JONESBORO, Ill., July 17 (UPI) -- The lawyer for a former pathology resident arrested for four unsolved killings in Nebraska said his client's family believes the whole thing is a mix-up.
Alison Motta of Aurora, Ill. said Dr. Anthony J. Garcia's family is "certain this is not what it appears," the Omaha World Herald reported.
Garcia was apprehended by Illinois state troopers Monday for the 2008 deaths of Thomas Hunter, 11, and Shirley Sherman, 57, and the killings in May of Dr. Roger Brumback and his wife Mary, both 65.
All four of the victims are linked to Garcia's dismissal from his pathology residency at Nebraska's Creighton University in 2001.
Authorities said Brumback wrote a letter to the Indiana medical licensing board explaining that Garcia was terminated for erratic and insubordinate behavior.
His colleague at Creighton, Dr. William Hunter, had a hand in Garcia's dismissal.
Hunter's son Thomas and housecleaner Shirley Sherman were stabbed to death in February 2008 after a similar letter was received by Louisiana medical authorities.
In addition to Creighton, Garcia has been fired from residency programs in New York, Illinois and Louisiana.
He is being held at the Jackson County Jail in Murphysboro, Ill.
It is not known whether he will fight extradition to Nebraska.
