Missing Girl's Mystery Ends In Murder

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Jessica Martinez was kidnapped and murdered in May 1990, and police are hopeful that DNA evidence will soon solve the case.

Police say it happened in a matter of minutes, and only a few yards away from where 4-year-old Jessica Martinez lived.

On May 10, 1990, Jessica was playing near the apartment where she lived with her mother and two brothers.  Sometime between 8:15 and 8:30 p.m., Jessica disappeared.  A massive search effort began within hours as the community of Bakersfield mobilized for the hunt.

Hundreds of people joined the effort to find Jessica and the Bakersfield police formed an official task force.  The community looked for the little girl with long brown hair and brown eyes, but came up empty-handed.

On May 20, 1990, AMW joined the search and broadcast a segment on Jessica.  Hours later, police got their first break in Jessica's case.

The Search For A Killer

Eleven days after Jessica Martinez went missing, a field worker on a tractor discovered her remains in a 56-acre cotton field nearly 15 miles away from home.

The community rallied to gather funds for the search for Jessica's killer. By July, the coroner's office had finished Jessica's autopsy and determined that she was strangled to death. It was unclear whether or not the little girl was molested.

In the years that followed, Bakersfield authorities chased down various leads but nothing seemed to be panning out. But in April 2008, officials with the Kern County District Attorney's Office claimed to have found male and female DNA on Jessica's clothing.

Cops begin looking at a convicted murderer, Christopher Lightsey, as a possible suspect. Lightsey was imprisoned for the murder of 76-year-old William Compton.

But authorities looked to Lightsey's past convictions for child molestation and fondling children at the school where he worked as possible precursors to the Martinez case.

Now, police and Jessica's family are waiting for Lightsey's DNA results to come back, but cops still need your help to solve Jessica's murder.

If you have any information on the Jessica Martinez case, please call our hotline at 1-800-CRIME-TV.