TOOELE, Utah — A guy from Utah was charged with murder on Friday, saying that he killed his adult daughter, who worked as a deputy sheriff in Salt Lake City.
According to court papers, Hector Ramon Martinez-Ayala, 54, of Tooele, told his brother in a text message that he had made “a big mistake” before leaving the country and taking out money with his daughter’s bank card.
Colbey Bentley, a spokeswoman for Tooele Police, said that the victim was 25-year-old Marbella Martinez.
Martinez began working as a jail guard for the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office in January. To honor her, the department wrote on Facebook on Thursday that her death was being looked into by Tooele police as “suspicious.”
According to court papers, she moved into a hotel for a few days after her father started texting, spying on, and following her around more and more, while they lived with her in Tooele, which is west of Salt Lake City.
The charges said that the stalking had been going on for months and that the defendant’s text messages to the victim were more like those of a jealous lover than a father. Police say Martinez also found a bag of her underwear in his room. According to the charges, he then put a tracking device on her car while she was out of the country in the middle of July. He then used it to find her and a love interest near a hiking area.
Police say that when she got back to their house in the morning of July 31, her father killed her. Investigators say Martinez-Ayala left a lot of digital evidence, including location data on his phone and his daughter’s phone, as well as a text message to his brother that afternoon. The cameras on the property were quickly turned off or unplugged.
“Brother, you know how much I love you. I did something terrible and I don’t know what to do now because I’m too scared.” The message said, “I think I will never come back,” according to the charges.
Police say he flew to California and then Texas before his cell records stopped. Then he was caught on camera going through customs in a country that was not named, using his brother’s ID.
Martinez’s body was found in her bedroom on August 1 after cops were called to check on her.
Martinez-Ayala is charged with murder as well as obstruction of justice, theft of a bank card, stalking, and identity theft, which is a crime.
In Utah’s online court records, Martinez-Ayala does not have a lawyer mentioned, and other attempts to get in touch with him were unsuccessful.
+ There are no comments
Add yours