Joselyn Martinez, Actress, Solves Father’s Murder After 26 Years [Video]
New York-based actress Joselyn Martinez managed to do what cops couldn’t for 26 years: Find her father’s killer.
The actress and singer took on a very personal role, that of amateur detective, to solve the real-life mystery of her father’s murder in 1986. He was shot outside of his own restaurant in a heated confrontation with teens 26 years ago, and Martinez has been looking for the killer ever since.
Her story sounds almost fictional, but it’s the real deal and led to the very real arrest of Justo Santos in Miami on Thursday afternoon. Santos had been in hiding since the 1986 slaying, and thought he had gotten away with murder.
The 36-year-old sleuth had minimal resources at her disposal, but with roughly $280, the Internet, and eight years of personal investigation, she cracked the case.
Martinez had been searching for her father’s killer on social media for years, but always came up short. She never gave up though, and caught a big break in 2008 when she spotted a free promotional search from Background.com on the Internet. She started shelling out fees to similar sites like USA-Peopleseach.com, Peoplelookup.com and Intelius.com to corroborate her discoveries.
She found Santos’ address and phone number, and brought it to detectives at the 34th Precinct.
Cops arrested the now 43-year-old Santos in Miami, where he had been living after fleeing to the Dominican Republic for an unknown period of time in the 80s, when the trail originally went cold.
He confessed to the killing and waived extradition.
Joselyn Martinez is happy that Santos was caught, but said that her story isn’t over until her father’s killer in sentenced in court.
“Knowing the person my father was, I couldn’t live with myself if (Santos) stayed free,” Martinez said. “I need to see him in New York to know this has really happened.”
You can check out NYDaily‘s exclusive interview with Joselyn Martinez and her family here, or watch the video below:
[Image via: joselynmartinez.com]
