INQUISITR.COM / News & Politics

Martin Martinez Arrested In Connection With Gruesome Deaths Of Two Women, Three Girls Found In Modesto, CA Home

By Pam Wright
Published on: 08:03 PST, Jul 19, 2015

Martin Martinez, 30, was arrested Sunday in connection with the gruesome deaths of five people, including his daughter, in Modesto, California.

As previously reported by the Inquisitr, Heather Graves, spokeswoman for the Modesto Police Department, said Martin Martinez was wanted for the deaths of two adult females, as well as three female children, ages 6 months to 6 years, according to a report by NBC News.

According to Graves, Martinez had a “past relationship” with one of the victims and at least one of the children was his daughter.

Graves said everyone in the city of around 200,000 is in shock.

“It’s devastating. It’s devastating not only to the families to the victims but to the neighbors here, as well, and to our law enforcement.”

Martin Martinez was booked into Santa Clara County jail and is expected to be returned to Modesto. No motive or cause of death is being released by police at this time, said Graves.

Few details about the investigation are being released apart from the fact that the deaths were being treated as homicides.

According to KCRA3, officials confirmed that the five female victims were all family members, although their identities and exact relationships to one another were not released on Sunday.

On Saturday, Modesto law enforcement contacted the San Jose Police Department because they believed a “person of interest,” Martin Martinez, was en route to a family member’s home in San Jose driving a red Lincoln Navigator SUV.

The vehicle was located just before 10 p.m. on Saturday by San Jose Police, but it was unoccupied. Law enforcement then received information that Martinez had left with a family member in a different vehicle, which was located around 1 a.m Sunday morning.

Finding the vehicle empty, officers arrested Martin Martinez without incident as he walked back to the vehicle.

Residents in the neighborhood expressed their shock at the killings. Shawna Avery, who lives a street behind where the bodies were discovered, told NBC affiliate KCRA that it was quiet all day Saturday.

“This would never happen here. You would not expect this.”

[Images: Modesto Police Department]

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