Nearly two years after 25-year-old Marissa Garcia vanished under suspicious circumstances from a Palm Bay apartment complex, Brevard County authorities have arrested Stefan Paul Eide in connection with her presumed death. Eide, 32, was taken into custody Thursday following the issuance of an arrest warrant earlier this week, and formally charged. He faces multiple felony and misdemeanor counts, including two counts of tampering with evidence in a criminal proceeding, disturbing a dead body or clothing/articles nearby, violation of storage/preservation/transport of human remains, transport of a dead body without proper permit, and maintaining a place for prostitution.
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The affidavit details how Eide’s silver pickup truck was linked to the scene of Garcia’s last sighting. Garcia, a mother of four described by family as fiercely devoted despite her struggles with addiction and involvement in sex work, was last seen in the early morning hours of December 24, 2023, at 5325 Pinewood Drive NE in Palm Bay. Her case, which gripped the Space Coast community and sparked rumors of foul play amid a web of local drama, had gone cold for over a year until persistent detective work cracked it open.
A Night of Holiday Shadows
The timeline of Garcia’s final hours, pieced together through witness statements, surveillance footage, and digital records, paints a picture of vulnerability amid escalating tensions in Palm Bay’s Pinewood neighborhood a tight-knit but troubled enclave known for its mix of low-income housing and transient residents.
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On December 22, 2023, Garcia was embroiled in a chaotic incident at the Hotel Melby in Melbourne. According to police reports, she locked herself in a bathroom with the cellphone of Ruben Rodriguez, a self-described “sugar daddy” who financially supported Garcia and another woman, Taylor Sanabria. Garcia allegedly transferred $2,000 from Rodriguez’s Cash App to her own without permission, a detail later confirmed via subpoenas. Sanabria and an associate, Malcolm Dankins, fled the scene in Rodriguez’s vehicle but returned it hours later. Officers released Garcia, who took a Lyft back to Pinewood around 1 a.m. on December 23.
The next day brought more conflict. Around 1:30 p.m., Jasmine Ward, furious over Garcia’s alleged affair with her boyfriend Carlos Simpson Jr., arrived at “The Pines” apartment complex in a silver Toyota driven by Charleen O’Connell. A physical confrontation was threatened but fizzled out. Ward and Simpson, who lived nearby at 5412 Pinewood Drive NE, later moved in with Garcia’s host, Latora “Ms. T” Mack, at the Pinewood address where Garcia was crashing.
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Garcia’s inner circle was fraught with betrayal. Her self-proclaimed “best friend,” Paige Bacish, had previously assaulted her alongside Ciera Lightner—beating her with a propane tank at a Speedway gas station and stealing her phone during a prostitution outing in Melbourne months earlier. Despite this, the pair had reconciled and were frequently “tricking” together. Garcia’s iPhone 13, in a distinctive pink flower case and linked phone number, went silent after December 23.
On Christmas, Lightner’s ex, Erick Elisee, offered Garcia’s sister, Alicia Turner, a ride to search for her. Instead, he drove her to a wooded area south of Palm Bay Road and Pinewood Drive, near a body of water. There, Elisee made unwanted advances, which Turner rebuffed. Disturbingly, he claimed to have seen Garcia climb into a silver truck with a dirt bike hitched to the back—possibly that very morning.
Turner, who monitored Garcia’s Google location sharing via Gmail, noted it had pinged in the Pinewood area since December 23. Cash App emails to Garcia’s account, screenshots of which she shared with detectives, hinted at ongoing “dates” that night.
The Truck That Didn’t Fit
Rumors swirled in the days after Christmas: Garcia had been pushed down stairs by Ward, accidentally killed; her clothes had been spotted on others in the neighborhood. Ms. T recalled seeing Garcia leave wearing jeans and a black spaghetti-strap tank top, climbing into what she vaguely remembered as a blue-and-red truck owned by one of the local “chicos.”
