Texas man, 42, is charged with raping and strangling teenager, 17, whose body was found in a Malibu ravine 25 years ago after his DNA was uploaded to database when he was arrested for domestic assault

Nearly 25 years after a 17-year-old girl was found in a Los Angeles-area ravine after being raped, beaten and strangled to death, a suspect was arrested in Texas thanks to a DNA match.

Jose Luis Garcia, 42, was arraigned this week on a charge of murder in connection to the 1996 murder of Glady Arellano, Lt. Hugo Reynaga, of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department cold case unit, announced during a press conference on Wednesday. 

Arellano's battered, partially nude body was discovered at the bottom of a culvert in the Topanga Canyon area near Malibu on January 30, 1996. 

Suspect Jose Luis Garcia, 42, has been arrested in Dallas and extradited to Los Angeles to face murder charges in the 1996 rape and killing of 17-year-old Gladys Arellano

Arellano's partially naked body was found at the bottom of this ravine in the Topanga Canyon area near Malibu

Detectives are seen working at the scene where Arellano's body was found a day after her family reported her missing 

The last time she was last seen alive was three days prior at her Boyle Heights home, and she was reported missing by her family one day before her body was found. 

'She had a beautiful soul,' her niece and goddaughter, Samantha Moreno, said at the press conference. 'She was beautiful, intelligent and gorgeous, and had a radiant smile. She had such big dreams for her life.'

A DNA profile developed from evidence taken from the teenager's body was put into state and federal databases. But no match was identified and the trail had gone cold.

On November 10, 2019, Garcia was arrested by Los Angeles police in a domestic assault case, and a DNA sample taken during booking was put into the state database, Reynaga said.

Samantha Moreno, Gladys' niece, is speaking during a press conference announcing Garcia's arrest on Wednesday in Los Angeles  

That sample eventually matched Garcia to the Arellano killing, he said. Cold case detectives located and interviewed him in Fontana in neighboring San Bernardino County in February, questioned him about Arellano's murder and were able to take an oral swab to confirm the DNA match. 

By then, Garcia had relocated 1,390 miles from California to Dallas and US marshals arrested him there on September 29. 

He was extradited to California on October 14 and arraigned on Monday in the Van Nuys division of Los Angeles Superior Court. He remained held on $1million bail.

There is no known relationship between Garcia, who was 19 years old in 1996, and the victim other than that he lived near her home at the time, Reynaga said.

Lt. Hugo Reynaga, of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department cold case unit, said Garcia's arrest was made possible thanks to a DNA match 

Moreno thanked the cold case detectives 'for not giving up on our Gladys' and for making an unrest.

'We are pleased to know that Jose Luis Garcia has been taken off the streets after 24 ½ years,' she said. 'We want nothing more than for him to pay for his brutal crime. We recognize that this will not bring Gladys back, but we are relieved to know that there will be justice for Gladys, who would have celebrated her 42nd birthday on Saturday, October 24th.' 

Moreno also offered hope to other families living through similar situations.

'Beautiful Latina souls from Boyle Heights should never be forgotten,' she said. 'Acts of violence against women should never be forgotten.'

The sheriff’s cold case unit has 12 retired homicide detectives who return to work part time. Reynaga said there are 15,000 such cases.