A Harlingen man arrested and charged in connection to a February homicide was formally charged with murder in an indictment handed down by a grand jury on March 25.
Court records showed that Anthony Eliff III, 44, was indicted for the shooting death of Guillermo Garcia, 41, who was found on Feb. 6 in a parked vehicle by Harlingen police with a gunshot wound to his chest, according to the department.
Eliff is set to be arraigned before Judge Benjamin Euresti, Jr. in the 107th District Court of Cameron County on May 27.
Harlingen PD wrote in a February press release that officers responded to the 3300 Block of Adams Landing in reference to reports of a male that was shot. “The male had, what appeared to be, a single gunshot wound to the chest,” it stated.
According to local reports, the police department’s Major Crimes Unit identified Eliff as the suspect through its investigation. Court records showed that bond was set at $1.9 million.
Eliff was also charged with one count of possession of a controlled substance, for which bond was set at $40,000. Records confirmed the man was booked at the Cameron County Jail on Feb. 10.
In a separate case related to Eliff, the mother of missing Corpus Christi woman Elyn Loera, 32, told reporters in February she received an anonymous tip with details of Eliff’s arrest before news broke that police had discovered human remains on the 1200 block of Business 77 in San Benito.
Rose Loera’s daughter allegedly boarded a bus to Harlingen to visit Eliff on Sept. 12 of last year and had told her mother she was afraid of him, local reports stated.
Police have not confirmed Eliff’s involvement with the case. Commander David Osborne said on Tuesday the department was still waiting for DNA test results on the remains found in San Benito. “They do take a while to get back. We did, on speculation think that it could be the daughter, request a DNA sample from the mother so we could have a comparison,” he said of the process.
Osborne specified the test results are either to “confirm or put to rest” whether the remains belong to Elyn Loera or someone else. As to the question of Eliff’s involvement, the commander said there’s not yet any concrete evidence tying the man to the disappearance, though the department continues to investigate.
“We have yet to positively tie our suspect that’s in custody for the other murder. We are still working that investigative line – but nothing concrete yet.”
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