Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Four-Decade-Old Pair Of Murders On Central Coast Solved With DNA Evidence

Authorities say they’ve used DNA evidence to identify a suspect in a pair of four decade old murders on the Central Coast. Jane Morton Antunez was murdered in 1977, and Patricia Dwyer in 1978. Both women were Atascadero residents who had been sexually assaulted, and brutally murdered.

The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office Cold Case unit reopened the unsolved cases in 2017. Using DNA evidence, the Department of Justice found a near match with someone now in prison. Investigators then discovered that the inmate had a relative living in Atascadero at the time of the killings, Arthur Rudy Martinez.

Martinez is dead, but investigators say they found enough evidence to confirm he was the killer. He had been convicted of other crimes, and was sentenced to life in prison in Washington State in 1978.

He escaped from prison in 1994, but turned himself in 20 years later when he found out he had terminal cancer. He died in 2014.

Lance Orozco has been News Director of KCLU since 2001, providing award-winning coverage of some of the biggest news events in the region, including the Thomas and Woolsey brush fires, the deadly Montecito debris flow, the Borderline Bar and Grill attack, and Ronald Reagan's funeral. 
Related Stories