Gail Martinez, 23, female, Hispanic, had just come home to 4640 W. Ellsworth Avenue in West Denver on the evening of March 27, 1981, when her mother greeted her at the door. She sat down at the dining room table; moments later a single bullet tore through a nearby window from outside, striking her in the torso. She was rushed to a local hospital and died a few hours later, in the early hours of March 28, 1981.
She was engaged, with a wedding planned for November 1981, and worked as a supervisor for Master-Clean.
Detectives determined the shot came from outside the home, through glass, while Gail was seated at the table, suggesting an assailant who fired without entering the residence. Public records do not indicate a motive, and no contemporaneous account points to a preceding dispute or burglary inside the house that night. The Colorado Cold Case database summarizes the same sequence of events and timeline, noting that she died within hours of being transported.
No arrests have been announced in the case, and Denver police continue to seek information about the person or persons responsible. Authorities have not publicly identified a suspect, and the case remains an unsolved homicide under the Denver Police Department’s Cold Case Unit.
