Searchers for Sierra Lamar find relief in guilty verdict
Friends and family of Sierra Lamar weren’t the only ones overjoyed with the guilty verdict on Tuesday. There was another group of people who became heavily invested in trying to find the missing girl. The group of people who went looking for her after she disappeared on her way to school.
“People shouted yay, and i was kind of stunned. I was like, “is this real,'” said searcher, Mary Doering.
Disbelief, happiness, and a good amount of relief. That’s just a few of the emotions that searchers expressed after Tuesday’s guilty verdict. Emotions brought on after searching for Sierra Lamar for nearly five years.
“It just took awhile to sink in that this is really over, that they came up with justice for Sierra, which is what we wanted,” said Doering.
“I mean the whole team was here today so, yeah, I’m very happy that it turned out the way it did,” said searcher, Doug Tollis.
Volunteers, including some from the Central Coast, logged more than 50 thousand hours searching for Sierra in rugged terrain in Southern Santa Clara County. One of the last searches took place last year
With the guilty verdict comes the hope that Antolin Garcia-Torres will finally disclose where the body of Sierra Lamar could be.
“I’m hoping, yeah, why not? i mean what does he have to lose at this point? He could live forever in that pit or he could tell us where she’s at,” said Tollis.
But until that time comes, they won’t quit looking.
“Hopefully he will say where he put her body, hopefully, we’re hoping for that. But we’ll continue to search,” said Doering.
“We’re looking for restitution as well, like i said, justice has been served, and we’re looking forward to going back out and searching,” said Tollis.
Though they still haven’t found Sierra, the guilty verdict does bring some closure.
“The relief for the family that this part is over, that all the things that have been said, you know, this part can be put behind them when they sentence him. So it’s been a long time coming, a very long time, and it’s been a long process to get this court case going,” said Doering.
