Martinez and a friend, Brenda Cisneros, left their homes in Laredo, Texas and went to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico on September 17, 2004 to attend a concert in celebration of Cisneros's birthday. They crossed the border at 11:11 p.m. and a relative saw them later at the concert. A friend of the women spoke to them by cellular phone at 4:00 a.m. on September 18; they said they were only a short distance from the border and would be back in Texas in a few minutes. Cisneros and Martinez never arrived home and have never been heard from again.

Martinez's stepfather went to Nuevo Laredo to search for the women because he did not feel the Mexican police were looking hard enough. He found Martinez's white 2001 Mitsubishi Galant at a tow yard run by the local police in the city on October 8. The rear bumper had paint on it and the car's stereo and battery were missing.

Investigators believe Martinez and Cisneros met with foul play in Mexico. The border area is rife with crime, much of it drug-related, and many American tourists have disappeared or been killed in border towns in the past several years. Few leads are available in Cisneros and Martinez's cases, however. They remain unsolved.

The Charley Project is profiling Cisneros and Martinez due to their American citizenship.