto him” if police tracked the device.

Eventually, he told investigators, he stopped along the Intercounty Connector and dumped her body off the bridge. He then continued to Philadelphia for New Year’s Eve.

After detectives notified him of the discovery of her body on Jan. 28, Lara-Garcia “left the state and lied about where he was going.” 

Detectives believed he was trying to flee the country, so they obtained a warrant for driving without a license.

US Marshals found him on Feb. 1, 2023, inside an apartment in Kirkwood, Missouri.

He admitted he “decided to flee and try to get back to Honduras once the victim’s body was found as he felt the focus of the investigation shifting to him.” 

Lara-Garcia also admitted disposing of his own phone because he knew it could be tracked.

“We thank Montgomery County Police and the United States Marshals Service for their assistance in providing justice for the victim’s family. This defendant lied to police and Chavez Dominguez’s loved ones for nearly a month while they desperately kept hope alive that she may have been found unharmed,” State’s Attorney John McCarthy said.

Lara-Garcia will serve his 40-year active term in state prison. When he is released, a judge also ordered he serve five years of supervised probation.