'Forgive me': Mystery of father's suicide note posted on Facebook AFTER he killed himself and baby son

By Mail Foreign Service
Updated: 11:58 EST, 3 February 2010

A father has killed himself and his baby son after leaving dozens of desperate messages to the boy's mother on Facebook - including a suicide note mysteriously posted after his death.

The rambling note and a memorial appeared on Facebook hours after the bodies of Stephen Garcia, 25, and his nine-month-old son Wyatt were found in a car on an isolated track in the Californian countryside.

Garcia had disappeared with the boy during a custody visit and threatened to kill him and commit suicide, police said. Their bodies were found in the San Bernardino Mountains near Los Angeles.

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'Forgive me': This image of Garcia, 25, and his nine-month-old son, Wyatt, was posted on Facebook by someone hours after their deaths

The baby's mother had pleaded with authorities for a restraining order against Garcia in December - but it was denied on January 12 as the court did not believe he was a threat to her or Wyatt.

Now police are hunting for the person who must have posted the suicide note and memorial to Garcia's Facebook account after his death.

The suicide note was posted to Facebook eight hours after the bodies were discovered. The memorial collage was added early Monday.

Facebook postings appear on the website in real time and cannot be time-released.

The memorial features a photo of Garcia and his son sleeping peacefully on a Mickey Mouse pillow, with the dates of their births and joint death overlaid in white text.

A message at the bottom reads, in part, 'There! Now we're sleeping with you ...

'Find it in your heart to forgive me. It's my job to protect him. I know God will welcome our son with open arms.'

In the suicide note, Garcia claimed he did not want to live without his ex-girlfriend - or share custody of his son.

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Garcia poses with Wyatt. Their bodies were found on an isolated track in the Californian countryside

The Facebook page offered a chilling window into his state of mind as he frantically tried to win back his family.

In the days before his death, Garcia posted a flurry of desperate messages to his ex-girlfriend, along with pictures of him and Wyatt and video clips of the baby at a younger age.

'Are we really going to do this? I want my (expletive) family back, come back before it's too late. Please? Anything?' he wrote.

He then posted a photo gallery of himself with his son.

Garcia also included links to a chilling website that contained dozens of archived text messages, long diary entries in which he rants against his ex-girlfriend for leaving him and letters asking her if she loves her new boyfriend and if she is planning to have a child with him.

'I'm sorry it took me loosing (sic) you to realize what a great family we had and now our son will have to pay for the mistakes we made FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE,' he wrote.

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