DeAngelo Kenneth Martin: The Detroit Serial Killer
Overview
DeAngelo Kenneth Martin is an American serial killer and sexual predator who murdered four women in Detroit, Michigan, between February 2018 and June 2019. His victims were found inside vacant or abandoned houses, often in severely neglected neighborhoods where empty buildings provided concealment and made it less likely that suspicious activity would immediately attract attention. Martin also sexually assaulted at least two women who survived, and evidence connected him to sexual attacks dating back many years.
The murders created widespread fear in Detroit because the victims were discovered under strikingly similar circumstances. Several women had been left face down, partially clothed or unclothed, inside abandoned residences. Used condoms were recovered near the bodies, providing investigators with biological evidence. Authorities eventually concluded that the same offender was responsible for the killings and described Martin as a serial murderer and rapist who deliberately targeted vulnerable women.
The Victims
- Annetta Nelson, 57 — February 26, 2018 — 11620 block of Winthrop Street, Detroit: Nelson was found inside a vacant house on Detroit’s west side. A man who entered the building discovered her lying face down with blood on her face, carried her outside and flagged down police officers. The Wayne County Medical Examiner determined that she had been killed by blunt-force trauma. Investigators also reported evidence that she had been strangled. A used condom recovered inside the house later became an important part of the investigation. February 26 is the confirmed date on which Nelson was discovered dead; publicly available records do not establish a more precise time of death.
- Nancy Harrison, 52 — March 19, 2019 — 20070 block of Coventry Street, Detroit: Harrison’s body was discovered inside a vacant house by a man who had entered the building. Police found her positioned face down, with a used condom located near her body. The medical examiner ruled her death a homicide caused by blunt-force trauma. Investigators determined that she had been sexually assaulted and killed. March 19 is the confirmed discovery date and the date associated with her homicide in official case records.
- Trevesene Ellis, also identified in records as Trevesene Willis, 55 — March 24, 2019 — 13700 block of Linnhurst Street, Detroit: Ellis was found face down inside another vacant residence, with a used condom near her body. Her remains were badly decomposed, preventing the medical examiner from establishing an exact cause, manner or time of death. Some early news reports incorrectly listed May 24 as the discovery date, but charging documents and the Wayne County Prosecutor’s account identify March 24, 2019, as the date police discovered her body. Because of the decomposition, her precise date of death could not be medically determined.
- Tamara M. Jones, 55 — June 5, 2019 — 3690 block of Mack Avenue, Detroit: Jones was discovered inside a vacant house after a man alerted two nearby police officers. Her decomposed body was positioned face down, and another used condom was found near her. Decomposition prevented the medical examiner from determining an exact cause, manner or date of death. June 5 is the confirmed date on which she was found. DNA evidence later connected Martin to the scene.
The First Known Murder
Martin’s first proven murder occurred in February 2018. Annetta Nelson’s body was discovered in a vacant house on Winthrop Street, but the initial investigation quickly moved in the wrong direction. Police arrested the man who had carried Nelson’s body from the building and placed it outside in an attempt to make certain that someone would find her. Surveillance footage eventually demonstrated that the man was not Nelson’s killer, and the charge against him was dismissed.
Evidence from the vacant house included a used condom containing biological material. Laboratory testing eventually connected Martin’s DNA to Nelson’s death. Despite that evidence, authorities did not immediately arrest him. The delay became one of several investigative failures that later received intense scrutiny because Martin remained free and continued attacking women.
The 2019 Killing Spree
More than a year after Nelson’s murder, Nancy Harrison was found dead on Coventry Street. Her body had been arranged face down inside an abandoned house, and a condom was placed or left near her. Five days later, Trevesene Ellis was discovered under remarkably similar conditions on Linnhurst Street. The advanced state of decomposition complicated Ellis’s autopsy, but the location, positioning of her body and sexual evidence strongly resembled the Harrison crime scene.
The pattern initially went unrecognized by the public. Both women had been left in buildings that were rarely monitored and could be entered without attracting much attention. The condition of Detroit’s abandoned housing stock gave Martin isolated places where he could assault women and conceal their bodies. It also created a serious obstacle for investigators, since victims might remain undiscovered for days or weeks.
On June 5, 2019, Tamara Jones became the fourth woman connected to Martin. She was found decomposed in a vacant house on Mack Avenue. Like Harrison and Ellis, Jones was positioned face down and found near a used condom. By this point, Detroit police publicly warned that a serial killer and sexual predator appeared to be targeting women on the city’s east side.
Women Who Survived
Two women survived violent sexual attacks attributed to Martin in 2019. One of them encountered him in early May and went with him to the basement of his grandmother’s residence. Martin sexually assaulted her and stabbed or cut her in the neck. The woman fought back and screamed, drawing the attention of Martin’s grandmother, who contacted police. Martin fled before officers arrived.
