The New York Police Department has made an arrest in a homicide case that began 22 years ago.
The NYPD arrested Joseph Martinez, 49, on Monday. He is accused of killing Minerliz Soriano when she was just 13 years old in 1999.
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“I feel happy because justice is working, but I feel sad at the same time because it takes too long,” Luis Soriano, the victim’s father, told ABC7NY.
The NYPD said Minerliz Soriano’s body was discovered bound in a garbage bag and discarded in a dumpster. Authorities at the time determined that her death was the result of a homicide.
“He threw her in the garbage, in the dumpster, like she was garbage. She wasn’t garbage. She was a human being,” Amelia Soriano, the victim’s aunt, told WLNY.
The NYPD arrested Martinez on two charges of second-degree murder. It used DNA evidence to trace him to Minerliz Soriano’s disappearance, the New York Post reported. Martinez lived in the same building as Soriano, sources told the outlet.
Martinez was known as “Jupiter Joe” and went around teaching astronomy to local children, police told ABC7NY.
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The motive behind Soriano’s death is unclear. If Soriano were alive, she would have been 35 years old. Martinez will be arraigned Tuesday.
