Hector Manuel Garcia Gomez, a 46-year-old man from Palmerton, Carbon County, Pennsylvania, was fatally shot on December 7, 2024, in the parking lot of a business along MacArthur Road in Whitehall Township. The incident occurred around 6:03 p.m., and authorities responded to reports of gunfire at the location. Upon arrival, officers found Garcia Gomez suffering from multiple gunshot wounds to his torso.
He was transported to Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest, where he was pronounced dead at 7:43 p.m. The Lehigh County Coroner, Daniel A. Buglio, ruled the cause of death as gunshot wounds to the torso and classified the manner of death as homicide.
Investigators later determined that Garcia Gomez had been involved in an affair with a neighbor of Christian Martinez-Ramos, a 35-year-old man from Allentown. Martinez-Ramos, along with his partner, Liz Pacheco, a 37-year-old woman also from Allentown, were both charged in connection with the killing. Authorities allege that Martinez-Ramos and Pacheco conspired to commit homicide, with Pacheco facing additional charges of aggravated assault and conspiracy to commit aggravated assault.
Surveillance footage from the scene showed Garcia Gomez arriving at the store with his wife, Brenda Rodriguez, who remained in their vehicle while speaking on her phone with Pacheco. Garcia Gomez entered the store for a few minutes before exiting and attempting to get back into his car. At that moment, Martinez-Ramos' vehicle pulled into the parking lot and parked behind Garcia Gomez's car. Multiple gunshots were fired from inside the suspect vehicle, striking Garcia Gomez. The suspect vehicle fled the scene, but authorities were able to track it using a license plate reader, which linked it to another vehicle owned by Martinez-Ramos.
Pacheco was arrested and arraigned on December 20, 2024, and is currently being held in Lehigh County Prison without bail. Her preliminary hearing was scheduled for December 26. The investigation into the homicide was conducted by the Whitehall Township Police Department, the Lehigh County Homicide Task Force, and the Lehigh County District Attorney’s Office.
