Victoria Martens
I really, really don’t want to write about this case. So forgive me for making it short. Little Victoria Marten’s death was one of the most harrowing in New Mexico and it was traumatic for most of us. The fact her killer is still at large makes us all sick and worried for our own kids.
The year 2016 was not a good one for New Mexico. In that year, two little girls were sexually assaulted and murdered. One was the beautiful Ashlynn Mike, who was raped and murdered near Shiprock Monument on May 2, 2016. Her murder was heartbreaking. She was a beautiful angel who had her whole life ahead of her. Instead, she had her innocence shattered and her life taken from her when she was only eleven. The POS who killed her is known and in prison now.
Later in the same year, on August 23, ten-year-old Victoria Martens was also murdered and her case is still unsolved. Her last moments are a confusing jumble of frenzied chaos and questions.
Little Victoria was found in a bathtub, dismembered and smoldering in a blanket. Her mother, Michelle Martens, told police the worst story I have ever heard: She had solicited her daughter online and had let her new online boyfriend, Fabian Gonzales, and his cousin, Jessica Kelley, shoot her up with meth and then rape her while Michelle watched. The boyfriend got carried away and strangled her, however, so the three adults dismembered her and set her on fire to dispose of evidence.
Compounded with Michelle Martens’ gross mugshot, people were horrified. More than a few people wanted to kill Michelle Martens with their bare hands. After all, what kind of monster does that to her own daughter?
Michelle Martens, Fabian Gonzales, and Jessica Kelley were all held on million-dollar cash-only bonds. The arraignment judge said that the depravity of this case was “unfathomable” to him, and it was to everyone else, too.
But then it turned out…that story was a complete fabrication.
Michelle Martens and Fabian Gonzales weren’t even at the apartment when little Victoria was murdered. They were across town, purchasing weed, as evidenced by eyewitnesses and cell phone data. There were also no drugs in Victoria’s system according to autopsy.
The DNA of an unidentified male was found on Victoria’s back, creating a fourth person in the crime who is unknown.
Jessica Kelley was in the apartment with the little girl when she died, though, and she had an entirely different story of what had happened.
Kelley admitted that she was high on meth and extremely paranoid that day. A Hispanic man she did not know entered the apartment while Fabian Gonzales and Michelle Martens were gone. He demanded to know where Fabian was, and Kelley said she didn’t know. Then the man stormed into Victoria’s bedroom and sodomized and strangled her. He left after that. Kelley ran around in a panic, even carrying the dead girl outside in her arms, as if Victoria were simply asleep. Neighbors saw her but had no idea that things were horribly wrong.
It wasn’t till Fabian got home and put Michelle to bed that Kelley told him what had transpired. Fabian Gonzales panicked and helped his cousin dismember the girl, putting her body parts in a laundry basket. Then he supposedly went back to bed to sleep like nothing had happened.
During that time, Kelley put the body parts in a blanket in the bathtub and set fire to them. Then Kelley entered their bedroom and attacked both Michelle Martens and Fabian Gonzales in the face with an iron of some type.
Fabian and Michelle ran to a neighbor’s, bleeding and injured. The neighbor smelled smoke and called 911. When first responders arrived, they found the chaos in the apartment and the little girl in the bathtub, cut into pieces. Michelle Martens screamed, “She killed my daughter!” while pointing at Kelley. Police arrested Michelle Martens and Fabian Gonzales on the spot. Jessica Kelley attempted to escape by jumping from the apartment balcony, but injured her foot and was taken to the hospital in custody.
Under police custody, Michelle Martens told investigators that horrific story about how she allowed her daughter to be raped. But it was soon revealed that something else entirely had happened that night. Then they found the unknown male DNA on Victoria’s body…DNA that did not match Fabian Gonzales or any other known male perpetrator in the system.
The rape is also under question. The medical examiner did make a positive diagnosis of HPV from her autopsy, which means someone had victimized the little girl in the past, possibly an ex-boyfriend of Michelle’s whom Michelle had suspected of sexually abusing Victoria. Michelle had even reported this attempted sexual abuse to CYFD, but there was no subsequent investigation by them and thus Victoria was failed by the system. However, news reports vary on whether the little girl was raped at the time she was killed.
So who killed Victoria Martens? We just don’t know. But someone is running around, a child murderer, who hasn’t had to pay for the crime at all. There is no telling what other heinous things this sick individual may do, or may have already done. He clearly has no conscience.
Before Victoria was killed, Fabian Gonzales had gotten into a fight at a family barbecue. A lot of threats and bad blood were exchanged between Gonzales and some of his family members as a result. Some people think this fight led to Victoria’s murder. Since Fabian obviously had ties to the dark side of Albuquerque, it is possible the murder had to do with gangs or drugs. Someone wanted to strike true fear in Fabian’s heart. What better way to do that than to murder his girlfriend’s child? But that was just so unnecessary, and entirely preventable. Victoria was the victim of something she had nothing to do with and every day I wish this whole thing hadn’t happened.
The three adults involved – Michelle Martens, Fabian Gonzales, and Jessica Kelley – all got their days in court over the past 6 years. Gonzales was convicted by a grand jury on one count of reckless child abuse resulting in death, several counts of evidence tampering, and one count of conspiracy. He received a sentence of 37 and a half years. That is far too little time for a man who dismembered a child and who also may have directly or indirectly contributed to her death. Michelle Martens testified against Kelley and Gonzales and got 12 years in prison for child abuse resulting in death. Due to getting a credit of 50% good time for the six years she was already in jail awaiting trial, she could get out much sooner than in 12 years. The entire state of New Mexico hates her and most of the US does too, so she probably won’t have much of a peaceful life out of jail. But I think the guilt for what she let her daughter go through may be punishment enough. Jessica Kelley got 44 years for six charges of child abuse resulting in death. Again, that is too little time in my opinion. Kelley should have gotten life, I think.
