A Washington, D.C. woman was stabbed to death in an “unprovoked attack” while jogging on Tuesday night, just one week after she was engaged to be married.
Thirty-five-year-old Wendy Martinez was stabbed around 8 p.m. at the intersection of 11th and P Streets. She stumbled into a nearby Asian American restaurant where Good Samaritans tended to her wounds, the horrifying moments captured on video surveillance.
Martinez was then transported to a local hospital where she tragically succumbed to her injuries, said Metropolitan Police Chief Peter Newsham at a Thursday press conference.
“Wendy should have been shopping for her wedding dress on Friday,” said a friend of Martinez’s, Kristina Moore, through tears. “There is a hole in our hearts that will never be replaced.”
Surveillance footage of the park led officers to suspect Anthony Crawford, 23, who was charged with the murder on Thursday.
The motive of the vicious crime remains “unknown.”
“We were able to talk to multiple witnesses and we don’t have anything to suggest that there was any type of confrontation between the two,” said Newsham. “It looks like it was an unprovoked attack. … We also do not have any information to suggest it was a robbery, so the motive in this case right now is unknown.”
Newsham confirmed that Crawford has a criminal history but did not disclose specifics, according to The Daily Mail.
“I cannot even begin to imagine what her fiance, what her family, what her mom, what her brother, what her friends are going through right now, and I want to extend our heartfelt condolences to this family,” added the police chief.
Moore described Martinez, a Georgetown graduate, as “joyful and funny and loving and always there.”
“Wendy Karina Martinez was the light of our lives. Not only was she an avid runner, but she was a devout Christian, a wonderful friend, and a driven professional. Everything you hope that a daughter and a friend could be. She was also excited to be planning her upcoming wedding to her fiancé, Daniel Hincapie. They were engaged just last week,” said the family in a statement.
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