The San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office is pursuing a first degree murder case against a former Ontario-based businessman, more than 29 years after his alleged killing of one of his employees when that employee sought to blackmail him over labor law violations that were taking place at the noodle plant where the alleged murderer was the operations manager.
Woravit Mektrakarn, who has been charged with murder in what is believed to have been the November 23, 1996 death of Luis Osvaldo Diego Garcia, has been the primary suspect in Garcia’s disappearance from the outset. He was arrested two days after Garcia was last seen, but released shortly thereafter when prosecutors felt there was insufficient evidence available at that time to bring him to trial. In short order, Mektrakarn left the United States, fleeing it was believed to either Thailand, the land of his birth, or Cambodia or Burma. It was believed and later established that he was living under a falsified identity between Burma and Cambodia and had been able to transit between those two countries and Thailand largely on the strength of his personal wealth and the social standing of his family. The San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs, the U.S. State Department, the International Liaison Office of the FBI and Interpol for a quarter of a century conducted a manhunt for Mektrakarn unsuccessfully.
For years, the case lay dormant until in April 2024, an individual believed to be Mektrakarn was observed to be residing in Bangkok under an alias and in disguise. After authorities were alerted, at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs and U.S. Embassy in Bangkok, the Royal Thai Police in Bangkok moved in upon Mektrakarn, who initially claimed a different identity. Thai law enforcement, however, confirmed who he was and held him in custody. Over a period of more than 20 months, an extradition process wound its way through Thai courts. On January 16, 2026, Mektrakarn was extradited to the United States and transported to San Bernardino by the U.S. Marshals Service.
Luis Osvaldo Diego Garcia, born on August 27, 1972 in Veracruz, Mexico, illegally entered the United States through the border at San Ysidro it is believed in April 1993 at the age of 20. He did not register his presence as an alien as required by U.S. Law. He took up residence in home in Ontario among a household of other undocumented immigrants, including two of his cousins. In Ontario, he found employment at noodle factory in that city, Rama Foods, was owned by Wichart Mektrakarn, a wealthy Thai businessman. The Rama Foods operation in Ontario was overseen by Woravit Mektrakarn, who also went by the informal first name Kim. Woravit Mektrakarn was a 1985 graduate of El Camino Real High School in Placentia. Mektrakarn’s wife, Aree, also worked for the the company in a management or administrative capacity.
By 1996, Garcia had been working at Rama Foods for two years, having obtained the job through his cousin, Rene Delgado, who had been working at the plant at least since 1987. Rene Delgado worked for Rama Foods in the capacity of chauffeur, mechanic, translator, and liaison between the Mektrakarns and the plant workers, the vast majority of whom could not speak English.
The factory’s production workers consisted almost exclusively of undocumented immigrants, working in substandard conditions and provided with low wages at or marginally above minimum wage. Many of the company’s employees worked six days a week and 11-hour to 12-hour days, without being compensated for overtime.
At some point in the late summer or fall of 1996, Garcia became aware that the company was in violation of California’s labor laws, according to court documents, and threatened to report Mektrakarn to the state labor commission. Mektrakarn, in a bargaining session which was translated and in part brokered by Rene Delgado, agreed to pay Garcia $5,000 in exchange for dropping the issue. Mektrakarn paid him $1,000 up front with a promise of further like installments, with the proviso that Garcia keep silent about the deal and not inform any of the other employees at Rama about the arrangement.
Garcia had not returned to Mexico since coming to the United States and had arranged to make a return trip home, having purchased an airline ticket to fly to Veracruz, Mexico on December 8, 1996, so that he could visit his family.
Despite Garcia’s assurance to Mektrakarn that he would remain silent about the $5,000 hush money deal, at least two others who worked at Rama Foods beside Garcia and Rene Delgado – Garcia’s other cousin Francisco Delgado and an individual named Epifanio Flores – learned that Mektrakarn was providing Garcia with money in addition to his wages at the noodle plant, as did another of Garcia’s cousins, Guillermo Ramirez, who was residing in Fontana. Mektrakarn learned that Garcia was not holding up his end of the bargain when Flores began pressing to be paid $5,000.
