Joshua Martinez Charged with Murder in 2019 Cold Case of Teen Victoria Marquina

Joshua Anthony Martinez, 28, was arrested by U.S. Marshals and indicted on four felony counts in connection with the October 2019 disappearance and murder of Victoria Marquina, a teenager from Sutter Creek, California, who was pregnant when she vanished and whose body has never been recovered.

Martinez was indicted in San Joaquin County court on four counts: murder, unlawful intercourse with a minor, oral copulation with a minor, and sexual penetration by foreign object on a minor. He is being held without bail at the San Joaquin County Jail and faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. His next court hearing is scheduled for April 6, and his defense reserved the right to seek bail at a later date.

This was not Martinez's first arrest in the case. He had been identified as an early suspect after Marquina disappeared but was released because authorities lacked sufficient evidence to hold him. At the time of that initial arrest, the sheriff's office said it had circumstantial evidence allegedly proving he killed her. Martinez previously admitted to authorities that he dropped Marquina off in Sutter Creek. Prosecutors noted he then fled to Mexico and was extradited back to the United States before that first arrest. U.S. Marshals assisted in recapturing him ahead of the recent indictment.

Marquina, described by some outlets as 16 and by others as 17 at the time of her disappearance, was last seen at her place of work in Amador County in October 2019. Days later, she was reported missing. Her vehicle was found abandoned near Escalon in San Joaquin County, and her cellphone was also recovered in San Joaquin County shortly after her disappearance. Martinez, who was 21 at the time, had been in what the Amador County District Attorney's Office described as an unlawful dating relationship with her. Investigators say her mother discovered she was pregnant before reporting her missing.

Six years passed with no charges filed. San Joaquin County District Attorney Ron Freitas, working with multiple agencies through a San Joaquin County Cold Case Task Force, credited new technology and recently available information for making the indictment possible, though he declined to provide specifics. Friends and family had previously raised $60,000 in reward money during the years when the case appeared to be going cold.

"I met Victoria's mom shortly after taking office and she told me her heartbreak and not knowing where her daughter was and not having the person that killed her being held accountable," Freitas said outside the courthouse after Monday's hearing. "And it's weighed heavily on me and it's one of the things that I've thought about almost every single day since taking office."

Amador County District Attorney Todd Riebe framed the indictment as a beginning rather than a resolution: "Today marks the beginning of Victoria Marquina's journey for justice."

The hardest fact in the case remains unchanged. Marquina's body has never been found, and investigators are still asking the public for any information that could help locate her remains. Freitas put the stakes plainly: "We want to bring closure to Victoria's mother, allow her to bury her child and her grandchild."

Marquina's mother, Blance Valencia, reflected on who her daughter would have become. "I think that by now she would be graduated, received, and would be a fulfilled woman," Valencia told CBS News Sacramento. "She had many dreams. Many dreams. Unfortunately, someone cut us off. But I still have faith, I still have hope that she will return home.