There was no sign of a 51-year-old California woman in 2019. Her sister said she had moved to Colorado for a “fresh start.”
Now, after six years, police have made a big breakthrough in the case by saying that she was killed by being choked in the back of a car and then cut up with an ax. Two suspects are now being charged.
Kimberly Bell, 51, was last seen living in the Denver metro area in July 2019.
In the following month, her sister reported her missing, Douglas County Sheriff Darren Weekly said at a press meeting on Tuesday.
9News claimed that Bell had moved from California to Colorado and was living with her sister in Franktown. However, she stopped showing up for work all of a sudden.
Police say that on July 22, 2019, Bell was driving her rental car while Javier “Alex” Martell, 30, and Jennifer Bremer, 38, were inside.
According to the police, Martell got “angry” with Bell and put his arm around her neck, pulling her from the driver’s seat into the back seat.
The sheriff’s office says he told Bremer to drive while he choked Bell to death.
After that, they are said to have driven around the Denver Metro area with Bell’s body in the back of the car.
Martell bought an ax at a Home Depot in Aurora, where the police said they stopped. They think he then used the ax to the victim’s body. 9News reports that the accused also used Bell’s credit card to buy gas.
The two are then accused of driving that night to a rural area close to Estes Park, where Martell is said to have cut up Bell’s body. He is then said to have put her body parts in trash bags and thrown them away in a dumpster at a veterinary clinic.
Bell’s body has never been found.
The two suspects were finally caught after witness statements showed that they were in the car with Bell on the day she was last seen living.
An charge from a grand jury that 9News got also said that Google’s location data showed where Bell was that day.
The victim’s Google account was also searched for things like “how to take a tracking system out of a Ford Focus,” “Home Depot near me,” and “does phone ping location if off,” according to the papers.
The complaint says that on July 27, 2019, five days after the alleged murder, police called Bremer and Martell at a hotel in Louisville, Colorado, and found Bell’s driver’s license in the room.
Briemer is charged with identity theft and criminal accessory to a crime, while Martell is charged with two counts of first-degree murder.
KTLA5 said that Martell is being held on $10 million bail. Bremer was just given a bond and let go.
If you know anything about what happened or knew Bell, Martell, or Bremer at the time, the sheriff’s office wants you to call the cold case unit at +(303)6607528.
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