Othello man jailed after a mother and daughter’s bodies were found dismembered in a car

Five days after the bodies of an Othello woman and her adult daughter were found inside an abandoned car, prosecutors have filed formal charges against the 28-year-old suspect.

Mauricio Nava-Garibay was charged Tuesday with first-degree murder with premeditated intent and second-degree murder.

He has been locked up since Thursday night.

The Othello man allegedly admitted killing his girlfriend and her daughter in a case that has shocked the rural town of 8,000 and made headlines nationwide.

Nava-Garibay went into graphic detail for Adams County detectives on how he beat, stabbed and strangled the women, then cut up their bodies because he was unable to lift them into the car by himself, court documents said.

The crime was discovered 10 hours later when a sheriff’s deputy responded to a 911 call about a suspicious car parked in a dirt alley in the Eastern Washington town. The Honda Accord was found with blood, flesh and hair smeared along the driver’s side, from front to back, documents said.

Sheriff’s officials said they couldn’t tell by looking through the Honda’s windows if the mutilated remains in the back seat and on the floorboards were human or animal.

However, they knew they had at least one female victim once they opened the back doors and saw brown, curly hair and painted fingernails.

Investigators with the Washington State Patrol’s crime lab response team later discovered there was a second victim when they opened the Honda’s trunk.

Nava-Garibay’s bail is set at $1 million. He also has an immigration hold.

“Mauricio Nava-Garibay is a citizen and national of Mexico who is in the United States illegally,” said spokeswoman Tanya Roman for Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s Northwest Region.

Online records show Timothy Trageser of Spokane is representing Nava-Garibay. The lawyer could not be reached Tuesday for comment on the allegations.

Court documents

No motive has been revealed for the killings, other than Nava-Garibay’s claim that Dora Elia Martinez hit him on the face while the two were arguing at her East Cypress Street home at 9 p.m. Jan. 27.

Nava-Garibay and Dora Martinez, 57, reportedly were dating.

Her daughter, Guadalupe “Lupe” Martinez, 30, has been identified as the second victim. She was described by sheriff’s officials as being autistic with “the mental capacity of a 5- or 6-year-old.”

Nava-Garibay recounted the killings for detectives during a lengthy, recorded interview.

He claimed that about five minutes after the fight turned physical between the couple, Nava-Garibay went into the garage and asked Dora Martinez to go with him. He said he had a gift for her and told her to get inside the car.

Nava-Garibay then got into the backseat with her and proceeded to stab his girlfriend in the neck with a knife, punch her in the face and stab her many times in the torso. Then he strangled her using his belt and an extension cord, court documents said.

When Guadalupe came into the garage, Nava-Garibay pushed her from behind so she hit the side of the car before turning around and falling on her back onto the concrete garage floor.

Nava-Garibay claims that blood started coming from the daughter’s head after she hit the floor. He said he then cut the back of her neck, and told detectives that either the fall or the cut wound caused her to die, documents said.

Nava-Garibay said he dismembered the bodies because they were too heavy to lift alone into the Honda.

He allegedly drove Dora Martinez’s car to West Charla Road, locked up the Honda and walked away. He went back to the Cypress Street home.

Deputies responded to Charla Road the next morning after getting a report of a suspicious car parked off the roadway.

A white cloth with “vomito 13” in red lettering covered one large body part on the passenger side floorboard.

Undersheriff Adolfo Coronado used a lock-out kit at 7:55 a.m. Jan. 28 to get inside the Honda so they could know what they were dealing with. They knew immediately when one body part that apparently had been wedged against the door fell out onto the ground, documents said.

Since Dora Martinez was the registered owned of the Honda, they went to her Cypress Street home but she was not there. The home was secured with evidence tape and deputies stood guard, especially after a detective identified a spot of blood on the driveway.

Investigators got a search warrant for the Honda and home, and the state patrol crime team responded to process the two scenes.

Sheriff’s investigators later located surveillance video showing Nava-Garibay leaving the area.

Nava-Garibay was arrested at 2:58 p.m. Thursday after he arrived at a Cobblestone Avenue home that was being watched by a sheriff’s sergeant, court documents said.

Detectives recovered the knife and blood-stained clothing and other objects from a trash can on West Bench Road. Nava-Garibay admitted to ditching the items at some point after the killings.

Following his hours-long interview, the clothes he was wearing also were collected by detectives. He had on a tank top covered in blood, and he confirmed he’d been wearing it the night before, documents said.

This story was originally published February 2, 2021 at 2:19 PM.