A deployed soldier's world was completely crushed once his wife informed him that their baby was dead. Come to find out, she actually lied about not only the baby's death but the gender as well. Sadly, these weren't the only secrets she was hiding. 

Army Sgt. Steven Garcia (Photo Credit: YouTube)

Army Sgt. Steven Garcia was deployed when his pregnant wife, Marina Garcia, let him know that their baby has passed away. His wife informed him that the baby passed away during the childbirth as he was deployed in another country. But this was a complete lie. And once his wife was arrested, he would learn the truth.

The 31-year-old Sierra Vista, Arizona woman found herself in hot water when an Arizona Department of Public Safety officer pulled over a Texas couple near Willcox for speeding. Inside the car was Alex Hernandez, 33, Leslie Morin Hernandez, 41, and a baby boy, born just 3 days before. After speaking with the pair who seemed “nervous,” the officer grew increasingly suspicious, and for good reason.

Marina Garcia (Photo Credit: YouTube)

The baby didn’t belong to Alex and Leslie Hernandez. It was determined to be the newborn son of Marina Garcia after Leslie admitted to investigators that she had communicated with the mother via social media and by cell phone about taking the baby. Marina had not only lied to her husband about the child’s gender and death, but she had also given the infant to the Texas couple in an attempt to hide even more secrets from him.

After being taken into custody and charged with selling her infant, Marina Garcia admitted to giving up the baby, saying she planned to travel to Texas after recovering from delivery in order to sign over her maternal rights. Court documents show that Alex Hernandez “conspired with the birth mother to forge the signature of the father to take possession of the infant child.”

Marina Garcia (Photo Credit: YouTube)

Meanwhile, Steven Garcia, who was active-duty military assigned outside the country at the time, had been told that his daughter was dead, only to find out he had a son who was very much alive but whom his wife had tried to give away. As the mother was booked into the Cochise County jail and held on $100,000 bail, the Texas couple were indicted on multiple felonies including kidnapping, fraud, and conspiracy, and held in the Bisbee jail on $100,000 bail. And, the baby was taken into custody by state officials, Herald-Review reported.

This left Steven Garcia fighting to gain custody, but he’d soon face another hurdle: the other secret his wife was hiding all along. Marina gave the boy away to hide the fact that he wasn’t biologically her husband’s child, according to Military.com. That wasn’t about to stop Steven from fighting for custody of the baby boy, named Leo, however.

Even though baby Leo isn’t his biologically, Steven, a child of adoption himself, doesn’t care if he and Leo don’t share the same DNA because he already recognizes him as his son. “My adopted father completely changed my life. Without him I would not be where I am today,” he said. “And for the opportunity to do that for someone else, I believe it’s important. It could change the child’s life and give him a better future and I believe that’s the right thing to do.”

Indeed, someone in this story was concerned about the right thing to do while another only cared about herself. It’s not surprising that the former was a soldier, but it’s heartbreaking that the latter was a mother. Perhaps Cochise County attorney Brian McIntyre said it best when he said this of Marina Garcia: “The only thing on her mind was getting rid of this child. This ‘problem’ in her life. What scares me is that if it hadn’t been the Hernandezes, if the couple hadn’t been willing to step forward, then what person off the Internet might have been next?” I shudder at the thought.