Seattle police find body in Renton woods while searching for missing woman Leticia Martinez

RENTON, Wash. – Seattle Police say investigators discovered a physique believed to be related to the disappearance of Seattle lady Leticia Martinez, who was final seen March 31 at a Mariners recreation.

Police won’t affirm that it’s Martinez’ physique, however say the stays had been present in a wooded space between Talbot Rd. and State Route 167 in Renton. Murder detectives had been following leads that took them to that space Tuesday afternoon.

That’s about one mile from the place police discovered her son Patrick Cosman, who investigators say was taken by the person she went to the Seattle Mariners recreation with.

Seattle Police say the King County Medical Examiner’s Workplace is working to substantiate the identification of the individual discovered useless. No additional particulars are being given right now.

Newly launched charging paperwork additional element what might have led as much as the disappearance of Leticia Martinez. Martinez, 58, was final seen at a Seattle Mariners recreation on March 31 with 46-year-old Brett Gitchel. She took a selfie of her and Gitchel, sending it to her household. 

That was the final time she was seen alive, and Gitchel has been arrested in connection to her disappearance.

“Inside a 3 days interval, Brett Gitchel was the final individual to be seen with Leticia Martinez-Cosman. Brett Gitchel would drive Leticia’s car to a distant space exterior Seattle for a brief time period the following day, kidnap and try and kill her son and burn Leticia’s car,” courtroom paperwork mentioned.

Prosecutors allege that Gitchel was the person who Martinez’ son got here in touch with within the early morning hours of April 2. Her son woke as much as the sound of somebody knocking on his bed room door (from inside the home). He didn’t acknowledge the person, however believed he might have been a neighbor. The person instructed him that his mom had been damage in a fall and that he may take him to the hospital to see her.

Someday through the automobile trip, the person parked the car and tried to place a bag over Martinez’ son’s head in an effort to choke him. The person then used his forearm, when that did not work.

Her son fought again and bit the person and was capable of escape and hid within the woods.

Court docket paperwork say Gitchel was that man. He had wounds on his fingers that look to be scabbed or chew marks. It is unclear if a warrant has been issued for a DNA pattern to see if the injuries had been brought on by her son combating again.

Telephone information decided that Gitchel was in the identical space on the similar time the place Martinez’s son had reported the assault, in line with courtroom paperwork.

On that very same day, round 6:40 a.m., Martinez’s Honda CRV that she took to the Mariners recreation that day was discovered burning on the aspect of the highway close to Lewis Park and north Beacon Hill. She was not inside. Court docket paperwork say the hearth appeared to have been deliberately set from the passenger aspect and that an “unknown accelerant was used.”

In line with newly launched courtroom paperwork, Gitchel was seen on surveillance footage shopping for a purple one-gallon transportable fuel container at a Shell fuel station on Beacon Ave. S. In a separate transaction on the similar fuel station, Gitchel bought a lighter and likewise stuffed the container with gasoline on the pump.

Surveillance footage signifies that Gitchel bought the fuel container and lighter round 6 a.m. the identical day Martinez’s automobile was discovered burned.

The Shell fuel station he was seen in footage shopping for the fuel canister is lower than a mile away from the place Martinez’s automobile was discovered, in line with Google Maps.

Prosecutor Chris Anderson additionally mentioned in courtroom on April 7 that Gitchel’s cellphone had pinged the place Martinez’ automobile was burned.

Gitchel has now been charged with first-degree tried homicide, first-degree kidnapping, second-degree illegal possession of a firearm, first-degree theft and second-degree arson. 

He was arrested at a Shoreline Costco on April 5, accused of stealing $10,000 price of knickknack from a Costco in Seattle’s SODO neighborhood.