Police arrest suspect in connection with Phinney Ridge neighborhood homicide

KING COUNTY, Wash. — A man suspected of murdering 20-year-old Zoey Martinez in an alley in Seattle’s Phinney Ridge neighborhood has been arrested, the Seattle Police Department said Wednesday.

SPD investigators, along with U.S. Marshals, arrested Jacaree Hardy in Renton without incident, officials said.

Hardy, 23, was wanted for second-degree murder, and detectives thought he might have been in the Seattle area or in Portland.

Martinez’s body was found on Sept. 1 by an early-morning jogger who spotted her motionless in an alley near North 73rd Street and Greenwood Avenue North on Wednesday.

At about 5 a.m., the jogger flagged down officers, who found the woman dead in the alley. She was shot multiple times.

Investigators collected possible evidence at the scene, and the King County medical examiner later determined the cause and manner of death, which was ruled a homicide.

Martinez, who lived in Maple Valley, disappeared after she’d arranged to meet Hardy. Her parents say she met him on Facebook. They say Hardy owed her money, but they aren’t sure why.

Investigators say Martinez was nervous to meet Hardy and had asked her friends to go in a separate car. They arrived a couple of minutes late, as Hardy was driving off with Zoey in the car. After a short chase, Hardy got away with Zoey.

Martinez’s friends reported the incident to the police. Her parents filed a missing person report. Early the next morning, her body was found.

As for Hardy, detectives are questioning him, and he is expected to be booked into the King County Jail.

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