Your burning question might be, why did Michelle tell this outrageous tale about selling her daughter for sex online and actively participating in her murder? Martens’ attorney says that she is not mentally competent and tends to lie to please people. If you look at her creepy mugshot, you may think she is just a monster at first. But when you learn the true story, you start to see something else in this mugshot – desperation, horror, trauma, grief. You also see the cuts where Michelle Martens was attacked by Jessica Kelley. Why would Kelley attack her if they were all in cahoots?
The truth is that Michelle did not kill her child. But she was an unfit mother who put her child in harm’s way. Michelle Martens could never not have a man in her life. In the past, she had a string of bad boyfriends, one of whom may have molested Victoria. Michelle Martens had reported her boyfriends to CYFD herself in the past, indicating that her heart was in the right place, but she just wasn’t bright enough to reasonably protect her child.
When Fabian Gonzales got out of prison, he met Michelle on the dating site Plenty of Fish. He moved in with her within a few weeks. Michelle didn’t even know this man and he didn’t have a great history, yet she was more than happy to let him into her home and be around her young daughter. This ultimately resulted in Victoria’s death. So I’m glad that Michelle is facing some time. Victoria would probably still be here if Michelle had been more vigilant and protective.
After moving into her place, Fabian Gonzales invited his meth-head cousin, Jessica Kelley, to also live there for $50 a month. Michelle was not made aware of this arrangement. Kelley had just gotten out of prison four days prior to the murder. The day Victoria died, Kelley was extremely agitated and high on meth. People said she was acting “bizarre.” Who knows what that woman actually did or saw? I think she played far more of a role in the heinous murder than she says. Most people think she was solely responsible for the girl’s death and made up the story about the unknown assailant entering the apartment and committing the crime. The unidentified male DNA derails that theory, but I wonder if the male DNA may be from some man that Kelley knew and welcomed into the apartment to help her victimize the little girl.
The day Victoria died, Michelle left her with Jessica Kelley for some reason, despite not knowing the woman and despite seeing how weird she was acting. Kelley spent many hours that day alone with Victoria. She even carried Victoria’s lifeless body outside between 8:48 pm and 10:30 pm, when neighbors saw her. Victoria is believed to have died around 7:45 and 8:30 pm on August 23. Only Kelley was known to be with her at this time.
According to the timeline police have established, this is what happened in Victoria’s last evening alive:
- 4:25 p.m.: Victoria Martens got off the bus from school. Michelle was not there and called her mom to pick up Victoria, but her mom said she couldn’t do it. So she had Kelley get the girl, despite having some misgivings. Michelle and Fabian were not home when Kelley brought Victoria home from the bus stop.
- 5:07 p.m.: Michelle Martens and Fabian Gonzales returned to the apartment. They apparently saw Victoria alive and well.
- 6:05 p.m.: Victoria walked to a nearby gas station with Fabian to buy a soda.
- 6:15 to 6:20 p.m.: Victoria and Fabian returned to the apartment.
- 6:30 p.m.: Michelle and Fabian left to Paradise Hills and Victoria was left alone with Kelley in the apartment.
- 7:02 p.m.: Michelle and Fabian returned home from Paradise Hills.
- 7:05 p.m.: Neighbors saw Victoria alive.
- 7:06 p.m.: Michelle and Fabian left again. They are determined to have been near Rio Bravo Bld and Coors Blvd based on cell phone data. They were also seen near Five Points and Bridge Bld close to 8:00 pm.
- 8:47 p.m.: Michelle and Fabian returned to the apartment, cooked tacos, and had sex, without once checking on Victoria.
- 8:48 p.m.: Neighbors saw Jessica Kelley carrying Victoria around outside the apartment, wrapped in a blanket.
- 4:30 am on August 24th: Neighbors heard screaming. Fabian Gonzales and Michelle Martens ran to a neighbor’s saying that Kelley attacked them with an iron. Smoke was coming from the apartment and 911 was called by neighbors.
Kelley played the biggest role in the crime and is serving the longest sentence. But the male DNA leaves questions about who else was involved in this gruesome tragedy. With forensic genealogy and many people uploading their DNA to ancestry sites, this killer may not be able to hide in the shadows for long. While he isn’t in any DNA databases right now, one of his family members might be, and that will eventually lead to his identification and capture. Currently there is an indictment for first-degree murder filed for John Doe in Victoria’s case, and I hope that I will live to see the day when that John Doe is identified and convicted.
Victoria’s grandparents (Michelle’s parents) said they called CYFD on Michelle Martens many times without CYFD ever stepping in to protect the little girl. They have filed a lawsuit against Albuquerque police for not properly investigating CYFD reports about the little girl’s possible sexual abuse. I hope that this lawsuit gets them some vindication and helps turn child protective procedures around in this state. There are far too many stories of children being murdered by their parents or stepparents in New Mexico, even after CYFD calls were made by concerned loved ones and teachers.
Victoria Martens was honored with a massive memorial on October 26, 2016. Over 600 people attended to honor what they call “one of God’s borrowed angels.” Her family members and people from her class at Petroglyph Elementary School attended to mourn the little girl, who is remembered for having a “special spark.” People wore purple, gave out purple teddy bears, and released purple balloons because that was Victoria’s favorite color. They played gospel music because Victoria loved to sing. At the end of the ceremony, doves were released to symbolize Victoria’s soul going to a better place. I would like to think that Victoria was there in spirit and she felt loved and she felt at peace. The world and the people she needed most failed her during her short life. It is sad that we could only uplift her and honor her after death, instead of protecting her and supporting her in life.