Sierra LaMar Update: Antolin Garcia-Torres linked to missing Calif. teen through DNA, police say

(CBS/AP) MORGAN HILL, Calif. - Authorities say DNA evidence has linked a 21-year-old man in custody to the kidnapping and murder of missing Northern California teenager Sierra LaMar.

Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith said at a Tuesday news conference that Antolin Garcia-Torres's DNA was found inside a bag belonging to LaMar.

Garcia-Torres was arrested Monday on suspicion of murder and kidnapping of the teen, whose disappearance more than two months ago prompted hundreds of volunteers to turn out for organized searches.

LaMar hasn't been seen or heard from since she left her home in Morgan Hill to go to school on March 16. Authorities believe she was kidnapped while walking to a bus stop.

Smith said Garcia-Torres had been under 24-hour surveillance since March 28 and that evidence also linked him to at least one assault in March 2009.

"We believe this is the worst kind of crime, a stranger abducting a young girl," she said.

Investigators found LaMar's handbag with clothing and a cellphone along the side of the road near her home on March 17, the day after her mother reported her missing.

Earlier this month, investigators located a red Volkswagen Jetta they said may have been connected to LaMar's abduction because surveillance cameras and witnesses put the car near the area where authorities believe she disappeared. Smith said late Monday that Garcia-Torres owns the Volkswagen.

Complete coverage of Sierra LaMar on Crimesider