Stockton family searching for answers after mother of 4 killed: "She was just brutally taken from us"
STOCKTON -- A family is still searching for answers after their loved one was found killed inside her Stockton home.
The family wants people to know that Rena Martinez was a fighter.
"I think Rena would want us to fight for her because she fought at the end," said her older brother, Manolito Martinez.
Manolito remembers his little sister's fighting spirit.
"That's what my family is going to miss, that's what's going to be really hard to get over," Manolito said. "No more birthday parties, no more holidays."
Rena, a single mother of four young children aged 2 to 11, was found dead inside her home in late March. She was 36 years old.
"She was taken from us, and it wasn't an accident. She was just brutally taken from us," said Manolito.
On the morning of March 25, her mother called in a welfare check -- and police found Rena with multiple cuts and wounds to her body.
Her youngest son was found alongside her, unharmed but malnourished, having gone days without food or water.
"He was basically laying there, just waiting for somebody to come and pick him up," said Manolito. "They say up to four days, but it could've been even longer because he couldn't even pick his head up."
Just outside her home, the front door was filled with messages of love, candles, and flowers.
The area where this all happened is a private community. There are security gates and cameras that see every car that goes in and out of this complex.
"We're really just wanting answers, no matter who it is. We just want to know who did this, and how this transpired because that's the only way we can go on a path to healing," Manolito said.
Stockton police are still investigating. So far, no arrests have been made.
Manolito is running a GoFundMe, not for funeral costs, but instead for money for Rena's four children. He wants to give all of them, the life their mother would've wanted them to have.
