After more than two decades, detectives are now charging a 71-year-old man, the victim's former neighbor, with capital murder.
After nearly 26 years and almost giving up hope, Jaqueline Anderson's family is finally getting some closure and answers into the widow's brutal murder.
"I thought I'd go to my grave believing I'd never see an arrest," said Tony Davis, Anderson's grandson.
Davis stood with cold case detectives as they announced the arrest of Roman Martinez, 71. Martinez was Anderson's neighbor and a man who detectives say the 68-year-old woman never knew was a recent parolee back then.
Sgt. Eric Clegg with the Harris County Sheriff's Office's cold case unit said, "She made the unfortunate error of hiring him to change the locks out on her home."
Investigators say the problem came when Anderson walked in on Martinez as the man was burglarizing her north Harris County home.
"On November 11, 1987 at about 7pm, she was found in a bedroom, hog tied with a rope around her feet, around her neck," Sgt. Clegg said. "She was strangled."
After reopening the case last year, detectives say evidence led them to back to Martinez, who they say recently admitted to Anderson's murder and burglary. The 71-year-old is now facing capital murder charges.
"Just throw him in a wood chipper," Davis said. "It's just going to feel good to have it behind me."
Martinez has a lengthy criminal history that extends back to the 1950s. This record of convictions includes numerous burglaries, thefts, drug possession, aggravated robbery and rape by force. Martinez is currently a registered sex offender out of El Paso and on parole for a Harris County burglary until 2029.
Martinez is already in custody a state parole violator facility in downtown Houston and could spend the rest of his life in prison if convicted on this murder charge.
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