Leticia Martinez-Cosman and Brett Gitchel (Seattle Police Department)
A 46-year-old Seattle, Washington man is behind bars after police say he attended a Major League Baseball game last week with a woman who has not been seen or heard from since. that she left the stadium and is presumed dead.
Brett Gitchel was taken into custody Thursday “for a murder and kidnapping investigation” in connection with the disappearance of Leticia Martinez-Cosman, 58, authorities said.
According to a Seattle Police Department press release, Gitchel and Martinez-Cosman were last seen together on the evening of March 31, attending a Seattle Mariners game at T-Mobile Park. Martinez-Cosman has not been seen or contacted by family or friends since the game.
Authorities described Martinez-Cosman as 5-foot-9 and weighing about 135 pounds with green eyes and brown hair.
Gitchel has not been formally charged in the case, but a King County judge ruled Friday that prosecutors have proven probable cause to detain Gitchel as they continue to investigate Gitchel’s disappearance. Martinez-Cosman, reported the Seattle Times.
In addition to the murder and kidnapping investigation, police say Gitchel is also being held for investigation into an alleged assault, robbery and illegal possession of a firearm. These latest allegations stem from the kidnapping of Martinez-Cosman’s son and the theft of jewelry.
According to the Times, Martinez-Cosman and a friend first met Gitchel at a Costco in Seattle on March 19 and planned to attend the March 31 baseball game. Martinez-Cosman allegedly sent the friend a selfie of herself and Gitchel at the game, which the friend later gave to police.
The day after the game, Martinez-Cosman’s brother reportedly started receiving “strange and unusual” text messages from his phone. It was not immediately clear what the messages said, but his attempts to call Martinez-Cosman reportedly went straight to voicemail.
Several hours later, around 2 a.m. Sunday, Martinez-Cosman’s son – who lives with Martinez-Cosman and has been diagnosed with a learning disability – was woken by a stranger inside the house and knocked on his bedroom door, the Times reported. The man allegedly convinced the son to get into his SUV, telling him Martinez-Cosman had been in an accident and they needed to get to the hospital.
However, after driving for some time, the man reportedly stopped the SUV, got into the back seat and attempted to strangle whoever was sitting in the passenger seat. The son later told police that while the stranger tried to kill him, he told the son he was “doing this for his mother and it was to save her from being committed to an institution in because of his conditions,” a police officer said. the affidavit would have stated.
The son reportedly escaped by biting the man’s arm, then called his father in Texas, who contacted authorities. Police said they found the son covered in blood when they arrived and told officers he had not heard from his mother since Friday, the Times reported.
In a grim turn of events, Seattle firefighters responded to a vehicle fire around 7 a.m. Sunday less than 2 miles from T-Mobile Stadium. The vehicle, which was described as “completely engulfed” in flames, was identified as belonging to Martinez-Cosman and determined to have been set on fire using an accelerant, Times representative Thely, the Costco store where Martinez-Cosman and Gitchel first met filed a police report after $10,000 worth of jewelry was stolen on Tuesday. The store reportedly provided investigators with surveillance footage showing Gitchel and a vehicle registered to him at the scene of the theft.
He was reportedly arrested at another Costco store after employees recognized him from released security photos and detained him until police arrived.
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