Two weeks after the murder of 15-year-old Joe Martinez, his family is reaching out to the public for answers.
On the morning of June 29, a jogger found Martinez’s body in an alley in the 2800 block of West Brooklyn Avenue in Oak Cliff.
There were obvious signs of trauma to the teen’s body, but family members said he wasn’t robbed.
Since then, there has been very little progress in the case.
“He meant the world to me. That’s my baby nephew. That’s like my little brother,” said Martinez’s uncle, Louis Jimenez, through tears.
“I only have family, and for someone to rob us, to take him like that it’s not right,” he said.
Jimenez said the night before Martinez’s death the two were playing video games when Martinez ran to a family member's house to get new batteries.
He was only supposed to be gone 10 minutes.
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Family members said Martinez did arrive there, but only stayed a short while.
Jimenez wasn’t aware that Martinez was missing until the next morning when he woke up to reports that someone had found a teenager’s body.
“There was a 15-year-old person in the alley with obvious signs of trauma. His clothing matched our nephew,” Jimenez said.
Jimenez said Martinez was very close to his family and never indicated anything was wrong or that he was having trouble with anyone.
Dallas police said there is no new information it the case, but detectives are working on it.
“What we’re going through will never end. We’ll never be the same,” Jimenez said.
The family is now begging the public to come forward with information.
“I know you might be scared, there might be reasons you don’t want to come forward, but we need this,” Jimenez said. “I have no feelings. There are no feelings once you lost somebody. Oh, I feel this or I feel that. No, you just want closure.”
Anyone with information on this case is asked to call 911 or the Dallas police detectives at 214-671-36841.