Detectives from the Palm Bay Police Department’s Major Crimes Unit (MCU) entered the fray on January 8, 2024, assigning Det. Kirk as lead and Det. Brown as co-lead. Initial cadaver dog searches in the nearby woods yielded nothing.
Interviews painted a fractured portrait. Bacish, struggling to recall timelines, confirmed Ward’s attempted fight and said she last saw Garcia before Christmas waking on Christmas Eve to find her gone. Ward’s stationhouse interview yielded inconsistencies and no leads.
A breakthrough came from neighbor Nancy Durbin’s surveillance cameras at 5117 Pinewood Drive. Footage from 5:38 a.m. on December 24 showed a silver pickup truck with a dirt bike in tow circling the parking lot pulling up to 5325 Pinewood, idling briefly, then departing westbound by 5:47 a.m. It matched Elisee’s account to Turner.
Flock Safety cameras captured the truck leaving Pinewood at 5:36 a.m. and 5:48 a.m., tag partially obscured but ending in “KF3” (later clarified as “ILQK13”). Intel analyst Dawn Strickland identified it on January 11: registered to Eide at 2310 Railroad Ave., Mims—a 50-mile drive north on I-95.
A Year of Dead Ends, Then Digital Clues—and an Arrest
For the remainder of 2024, MCU chased shadows. Interviews with Pinewood’s tangled cast—Ward, Bacish, Lightner, Sanabria, O’Connell—uncovered drama but no smoking gun. All major allegations against locals proved unfounded. Garcia was entered as “missing and endangered” in FCIC/NCIC on January 8, 2024, after her aunt, Doreen Harper, reported her missing on January 5 amid circulating whispers of violence.
Eide’s truck remained the lone viable lead. In December 2024, Det. Kirk revisited the case. Over the next eight months, he amassed damning evidence:
Call detail records (CDR) for Eide’s phone (321-505-0510), placing him in the area.
A TextMe burner number traced to Eide, active in Garcia’s CDR the night she vanished—suggesting solicitation for prostitution.
Bank records showing Eide’s purchase at a McDonald’s at 4701 Babcock St., Palm Bay, on December 24, 2023.
Historical cell data confirming his movements.
What Eide Told Investigators Happened
According to the arrest affidavit, Stefan Eide told investigators that he met Marissa Garcia during the early morning hours of December 24, 2023, after arranging a paid sexual encounter. Eide said Garcia entered his silver pickup truck in the Pinewood Drive area and that he drove her to Max Rhodes Park in West Melbourne, where the two remained inside the vehicle. He told detectives they had sex in the backseat of his truck while parked at the location and pointed to the exact parking space the encounter took place.
Eide told investigators that after the encounter, Garcia became unresponsive while still inside the truck. He said he believed she had overdosed. Eide admitted he did not call 911, did not seek medical assistance, and did not notify law enforcement. Instead, he said he panicked. He also states he attempted CPR but was unsuccessful. According to the affidavit, Eide acknowledged transporting Garcia’s body in his truck, driving away from Palm Bay toward Brevard County’s north end in Mims. He admitted to leaving her body in the back of his truck for 10-12 hours and to handling and moving her remains and said he ultimately left her body in a remote wooded area. Detectives also state that they believe Eide sent text messages from Garcia’s phone after she was believed to be deceased.
Edie claims to have dumped her body in the area of Cuyler St and Hammock Rd in Mims.
Family’s Anguish Meets a Glimmer of Justice
Garcia’s loved ones have never stopped searching. In a February 2024 interview with WKMG News 6, Harper described the uncharacteristic silence: “We talked to her on the 19th of December, and she was going to have a meeting with her kids that following Friday. On the 30th, we got a call from her sister saying she hasn’t been seen since the 23rd.”
“Everything I came up with, it just wasn’t adding up,” Harper said then. “She may not call me right away, but she will always answer her mother.”
This case highlights the perils faced by vulnerable women in sex work, entangled in cycles of exploitation and violence.
This story is developing. Updates will follow as court proceedings unfold.
