Report: Phoenix officer saw prostitute hours before her body found in suitcase
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — A 51-page Phoenix Police internal report has uncovered an unusual connection between two True Crime Arizona stories covered over the past three years.
A now-former Phoenix Police officer, Michael Martinez, was arrested for soliciting prostitutes in 2022. Jennifer Beede’s body was found inside a suitcase in the desert north of Phoenix.
The newly obtained internal report shows Martinez was one of the last people to see Beede, a prostitute, before she was killed.
According to investigators, on Sept. 16, 2022, Martinez asked a woman for sexual favors on his personal phone while on duty at the South Mountain precinct. The international investigation report said that the sex worker was Beede.
The two met up at Hampton Inn on 44th Street near the Loop 202 Red Mountain freeway later that day for sex acts after he finished his shift, police said. The report said that less than 24 hours later, Beede was found inside a suitcase on a trail near Ashler Hills Drive and 40th Street. She was shot in the head.
Martinez resigned after his arrest in October 2022 and was not suspected or charged in Beede’s death.
According to the internal report, Beede had a handler named Crystal Hulsey, who Martinez communicated with to negotiate a price for Beede’s services. The documents revealed it was Hulsey and her boyfriend Jose Jaquez who are facing murder charges for Beede’s death.
The new information shows that on the day Beede’s body was found in the suitcase, Hulsey and Jaquez robbed another man they met on Tinder and took that victim’s car.
Las Vegas police officers tried to pull them over, but the two fled. In doing so, they abandoned a silver handgun. Documents show the silver handgun matched a casing left at Beede’s homicide crime scene.
Security camera footage from the Hampton Inn hotel showed that less than two hours after Martinez’s encounter with Beede, Hulsey and Jaquez were seen on camera pulling a heavy suitcase down the hall toward their car. That suitcase matched the size, color, and manufacturer as the one Beede’s body was found in.
Hulsey and Jaquez eventually led police on a pursuit all over Arizona. They were only caught once they crashed into another car in Payson.
The two are facing first-degree murder charges and the state plans to seek the death penalty against them if they’re convicted. As of now, their trial is slated for summer 2026.
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