Mother, boyfriend and cousin are arrested for dismemberment of girl and setting her on fire.
Mother, boyfriend and cousin are arrested for brutal rape and murder of girl who was injected with meth, stabbed, strangled, dismembered and set on fire on her 10th birthday.
Michelle Martens, 35, Fabian Gonzales, 31, and Jessica Kelley, 31, charged with rape and murder of Martens’ 10-year-old daughter in New Mexico
Criminal complaint states Victoria Martens was injected with meth, raped, stabbed, strangled, dismembered, wrapped in a blanket and set alight
Martens allegedly told police her boyfriend drugged her daughter ‘to calm her down’ so that he and Kelley could have sex with her
Both Gonzales and Kelley, who are cousins, have criminal records; Martens has no past criminal history.
On the day a girl was going to celebrate her 10th birthday, she was found murdered in her family’s apartment in New Mexico by police officers, her dismembered remains wrapped in a burning blanket.
Details of what Gov. Susana Martinez and law enforcement officials described as an unspeakable crime emerged Thursday in a criminal complaint made public and filed against the girl’s mother, her boyfriend and his cousin. The three were arrested late Wednesday night.
Police say the girl, identified Thursday afternoon as Victoria Martens, was injected with methamphetamine, sexually assaulted, strangled and stabbed before being dismembered.
Early Wednesday morning, police received a call about a disturbance inside a unit at the Arroyo Villas Apartment Complex on Irving Boulevard.
Officers who responded to the address came upon a gruesome crime scene in the bathroom, said Albuquerque Police Chief Gorden Eden.
‘This is a horrific tragedy for our community,’ Eden told reporters. ‘I want to assure the public that we will pursue justice and we will make sure that we exhaust every resource into this investigation.
By Thursday morning, a makeshift shrine for 10-year-old Victoria had emerged underneath a tree at the apartment complex — with relatives and friends leaving flowers, balloons, stuffed animals and lit candles.
Martinez said in a statement the abuse and killing of Victoria Martens ‘is unspeakable and justice should come down like a hammer.
The girl’s mother, 35-year-old Michelle Martens, her 31-year-old boyfriend, Fabian Gonzales, and his 31-year-old cousin, Jessica Kelley, face charges of child abuse resulting in death, kidnapping and tampering with evidence.
Gonzales and Kelley have also been charged with criminal sexual penetration of a minor.
Gonzales, his left eye looking black and swollen, denied having anything to do with Victoria’s death as he was led out of the police station in handcuffs late Wednesday as reporters yelled questions at him. He and Martens reportedly had met on a dating site
The victim’s mother, with a stitched-up wound above her nose, said nothing as she was led out and placed into the back of a police car.
Police said Kelley was hospitalized late Wednesday and will be booked after she is released. No details were disclosed about why she was hospitalized.
Laura Bobbs, a local minister and close family friend of the victim, told the Albuquerque Journal she was planning Victoria’s birthday celebration for when the child was supposed to arrive home from school Wednesday afternoon. They were going to have pedicures and manicures and eat cake.
