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June 30, 2001 By Jim Mimiaga Detectives investigating the beating death of 16-year-old Fred Martinez Jr. of Cortez are no closer to making any arrests, officials said Friday. Montezuma County Sheriff’s Detective Lt. Kalvin Boggs said Friday that eight detectives are working on the case, interviewing possible witnesses, canvassing neighborhoods and ruling out suspects in their search for information. "We are taking this very, very seriously; it is our number-one priority and everything else is on the back burner," Boggs said. Martinez’s partially decomposed body was found in a rocky canyon south of Cortez on June 21. He was discovered off a dirt road below a canyon rim that borders the east end of the Happy Valley Trailer Park. The area is a short distance from his home in the Elmwood Trailer Park, located near Montezuma-Cortez High School. The teen was last seen by his family at his home Saturday, June 16, and later that day at the Ute Mountain Ute Rodeo by witnesses, Boggs said. Police report that Martinez was bludgeoned to death by a blunt object, but no motive has been established, nor have any suspects been arrested, police said. A Crimestoppers award of $1,000 is being offered for any information leading to the arrest of the person or persons responsible for Martinez’s death. Call 565-4243 if you know any information about Martinez’s whereabouts before his death, who he was with, or what may have happened to him. No information regarding Martinez’s case should be considered insignificant, police said. The investigation is a joint effort between the sheriff’s department, Cortez Police Department and Colorado Bureau of Investigation. An autopsy report has yet to be released by the CBI, but is expected to be completed soon. It will include a toxicology report. "The investigation is still wide in scope and has not narrowed a whole lot," Boggs said. "But it is better than when we first started. We are working to eliminate suspects in order to narrow it down some more." Time is becoming a factor, he said, but is not a major concern yet. He said police are confident more leads will surface. "We are up against the clock," Boggs said. "It takes time to track down witnesses who saw him that night. Hopefully this reward will help jar people’s memory who have information." Dozens of interviews have been conducted, he said, and the number may go into the hundreds. Three unnamed suspects being questioned this week have yet to be cleared of possibly being involved in the crime or events leading up to it, Boggs said. "In an investigation, everyone we talk to we decipher whether to eliminate them as a suspect, based on our best information, so yes, those three are still suspects." Police are working on a timeline based on witnesses who saw Martinez at the rodeo carnival, which took place at the American Legion rodeo grounds in Cortez. "We’re looking for what his actions were, what other people’s actions were around him at the time and anything that somebody may have seen that was out of the ordinary around that time period." Speculation that the crime was motivated by Martinez’s reported homosexuality or his race are unfounded at this point, Boggs said. "So far nothing has shown that it was a hate crime," he said. "We are aware of that potential situation and take into consideration all aspects of (the victim’s) life. But right now it does not look like the attack was different from any other." |
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