Loved ones celebrate slain FAU grad’s life
Wendy Martinez, killed last week, was pursuing D.C. dreams, mom says.
WELLINGTON — When Wendy Martinez was 5 years old, her parents fled Nicaragua as Sandinista revolutionaries prepared to overthrow the government.
The family relocated to the U.S. and eventually to Greenacres, a place Cora and Juan Carlos Martinez Sr. believed gave their young daughter a “better way to live life.”
Wendy Martinez made good on her parents’ bold move, becoming a standout student at Lake Worth High and Florida Atlantic University before embarking on a professional career that included stints at the Nicaraguan Embassy and the Organization of American States in Washington, D.C.
“We wanted her to have a future and to reach her dreams,” Cora Martinez said. “She understood that at a very young age. She told me it’s what drove her.”
Hundreds of mourners Tuesday attended a “celebration of life” at Christ Fellowship in Royal Palm Beach for Wendy Martinez, who was stabbed to death a week ago while on a training run near her home in Washington.
Cora Martinez said she spoke to her daughter by phone less than an hour before she was attacked on Sept. 18 in the capital city’s
trendy Logan Circle neighborhood.
Wendy, 35, an avid runner who was aiming to qualify for next year’s Boston Marathon, excused herself to go on her daily run.
“We’ll talk later,” Martinez she told her mother.
Just before 8 p.m., police say, 2 3-year- old Anthony Crawford, a man with a history of mental illness who may have been high on a synthetic drug, attacked Martinez without provocation and stabbed her seven times. She died in a hospital about 30 minutes after the assault.
Tuesday ’s ceremony in Royal Palm Beach followed a memorial service Saturday in Washington, where Martinez lived for about the past 10 years.
“This is going to be harder t han Washing ton, D.C . , ” Cora Martinez said before Tuesday’s service. “This is where she was raised, where she went to school. This is home.”
In some respects, Martinez was the embodiment of the classic American Dream. Despite not speaking a word of English, she soon became a standout student after emigrating.
As a senior at Lake Worth High, Martinez was named a winner of the Palm Beach Post’s Pathfinder, earning fifirst place in the technical-vocational- agricultural category. She was also student council president, played varsity tennis and was a cheerleader.
“I’m not surprised she became such an accomplished young woman ,” said Do tty Fletcher, a former Spanish teacher at Lake Worth High. “She was so involved and so dedicated. She was committed to making a di ff ff ff ff ff ff er en ce .”
Martinez graduated in 2006 from FAU’s Harriet L. Wilkes Honors College with a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts and sciences and served a six-week internship working for then- U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Miami.
After graduating with a master’s degree from Georgetown University, Martinez worked at the Nicaraguan Embassy and the Organization of American States. She had been employed as chief of staff for a Washington, D.C.-based technology company for the past two years.
“Her drive for excellence took her to Capitol Hill,” her mother said. “She was a person that believed in herself, that thought she could accomplish things.”
For Martinez, things were going as well personally as they were professionally.
About a week before her death, she accepted a marriage proposal from her fifiancé, Daniel Hincapie.
The pair met two years ago after a mutual friend told Martinez of Hincapie’s desire to begin competitive running.
Martinez printed out a list of tips for Hincapie — make sure to hydrate, wear a hat — and the two became quick friends. That turned to love after they competed in a half-marathon and Hincapie, who said he was slow compared to his fifiancée, found Martinez waiting for him at the fifinish line.
Martinez was only 5 feet 1 and 106 pounds, but Hincapie said she “represented the power of women.”
“She was a runner, she was a successful executive, she was striving to be on top,” Hincapie said. “Wendy was an amazing woman. She was driven by excellence.”
Hincapie said Martinez had “just missed” earning a qualifying time for this year’s Boston Marathon and was intent on making it next year.
Part of Martinez’s regimen was an after-work run that included Logan Circle, a gentrifified, residential neighborhood in the northwest section of Washington with expensive Victorian homes and upscale restaurants but little violent crime.
Crawford was picked up at a park about a mile away from the stabbing the day after the killing. He was formally arrested Sept. 19 on a charge of fifirst- degree murder while armed and is being held at least until an Oct. 11 hearing.
At a news conference the day after Martinez’s death, her family members — who say they are anchored by their strong Christian faith — announced they had forgiven Crawford.
Juan Carlos Martinez Jr., Wendy’s 29-year-old brother, said Tuesday that he and Wendy’s family still felt the same way.
“There’s an overwhelming sense of her around me, telling me, ‘Just don’t be mad,’” he said. “You can be angry, but there’s no room for hate.”