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Two decades after the murder of a Latin girl in the Bronx borough of upstate New York, Metro police arrested the suspect in the death of Minerliz Soriano, then 13.
Joseph Martinez, 49, was arrested 22 years after the murder of Soriano, who disappeared on February 24, 1999, on her way home, according to local media.
The girl’s body, with signs of having been strangled, was found three days later by a maintenance man, who found it in a plastic bag inside a garbage container.
According to the police, Martinez lived in the same apartment building as the girl, although the victim’s family does not remember him.
It has also indicated that the suspect, who was linked to the murder by DNA tests, calls himself on social networks “Jupiter Joe” or “the subway astronomer.”
Videos on YouTube show him in public places, such as subway stations, with a giant telescope teaching astronomy to children.
“We will never forget what happened because she is still in our hearts,” the girl’s aunt, Amelia Soriano, told ABC Channel 7 in tears.
Martinez will be taken before a judge for the official arraignment on the murder charge.
