Hernández and Martínez: The Monsters of Ecatepec
Written By: JASR
Edited By: Grave Reviews Staff
Juan Carlos Hernández and Patricia Martínez, active from 2012 to 2018, are known as the “Monsters of Ecatepec.”
After he and his wife Patricia Martínez were arrested, Hernández admitted to killing around 20 women. Hernández would dismember his victims and use flesh to make stew. He would also feed women’s body parts to his dogs. He claimed that he planned to kill 100 women. Hernández also claimed that witch doctors bought some of his victims’ bones.
Both Hernández and Martínez can distinguish between good and evil, making them legally responsible for their actions.
The Couple’s Past
Hernández was born in 1985 while Martínez was born in 1980. Reports say that Hernández’s mother would dress him up as a girl and bring men to her home. She would then force her son to witness her sexual encounters as she was working as a prostitute. According to Hernández, he also suffered sexual abuse by his female caretaker at the time.
Martínez, on the other hand, was manipulative. Sources say she was diagnosed with a border intelligence disorder associated with intellectual disability. She also claimed to have been physically and sexually abused since she was 6 years old.
The couple met when Martínez was working as a prostitute at a bar. They opened a business and sold clothing, cell phones, and perfume.
The Monsters’ Technique
According to state prosecutors, Hernández would immobilize his victims using martial-arts style joint-locking techniques. With a large knife, he would then cut them up. Some reports even say he would rape them before killing them.
Martínez’s job was to trick victims into coming to her home by telling them she was selling cheap clothes. She would also help her husband get rid of the bodies.
For some victims, Hernández would dismember them in the bathtub. They would cook their victims’ remains in steaks, carne asada, tamales, and chili and eat them.
In a video showing Hernández admitting to his crimes, he can be heard saying: “I prefer my little dogs eating meat from those women to them continuing to breathe my oxygen.”
“I don’t know if I’m going to get out of this one but I’ve already told the cops that if I’m freed I’m going to keep killing women,” Hernández added.
He said it’s because they sometimes don’t let him sleep, he feels hate for them, and he still has a need.
Some Notable Cases
The couple was found guilty of hiding the corpse of Nancy Noemi Huitrón. She disappeared in September 2018 with her 2-month-old daughter. Hernández and Martínez are believed to have sold the baby to a couple for £600. The child is now reportedly in local authority care.
According to Huitrón’s mother, Maria Eugenia Solorio, the couple acted in court “like nothing had happened, they are not hurting at all.”
More than this, they were also found guilty of hiding the corpse of 22-year-old Arlet Samantha Olguin.
They have been ordered to pay two fines of £10,000 as a form of compensation to the families of the victims.
The Arrest of the Monsters
During the years when they were active, several women and girls were going missing in Ecatepec, Mexico – an area that has the most femicides in the country.
The mothers of some of these missing women came together and tried to find them. They noticed that three of the missing women – Arlet Samantha Olguin, Evelyn Rojas Matus, and Nancy Noemí Huitrón – had Martínez’s number on their phone records.
The mothers realized the victims’ connection to the couple and took their suspicions to the police.
Police started to surveil Hernández and Martínez. They were arrested in October 2018 after being caught pushing a baby’s stroller full of human remains in the street.
When police searched their home, they found the remains of several female victims. Their refrigerator had human remains wrapped in plastic. The remains reportedly belonged to eight different women, but DNA tests would identify only four.
Police also searched a nearby vacant lot owned by the couple. They found eight large plastic buckets filled with concrete. They found human organs encased in the concrete.
After his arrest, Hernández told a doctor while in police custody, “I call your f***ing mother and she gives me her heart.”
A 2018 report by BBC says they are incarcerated in the Ecatepec Penitentiary and Social Reintegration Center – known in Mexico as the Chiconautla prison. The case is still on going. The couple is facing 60 years in prison if convicted.
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