Guillermo Ramirez, who lived in Fontana and has variously been described as Garcia’s “friend” and “cousin,” was with Garcia earlier in the day on November 23, 1996 at Ramirez’s apartment in Fontana. He testified that Garcia said that he was going to get money from Woravit Mektrakarn that day and Garcia had plans to return to Fontana, where they intended to go out to dinner later that evening. Ramirez testified that Garcia left Ramirez’s apartment in Fontana for Rama Foods between 3 and 4 p.m. on November 23, 1996.
That day, a Saturday, Garcia came to the plant, located at 1486 East Cedar Street in Ontario, to pick up what was supposed to be a $3,000 installment toward the agreed-upon $5,000.
Francisco Delgado later testified that on November 23, 1996, he arrived at the Rama Foods plant at 7:00 a.m. and later that morning drove Mektrakarn to Ontario International Airport to rent a Plymouth Voyager minivan. According to Francisco, Mektrakarn returned to the plant in the rented minivan at “around 5:00 in the afternoon.” Rene Delgado testified that he arrived at the plant at 8 a.m., and saw Mektrakarn there at 3 p.m. At that time, Mektrakarn’s usual car, a Honda Passport, was in the parking lot, according to Rene Delgado. At 4 p.m., Mektrakarn told Rene Delgado he was expecting Garcia to arrive.
Francisco Delgado recalled seeing Chansak “Buck” Plengsangtip, the factory manager and close friend and associate of of Woravit Mektrakarn, arrived at Rama Foods at around 4 p.m. Francisco Delgado testified he saw Plengsangtip park his car, a brown or tan Mercedes Benz, in the parking lot and walk toward the offices. According to Ramirez, Garcia left Ramirez’s apartment in Fontana for Rama Foods between 3 and 4 p.m. Rene Delgado saw Garcia at the plant at 5 p.m. Francisco and another employee, Julio Zamudio, saw Garcia arrive at 5 p.m. According to Francisco Delgado, Garcia arrived in his own car and walked toward the office area. Testimony placed Garcia’s car in the plant parking lot until about 5:30 p.m. Zamudio saw Garcia enter the plant area through one of the roll-up doors, and walk toward the office area.
At 5 p.m., Aree Mektrakarn called Rene Delgado into the plant’s north office to translate for Garcia. According to Rene Delgado’s testimony, there were five people in the office other than himself: Plengsangtip, Garcia, Woravit Mektrakarn, Aree Mektrakarn and Woravit Mektrakarn’s sister Vicky Mektrakarn. Woravit Mektrakarn and Aree Mektrakarn told Rene Delgado they were going to pay Garcia the rest of the money. Rene Delgado did not witness the payment. Aree Mektrakarn told Rene Delgado to clean the area in the back of the plant, and Rene Delgado left the office with Aree Mektrakarn. Rene Delgado thought Aree Mektrakarn’s request strange, he later testified, because cleaning was not a part of his normal duties. He also testified that when he was in the office that afternoon, he saw two large, clean metal pots, handcuffs, and a handheld radio, and that when he wanted to return to the office later, Aree Mektrakarn would not allow him back in the office, Rene Delgado did not complete the cleaning assignment. Instead, he left for home at 5:30 p.m. As he did so, he drove by the outside door to the north office and looked through the window. Inside the office, he saw three men, at least two of whom appeared to be hiding or crouching. At that time, Garcia’s, Woravit Mektrakarn’s, and Plengsangtip’s cars were still in the parking lot, according to Rene Delgado, but Woravit Mektrakarn’s rented minivan was no longer there. Earlier, when Francisco Delgado testified his usual duties included moving everyone’s cars inside the plant near the end of the day. Between 6 p.m and 6:30 p.m. on November 23, 1996, he said, he tried to enter the office area to retrieve car keys to move the cars and park them inside the plant, but Aree Mektrakarn did not allow him in the office area. This was the first time he had not been allowed to move the cars inside the plant, Francisco Delgado testified, and he said he left the plant at 7 p.m. At that time, he noticed that Plengsantip’s car was still in the parking lot.
