California noodle company employee may have been killed over pay dispute, court records suggest

When Ontario noodle company employee Luis Osvaldo Diego Garcia was last seen alive almost 30 years ago, San Bernardino County District Attorney Jason Anderson said, Garcia was believed to be meeting Rama Foods owner Woravit “Kim” Mektrakarn to receive a payment for a “financial agreement.“

Garcia vanished after that meeting on Nov. 23, 1996, and soon after, Mektrakarn moved to his native Thailand. There, he lived under an assumed name until authorities arrested him in 2024 and extradited him to San Bernardino in January to face a murder charge, Anderson said. Mektrakarn pleaded not guilty on Jan. 20.

The DA’s Office did not elaborate on the nature of that financial agreement upon announcing the charge against Mektrakarn. But court records reviewed by the Southern California News Group show a dispute between Mektrakarn and Garcia that could have put Mektrakarn in trouble with the law.

Mektrakarn and his wife owned noodle processor Rama Foods, according to information in a 2007 ruling by the California Fourth District Court of Appeal in the case of C‘hansak Plengsangtip, a man charged with lying to police to cover up the killing, who eventually was exonerated by a jury.

Garcia, 23, had worked for Rama for two years. Some of the employees labored 12 hours a day, six days per week, yet were not paid overtime as required by law, the ruling stated. Rene Delgado, a cousin of Garcia who worked at Rama for 10 years, testified in Plengsangtip’s trial that Garcia threatened to report the Mektrakarns to the “labor commission” for failing to pay overtime unless they paid Garcia $5,000.

The Mektrakarns agreed to hand over the $5,000 in three installments, giving Garcia $1,000 immediately.

“Garcia was supposed to keep quiet about the deal, but before Garcia received another payment, fellow worker Epifanio Flores found out and also wanted money,” the justices wrote.

A friend of Garcia, Guillermo Ramirez, testified that Garcia was going to pick up at least $3,000 from Woravit Mektrakarnon at the Rama office and meet him for dinner afterward, but Garcia never showed up at the restaurant. Garcia had a plane ticket to fly to Veracruz, Mexico, on Dec. 8, 1996, to visit relatives, but he didn’t make the trip, justices wrote.

Garcia’s disappearance was noted on the website of the Charley Project, which provides information on long-missing persons.

The justices’ ruling also laid out other details uncovered during the murder investigation.

Woravit Mektrakarn rented a Plymouth Voyager at Ontario International Airport the day of the meeting with Garcia and told an employee he was expecting Garcia at the office. Garcia arrived about 5 p.m. and his car was seen there until about 5:30.

An employee, as he left the plant, said he saw three men, at least two of whom appeared to be hiding or crouching, the ruling said. Mektrakarn’s rented minivan was no longer there. The employee also said he saw two large metal pots, handcuffs and a hand-held radio in the office before he left.

Another employee, whose job it was to move the bosses’ cars inside after hours, was told by Mektrakarn’s wife not to do so, the ruling said. Also, Mektrakarn ordered another employee to stack pallets to block the entrance from the plant to the office.

Two days later, on Nov. 26, 1996, as the police investigation unfolded, an employee noticed the carpet in the office had been cut up and a liquid poured on it.

Mektrakarn was still at work, and an investigator noticed his hands were injured, the ruling said.

An investigator testified that in a nearby trash bin, he found a large metal pot wrapped in two plastic bags with ash inside, a plastic bucket with burned carpet inside, three pieces of carpet that had been fused by burning, a triangular piece of carpet that matched a triangular hole found in the office carpet, a can of lighter fluid, a pair of blue jeans stained white by bleach and a yellow glove and pink velvet soap material found on the office carpet.

A piece of rug tested positive for bloodstains that were later linked to Garcia by DNA, the ruling said.

The Plymouth that Kim had rented was found in the parking garage of the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas in December after the rental company reported it stolen; it was missing its license plates and smelled of bleach, the ruling said. Garcia’s car was found in Los Angeles in December with its key in the ignition.

Mektrakarn’s wife has not been charged in the case.

A judge initially ruled that there was sufficient evidence to try Plengsangtip, who had told detectives he didn’t see anything unusual at the noodles plant despite being present when Garcia and Mektrakarn were scheduled to meet. Another judge vacated that ruling, but the appeals court reversed that decision, setting the stage for a trial in San Bernardino County in 2008 in which a jury acquitted Plengsangtip.

Mektrakarn is due back in Superior Court in Rancho Cucamonga on Feb. 17. He is being held at West Valley Detention Center without the possibility of bail.

Rama Foods, meanwhile, continues to operate. It has new ownership, an employee who declined to give her name said Friday, Jan. 30.