While most 10-year-olds are allowed to celebrate their birthday by receiving gifts and playing with classmates, a girl in New Mexico encountered rape and violence a day after she turned 10.
According to KRQE, the child was born to a drug-addicted, abusive woman named Michelle Martens. Martens, 35, enjoyed watching as her daughter was being sexually molested by men. Martens went on websites such as Plenty of Fish to find pitiful men who were willing to have sex with a 9-year-old girl.
Martens also allowed her boyfriend, Fabian Gonzales, to rape her daughter. On at least three occasions, Martens allowed Gonzales and his cousin, Jessica Kelley, to sexually molest the young girl. But the horror that the child experienced turned deadly on Aug. 23.
Gonzales and Kelley gave the child methamphetamines and began to rape her. At some point, the two began choking the child as she pleaded for her life. However, she was strangled and stabbed to death that day.
Martens sat back and watched as her daughter was raped and killed. Moreover, Martens thought it would be a good idea to have sex with Gonzales moments after he killed her daughter.
The young girl’s dismembered body was found wrapped in a burning blanket inside an apartment owned by Martens.
Martens’ neglect and abuse of her child should have been discovered long before the young girl died. It’s important for school counselors to sit down with young students who show signs of sexual or physical abuse. According to the website Parents Protect!, signs to look for with children who may have been sexually abused include; becoming withdrawn; showing overt sexual conduct; bedwetting; self-harm; and outbursts of anger.
Martens has since been charged with kidnapping and child abuse. Gonzales was charged with the same crimes and also child rape. Kelley was charged with kidnapping, child abuse, and child rape.
