Couple arrested in Garland killing of Texas mother shot to death as she helped family
A Dallas man and a Garland woman were arrested early Thursday in Dallas and accused in the of shooting of a mother who was helping her family move into a new home in Garland.
Authorities with the assistance of the U.S. Marshals Violent Crime Task Force took into custody 21-year-old Gabriela Liliana Torres of Garland and 20-year-old Kvaughandre Presley of Dallas.
“All indications in the investigation show that this was a random act of violence and that the suspects were not known to the victim,” said Garland Officer Felicia Jones, a police spokeswoman, in a Thursday news release.
Presley was in the Garland Detention Center Thursday in lieu of $1 million bond and Torres was in the same facility in lieu of $750,000 bond.
Murder warrants were issued Wednesday night for the pair who are accused of killing 60-year-old Patricia Eifer of Jasper Tuesday night at a Garland home.
Eifer had been at a home on Briar Way in Garland helping her daughter and her daughter’s husband move into the home which the couple recently purchase.
“You move into a new place. It’s a nice neighborhood but you don’t think this would happen,” Annie Bryant, Eifert’s daughter, told KTVT-TV. I’m just waiting to wake up from a nightmare but I know this is the reality. My mom is gone.”
Video surveillance showed a black four-door vehicle parked in an alley behind the home on Tuesday evening. A woman and a man exited the vehicle and entered the garage.
Minutes later, Garland police responded to report of a person with a gunshot wound at the home. When they arrived, Garland police found the woman with multiple gunshot wounds. She died at the scene.
The victim was later identified as Patricia Eifert.
Garland police responded to the call just before 7 p.m. Tuesday in the 700 block of Briar Way.
Eifert was the mother of a couple who had just purchased the home, police said. She was at the home helping them move in, but authorities believe Eifert was the only one in the home at the time of the shooting.
Authorities also believe the suspects drove to the area of the 5100 to 5200 block of Barcelona Drive in Garland where they were involved in a hit-and-run accident, and the man involved the murder pointed a gun at another motorist..
