A woman from Las Vegas who died of brain injuries after being beaten into a coma by her ex-boyfriend predicted her own death on social media.
Stella Martinez, 39, was attacked and choked on the ground in her back yard on 3 June by 41-year-old Christopher Wood, who had broken into her home, according to police. She died in hospital three weeks later.
Mr Wood was arrested on attempted murder, attempted burglary and domestic battery by strangulation charges that are expected to be upgraded before a 14 July preliminary hearing of evidence against him.
It has now emerged that Ms Martinez had predicted her death online, recounting her failed efforts to get help from police in a series of chilling Facebook posts documenting the couple’s tumultuous relationship.
“I’ll be dead before (they) do anything,” she wrote in a Facebook comment in January, according to Las Vegas Review-Journal.
“Although I have no doubt (you’re) still going to try to kill me but you will never find me,” she added.
Social media posts suggest the pair began dating around May 2016. They are in a number of photographs together throughout 2016 and can be seen in August and October exchanging expressions of love on each other’s pages.
But in January 2017, Ms Martinez posted on Mr Wood’s page calling him a sociopath.
“I wish I never met you, I did everything for you,” she wrote, before accusing him of destroying her life. She added that she was calling him out on social media to take back her power and warn other women about him.
In one comment, she described failed efforts to seek help from authorities, saying police had taken his side in previous disputes and would not help her.
Jessica Avras, Ms Martinez’s sister-in-law, told the Review-Journal she had called the police several times, but that after one fight, North Las Vegas officers booked Ms Martinez, not Mr Wood, on a domestic violence charge.
After this, she stopped calling the police because she was afraid they would turn against her, Ms Avras said.
