Carly Martinez and the Plastic Bag Fingerprint | The New Detectives | S9 E2

An 18-year-old vanishes in Las Cruces while a serial trucker prowls I-81. Forensics turn burned scraps and a plastic bag print into names, arrests, and justice. In January 1998, 18-year-old college freshman Carly Martinez disappeared after a night of roller skating with Jesse Avalos and Jason Desnoyers in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Conflicting stories quickly raised alarms. Luminol lit up the bench seat of Desnoyers' truck, and a large reddish-brown stain confirmed human blood despite an obviously scrubbed interior. An informant led detectives to a military-style jacket hidden in rolled carpet; testing found blood. A search of Avalos' apartment uncovered a shower curtain with blood on both sides. DNA tied the jacket and curtain to three people: Carly, Avalos, and Desnoyers. Guided by Avalos into the desert, investigators found a burn site with zippers, eyeglass parts, a lipstick and compact, and Carly's dorm keys. Desnoyers was arrested near San Diego. After a massive grid search, rescuers located Carly's body 67 days later. Autopsy findings revealed sexual assault, 27 stab wounds, a knife tip embedded in the skull, and patterned injuries consistent with needle-nosed pliers. Both Avalos and Desnoyers were convicted and received life sentences. Three years earlier along Interstate 81, 45-year-old Wanda Jean Turner was found strangled and run over on a rural roadway, a plastic grocery bag near her head and tractor-trailer tire tracks leading away. Within weeks, Cindy Barkley in North Carolina and Tina Madsen in Tennessee were discovered in nearly identical conditions. With scant clues, the Virginia State Crime Lab in Roanoke developed a latent fingerprint from the plastic bag using cyanoacrylate fuming. The print matched an Arkansas record belonging to long-haul driver Sean Goble of North Carolina, who drove a truck with a Peterbilt engine. Investigators recovered victims' belongings from his truck and home; confronted with the evidence, Goble confessed to three murders and received three consecutive life sentences. #TheNewDetectives #CarlyMartinez #SeanGoble #ForensicScience #TrueCrime #LasCruces #I81 #ColdCaseSolved