Dr Anthony Garcia American Revenge Murderer & Former Physician

Anthony Joseph Garcia (born June 7, 1973, Los Angeles, California) is an American serial killer and former medical doctor who was convicted of two separate double murders, committed in 2008 and 2013 in Omaha, Nebraska.

Garcia was arrested in July 2013 and went to trial in October of 2016. He was found guilty on all counts and sentenced to death.

Dr. Anthony Garcia's crimes were primarily driven by a sense of grievance leading to a desire for revenge.

After being fired from his residency at Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska, by Dr. Roger Brumback and Dr. William Hunter, Garcia harbored a deep-seated grudge. This resentment led him to commit two separate double murders.

● In 2008, Garcia murdered Dr. William Hunter's 11-year-old son, Thomas, and the family's housekeeper, Shirlee Sherman.

● In 2013, he killed Dr. Roger Brumback and his wife, Mary. Garcia's actions were fueled by his anger and desire to retaliate against those he believed had wronged him.

June 7, 1973 — Anthony Joseph Garcia was born in Los Angeles, California.

1999 — Anthony Joseph Garcia received his medical degree from the University of Utah.

July 2000 — Anthony Joseph Garcia began a residency at the Creighton University Medical Center - Bergan Mercy in Omaha, Nebraska.

March 13, 2008 — Anthony Joseph Garcia committed his first double murder in Omaha, Nebraska. [Thomas Hunter (11 years old) and Shirlee Sherman (57 years old).]

May 14, 2013 — Roger Brumback and his wife Mary were murdered in their home in Omaha, Nebraska. [Dr. Roger Brumback (65 years old) and Mary Brumback (65 years old).]

July 15, 2013 — Anthony Joseph Garcia was arrested on a highway in Union County, Illinois.

October 3, 2016 — Anthony Joseph Garcia's trial began.

October 26, 2016 — Anthony Joseph Garcia was convicted on nine counts.

September 2018 — Anthony Joseph Garcia was sentenced to death.

Friday, Sept. 8th, 2023 — The Nebraska Supreme Court rejected Anthony Joseph Garcia's appeal for a new trial.

(Dr. Anthony Garcia was motivated by revenge after being fired, say prosecutors)

The March 13, 2008 double murder was so shocking it made national headlines: eleven-year-old Thomas Hunter was found stabbed to death in his family’s Omaha, Nebraska, home, his body discovered near that of the family’s house cleaner, Shirlee Sherman. The boy’s father, Dr. William Hunter, a prominent doctor and director for the Department of Pathology at Creighton University, made the initial discovery.

The killer left the same grisly signature on both of the bodies: A knife stuck in the right side of their necks.

The case went cold for five years until police discovered the bodies of Roger and Mary Brumback, both 65, in their West Omaha home on May 14, 2013. Roger, the former Chair of Creighton’s Department of Pathology, was found in the entranceway, shot three times and stabbed six times in the neck. Mary was discovered nearby in the living room, stabbed more than 20 times in the neck.

“All the wounds were in a small area of the right side of the neck,” Omaha Police Department homicide detective Derek Mois tells PEOPLE about the four slayings. “All of these wounds told us whoever did this was looking for this geographic spot. Someone knows anatomy is what it told us.”

It didn’t take long for detectives to zero in on their prime suspect, Dr. Anthony Garcia, a former Creighton pathology resident. Authorities believe the killings were fueled by revenge after Brumback and Hunter fired him from Creighton University in 2001 and later wrote bad references, which had prevented him from getting work as a doctor in other states.

“Every time he tried to get a license from somewhere it appeared that the information Creighton would provide was coming back to haunt him,” says Mois.

Garcia was charged with four counts of first-degree murder in July of 2013. In October, a jury found Garcia guilty of the four slayings. He was also was convicted of four counts of use of a deadly weapon and one count of attempted burglary. He has yet to be sentenced.

Friends of Garcia are baffled as to how a once-promising University of Utah medical school graduate became a cold-blooded killer.

“I was very surprised because the person I knew was polite and easy going and got along well with everyone,” Garcia’s former University of Utah classmate Dr. Steve Lore tells PEOPLE.

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With Garcia behind bars, the victims’ families are still trying to make sense of the tragedy. “To this day I still can’t understand how somebody can just do that to another human being over a job,” says Sherman’s son, Jeff.

Adds Thomas’s brother, Tim, “I guess it provides some closure but I’m not sure if it gives me much in the way of satisfaction. It is kind of a sad reason for murder. As far as justification for murder it is pretty kind of pathetic.”