Martha Bertha Martinez Maxwell
Missing since May 1992 from Fort Worth, Texas
Classification: Endangered Missing
* Age at Time of Disappearance: 41 years old
* Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance:
* Distinguishing Characteristics: White/Hispanic female. Brown hair; brown eyes.
Circumstances of Disappearance
Martha Martinez Maxwell was reported missing by her family in 1992. Her family last heard from her on Mother's Day in 1992. Her car was still at home, her passport untouched and her credit cards left behind.
Her husband told police that she had left on her own.
Investigators reopened the case in 2011 following the arrest of Jeffrey Allan Maxwell, her former husband, on charges of abducting and torturing another woman. He was accused of kidnapping, beating, raping and holding his former neighbor, a 62-year-old woman from Whitt, for 12 days confined in a secret compartment in Maxwells Corsicana home. He then torched her house on March 3, 2011 to get rid of evidence. Maxwell was arrested March 12, 2011 and is being held on bond in the Parker County jail.
He divorced Martha in 1995, and has never been charged in her disappearance.
In early 1987, Martinez was found on a road in Carter County, Oklahoma, beaten, sexually assaulted and her throat cut. She woke up in the hospital and only remembered her husband attacking her, binding her, drugging her and beating her. Martha Maxwell stopped cooperating and a grand jury never returned an indictment in the case investigated by the Watauga police department. By the end of the year, the Maxwells were back living together. Maxwell was a dedicated mother and that may have played a part in her decision to return to the man she said abused her.
Investigators
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
Fort Worth Police Department
817-392-4430
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/m/maxwell_martha.html
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/3033dftx.html
http://www.myfoxdfw.com/dpp/news/031611-Closure-Possible-for-Missing-Womans-Family
http://media2.myfoxdfw.com/PDF/redact-maxwell.pdf
March 21, 2011: Suspect looked at for cold case, disappearance
http://weatherforddemocrat.com/local/x1728492713/Suspect-looked-at-for-cold-case-disappearance
http://abcnews.go.com/US/arrest-jef...napping-torture-texas-women/story?id=13140744
http://www.dallasnews.com/news/crim...-suspects-wife.ece?ssimg=143469#ssStory142947
An affidavit in Jeff Maxwell's case listed a bed with chains, leather restraints and sexual devices among items seized from the home. An investigator connected to the case reported seeing an electric winch used for stringing up animal carcasses.
The affidavit said Maxwell confessed to kidnapping and sexually assaulting the woman. He claimed he had been paid to make the reclusive 62-year-old go away, the affidavit said, but refused to tell investigators who paid him.
And while Texas Rangers continue to interview Maxwell, investigators are exploring possible connections to at least two disappearances in the last two decades, including his wifes.
Fowler said his department was
re-examining the 2000 disappearance of Amelia Smith. Much like the current case, the 51-year-old womans house and car near Azle were destroyed in a suspicious fire on the same night she went missing.
http://www.star-telegram.com/2011/03/14/2921209/suspect-in-kidnapping-torture.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/8300-504083_162-504083.html?keyword=martha+martinez+maxwell