In the spring of 1992, a shadow fell over Salt Lake City with the disappearance of 16-year-old Hispanic female Lisa Martinez. On March 30, she and her 15-year-old friend, Tuesday Roberts, were walking towards the Valley Fair Mall when they vanished, leaving behind a community gripped by fear and questions that would linger for years. The two girls had seemingly vanished without a trace, and their families were left in a painful state of uncertainty.
The terrifying truth of what happened
to Lisa and her friend would not come to light until three years later, in July of 1995. The confession came from an inmate already serving a life sentence for other violent crimes, a man named Roberto Arguelles. While incarcerated, Arguelles began to boast to fellow inmates about killing young women in 1992. These boasts eventually reached the ears of investigators, who decided to interview him. During this interview, Arguelles confessed to the murders of both Lisa Martinez and Tuesday Roberts.
His confession painted a grim and brutal picture of the girls' final moments. He admitted to kidnapping them and taking them to his stepfather's pig farm. There, in a horrifying act of violence, he stabbed Lisa Martinez at least 43 times with a wood chisel. Her friend, Tuesday Roberts, was strangled with a rope. Arguelles then led authorities to the remote gravesites where he had buried their bodies, finally bringing an end to the agonizing search for the two teenagers.
Roberto Arguelles, who came to be known as "The Salt Lake City Strangler," was subsequently tried and convicted for the murders of Lisa Martinez, Tuesday Roberts, and two other victims, 42-year-old Margo Bond and 13-year-old Stephanie Blundell, all of whom he killed in a spree of violence in early 1992. He was sentenced to death for his crimes. However, before the sentence could be carried out, Roberto Arguelles died in Utah State Prison on November 15, 2003, from a bowel obstruction.
