Joseph Martinez is locally known as “Jupiter Joe,” a street astronomer who sets up his telescope on subway platforms and sidewalks and offers free lessons to children.
allow : NYPD Handout ; Right : Jupiter Joe ’s Sidewalk Astronomy / FacebookLeft : Minerliz Soriano , who was found strangled to expiry in a dumpster in 1999 . correctly : Joseph Martinez , who has just been charged with her murder .
learn to reach for the stars , Minerliz “ Minnie ” Soriano dreamt of becoming an astronaut . The 13 - year - honest-to-goodness girl was a straight - A student who wrote poesy and sell confect in her flat edifice during her spare time .
But on Feb. 24 , 1999 , Minnie Soriano fell while walking home from school — only for her body to be receive in a dumpster four days later after she was strangled to expiry .
Left: NYPD Handout; Right: Jupiter Joe’s Sidewalk Astronomy/FacebookLeft: Minerliz Soriano, who was found strangled to death in a dumpster in 1999. Right: Joseph Martinez, who has just been charged with her murder.
According toPeople , her consistence was find out behind a picture rental memory two miles from her home in the sprawling Bronx flat complex of Co - op City . There were cleared sign of sexual rape .
At the time , police had few leads , but they question every male in her building , including 27 - class - old Joseph Martinez . Still , the cause move around cold for decade — until the Second Coming of Christ of familial DNA testing get wind Martinez institutionalize in her murder .
Now 49 years old , Martinez is known locally as “ Jupiter Joe , ” a sidewalk astronomer who offer nestling and adults devoid lessons on the cosmos . While he denied any liaison in the crime , his deoxyribonucleic acid as accumulate by research worker equalize the semen found on Soriano ’s sweater in 1999 .
Jupiter Joe’s Sidewalk Astronomy/FacebookMartinez is charged with felony murder and intentional murder.
For the Soriano family line , justness is semisweet .
“ I felt that it would come to spark , ” said Amelia Soriano , Minnie ’s aunty . “ It was very lamentable not acknowledge , no one seeing anything , no one knowing anything . He bewilder her in the dumpster like she was refuse . She was n’t garbage . She was a human being . ”
Jupiter Joe ’s Sidewalk Astronomy / FacebookMartinez is charged with felony execution and intentional murder .
NYPDThe NYPD notes from their questioning of Joseph Martinez in 1999.
Minerliz Soriano never strayed far from nursing home . She was a diligent , studious female child who was usually found doing her preparation in the lobby of her flat building . accord toLaw and Crime , she was a passionate tumbler pigeon skater and loved reading love affair novels . Above all , she want to see the ace up tight .
“ I used to make fun of her about it , ” say Minnie ’s booster Kimberly Ortiz . “ I used to tell her , ‘ We ’re from the Bronx , we ’re not going to be astronauts . ' ”
Ortiz and Soriano routinely walked home from their middle school together , but that fateful Clarence Shepard Day Jr. in 1999 try out a tragical anomaly . Soriano left school alone and never made it home . Then , on Feb. 28 , a dumpster diver learn her body in the Methedrine and alerted police .
Kimberly OrtizKimberly Ortiz at the grave of Minerliz Soriano, whose death haunted Ortiz for years.
“ I carry a pile of guilt feelings with me for years , ” said Ortiz . “ I made a promise to her in front of her jewel casket that I would figure out who did this to her . ”
While officers from the New York Police Department questioned Martinez , who was Soriano ’s neighbor at the time , he was never considered an official suspect .
However , that all transfer in 2021 when investigator used familial deoxyribonucleic acid examination and found that the DNA from the ejaculate on Soriano ’s sweater wasa fond match to Martinez ’s dead male parent .
NYPDThe NYPD take note from their inquiring of Joseph Martinez in 1999 .
Familial DNA testing searches known offender databases for manly congenator of an unknown perpetrator . With the results partially matching the DNA of Martinez ’s sire , it was more than likely that Martinez himself was take . Investigators collected Martinez ’s DNA in 2021 and proved their theory correct after finding an exact equal .
When Martinezwas arrestedon Nov. 30 , 2021 , it became the first prison term that New York authority accuse somebody with a offence on the basis of transmissible DNA examination results .
“ He had that 10 - mile stare to nowhere , like , ‘ How did this happen ? ’ He was n’t umbrageous , ” an anonymous NYPD source toldThe New York Daily News . “ He was n’t belligerent . He was not combative . He was not in denial . All hallmarks of a shamed person . His DNA put him at the scene — and that ’s a wrap . ”
Kimberly OrtizKimberly Ortiz at the grave accent of Minerliz Soriano , whose demise haunted Ortiz for years .
constabulary have charged Martinez with one counting of felony murder and one tally of designed murder , although he maintains his innocence . Martinez had no criminal history until then — a point his lawyer has made sure to reiterate .
“ The case is passably unusual in that Mr. Martinez is 49 years honest-to-goodness ; he has no reprehensible history , ” sound out lawyer Troy A. Smith . “ It ’s strange that a 49 - year - old man would have his first vicious impinging at this age . He denies these allegations . ”
Perhaps most disturbing , Martinez frequently posted video on YouTube where he taught New Yorkers of all ages about the principal . He expressed that his employment would all be worth it if only one tyke was exalt into a life sentence of science because of him .
For Soriano ’s aunt , her loss and Martinez ’s law-breaking will never make sense .
“ She was very caring , a lovely , loving little girl , ” say Amelia Soriano . “ Who knows who she could have been , or what she could have done ? ”
After reading about the arrest of “ Jupiter Joe , ” learn aboutthe scuba - dive YouTuber who clear a 21 - twelvemonth - old cold case . Then , read aboutseven of the most haunting unsolved cold cases in history .
