Evil mum did nothing as daughter was raped and killed on her 10th birthday
WARNING: DISTRESSING CONTENT The shocking death of Victoria Martens sent shock waves around the local community when it was revealed that the little girl had been subjected to appalling abuse – watched by her own mother
Victoria Martens suffered unthinkable abuse in the led-up to her death(Image: YouTube)
A young girl was drugged, raped, killed and dismembered on her 10th birthday, with her body then set alight. It was a truly horrific crime and little Victoria Martens had endured terrifying abuse at the hands of her mother in the days leading up to her death.
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Her tragic story became public when police responded to an emergency call about a domestic dispute. What followed sent shock waves through the community. At approximately 4:30am on August 24, Victoria’s mother Michelle Martens, 35, and her boyfriend Fabian Gonzales, 31, left their apartment and told neighbours that Gonzales’s cousin Jessica Kelley, also 31, had attacked them with an iron.
Police were called and upon entering the second-story apartment they saw smoke coming from behind the closed bathroom door. Inside, officers discovered Victoria’s dismembered body partially wrapped in a burning blanket.
Article continues belowREAD MORE: Evil babysitter who killed toddler by throwing him against wall learns her fateREAD MORE: Elizabeth Smart kidnapper grins in creepy new mugshot after sex-offender arrest
Michelle Martens, 35, her boyfriend Fabian Gonzales, 31, and Gonzales’s cousin Jessica Kelley, 31, were arrested at the scene(Image: YouTube)
She was then pronounced dead at the scene. An autopsy revealed she had been sexually assaulted, strangled to death, then stabbed, and dismembered, with her little body then set on fire. Martens, Gonzales and Kelley were arrested at the scene.
In subsequent police interviews, Martens said she watched Gonzales and Kelley sexually assault Victoria at least three times in the days leading up to her killing. She said she believed Gonzales had been sexually assaulting Victoria for a month before her death, while she was at work.
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“I let them do it,” Martens said, before she admitted to enjoying watching men have sex with her daughter. According to previous reports, Martens allegedly confessed she had previously sought men out for just this purpose, via People.
On the day of her daughter’s death, Martens claimed she saw Gonzales and Kelley give alcohol and meth to Victoria so they could rape her, saying, “It calms her down.” She went on to recanted this statement, and later reports suggested that drugs were not found in the little girl’s system.READ MORE: Monster mum left her daughter in ‘skeletal state’ after starving her for months
Little Victoria was killed on her 10th birthday(Image: YouTube)
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She then admitted to watching the pair rape Victoria, claiming that she begged for them to stop. She told police she saw Kelley stab her daughter, at which point Kelley and Gonzales began cutting Victoria’s arms, according to official documents.
Martens said she had sex with Gonzales 20 minutes after Victoria was raped and killed. Then they began to clean up the home and make dinner. She said all of this happened before 5pm, some 12 hours before she ran to her neighbour’s home asking for help.
At one point she told police, of the rape, “I should have stopped it.” Investigators determined that little Victoria died between 7:45pm and 8:30pm on August 23 – her 10th birthday.
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When police interviewed Gonzales he, like Martens, painted himself as the victim of an attack by Kelley. But he later claimed he witnessed the crime and blamed Kelley for killing and sexually assaulting Victoria.READ MORE: Boy, 12, spent final moments vomiting in pain as ‘mums watched him die on camera’
Michelle Martens was released in October 2025(Image: YouTube)
Martens was charged with kidnapping and child abuse resulting in death while Gonzales faced the same charges as well as child rape. Kelley was charged with kidnapping, child abuse resulting in death and child rape.
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On June 29, 2018, it was announced that Michelle Martens had accepted a plea bargain to one count of child abuse resulting in death. In 2022, she was sentenced to 12 years in prison for her role in her daughter’s death, with six of those years already served. She was released in October 2025.
Fabian Gonzales is serving a 37.5-year sentence, and Jessica Kelley is serving a 44-year sentence for their roles in the killing.
Las Vegas babysitter commits most evil act imaginable while caring for three year-old toddler, police say
Published: 20:45 GMT, 27 March 2025 | Updated: 22:12 GMT, 27 March 2025
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A Nevada babysitter has been arrested for committing the most unspeakable act of cruelty, allegedly stabbing a three-year-old toddler to death, police say.
Police officers responded to the Villa Del Sol apartment complex in Las Vegas Wednesday morning, where they tragically discovered three-year-old Journei Ross suffering from multiple stab wounds, resulting in her death, according to 3 News.
Marketta Phillips, 41, was apprehended shortly after the discovery and booked into Clark County Detention Center on charges of murder with a deadly weapon, according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
‘She didn’t deserve this,’ Jeremy Ross, Journei’s father, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. ‘She was defenseless. She deserved to live.’
At around 3.30am early Wednesday morning, Jeremy returned home from work and noticed Marketta acting ‘out of it,’ according to the outlet.
It wasn’t until he entered another room that he discovered bloody knives with his daughter lying on the bed, realizing something horrific had happened.
Jeremy frantically called 911 while giving CPR and chest compressions, informing dispatchers that his daughter had been stabbed by her babysitter in the 4200 block of Channel 10 Drive.
When authorities arrived to the scene, they found Jeremy inside the apartment along with baby Journei, who was suffering from several stab wounds. Marketta, Jeremy said, ran away from the home on foot.
