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Courts & Crime

Evidence thin in '87 torture case involving Texas man

Domingo Ramirez Jr - Fort Worth Star-Telegram

March 17, 2011 12:03 PM

In 1987, Martha Martinez Maxwell was bound with duct tape, sexually tortured, her throat cut from ear to ear and she was left to die near Ardmore, Okla., by her husband, Jeffrey Maxwell, who today is accused in the abduction and horrific torture of a Parker County woman, authorities say.

But Watauga investigators seized little evidence in that case in April 1987, confiscating several photos of sexually oriented reading materials, handcuffs and a few other items from the couple's Watauga home in the 6000 block of Martha Drive.

That's the case outlined in the 1987 arrest and search warrant affidavits released late Wednesday by Watauga officials.

In July 1987, a Tarrant County grand jury declined to indict Jeffrey Maxwell on a charge of aggravated kidnapping.

Five years later, after the Maxwells reconciled and moved to Fort Worth, Martha Martinez Maxwell was reported missing by her family. Jeffrey Maxwell told Fort Worth police that she had left on her own, adding another chapter to one of the most bizarre mysteries in North Texas.

Today, Maxwell sits in the Parker County Jail accused of keeping a 62-year-old Parker County woman captive in his Corsicana home, which authorities described as a "house of horrors," and sexually torturing her for 12 days this month before authorities found her alive on Saturday. After abducting her, he allegedly set fire to her Parker County home and vehicle.

Read the complete story at star-telegram.com

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