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Murder of Victoria Martens

Victoria was murdered on her 10th birthday

By True Crime WriterPublished 3 years ago Updated 3 years ago 4 min read
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  • Victoria Martens was murdered on her 10th birthday in 2016
  • Police found her dismembered body on fire wrapped in a blanket
  • Three people, including her mother, were arrested
  • Victoria’s mother told police she injected the girl with meth, then watched as her boyfriend and his cousin raped and stabbed her daughter
  • Two years later, evidence proved that Michelle and her boyfriend were not home at the time of the murder and her version of events could not be true

Murdered on Her 10th Birthday

Victoria Martens died on her 10th birthday on August 23, 2016. Albuquerque police found her dismembered remains wrapped in a burning blanket in the bathroom of her mother’s apartment on the West side of the city on the morning of August 24 after responding to a domestic disturbance 911 call. Her mother, Michelle Martens, made the call.

Photo: KOAT

Michelle and her boyfriend, Fabian Gonzales, were standing outside the apartment when police arrived. They told police Jessica Gonzales was inside the apartment. When they asked Jessica to come outside, she jumped off the balcony, breaking her ankle.

Police searched the apartment, noticing smoke coming from the bathroom. When they opened the bathroom door, they made a shocking discovery: Victoria’s dismembered body was smoldering, wrapped in a blanket.

All three individuals were taken into custody.

Photo: KOAT

Details of Victoria’s murder are sketchy. Michelle Martens provided police with a horrific version of events but DNA testing and other physical evidence proved her account was untrue.

Michelle’s Version of Events

Michelle told police that she injected Victoria with meth so Kelley and Gonzales could rape her. She said she had often paid men on the Internet to come to have sex with the girl and watched as Gonzales and Kelley raped, strangled, stabbed, and dismembered her daughter.

Prior CYFD History

Child, Youth, and Family Department (CYFD) received five calls concerning Victoria in the months leading to her death. All of the calls were made by Michelle. Information concerning only one of those calls was made public: Michelle reported her boyfriend at the time, David Hernandez, a known sex offender, tried to kiss Victoria.

CYFD referred the case to the police who did not follow up with the family, despite former APD spokesman Fred Duran lying to journalists after the murder, stating the department investigated the report by talking to Victoria at the home. Duran later stated, “Unfortunately, somebody attempting to do something, such as kissing the child, is not a crime.”

Victoria and her brother

Hernandez had a long history of violence and accusations that he sexually abused children in his own family. He also had an attempted kidnapping charge from 2013, although charges were later dropped.

Martens Meets a New Man

Michelle broke it off with Hernandez soon thereafter and began dating a man by the name of Fabian Gonzales, a 31-year-old meth user with a long criminal history which included felony child abuse and domestic assault charges. He was also involved with local gangs. The two met on Plenty of Fish.

Michelle

What Really Happened

While Kelley, Gonzales, and Martens awaited trial in jail, District Attorney Raul Torrez held a press conference addressing the murder. What he said shocked Albuquerque.

Torrez stated Victoria was murdered between 7:45 - 8:00 p.m. on August 23. A fourth, unknown male DNA was recovered from her body. He stated that surveillance footage from the night of the murders proved that Gonzales and Martens were at another location when Victoria was murdered.

Kelley called her sister to tell her that she was “tweaking.” A short time later, a witness saw her carrying Victoria’s lifeless body out of the apartment. Her plan was thwarted when Gonzales and Martens returned.

She ran back into the apartment with the body and told Gonzales what happened. They began planning a way to conceal the death after Gonzales “put Michelle to bed.”

Photo: Facebook

Kelley and Gonzales removed Victoria’s arms with a knife. Gonzales then removed some of her organs. The pair placed her remains in a garbage bag and began cleaning up the blood. They placed the rest of her remains in the bathtub, all while Michelle slept.

Gonzales then goes to bed, but Kelley barges into the room and attacks them with an iron. She then removed the smoke detectors from the home and set Victoria's body ablaze.

The Autopsy

Victoria died by manual strangulation; compression to the neck impaired blood flow to the brain. The autopsy did not show any sign of meth in Victoria’s system, although a low level of ethanol was discovered. Victoria had not been raped on the night of the murder as originally reported. The girl did test positive for an STD, the result of a sexual assault against Victoria that Michelle had reported months before the murder.

Torrez reported that there was no evidence to support Michelle’s statements that the girl had been sexually trafficked.

Murder Charges Dropped

Murder charges against Michelle and Fabian were dropped after the new evidence came to light. Michelle accepted a plea bargain and was sentenced to 12 to 15-years in prison.

Jessica accepted a plea deal requiring her to testify against Gonzales. She pleaded no contest to six charges including child abuse resulting in death and aggravated assault and was sentenced to 50-years in prison.

A fourth warrant has been issued against John Doe, charging this person with Victoria’s murder. Authorities theorize that Kelley knows who this person is and hopes she will eventually provide the information needed to make an arrest.

So far, Jessica hasn't budged from her original story:

Photo: KOAT

She told police that on the night of Victoria’s murder, a man came to the door and asked for “Favo,” Fabian’s street name. She told the man he was not home and he pushed his way inside the apartment, killing Victoria as revenge for a drug-related matter.

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About the Creator

True Crime Writer

The best of the worst true crime, history, strange and Unusual stories. Graphic material. Intended for a mature audience ONLY.

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