The Horrendous Murder of Yadhira Romero Martinez
Thursday April 22nd, 2021 was like any other normal day for 19 year old Yadhira Romero Martinez. Yadhira got ready for work that morning in Bloomington, Minnesota the 5th largest city in Minnesota. With a population of about 85,000 people the city is known for being the home of large headquarters like Dairy Queen, Best Buy, and HeathPartners. Many people come to the city for jobs because they’ve got the most per capita in the state. Bloomington is a city of dreams, which you wouldn’t usually think in the state of Minnesota. With the Mall of America and Nickelodeon Universe located there there along with a litany of museums, it’s one of those places you’d go to visit on vacation with family and actually really enjoy yourself. Yadhira was born in Mexico and spent most of her life there, she left and moved to the states a couple years prior, settling in Bloomington, with her brother. She got a job quickly and when she wasn’t working she spent time with her family. Yadhira was known for being sweet, she was bright and outgoing standing less than 5’5’’ with large brown eyes and shoulder length hair, she was slender and was often pictured with a simple smile on her face. She favors my best friend Kathleen when we were younger. The kind of aura that just feels warm.
After saying goodbye to her family that morning and heading to work, she was expected home shortly that after 4:00. Her cousin Jenny recalls not hearing from Yadhira that evening and her family became concerned. Hours went by and there wasn’t a call or text from Yadhira, the very next morning, Friday April 23rd the family filed a police report for a missing person.
Bloomington Police Department started at Yadhira’s job, where it was confirmed she was in attendance, investigates viewed the surveillance video showing Yadhira had in fact left her job around 4:00pm. Yadhira was seen getting into the passenger seat of a vehicle with the Minnesota License plate 504XLJ. The initial belief was that the car belonged to a ride sharing app, maybe Lyft or Uber. However, that was quickly ruled out. The car belonged to 23 year old Jose Cuenca-Zuniga.
How Yadhira and Jose met has not been disclosed, but investigators did not see signs of a struggle when Yadhira entered the passenger seat, but that does not rule out coercion or threats being made to get Yadhira into the car. The two drove to 3000 block of 18th avenue south in Bloomington where Jose was renting a room in a shared house with another tenant.
The same day that Yadhira’s family filed the report the landlord of this house called the police asking them to come, and do a wellness check on a young woman was in her home. That woman would be identified as 19 year old Yadhira Martinez.
According to the landlord Jose and Yadhira had arrived that evening of the 22nd at around 6:00pm. Early the next morning at around of 7:30am Cuenca-Zuniga was seen packing a bag of food and clothes with the door slightly opened, when the landlord walked by and inquired about the young woman’s feet hanging off the mattress. Jose explained that she had to much to drink and needed to sleep it off. At around 9:27am Jose left, locking the door behind him. He was also seen on surveillance again at 10:18am. This didn’t sit right with the landlord, she felt that something was off and recorded Jose leaving on her phone making sure to get the license plate on camera. At around 12:30pm the landlord knocked on the door to check on the young woman and when no one answered, the police were called.
The Minneapolis Fire Department immediately came to the scene. After knocking a couple more times, fire fighters broken down the locked door and found Yadhira Martinez dead. She had a plastic bag lying across her forehead and was wearing only a T-Shirt. Her face and neck were bruised and there appeared to be handprints outlined in blood on her thighs. An autopsy done by the Hennepin County Medical Examiner determined Yadhira’s death was a homicide, she died of multiple traumatic injuries and investigators found an object in the room that could have been used as the murder weapon.
Police expedited the search for Cuenca-Zuniga. With his phone being tracked It did not take long to find him, he was located in Ohio where state troopers pulled him over. Jose Cuenca- Zuniga was charged with intentional second-degree murder and is being held on a 75,000 bond and has been extradited to Minnesota. The question is what would make a person do something so sick? It isn’t clear as yet whether Yadhira left willingly or was coerced but what we do know about Jose is that, this wasn’t his first offence and his violence was building. In his first court appearance Jose Daniel Cuenca Zuniga said he wanted to return to his home country, despite his attorneys advising him to be quiet, he continued to protest as the judge set the bail. “I didn’t have anything to do with this issue, and this is unfair to me” Cuenca – Zuniga whined.
