Police are still working a murder case from 1973. Just imagine still wondering what exactly happened to a murdered love-one, after 43 years! Just imagine never knowing who murdered your child, brother, sister, husband, father, son......... Just imagine never getting any type of relief from the grief.
Pomona police detectives asked for the public's help this week as they try to solve cold case killings from 1973 and 2006 which they think may be solvable.
Arthur Martinez was murdered on Feb. 16, 1973. His body was dumped into the San Antonio Flood Control Channel at Phillips Drive west of East End. Investigative leads were exhausted during the initial investigation.
The case has been investigated since the department established a cold case unit in 2007, according to a statement from the Pomona Police Department.
Martinez had many acquaintances and "it is our belief that information about the murder is still available. It is understood that many people have been hesitant to talk in the past, but the Martinez family has not been able to have closure," the statement said.
Then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger authorized a $50,000 reward in the case, and the family is hoping this reward might persuade witnesses to come forward.
MORE DETAILS ABOUT ARTHUR MARTINEZ' MURDER:
Shirley Castro was sitting at her mother's kitchen counter on a Valentine's Day nearly 40 years ago eating her breakfast when her older brother, Arthur Martinez, then 19, rushed out the door on his way to work.
"He turned around and our eyes connected," she said her eyes filling with tears and her voice cracking. "I remember that, I just remember that so clear, and he said to me, `I'll see you later.' That was the last time I saw him."
Martinez went missing that day in 1973, and two days later the body of the Ontario man was found in a Pomona flood control channel.
Despite the passage of time, she and her family is still hopeful that her brother's killer can be brought to justice.
"This changed my family," said Castro explaining that after Martinez's death, their mother, 89-year-old Madlen Martinez, was unable to cope with the devastating loss.
"Pictures came off the wall and we just never talked about it because it was so hard on my mom," she recalled.
It wasn't until Castro's son, Andrew Castro, 26, began asking questions about his Uncle Arthur that his grandmother was able to open up about the tragic and traumatic event.
"I started talking to her about it in 2004 and told her about the technologies available now and that we had to keep trying to find out who did this," Andrew Castro said.
Little by little, Madlen Martinez was able to open up and talk about her son to her grandson.
"She only talks to him about it," Shirley Castro said.
While the 26-year-old can't explain why, he feels a definite connection with the uncle who died nearly 15 years before he was even born.
"When I first started this, I had a lot of dreams that didn't make sense," Andrew Castro said. "Now after talking to my grandma, it started to make more sense to me."
The young father has even found a musical connection with his departed uncle listening to songs Arthur Martinez once enjoyed.
"This is my little boy that is going to find who did this to my boy," Madlen Martinez said. "I tell my God, `Maybe you're waiting for me to find out and then you'll take me."'
Her eyes brightened beneath her glasses and a smile began to form across her face.
"I'd want to die right away and go with him," the mother, grandmother and great-grandmother said noting her husband, Arthur Martinez's father, died without seeing their son's killer brought to justice.
Hoping to fulfill his grandmother's final wish, Andrew Castro contacted the Pomona Police Department and learned his uncle's case would be handled by the department's Cold Case unit.
Working with authorities, in 2007, then Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger offered a reward for information in five unsolved homicide cases including Arthur Martinez's.
"When they offered the money, I thought someone would come forward, but no," said the stoic matriarch of the Martinez family as she sat at her neatly decorated kitchen table in her Ontario home. The same home the family was living in when Arthur Martinez was killed.
The governor's office offered $50,000 in Arthur Martinez's case. That reward is still waiting to be collected.
Investigators know Arthur Martinez did make it to his job in Upland, but the timeline of events become murky after his shift ended.
"Some people say he was picked up by a friend of his," Andrew Castro said. "Others say they saw him with other people."
Hoping for another shot at finding the person who killed his uncle, Andrew Castro and Pomona Police Detective Jennifer Turpin are reopening the case for a fourth time.
While Madlen Martinez is hopeful, she worries this latest investigation will result in no arrests.
"To me, it's like it just happened today or yesterday," said Madlen Martinez. "It still hurts."
Anyone with information on the case is asked to contact the Pomona Police Department at 909-622-1241.
(WhittierDailyNews)
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