The third suspect in the horrific death of a 10-year-old Albuquerque girl made her first court appearance on Saturday, in a case the governor of New Mexico said was the worst of all the “brutal, violent, gut-wrenching cases our state has ever seen”.

KRQE-TV reported that Jessica Kelley remained silent as a judge read the charges she faces in the killing of Victoria Martens. The charges include child abuse resulting in death and kidnapping.

Authorities say Victoria Martens was drugged with methamphetamine, raped and strangled before her dismembered body was found in a bathtub on Wednesday. The girl’s mother, Michelle Martens, and her boyfriend, Fabian Gonzales, have also been arrested. Kelley is a cousin of Gonzales.

Judge Chris J Schultz said the case was one of the worst he has ever seen, and ordered Kelley held on $1m bond. The 31-year-old, the last suspect to be booked, had been hospitalized for a broken leg, which she suffered while trying to flee police.

New Mexico has the country’s highest youth poverty rate and a state government that has had heavily publicized difficulties protecting children from abuse. Victoria Martens was not known to have been a victim of previous violent abuse, but officials acknowledged on Friday that Gonzales, who is accused of injecting her with methamphetamine before raping her, was not being monitored by probation officers or tested for drugs as mandated by a judge last year.

In that case, 31-year-old Fabian Gonzales was arrested for beating a woman in a car with a baby inside it while the woman was driving. He ended up pleading no contest to two misdemeanor crimes that kept him out of jail.

Deputy corrections secretary Alex Sanchez said on Friday her agency never received a judgment and sentence order mandating supervised probation for Gonzales. Second judicial district court spokesman Tim Korte said records showed the documents were forwarded to the corrections department in February 2015.

New Mexico has seen other high-profile cases of crimes against children in recent months. In May, a 40-year prison sentence was handed down to an Albuquerque woman over the 2013 kicking death of her nine-year-old son. That case prompted an overhaul of the state agency that investigates child abuse. Also in May this year, an 11-year-old Navajo girl was taken to a desolate area by a stranger who sexually assaulted her, bludgeoned her and left her to die.

“We have a litany of little angels who are crying at us from the grave,” said Allen Sanchez, executive director of the New Mexico Conference of Catholic Bishops (NMCCB).

New Mexico children, youth and families secretary Monique Jacobson said on Friday state records showed no prior cases involving violence or sexual abuse against Victoria Martens. The agency has joined police in the investigation into the death.

Jacobson said she was prohibited by law from disclosing whether the agency had received any other complaints related to the 10-year-old, who was described by neighbors from her blue-collar apartment complex as a seemingly happy and sociable girl who loved to swim and dance. While Michelle Martens has no online record of an arrest in New Mexico, she told police Kelley had been released from jail days before Victoria’s death.

The three adults face charges of child abuse resulting in death, kidnapping and tampering with evidence. Gonzales and Kelley are also charged of criminal sexual penetration of a minor.

Michelle Martens worked at a local grocery store, said neighbors who knew little else about her, and told detectives she met Gonzales online about a month before her daughter’s death.



Victoria Martens’ grandparents and other relatives said they were thankful to first-responders, investigating authorities and community members who offered prayers, said minister and family spokeswoman Laura Bobbs.

“Children have few rights and no one to speak for them,” Bobbs said. “Today, I speak for the children and the voice of Victoria. Parents, communities and governments need to put our children first because they are our future.”

New Mexico governor Susana Martinez said the Martens case was more troubling than all crimes she handled in a 25-year career as a state prosecutor before her election to the state’s top post in 2010.

“I personally took on some of the most brutal, violent, gut-wrenching cases our state has ever seen. This has to be the worst,” she said in a statement.