During the afternoon, Woravit Mektrakarn ordered another employee, Julio Zamudio, to stack pallets in front of the south office door. This prevented access to the offices from the plant area. Zamudio used a forklift to begin stacking the pallets, and Woravit Mektrakarn completed the task. The stack was heavy and as high as the top of the office door, according to Zamudio’s later testimony, in which he said the stack was in place before he saw Garcia arrive at 5 p.m. During the 14 years Zamudio worked at the plant, he had never seen a stack of pallets blocking the office door, he testified. Zamudio also testified that another worker at the plant with the first name Adolfo was not allowed to count his sales route money inside the office that afternoon, as Adolfo usually did.
Garcia was not seen by either of his cousins, friends or acquaintances after that. The evening of November 23, 1996, Garcia did not return to Ramirez’s Fontana apartment with the money he said he was going to obtain from Woravit Mektrakarn to go out for the dinner as had been Garcia’s stated intention earlier that day. Both Rene Delgado and Francisco Delgado, who knew Garcia was expecting to receive money from Woravit Mektrakarn on November 23, did not see or hear from him after approximately 5 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on November 23, 1996 Garcia had a plane ticket for a scheduled flight to Veracruz, Mexico on December 8, 1996, and was intending to visit relatives over the course of several days thereafter, but did not show up at the airport.
At some point on or between late Saturday November 23, Sunday November 24 and the morning of Monday November 25, 1996, the Ontario Police Department was contacted by Francisco Delgado, and by mid-morning November 25, 1996, a homicide investigation was underway.
When Francisco arrived at work on the morning of November 25, he later testified, he entered the plant through the office area and noticed that the carpet was “cut up and dirty.” It looked as though some liquid had been spilled on it, he told the court, and he said it did not appear that way when he last saw it on Saturday morning, November 23, 1996.
Homicide investigators with the Ontario Police Department were present on the grounds of the Rama Noodle Plant by 9 a.m. Forensic supervisor Steve Hall arrived at Rama Foods crime at 10:15 p.m., and joined the investigation. When Hall arrived, Woravit Mektrakarn was present and had injuries on both his hands.
Hall testified about several items the police found in a dumpster 50 feet from the office area. Among those were a large metal pot wrapped in two plastic bags. There was ash inside the pot, and it looked as though someone tried to burn evidence in it, according to Hall. The investigators found in the dumpster a plastic bucket with burned carpet inside, and another three pieces of carpet that had been fused together by burning. Hall also found a small, triangular piece of carpet matching a triangular hole found in the south office carpeting, together with a can of lighter fluid with about one inch of liquid inside it, a pair of blue jeans stained white by bleach and with cleaning fluid on them, a yellow glove and pink velvet soap material, the same sort of fluid found on the rug in the north office, and an original fax cover sheet with Plengsantip’s company’s “Lanna Trading” letterhead at the top of it.
According to Hall, a piece of rug from the north office, carpet in the office hallway along the west wall, carpet next to the triangular-shaped hole in the south office and the area inside the office bathroom sink trap all tested positive for the presence of blood or blood stains. Hall also testified that two handguns were found at the scene.
Investigators interpreted the blood evidence to indicate Garcia was standing against the office wall when he was violently attacked, after which he was forcibly moved toward or perhaps dragged down the hallway and assaulted a second time in the bathroom.
The Plymouth Voyager minivan Woravit Mektrakarn had rented was nowhere to be found, and was reported as stolen. Garcia’s vehicle, a gray Tercel, was gone.
Woravit Mektrakarn was arrested for Garcia’s murder. Investigators knew, or had access to information to indicate, that Plengsangtip, Aree Mektrakarn and Vicky Mektrakarn were present in the Rama plant’s office on November 23. They were not taken into custody, however, and it is not clear from the available record as to whether Plengsangtip or Vicky Mektrakarn were interrogated at that time.
