A woman’s husband has pleaded guilty to charges in connection with his wife’s murder, nearly six years after she disappeared in the Philippines.
Rosemary Martell, 37, disappeared on September 27, 2019. Concerns arose when a colleague reported her absence from work for three consecutive days.
Her family searched for answers for years, and now Rosemary’s husband, William Glen Martell Jr., 52, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for aggravated assault resulting in her death.
The two first met online in 2011, while William was living in Washington state and Rosemary was in the Philippines.
She later moved to the US, where they married three years after meeting. The couple eventually returned to the Philippines and had two daughters, relatives shared with Oregon Live.
Rosemary had confided in her brother that William ‘started hurting her during arguments,’ and he begged her to leave the relationship.
She told her brother that she didn’t want their children to grow up without a father and stayed in the marriage.
After Rosemary mysteriously vanished in 2019, William flew back to Washington with their daughters.
Rosemary Martell, 37, vanished on September 27, 2019, but her body was never found. Her husband was finally charged with the crime in June
William Glen Martell Jr., 52, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for aggravated assault leading to his wife’s death
He later revealed to his sister, Michelle Thompson, that he killed his wife in a fit of rage.
‘He told me, “I did something really bad. Do you think I’m going to go to hell?” Thompson told Oregon Live.
‘He just said he got mad at her and strangled her, in their house in the living room,’ she added.
The sentencing comes nearly six years after Rosemary vanished
William also confessed that he dumped his wife’s body in a forest and then went back home to wake his children up.
He then shockingly put the children in the same car that their mother’s dead body was just in.
Thompson was shocked by the confession, but didn’t report it until the FBI visited her home a few months later.
Thompson had cooperated with authorities and even attempted to get her brother to confess to the crime on a recording with no luck.
Rosemary was not William’s only victim, as court records indicated he was also charged with transporting someone interstate with the intent of unlawful sexual activity.
Rosemary met William online in 2011 and moved to Washington to be with him. The two got married and had two children
During their relationship, Rosemary confided in her brother about the way William treated her, but refused to leave the marriage for her children
In May 2023, William was indicted for aggravated sexual abuse. Prosecutors discovered that between November 2018 and February 2019, William transported an individual from Oregon to Washington with the intent to engage in criminal sexual activity according to Washington laws.
An additional charge was added in June related to the death of Rosemary for interstate domestic violence.
Court records revealed that in 2019, William traveled from Oregon to the Philippines with the ‘intent to harass and intimidate’ his wife.
During his time in the foreign country, he assaulted Rosemary, which eventually resulted in her death.
Rosemary’s brother, Benedicto Aragon III, joined the sentencing hearing virtually and issued a blistering message to his brother-in-law.
William also pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual abuse and interstate transportation with the intent to engage in unlawful sexual activity. Judge Baggio said at his sentencing hearing: ‘William Martel Jr. is going to prison for 20 years, but that alone will not heal your broken hearts’
‘You did not just kill her. You erased her,’ he told Martell.
‘You have the resources, cunning and the darkness inside you to make her vanish. My mother, the same woman who once welcomed you in our home with kindness and love — to cook meals for your family — now wakes up each day bearing a grief no parent should enter’.
US District Judge Amy Baggio offered a message of support to Rosemary’s family, telling the court: ‘William Martel Jr. is going to prison for 20 years, but that alone will not heal your broken hearts’.
Daily Mail has reached out to the US Department of Justice and William’s defense attorney for further comment.