The 23 year old had been in Minnesota for years. He attended Bloomington Kennedy High School where he went by Danny. Jennifer Ortiz was the mother of a young girl names Mya who also attended school with Cuenca-Zuniga. Jose who at the time was known as Danny, would harass Mya relentlessly. Jennifer recalls Mya describing the nightmare-reality of Danny. She would block him on social media but he made multiple accounts and would contact her, he would corner her in the hallways at school. The final straw was in the summer when Mya received a snapchat from Cuenta-Zuniga outside of her workplace. Jennifer said the family feared for Mya’s safety and called the police. Simultaneously another woman in Elk River called the police crying after an incident with Jose. In September 2017 a young 25 year old woman (who will remain anonymous) had enough of being stalked by Jose who was going by Danny at the time. She told police they worked together and she had seen him outside of work 3 or 4 times. This was more so in a public social setting and the woman was adamant that she did not have any romantic connections with him. When Jose/Danny found out that the young woman had gone on a date with her ex-boyfriend to a baseball game he became infuriated. He sent her several text messages and video. The message states he was going to kill her by shooting her with a gun, his video followed with him holding the gun. Elks River Police charged him with a felony-level charge of Threats of Violence, he pleaded guilty to an amended charge of Obscene/harassing phone calls and spent 3 days in jail. The Ortiz family filed a police report three years later in July 2020 concerned the harassment of Mya. They had trouble finding Jose only reaching him by phone July 7, 2020. He was advised to stop stalking Mya, and less than a year later, Yadhira Martinez was murdered.
Yadhira’s story grew traction on TikTok and Twitter with #justiceforYadhira to get the case more coverage. Her vigil was held the Saturday after her body was discovered and hundreds came to mourn the loss of an innocent sweet young girl. Her family has started two GoFundMe accounts to fly her back to Mexico where she can be buried by her parents. The last time they saw her was January 2021 just shy of her 19th birthday.
The case has not been set to go to trial, but will be soon. Jose Cuenca-Zuniga is incarcerated where he will stay likely for the rest of his life. Justice for Yadhira still remains, her story deserves to be told and heard. She was a beautiful soft soul and brought happiness to her family and all those who encountered her. As the story continues to unfold we are reminded to keep Yadhira in the light that she carried.
Go Fund Me:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/get-yadhi-home?utm_campaign=p_cf%20share-flow-1&utm_medium=sms&utm_source=customer&fbclid=IwAR3G-w6dWZfHwHQnMgUKxKVBvPaxDIbFKMwNrPnzHh3ZDUuQvOU_RwsvcgI
Link Sources:
https://www.fox9.com/news/minneapolis-man-charged-with-murder-in-yadhira-romero-martinezs-death
https://www.kare11.com/article/news/local/minneapolis-man-charged-with-murder-19-year-old-woman/89-2b9780da-a14b-4319-821d-6f97f5bf58c4
https://www.kare11.com/article/news/local/family-of-19-year-old-yadhira-romero-martinez-speak-out-after-man-charged-in-her-death/89-5565de2b-1428-47da-bea3-f484249d1a95
https://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2021/04/28/jose-daniel-cuenca-zuniga-charged-in-death-of-19-year-old-yadhira-romero-martinez/
https://www.kare11.com/article/news/crime/suspect-in-murder-of-yadhira-romero-martinez-appears-in-court/89-7db15a53-2876-4161-82ad-926b1d9dc98c
https://www.kare11.com/article/news/crime/yadhira-romero-martinez-murder-suspect-history-of-instilling-fear-in-young-woman/89-8cc20dda-1a56-4499-a231-6c55de0ba77c
https://people.com/crime/hundreds-gather-vigil-minnesota-woman-slain/
https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueCrime/comments/myn1iv/the_yadhira_romero_martinez_case/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Of9waRu7HE
