In dramatic developments surrounding a Clovis murder case, the suspects were booked into the Fresno County Jail Monday evening, but the female suspect's two young daughters are stuck in Mexico.
U.S. Marshals arrested 32-year-old Misty Gomez and her husband, 40-year-old Antonio Garcia, south of the border on Wednesday.
Authorities found that Gomez fled there with her daughters after detectives identified her as a person of interest in the murder of a beloved Clovis educator.
This new discovery comes as Clovis Police continue to investigate Geoff Bernardi's murder, who taught career technical education with the Clovis Unified School District.
Both Gomez and Garcia are accused of the killing and are already back in California.
They were extradited to the U.S. last week and booked into the Santa Rita Jail in Alameda County early Saturday morning, before they were transported to the downtown jail in Fresno Monday.
Bernardi's mother, Erin Adams, told Action News Sunday that Gomez was dating Bernardi when he was killed.
Adams says Bernardi didn't know Gomez was married.
The families of Gomez's daughters say the girls are in the custody of the Desarrollo Integral de la Familia (National System for Integral Family Development), or DIF, in Michoacan.
The DIF is Mexico's equivalent to Child Protective Services.
The girls have different fathers, and both families are desperate to have them home.
9-year-old Skye Mason and 12-year-old Castiel Hernandez, both of Dinuba, were each reported missing by their families in April.
The families say Gomez took them there without telling either girl's father.
Skye's grandmother and Castiel's father both describe Gomez as extremely conniving.
"She's very manipulative. She's a pretty evil person. She's used men — more men than I can imagine," said Carol Mason, Skye's grandmother.
