Wife And Mother-In-Law Of Missing Man To Be Charged With Murder

Christina Martinez
Source: Lowndes County Sheriff’s Office

Manuel Vasquez
Source: Texas Air Masters

LOWNDES COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – The wife and mother-in-law of a missing Lowndes County man will be charged with murder.

Investigators say Christina Martinez and her mother, Lydia Martinez, are custody and will both be charged with murder.

Lowndes County deputies are waiting to get the women in front of a judge.

That will most likely be on Monday.

Human remains were found at Manuel Vasquez’s home on Wind Chase Drive in New Hope, where he lived with Christina and Lydia Martinez and the couple’s children.

Investigators have been at the couple’s home for most of the week.

Lowndes County Coroner Greg Merchant says human remains were found outside of the couple’s New Hope home.

He says the remains were put in a container and burned, then spread throughout the property.

Merchant believes the unidentified person was killed inside the home and two other crime scenes are outdoors.

He says it is unclear how long the remains had been on the property or when the person might have died.

Those remains have been taken to the crime lab in Jackson. DNA samples have been taken from family members.

There is no timetable when a positive identification can be made.

Family members say Vasquez was last seen on June 24th. That’s when he told loved ones he was going on a retreat at an unknown location with an unknown person, possibly with a large amount of money.

Lydia Martinez was found unresponsive by deputies when they arrived on Wednesday. She remains in the hospital but in custody.