When no direct evidence turned up to establish that Garcia was actually dead and no further evidence beyond that in the dumpster or the office was found, prosecutors informed the Ontario Police Department that they had insufficient evidence upon which to convict, and Woravit Mektrakarn was released. In relatively short order, he, Aree Mektrakarn and Vicky Mektrakarn left the United States for Thailand.
On December 4, 1996, Garcia’s grey Tercel car was found in Los Angeles with its key in the ignition and the tank full of gasoline.
The Plymouth Voyager minivan Kim had rented and which National Rent-A-Car had reported stolen, was found in the parking garage of the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas on December 15, 1996, missing its license plates. It was locked, its ignition had not been punched out, and it did not appear to have been broken into. Internally, it smelled of bleach, and there was indication that a substantial amount of bleach had been poured onto the vehicle’s floor and rear compartment. .
ato visit relatives, condition that Garcia tell no one else about the arrangement. Garcia agreed, but afterwards one of his coworkers found out and also demanded money.At ane were in substandard conditions. Authorities believe Garcia was murdered by the factory owner, Woravit “Kim” Mektrakarn. A photo of Mektrakarn is posted with this case summary.
Many employees at the factory worked twelve-hour days, six days a week for a total of 72 hours, but they were not paid the overtime wages entitled to them by law. Garcia
Garcia planned to collect $3,000 from Mektrakarn on the day of his disappearance, and was last seen at the factory asking for the money. Two of his cousins, Francisco and Rene Delgado, both of whom worked in the factory, knew Garcia planned to meet Mektrakarn and get his money that day.
On the morning of November 23, Francisco drove Mektrakarn to the Ontario International Airport to rent a Plymouth Voyager minivan. According to Francisco, Mektrakarn drove the minivan to the factory at 5:00 p.m. Rene said he saw Mektrakarn at the factory by 3:00 p.m. and Mektrakarn’s usual car, a Honda Passport, was in the parking lot at the time. At 4:00 p.m., Mektrakarn told Rene he expected Garcia to arrive.
Rene acted as a translator and liaison between Mektrakarn and the workers. He was summoned to the factory’s north office at 5:00 p.m. to translate. Rene stated that Garcia, Mektrakarn, Kim’s wife, Kim’s sister, and Chansak “Buck” Plengsangtip, who was Mektrakarn’s friend and the factory’s manager, were all in the office. Mektrakarn and his wife told Delgado they would pay Garcia what he asked.
Mektrakarn’s wife then asked Rene to go clean the back of the plant, and she left the office with him. Rene found her request strange because cleaning was not one of his usual duties. He wanted to go back to the office, but Mektrakarn’s wife wouldn’t let him.
He didn’t complete the cleaning and instead left the factory at 5:30 p.m. As he drove by, he looked in the north office window and saw three men, two of whom appeared to be hiding or crouching. Garcia’s, Mektrakarn’s and Plengsangtip’s cars were in the parking lot, but Mektrakarn’s rented van was gone.
One of Francisco’s duties was to move everyone’s cars inside the factory at the end of the day. He tried to go to the office area for the car keys between 6:00 and 6:30 p.m., but Mektrakarn’s wife wouldn’t let him inside. This was the first time Francisco hadn’t been allowed to move the cars. He left the premises at 7:00 p.m. Another employee usually counted the sales route money inside the office, but he was also prevented from entering the office that day.
Garcia had plans go out to dinner with a cousin afterwards, but he never showed up. He had purchased a plane ticket to Veracruz to visit relatives in December, but never used it. He has never been heard from again. His gray Toyota Tercel was found in Los Angeles, California on December 4, with the keys in the ignition and the tank full of gasoline.
Authorities never believed Garcia left of his own accord. He is described as a happy, friendly young man who got along with most people. He moved to the United States in 1993, made friends with local immigrants, and lived with roommates in a house in Ontario. He was looking forward to visiting his parents in Mexico, as he had not seen them in years.
