How investigators unraveled the mysterious death of beloved Alaska surgeon
When esteemed surgeon Dr. Eric Garcia was found dead in his Alaska home, police had to consider multiple possibilities, including natural death, suicide and homicide. There were no signs of forced entry, and the doctor showed no signs of trauma.
But as Ketchikan Police took a closer look at the crime scene, clues pointed to something more ominous: an empty pill bottle, a partially burnt charcoal briquette, a deck door propped open with a pillow, a barbecue close by and smells of lighter fluid.
“There were some items there that didn't really make sense to me,” retired Ketchikan Police Detective Devin Miller recalled.
The investigation into the meaning of these discoveries ultimately led police on a multistate search for answers, a perplexing case featured in a “20/20” episode premiering Sept. 20 at 9 p.m. ET on ABC and streaming the next day on Hulu.
Dr. Garcia was one of only two general surgeons in Ketchikan. He was known by family and friends for his kindness, generosity and caring nature.
“Eric was a very compassionate man, and he saw beyond people's faults,” Saul Garcia, Eric’s brother, said about his sibling. “He helped so many people along the way with medicine or just being friends with people and connecting with them.”
In March 2017, Dr. Garcia was scheduled to attend an annual medical conference in Las Vegas. March 16 was his last day at work before heading off on his trip.
But friends and family began to worry when they couldn’t get in touch with Garcia.
Jordan Joplin, a friend who lived in Washington state, called the Ketchikan Police on March 18 to ask for a welfare check on Garcia after Joplin said he was concerned that he hadn’t heard from the doctor.
Ketchikan Police drove to Garcia’s home, but they said nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
“It looked typical of what somebody does when they go on vacation,” Miller said to ABC News’ Chris Connelly about the welfare check.
Miller said he called the hospital where Garcia worked and was informed that he was away. Miller said he then followed standard protocol, informing dispatch of his findings.
On the morning of March 27, Joplin called Ketchikan Police again. Still concerned that he hadn’t heard from Garcia, Joplin told them that he had just arrived in Ketchikan from Seattle. He said Garcia had given him house keys, and Joplin offered to let authorities in Garcia’s home.
Joplin met police at Garcia’s home and unlocked the front door. After clearing the first floor, police discovered Garcia’s body in a family room on the second floor.
Dawn Hink, Garcia’s assistant and close friend, and Bobby Jackson, another friend of Garcia’s, also arrived at the house that morning and waited outside alongside Joplin.
Police exited the house and broke the devastating news to Garcia’s friends.
“I walked to the opposite side of the house as far away as I could get,” Hink remembered after learning about the discovery. She said she became “physically sick with emotion, sadness and despair at that point" and began "looking for answers.”
Jackson said he went into shock but had a strong feeling that something wasn’t right.
“It went from disbelief to something sinister immediately,” Jackson recalled.
Garcia’s friends knew he owned an extensive collection of gold and silver coins, liquor and watches, with a combined estimated worth in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Jackson, who had helped Garcia move these items into the house, implored police to check that the valuables remained locked in a room under the staircase.
Joplin had a key to the locked room and opened the door for police. Except for some remaining bottles of alcohol, police discovered that the room was empty.
“He's not just dead, he's been robbed," Jackson reflected about that moment.
As they continued to search the property for any clues, police also searched Garcia’s pickup truck, where they found a critical piece of evidence: a shipping receipt that showed that more than 4,000 pounds of items were recently shipped to Washington state. In a shocking twist, the receipt listed the name of Garcia's friend, Jordan Joplin.
Security video from the shipping facility in Ketchikan showed Joplin loading three shipping containers on March 17 to be shipped to his home in Maple Valley, Washington.
In a race against time, Ketchikan Police flew to Seattle to intercept the shipment before Joplin could take possession. When they opened the containers at the Port of Seattle, they were stunned.
“There were hundreds of bottles. There were cases of coins and collectibles, the gold and silver,” Ketchikan Deputy Police Chief Eric Mattson said. “It was a massive collection.”
With Garcia’s valuables secured, police executed a search of Joplin’s home where they recovered Garcia’s wallet and phone. They learned through letters found at the home that the two men were emotionally involved. Friends of Joplin interviewed by authorities alleged that Garcia financially supported Joplin.
Investigators also discovered that between March 16 and March 30, thousands of dollars were transferred out of the doctor’s bank accounts into accounts associated with Joplin.
Joplin told police he was a massage therapist, but a closer examination of his background revealed that he also worked as a stripper and acted in adult films.
Joplin, who had a previous criminal record, was arrested in Seattle on March 31, 2017. He was charged with theft and pleaded not guilty.
In April 2017, Garcia’s toxicology report revealed that he died of a morphine overdose. His blood also showed an elevated carbon monoxide level.
Authorities believed that the crime scene with the charcoal barbeque was staged by Joplin to make it look like Garcia had killed himself by inhaling carbon monoxide from the smoke from the barbeque.
While the autopsy couldn’t determine whether Garcia had purposefully ingested the morphine or if someone had given it to him, the evidence gathered by authorities in the months after Joplin’s arrest for theft ultimately led to his indictment in July 2017 on charges of killing Garcia. Joplin pleaded not guilty to first-degree and second-degree murder.
In July 2019, Ketchikan Police uncovered additional evidence against Joplin when they interviewed a friend of his from Washington state. The friend told authorities that she sold Joplin morphine in the months prior to Garcia’s death. She said Joplin asked her how much morphine he would need to kill himself. She added that he never mentioned using the morphine to kill Garcia.
Erin McCarthy, the Alaska Assistant Attorney General who prosecuted the case, told “20/20” that the friend’s statement was critical because it showed “that Mr. Joplin was the one who procured the morphine to eventually kill Dr. Garcia.”
Joplin went on trial in May 2023 in Anchorage, Alaska.
A key piece of evidence that prosecutors showed to the jury was video from Joplin’s own cell phone from a visit to Garcia’s home on March 17, 2017. Mark Clark, the Bethel District Attorney who prosecuted the case alongside McCarthy, told jurors that the video showed Garcia, “unconscious, gasping for air and close to death.” Clark added that when Ketchikan Police discovered Garcia’s body ten days later, Garcia was “in the same position as in the video, wearing the same clothes.”
Joplin’s defense team argued that the prosecution’s case was entirely circumstantial, and that Garcia himself administered the morphine that took his life. As for that video, the defense acknowledged that Joplin may not have reacted appropriately, claiming it was out of fear for Garcia’s job, but that didn’t mean he’s guilty.
Joplin took the stand to testify in his own defense. He told the jury that Garcia was planning on retiring and moving to Washington and was giving him a lot of the belongings found in the shipping containers.
But prosecutors later said there is no evidence other than Joplin’s own words to suggest that Garcia ever planned on retiring to Washington.
More than six years after Garcia’s death, the jury found Joplin guilty of all charges: murder in the first degree, murder in the second degree, and theft in the first degree.
On April 9, 2024, in a Ketchikan courtroom packed with Garcia’s friends and family, Judge Michael Wolverton sentenced Joplin to 99 years in prison.
At sentencing, Saul Garcia said he could feel his brother’s presence.
“I knew Eric was there, in that room, the day of the sentencing. I could feel it,” Saul Garcia said. “After that, I talked to him in my own thoughts and said, 'Thank you, Eric. We have justice because of you. And now you may rest in peace.'"
ABC News’ Joseph Rhee, Gary Wynn, and Brian Mezerski contributed to this report.
