13/10/2025
Marvin Ortiz-Montecinos: A Breakup That Led to Murder
The Montrose Apartments in Burien, Washington, saw one of the most horrific murders as of late.
After killing his girlfriend, Victoria Aparicio Cruz, and her roommate, Yaneth Gomez-Hernandez, 29-year-old Marvin Ortiz-Montecinos was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder with deadly weapon enhancements.
He is currently being held on $10 million bail, which begs the question: What led to a bail with such a high amount?
The Murder and The Lead-Up to It
On September 8, 2025, Victoria broke up with Marvin. He tried calling her that morning, but she declined to take the call.
An hour before a neighbor called 911, Marvin seemingly complained about the breakup, texting Victoria in Spanish, “Tell me, you broke up with me, I want to tell you something.” Her response said, “I don’t want to know anything anymore.”
The breakup must have enraged him enough that he felt compelled to kill Victoria, using a fillet knife to stab her. He stabbed her over twenty times.
According to court documents People obtained, Marvin committed this horrendous stabbing by "slicing through her neck, slicing her hands in multiple places as she tried to defend herself, and stabbing her multiple times in the back even after she was clearly unresponsive and deceased."
The documents also state that Yaneth was killed for trying to intervene. She was found naked, and a towel covered part of her leg. This would suggest that Yaneth had just come out of the shower. She was stabbed forty-three times.
The court documents indicated that the women were not just stabbed. They “received neck wounds so large and deep it appears clear that the defendant was attempting to slice and saw at his victims and not simply stab them.”
Finding The Bodies
At around 9:30 p.m., a neighbor called 911 after finding Marvin lying in the grass. He was covered in blood. When the deputies arrived, one of them heard Marvin speaking Spanish, saying the words “my fiancé.”
Because Marvin had injuries consistent with stab wounds “on the back of his head, his chest, and on his back,” he was transported to the hospital.
Meanwhile, deputies found a blood trail from where Marvin was lying to a third-floor apartment, Apartment #58. There, they found the front door open and blood on the floor. The kitchen drawers and cabinets were also open.
When the police looked around to see if there was anyone else, they found Victoria and Yaneth on one of the bedroom floors, covered in blood. Other items the cops found were Marvin’s bloody clothes and one black sandal.
Marvin’s Story
While at the hospital, Marvin told the authorities that a black man attacked Victoria and Yaneth while he was asleep and that Victoria’s screams woke him up, before going after him by stabbing him in the back, stomach, and back of the head. He said that when he got up to check, the intruder was hiding in the bathroom and went after him by stabbing him in the back, stomach, and back of the head when he went into the bedroom to see that the two women were dead.
Martin could not give them any other details about what the man looked like or the weapon used. As per the court documents, Marvin “claimed the Black male then fled the apartment through the front door, leaving the front door open. Marvin then left the apartment, through the open door, to find help.”
Inconsistencies In the Story
Investigators noticed that Marvin had some holes in his story right away.
Despite Marvin’s claims that someone else was in the apartment, Washington State Patrol crime lab technicians applied a chemical agent to the floor and noticed a single set of footprints from the bedroom where Victoria and Yaneth were to the front door.
From the footprints, they could tell that one foot had a shoe on, while the other did not. The sole of the footprint had markings matching the sandal Marving had on.
There was blood on the deadlock, which told the police that the door had been locked from the inside.
Another factor was that Marvin claimed he was asleep at 7 p.m. after he and Victoria came home. But since the neighbor called 911 at 9:30 p.m., and Marvin had texted Victoria an hour prior, he was not sleeping or at the apartment.
Also, there was no blood evidence in the bathroom or leading to it to suggest that an intruder hid there.
Lastly, after looking around the apartment complex grounds, the detectives found a curved, 7-inch single-sided fillet knife.
Making An Arrest
Because of the evidence pointing to Marvin as opposed to an intruder, he was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder with deadly weapon enhancements on Friday, September 12, 2025.
He is currently being held on $10 million bail. The reason for the high bail is the fact that Marvin is originally from Guatemala and has family there, including his wife, children, and others.
This is why Senior Deputy Prosecutor Thomas O’Ban claimed in charging papers that Marvin had “a present financial ability for the defendant to leave the country as well, if released,” warranting the $10 million bail.
Marvin’s scheduled arraignment was September 18th, 2025. The details of the arraignment are currently unknown.
As of September 25, 2025, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has placed a detainer on Marvin. An ICE spokesperson made a statement to KOMO News about how Marvin entered the United States illegally.
They added onto their statement, saying, "Ortiz is alleged to be one of the worst of the worst criminal aliens who pose a threat to the security of our communities. ICE is putting the American people first by removing violent illegal alien offenders."
Yaneth’s family has organized a GoFundMe to have her shipped back to Guatemala, where her mother and 10-year-old son are. The fundraiser’s organizer, Enedina Espinoza-Ruiz, described Yaneth as loving, hard-working, caring, and humble.
If you would like to help out Yaneth’s family, you can go to the GoFundMe website and look for the fundraiser titled Yaneth Gómez Hernández.
Written by: Rachel Borchers
Social Media Contributing Writer
