Modesto police also formally released the names of the two women and three girls who died over the weekend: Crews, 38, her daughters, 6-year-old Elizabeth Ripley and 6-month-old Rachael Martinez, Martinez’s mother, Anna Brown Romero, and 5-year-old niece, whose name was unavailable.
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Police were closing in on Martinez in the death of another of Amanda Crews’ children, 2-year-old Christopher Ripley, a son from a previous relationship who died under mysterious circumstances in October. Police investigators were informed Thursday.
The boy’s mother, sister, half-sister and two other females were found dead Saturday afternoon in a Modesto home.
Martinez was taken into custody in San Jose at about 1 a.m.as he was walking through a mall parking lot off Blossom Hill Road with his father, according to police.
Alisha Pratt, a former trainee and colleague of the slain Crews, told the Modesto Bee she met the physician a few years ago. All the victims are related, and the children’s ages range from 6 months to 6 years old. Martinez is the father of Crews’ 6-month-old daughter.
A day after police made the grisly discovery of five bodies – including three little girls – inside a tidy suburban house in Modesto, the word went out: The suspected killer was heading for San Jose. Officers found the vehicle abandoned in the southeastern part of San Jose, San Jose police spokesman Albert Morales said. In the meantime, flowers and candles are being placed outside the victim’s home. They have not identified the fire victims, how they were killed, or a possible motive. He has no visible criminal record in Santa Clara County, according to court records, and neighbors of the Lucerne Way home said Martinez was not a regular presence there.
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Police found the second vehicle unoccupied in the parking lot at Westfield-Oakridge after midnight, Morales said, and waited for Martinez to return on foot. The 30-year-old is awaiting transfer to Modesto where he will be arraigned.
