Kriti Mehrotra
The suburban city of Sandy Springs, Georgia, was left shaken when Garcia Danielle Gaddis was found dead inside his pick-up truck in Little Suwanee Pointe on the morning of October 24, 2021. As explored in Investigation Discovery’s ‘Homicide Hunter: American Detective: Catfished to Kill,’ what ensued was an extensive inquiry leading to a web of rage, lies, and deception. Thankfully, with the help of cell records, surveillance footage, and shell casings, the perpetrator was arrested within a year before he ultimately faced justice in court in 2024.
Garcia Gaddis Was Found Shot to Death 3 Days After He Was Last Seen
Garcia Daniel Gaddis was born around 1982 to Gilda Ages as her eldest child, the apple of her eyes, and her pride and joy. It thus comes as no surprise that even after she welcomed several more children into the world and he moved out to build his own life, they remained in close contact. In fact, according to the family woman in the aforementioned original, she spoke to her son several times a day and was in constant communication with him about anything and everything. Whether it be their dreams, his passion for gospel despite his bad singing voice, their values of care as well as kindness, or their love lives, they usually discussed it all.
Gilda revealed in the show that while her eldest was not married and did not have any children of his own, he did take after her as he was a family man. He adored his loved ones to such an extent that he treated all the youngsters as his own, never hesitated to offer a helping hand, and simply enjoyed spending quality time with everyone. Thus, when they all suddenly stopped hearing from him after the evening of October 21, 2021, they knew something was terribly wrong. They reported him missing less than 24 hours later, kickstarting an investigation. It was around 2 pm on October 24 when a Gwinnett County deputy responded to a disturbance call in the community of Little Suwanee Pointe, following which he was flagged down by a neighbor.
They reported that a suspicious red pick-up truck had been sitting near the intersection of Pierce Brennan Drive and Tech Center Parkway for a couple of days, with some sort of liquid dripping from it. When the deputy looked, they immediately realized it was blood and called for backup, leading to the discovery of the 39-year-old’s remains in the backseat of his own vehicle. As per police reports, his head was on the floor near the console, whereas his bare legs were draped on the seat – we specify bare because his pants had been pulled all the way down to his ankles. Upon a closer inspection of his remains still in the vehicle, it was soon ascertained that he had been killed with a single gunshot wound to his left temple – the bullet was later identified as a 9 mm.
Garcia Gaddis’ Personal Belongings Were Missing When He Was Found
Since Garcia’s truck was locked and his fatal injury seemed so specific, authorities initially suspected he had died by suicide. They had noticed there was no weapon around, so they thought it was possible he might have it underneath him, as one of his arms was bent in that direction. It was only when his remains were removed to be autopsied and then properly laid to rest that officials realized they had a homicide case because all they recovered in the truck was a 9 mm shell casing. The vehicle was the victim’s, who was identified through a store receipt and his mother’s missing person’s report almost 2 days prior, as she had uncharacteristically not heard from him.
As protocol, investigators subsequently questioned Garcia’s family, friends, roommate, and any other close loved one, resulting in them learning he was a proud gay man. According to them, they had all last spoken to Garcia on the evening of October 21, 2021, with his roommate being the last to hear from him, at around 10 pm. The roommate said Garcia was in the shower when he came home from work, so he went into the room to relax a little, and by the time he came out, the 39-year-old had left. It wasn’t strange for him to come and go in the evenings, the roommate said, because he was a social person and often liked to go out to meet new people.
Garcia had left home with his phone, wallet, and keys, but they were nowhere to be found when his remains were recovered, driving officials to ask if he could have met someone in particular that fateful evening. The roommate revealed he did have a casual fling with a married man named Cole Henderson, but he mostly used the dating app Tagged to meet new people. Cole Henderson was questioned within hours, but he was cleared just as quickly as it became evident that there was no bad blood or love triangle involved. According to the show, Garcia and Cole were on the same page about where they stood, so the former was also active on Tagged.
Garcia Gaddis’ Killer Was Identified With the Help of a Dating App
Since investigators had no way to quickly access Garcia’s Tagged profile without his cell phone, they asked the company itself to provide all the information it had. That’s when they found out that the victim had plans to meet with someone for a hookup that fatal evening, but the latter’s name wasn’t available in those records. When the company was asked for the records of the other profile, it turned out that it had been created under the name Cash Money, making it clear that the male did not want to be identified. However, officials were able to find his IP address through these records.
Around the same time, detectives also learned that Garcia’s truck had driven past the neighborhood right across the street from Little Suwanee Pointe at 11:17 pm. A surveillance camera by the local pool house led them to their suspect, who calmly walked to the victim’s truck before it turned around to leave. A little over 12 minutes later, the same unidentified stranger walked past the poolhouse again with the same casualness, going in the direction he had come from. Their messages on Tagged further put the latter male on the hot seat as he had messaged Gracie that he was “in front of the pool house” at 11:16. His casualness on the surveillance videos didn’t help either.
With all these aspects and a quick look into the IP address, the lead suspect was identified as 21-year-old Mark Antonio White. But alas, investigators could not immediately bring him into custody – he had been evicted from his last known address days prior, just before they were able to connect him to the case. A BOLO was issued against him, and it also came to light that he already had an active warrant against him for allegedly harassing an ex-girlfriend and her mother. Detectives thus interviewed the ex-girlfriend, who claimed he was violent, always carried a gun, and had allegedly even shot at her car when she refused to rekindle their romance. Since it was dark when he had allegedly opened fire outside her mother’s home on July 19, 2021, deputies were initially not able to find any shell casings. Her mother saved them after finding them in the morning, and they turned out to be a perfect match to the bullet that killed Garcia.
Mark Antonio White is Currently Incarcerated in a State Prison
It was in June 2022 when authorities came across Mark Antonio White by chance, resulting in his arrest on suspicion of murder. During his interrogation, he denied every allegation despite the mountain of evidence against him, even going as far as to claim he was not the one seen on the pool house surveillance footage or on the police body cam that had been activated during the eviction. In the end, he was still charged with murder with the motivation of robbery, for which he stood trial in the fall of 2024. The 23-year-old was found guilty of aggravated assault, armed robbery, felony murder, and possession of a firearm, for which he was sentenced to life in prison plus five years without the possibility of parole on November 4. Therefore, today, at age 25, he is incarcerated at the close-security Hancock State Prison in Sparta, Georgia, where he is expected to remain for the rest of his natural life.
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