New York Man Charged in 1999 Murder of 13-Year-Old Girl Found in Dumpster

A New York man has been arrested for the 1999 murder of a 13-year-old girl in the Bronx.

Joseph Martinez of New Rochelle was charged with the murder of Mineliz Soriano. On February 28th, 1999, Soriano’s body was found inside a dumpster behind a Hollywood Video Store on Bartow Avenue in Co-op City wrapped in a plastic bag. She’d been sexually assaulted and strangled to death. The discovery ended a desperate search by her family, who reported her missing when she failed to return home from school.

For years, detectives and Soriano’s family worked tirelessly to solve the murder of the seventh-grader. Finally, in 2011, the NYPD reopened the case, and new DNA evidence was tested. Specifically, familial DNA testing matched Martinez to a semen stain recovered from the girl’s sweatshirt. This was the first time that NYPD has used this technology to solve a crime within the city.

On Tuesday, the 39-year-old was charged with two counts of second-degree murder, both felony and intentional.

The victim’s aunt wants to ask Martinez why he killed the young girl, who has been missed tremendously over the last 22 years.

“He threw her in the garbage, in the dumpster like she was garbage. She wasn’t garbage. She was a human being,” Amelia Soriano told CBS2.

Martinez has denied the allegations.