Responding to the concerns of Garcia’s friends, the police went to Rama Foods on November 25 and began a homicide investigation into his disappearance. Francisco stated the office carpet was dirty and looked as if liquid had spilled on it, and a triangular piece had been cut out. The carpet hadn’t looked that way the last time Francisco saw it, on the morning of November 23.
Mektrakarn was present when the police arrived and he had injuries on his hands. In a nearby dumpster were a plastic bucket with a piece of burned carpet inside, three pieces of burned carpet stuck together, a lighter fluid can with about an inch of fluid inside, a pair of bleach-stained blue jeans with cleaning fluid on them, liquid soap, rubber gloves, scouring pads and a metal pot filled with ashes and wrapped in two plastic bags. Two handguns were located at the scene.
Traces of blood were visible on the carpet in the Rama Foods office, the carpet in the office hallway, and in the sink trap of the office bathroom. Mektrakarn’s rented van was reported stolen and was located at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada on December 15. When found it was clean, the license plates were missing and bleach had been poured all over the interior.
One of the Ontario Police Department’s homicide investigators, Byron Lee, maintained an intense interest in the case. eLee was convince that Ontario police Detective Byron Lee, the lead investigator on the case, believing Mektrakarn’s virtual immediate departure for Thailand after his release from custody in 1996 could not be interpreted any other way than that he was responsible for Garcia’s disappearance. As a consequence of his dedication, Lee was made the lead investigator. Still, the matter languished for weeks, then months and years.
In 2003, Lee and his team developed a DNA profile for Garcia and thereby, through comparisons with the evidence gathered on November 25, 1996, established the blood on the carpet was Garcia’s. A search of the factory more than six years after the fact was made, with forensic technicians spraying the office with fluorescein. That examination found spatters on the walls, floor and ceiling of the office and in the hallway and bathroom that were not visible previously.
The detectives next aggressively interrogated Plengsangtip, who unlike Mektrakarn, Mektrakarn’s wife and Mektrakarn’s sister, had not fled the country but was living in Granada Hills. The detectives concluded Plengsangtip was lying about what had occurred on November 23, 1996 and built a case against him, which then-District Attorney Mike Ramos, Assistant District Attorney Mike Fermin and deputy district attorneys Mark Vos and Debbie Ploghaus bought, which held that Plengsangtip was an accessory to Garcia’s murder in that he was present when it occurred even if he did not take part in it and that he had actively assisted Mektrakern in covering it up.
Plengsangtip’s acknowledgement that he was at the noodle factory on the night of the disappearance was enough, San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge Barry Plotkin in October 2005 ruled, for prosecutors to proceed to trial against Plengsangtip on the accessory charge, despite the defendant’s insistence he knew nothing whatsoever about what befallen Garcia.
In 2006, however, Judge Ingrid Uhler overruled Plotkin, reasoning that Plengsangtip had made no admission of any knowledge of the disappearance or murder and that the district attorney’s office’s presumption that he was lying was just that – a presumption – and insufficient, without any further evidence of Plengsangtip’s involvement or knowledge of a crime, insufficient as the basis for prosecuting him as being an accessory to a murder, which had yet to be established as having occurred,
Rather than taking Judge Uhler’s ruling as an indication that there were gaps in their case, the district attorney’s office thereafter appealed her ruling to the Fourth Appellate District, arguing that there were grounds to indicate that something violent had occurred on the grounds of the noodle factory on November 23, 1996 and that Plengsangtip, as the manager of operations there and who acknowledged he was present, lacked credibility when he told investigators that he knew nothing about what had occurred that day. While someone cannot be prosecuted for having knowledge about a crime and not reporting it to authorities, Plengsangtip crossed the line when he actively lied about what went on at the noodle plant, prosecutors said.
If you want to read the remainder of this article, find a copy of the February 13 edition of the SBC Sentinel.
