Oceanside police said 24-year-old Arturo Salazar killed the mother of his two children and stuffed her body under the bed they shared, last week.

On Thursday, June 13 2013, officers contacted Salazar in his rented home on Leeward Court, after family members of Edith Andrea Garcia, 21, became concerned when they could not reach her.

“Immediately upon arriving at the residence, (police) smelled a strange odor,” a prosecutor said today. “They ultimately found the victim’s body.”

Salazar reportedly told Garcia’s family and then police that his girlfriend left “on foot” after they had an argument. Police said they searched the home and “Garcia’s body was located under a bed in the garage, in a makeshift bedroom. She appeared to be the victim of a knife injury.”

“Her throat was slit,” said Deputy District Attorney Ryan Saunders. The prosecutor said the attack occurred about 1 a.m. last Wednesday.

“Her throat had been slit with a sharp object,” the prosecutor told a judge today, while requesting high bail. “(Salazar) then took her body and shoved it under a bed, to hide it.”

“The two children were present when this occurred, we believe,” the prosecutor stated in court today.

Oceanside police claimed that Salazar “ultimately confessed to murdering Garcia” but the prosecutor would not confirm that today, June 17, 2013.

Arturo Salazar pleaded not guilty through a public defender, before the Honorable Marshall Hockett. The judge spoke directly to the defendant when he said, “I find you are an extreme danger to the community and I am setting bail at five million dollars.”

San Diego County’s Sheriff, who controls inmates, has an “immigration hold” on this case.

Defendant Arturo, 24, who had benefit of a Spanish speaking interpreter, is next due in San Diego’s North County Superior courthouse on June 25, 2013.

Oceanside police said the couple’s two children are now with their grandparents.

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