Authorities are on the lookout for a Utah man accused of strangling his adult daughter after allegedly stalking her like a “jealous lover.”
Obsessive Utah man allegedly kills deputy daughter
Hector Ramon Martinez-Ayala, 54, was identified as a person of interest following the discovery of his 25-year-old daughter’s body.
Marbella Martinez, a Salt Lake County sheriff’s deputy, who was discovered deceased on Aug. 1, at the home she lived in with her father in Tooele.
An autopsy revealed that she was violently strangled to death in her bedroom, after police performed a welfare check.
Salt Lake County Sheriff Rosie Rivera released a statement about Martinez’s tragic death days after her body was found.
“Deputy Martinez was a dedicated member of our Sheriff’s Office family. In her short time with us, she became a cherished friend and an integral part of our team,” Rivera remarked. “Her untimely and tragic death is a profound loss for us all.”
“Our thoughts and prayers are with her loved ones during this heartbreaking time,” Rivera added.
“We hope that the investigation will provide answers and some measure of justice for our Deputy and her family.”
Martinez-Ayala was charged with her murder, identity theft, obstruction, and stalking last week.
Authorities issued an arrest warrant for the suspect after discovering he had fled the country with the help of family.
Utah man flees country after allegedly admitting to crime
According to charging documents, Martinez-Ayala allegedly stalked his daughter like a jealous ex-boyfriend and seemed to admit to the crime in a text to his twin brother.
“My brother, you know (how) much I love you, I made a big mistake, an unforgivable sin, now I’m too scared and I don’t know what to do,” Martinez-Ayala he sent on the last day of July.
“I think I will never come back,” he said in a follow-up text.
Prosecutors claimed that prior to his daughter’s violent death, Martinez-Ayala “was becoming increasingly obsessed and controlling” about her day-to-day activities and was stalking her with technology.
After searching their phone records, his texts to Marbella seemed “more of the nature of a jealous lover than a father.”
In February, Marbella was disturbed to find a bag of her underwear hidden in her father’s room.
His stalking reached a peak days before her murder, when he followed her on a hike with her new “romantic interest.”
Martinez-Ayala was able to pinpoint the location of Marbella’s date by tracing her car, which he had planted a concealed tracking device on.
In addition to the device on her car, the suspect had also been watching her with hidden spy cameras he had purchased.
After crashing her date, the pair had a “confrontation,” and Marbella left their shared home to stay at a hotel.
Unfortunately, on July 31, she went back home for an unknown reason and was never seen alive again.
Though the home was wired with Martinez-Ayala’s hidden cameras, police were unable to pull footage of Marbella’s arrival at the residence because it was “deleted or never existed.”
When the Toole Police Department performed a welfare check at the home, Marbella’s body was discovered on top of her bed.
“Blood was observed in the victim’s mouth, and there were visible apparent fingernail claw marks on her face and neck,” prosecutors alleged.
Authorities believe stalker dad had help fleeing
Police believe that Martinez-Ayala fled the country by flying to California, then Texas, before hopping on an international flight to an unknown location.
He was able to do so by withdrawing cash from Marbella’s bank account and using the identification of his twin brother.
Tooele police don’t believe that Martinez-Ayala was able to flee the country on his own, and likely had the assistance of friends and family.
Authorities have called on the people they believe assisted the suspect to come forward to help them take him into custody for his alleged crime.