On June 3, 2019, another woman was attacked after being taken into a vacant building. She resisted, stabbed Martin and escaped by jumping from a window. Her account gave investigators a living witness who could describe and identify her attacker. The escape occurred only two days before Tamara Jones was found dead.
These survivors played an essential role in identifying Martin. Their statements demonstrated that the violence in the abandoned houses was not limited to homicide victims and showed that Martin’s methods involved isolation, sexual assault and attempts to kill women who resisted him.
Earlier Sexual Assaults and Missed Opportunities
Investigators later learned that Martin had been linked to allegations of sexual violence long before the murders began. Evidence from a 2004 sexual assault remained untested in Detroit’s large backlog of rape kits for years. When the kit was finally processed, Martin’s DNA was identified, but the case was not handled with the urgency that might have prevented later attacks.
Other women reported encounters with Martin over the following years. Police records showed repeated opportunities to investigate him as a potentially dangerous sexual offender. DNA evidence and witness information were not always promptly shared between investigators, and officers did not consistently follow up with survivors. An internal review later characterized the handling of the cases as a systemic breakdown.
The failures became especially serious after Martin’s DNA was linked to Annetta Nelson’s murder. Authorities still did not arrest him before the 2019 attacks. During the period in which investigators were attempting to develop the case, Nancy Harrison, Trevesene Ellis and Tamara Jones were killed.
Arrest and Investigation
As concern spread across Detroit, officers searched thousands of vacant houses for additional victims. Police distributed Martin’s photograph and asked the public for help locating him. He was arrested at a Detroit bus stop on June 7, 2019, two days after Jones’s body was discovered.
Martin was initially held in connection with the nonfatal sexual assault and stabbing. Investigators obtained DNA samples from him and compared them with evidence recovered from the murder scenes. The testing connected him to all four women. The recurring presence of used condoms, the positioning of the bodies and the choice of vacant buildings strengthened the case that the crimes had been committed by the same offender.
Police also examined Martin as a possible suspect in other deaths. One case involved Deborah Reynolds, whose remains were found in a vacant house in December 2018 after she had reportedly last been seen with Martin. He was not convicted of killing Reynolds, however, and the four murders of Nelson, Harrison, Ellis and Jones remain the homicides legally attributed to him.
Charges and Guilty Pleas
In September 2019, Wayne County prosecutors charged Martin in connection with the four murders. The original charges included first-degree premeditated murder and felony murder, with the felony-murder counts based on allegations of criminal sexual conduct. He was separately charged for the attacks on the two surviving women.
The prosecution’s case relied on DNA evidence, the similarities among the crime scenes and testimony concerning the surviving victims. The bodies had been found in comparable positions, and biological evidence repeatedly placed Martin at locations where the women were assaulted or killed.
On September 2, 2022, Martin pleaded guilty to four counts of second-degree murder. He also entered guilty pleas in the two criminal sexual conduct cases involving the surviving women. The agreement allowed him to avoid a trial and possible sentences of life imprisonment without parole on first-degree murder convictions.
Sentencing
On October 6, 2022, Judge Regina Thomas sentenced Martin to four concurrent prison terms of 45 to 70 years for the murders. He also received concurrent terms of 20 to 40 years for the sexual assault cases. Because the sentences run at the same time, Martin must serve at least 45 years before becoming eligible for parole.
Relatives of the victims addressed the court and described the lasting damage caused by the murders. They remembered the women as mothers, sisters, daughters and friends rather than simply as names associated with abandoned buildings. Martin offered an apology but also made statements suggesting that he continued to dispute responsibility despite having entered guilty pleas.
The Significance of the Case
DeAngelo Martin’s crimes exposed the extreme danger faced by women living with homelessness, substance dependency or other forms of social vulnerability. He selected victims whose disappearances or deaths might receive less immediate attention and used Detroit’s vacant housing as both a hunting ground and a means of concealing evidence.
The case also revealed serious problems within the criminal justice system. Untested evidence, poorly managed DNA notifications, inadequate communication between police units and failures to follow up on survivors allowed Martin to remain free despite repeated warnings that he was violent. By the time authorities finally arrested him, four women had been murdered and numerous others had reportedly encountered him over a period of many years.
Martin’s conviction ended the immediate threat, but it did not erase the missed opportunities that preceded his capture. The murders of Annetta Nelson, Nancy Harrison, Trevesene Ellis and Tamara Jones remain a painful example of how vulnerable victims can be overlooked and how investigative delays can allow a violent offender to continue escalating. Their cases eventually forced Detroit authorities to reevaluate how sexual assault evidence, DNA matches and reports involving serial offenders were handled.
