Cops: Woman, 20, vanishes from Movement afterparty

Police today issued a missing-person notice for a 20-year-old Saginaw woman last seen early Tuesday morning at a Movement afterparty at the Detroit Masonic Temple.

Grace Martinez was separated from her friend and last seen at about 3 a.m. Tuesday, talking with a man. The man was described as white, about 40 with brown hair and eyes, clean shaven and wearing a blue dress shirt, according to Detroit Police Department.

The friend, Danielle Welchner, 20, of Sebewaing, said the event was "pretty wild," packed with people, and they'd arrived at about 1 a.m. but had a hard time keeping track of each other.

"We were completely sober," she said, adding that the last time she saw Martinez, she asked whether she'd taken anything. "She said 'no,' she was fine. That was the last time I'd seen her."

Martinez and her friend had planned to meet at a car afterward, but she never appeared. Police describe Martinez as a Hispanic female, 5-foot-3, 105 pounds with brown eyes and hair. She was last seen wearing a white crop top and jean shorts, and she was in good physical and mental condition, police said.

Welchner said that when she last spoke with Martinez, she saw the man in the blue shirt.

"I didn't talk to him," she said. "He seemed kind of odd. He just kind of stood off to the side when I was talking to her."

Welchner said she returned to the car and waited until 5:30 a.m., "after everyone was gone," and never saw Martinez, who'd left her phone and purse in the car when they arrived.

Martinez's mother, Betty Trischler Martinez, said she's been passing out flyers in downtown Detroit. She said her daughter, who lives with her brother in Saginaw and is a college student, has never disappeared like this.

"It's completely out of character," she said. "She was babysitting her niece that's in from out of town."

Betty Martinez said her daughter had left the niece with her brother so she could go see the show.

Welchner said neither of them attended the Movement event in downtown. On Sunday night, they'd attended an after party with a group of people, but on Monday night just the two of them returned.

"We weren't meeting anyone, didn't know anyone," she said.

Anyone who's seen Martinez is asked to call the Detroit Police investigation unit at 313-596-1340.

The event at the Masonic Temple was the official after-party for Movement, an electronic music festival that drew roughly 100,000 people to Hart Plaza over the weekend. The afterparty started at 11 p.m. Monday and was headlined by Windsor-raised Richie Hawtin, an internationally acclaimed DJ and music producer with a long association with Detroit electronic music.

Contact Robert Allen at rallen@freepress.com or @rallenMI.