On a November day in 1988, the community of Glendale, Arizona, was rocked by a grim discovery that would unravel a cross-country crime spree. White / Caucasian male David Richard Uhl, 42, and Teresa Marie Dempster, 27, were found fatally shot inside a car parked at a shopping center on November 8th. The initial investigation into what appeared to be a targeted attack soon pointed to a pair of suspects who had already fled the state, leaving a trail of violence in their wake.
The
investigation took a significant turn in January 1989 when authorities in Fort Lee, New Jersey, arrested John Martini, 58, and Teresa Afdhal, 29, both from Glendale. Their capture was not for the Arizona murders but for the kidnapping and murder of a 58-year-old New Jersey resident named Irving Flax. During the course of that investigation, it was discovered that Martini was already wanted on first-degree murder charges for the deaths of Uhl and Dempster back in Arizona.
The connection between the two cases painted a dark picture of the suspects' activities. While the motive in the Arizona slayings was not immediately clear, their crimes in New Jersey were for financial gain. Martini confessed to kidnapping Flax for ransom and then shooting him in the back of the head after receiving $25,000. Afdhal admitted that the kidnapping was intended to fund their travels across the country. Following their arrest in New Jersey, Martini was held without bail as a fugitive from Arizona, with an additional $1 million bail set for the charges he faced on the East Coast.
