Suspect’s wrong picture airs on ‘Most Wanted’ show

YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) — The Yakima County Sheriff’s office sent the producers of the “Washington’s Most Wanted” show pictures and information on a woman who faces charges of an $18,000 welfare fraud and perjury.

Problem was that the Sheriff’s office sent the picture of the wrong woman, alarming her family.

The Yakima Herald-Republic reports that Martha Leticia Garcia Medina once lived in Yakima County and pleaded guilty to driving without a valid license.

But the sheriff’s office confused her for a Martha Garcia, who was born one year apart. Garcia is a wanted forgery suspect.

The show — produced by KCPQ in Seattle — aired on the picture on June 5 on Fox affiliates in Seattle, Spokane, Tri-Cities and Yakima.

The mix-up first became known when a worker from the state Department of Social and Health Services working on the forgery case watched the show.

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Information from: Yakima Herald-Republic, http://www.yakimaherald.com