Suspected serial killer charged with kidnapping, murder of Michaela Garecht
HAYWARD, Calif. (KION and KPIX) A suspect has been charged 32 years after 9-year-old Michaela Garecht disappeared from a street corner in Hayward.
Police said Monday that suspected serial killer 59-year-old David Misch has been charged with her kidnapping and murder. According to the CBS affiliate in the Bay Area, Misch has been in Santa Rita Jail for the 1989 stabbing death of 36-year-old Margaret Ball. He has also been charged with the murders of two Fremont women whose bodies were found in 1986.
“The breakthrough in the case occurred earlier this year as the result of new leads that pointed us in the direction of Misch,” the chief told reporters. “We had the opportunity to follow those leads patiently as Misch has been in state prison since 1989 convicted of murder.”
The Alameda District Attorney Nancy O'Malley told reporters at a press conference that the suspect is charged with murder and two special circumstances. He may face the death penalty if convicted.
“There are no words that can adequately describe the horror of a kidnapped child,” she told reporters. “Especially when the child or the child’s remains are never found…They were just kids. Carefree and certainly not suspecting the danger that lay ahead. Michaela’s kidnapping devastated her family. Paralyzed them with grief and terrorized them with the unknowing of what happened to Michaela. Their pain was and remains indescribable.”
The Hayward Police Chief said the department is still hopeful that they will be able to find Michaela's remains.
Michaela's mother, Sharon Murch released a statement.
“In the last year, I had to come to a place of acceptance that Michaela was probably no longer alive, but somehow that acceptance was far more wrapped up in the idea of Michaela sitting on a fluffy thin cloud, walking on streets of gold, dancing on grassy hills, soaring among the stars,” Murch wrote. “What I did not envision was my daughter as a dead child. It was only when I heard this news that this vision of reality appeared and I have honestly not figured out what to do with it.”
“A chill set in which had nothing to do with the snow outside my home in southwest Iowa,” she continued. “I feel as though I am looking for Michaela but now I don’t know where. I honestly feel lost in the dark. Over the years I have often wonder whether I really wanted to know the truth about what happened to Michaela. I wondered if I would be able to take it.”
Police said on Nov. 19, 1988, Michaela and her friend rode scooters to a market to buy candy and sodas, but when they left the store, she noticed that her friend's scooter had been moved. When she went to get it, KPIX reports that she was grabbed by a white man who forced her into his sedan and drove away. By the time her friend was able to get help, they were already gone.