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Marketta Phillips, 41 (PICTURED), was taken into custody after allegedly stabbing Journei Ross to death, a three-year-old girl she was babysitting inside a home in the Villa Del Sol apartment complex in Las Vegas, Nevada
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Journei Ross, 3 (PICTURED), was discovered on a bed in the apartment complex at around 3.30am Wednesday morning, suffering from multiple stab wounds
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Jeremy Ross, Journei’s father, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he returned back to his apartment from work to Marketta acting ‘out of it’ before he discovered his daughter and bloody knives in another room (PICTURED: Villa Del Sol apartment complex)
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Journei was rushed to Sunrise Hospital after officers attempted to administer medical aid at the scene, where she was later pronounced dead while in the hospital’s care.
Police began canvassing the area around the apartment complex and soon found Marketta, who was taken into custody without incident, according to Metro Homicide Lt. Robert Price.
Phalan Whitson, Journei’s mother who shared custody with Jeremy, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that her daughter, whom she had last seen Monday morning, was ‘on the spectrum’ and non-verbal.
However, Phalan explained, their three-year-old daughter communicated through music and sign language.
‘Why is this world so evil?’ Phalan told the outlet. ‘She needs to be put away.’
Though the relationship between Marketta and the family was initially unclear, Jeremy explained how he had an on-again, off-again romantic relationship with her.
‘She watched Journei numerous times,’ Jeremy told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. ‘I didn’t know she was a crazy nut case.’
This isn’t the first time Marketta has had an incident inside the home. Just last week, officers responded to a mental health crisis at the same unit, FOX 5 Vegas reported.
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Jeremy frantically called 911 while giving CPR and chest compressions, informing dispatchers that his daughter had been stabbed by her babysitter and that she ran away on foot (PICTURED: Journei)
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Several neighbors told reporters that they had heard commotion that morning, specifically yelling and arguing coming from a terrace area between the apartment complex buildings
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Police began canvassing the area around the apartment complex and soon found Marketta, who was taken into custody without incident, according to Homicide Lt. Robert Price (PICTURED)
The recent visit resulted in Marketta being placed on a ‘Legal 2000,’ or a 72-hour involuntary mental health crisis hold utilized for those determined to be a danger to themselves or others.
Despite the troubling incident, Marketta was still left to care for the child the following week.
She made her first court appearance on Thursday morning, where Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Suzan Baucum ordered Marketta to be held without bail, citing probable cause for the arrest, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Neighbors were left in complete shock upon learning what had happened, struggling to understand how such a tragedy could unfold right under their own noses.
‘It’s very sad for a child to endure that,’ neighbor Anthony Dominguez told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. ‘This should never happen to a child.’
As they reflected on the events from that morning, a few recalled strange things they had witnessed – things they deemed unimportant at the time.
Dominguez, a neighbor who was walking his dog around the complex at around 9am, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he heard commotion early that morning.
Specifically, he heard a man and a woman loudly screaming and clearly arguing, a noise his dog had first alerted him to.
Dominguez explained that the area can be noisy at times, and since he was tired, he didn’t give much thought to the nearby argument at first.
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Though the relationship between Marketta and the family was initially unclear, Jeremy (PICTURED) explained how he had an on-again, off-again romantic relationship with her
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Just last week, officers responded to a mental health crisis at the same unit where they placed Marketta on a ‘Legal 2000,’ or a 72-hour involuntary mental health crisis hold utilized for those determined to be a danger to themselves or others
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On Wednesday, Clark County Sheriff Sheriff Kevin McMahill was asked about the brutal killing, in which he responded that his officers described Jeremy coming home to ‘a babysitter covered in blood’ (PICTURED: Jeremy and Journei)
‘After a while, I started feeling this bad energy,’ he told the outlet.
Jessica Flores, from a neighboring building, was heartbroken as she watched investigators enter unit 79 and cordon off the home with bright yellow police tape.
She explained that she woke up to the sound of a dog barking loudly from another apartment.
Similar to Dominguez, Flores told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that she too had heard a man and a woman yelling between the apartments, particularly in the terrace area.
‘It’s shocking,’ she told the outlet, noting how she had not known the people who lived in the apartment.
‘At first, I thought it was just a domestic dispute that would blow over,’ she added. ‘I never imagined something like this.’
On Wednesday, Clark County Sheriff Sheriff Kevin McMahill was asked about the brutal killing, in which he responded that his officers described Jeremy coming home to ‘a babysitter covered in blood,’ the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.
‘Talk about a horrendous scene,’ he said.
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Journei was rushed to Sunrise Hospital after officers attempted to administer medical aid at the scene, where she was later pronounced dead while in the hospital’s care
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Journei’s mother told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that her daughter communicated through music and sign language, as she was ‘on the spectrum’ and non-verbal
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Marketta made her first court appearance on Thursday morning, where Las Vegas Justice of the Peace Suzan Baucum ordered Marketta to be held without bail, citing probable cause for the arrest as an investigation into the killing remains ongoing
Lt. Price told reporters that Marketta is the sole suspect in the horrific murder.
According to Price, it appeared the suspect also lived in the home, though that detail remains unconfirmed.
An investigation into the senseless killing is still ongoing.
‘There’s no threat to the public,’ Price said. ‘This is an isolated incident. It’s just a very tragic and unfortunate incident.’
