An actress with the silky voice of an angel showed the doggedness of a seasoned detective, tracking down the man accused of shooting her hardworking father to death 26 years ago.
Brown-eyed beauty Joselyn Martinez’s tenacity led to the arrest in Miami Thursday afternoon of Justo Santos — who had been on the lam since the 1986 slaying, as first reported in the Daily News. He mistakenly thought he had gotten away with murder.
The 36-year-old songstress said it took her about eight years and a mere $280 paid to Internet background-check sites to crack the cold case.
“Knowing the person my father was, I couldn’t live with myself if (Santos) stayed free,” Martinez, of the Bronx, told the Daily News Monday. “I need to see him in New York to know this has really happened.”
Cops busted Santos Thursday in Miami, where the 5-foot-6 fugitive had been living in plain sight and working as the manager of a janitorial company.
He confessed to the killing and waived extradition, a police source said.
It was Joselyn — named after her father, Jose — who handed detectives at the 34th Precinct stationhouse Santos’ address and phone number that she unearthed from the Internet.
“She was dynamite. She did a great job of finding this guy. She basically solved the case,” a law enforcement source told The News.
NYPD detectives are expected to travel to Florida later this week to haul Santos, 43, back to New York to face justice.
“I want to see New York State versus this criminal in court,” said Joselyn, a recording artist and star of the upcoming Web series “Wives in the Heights.”
Joselyn’s mother, Idalia Martinez, said she always believed her daughter, who was the apple of her father’s eye, would find the killer.
“I’m super proud of my daughter. I always knew she would find him because of her love for her father and her intelligence,” the mother said.
“I have enormous satisfaction that after 26 years this has become a reality,” she said. “The time has come for the truth. Why did he do it?”
On Nov. 22, 1986, Santos, then 16, and two pals entered Jose Martinez’s restaurant, Dominican Express, on Dyckman St. in Inwood, looking for trouble instead of the carne frita the restaurant was known for.
“They started harassing my mother and asking her sexual things, disgusting things,” said Joselyn, who was just 9 when her dad died.
Rushing to his wife’s defense, Jose Martinez, 41, who immigrated to New York from the Dominican Republic, booted the menacing teens from the business.
The argument spilled onto the sidewalk and witnesses told cops Santos pulled a pistol and shot the restaurateur in cold blood in front of his wife. Idalia Martinez said she put her bleeding husband in a cab and rushed him to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Columbia, where he died.
“I woke up the next morning and was told my father was killed,” Joselyn recalled. “We were destroyed.”
Cops immediately identified Santos as the shooter. But before they could nab him, he bolted to the Dominican Republic and his trail went ice cold.
“I remember his picture on the wanted posters. He was smiling. It was all over Dyckman St.,” Joselyn said. “My mom told me to never forget his name. She’d tell me, ‘You have to know who did this to your family.’ “
After graduating from high school, Joselyn enrolled in New York University, majoring in pre-law and political science.
“I wanted to become a prosecutor in college. But then I decided to do what I really wanted to. How could I prosecute other cases when my father’s was unsolved?” said Joselyn.
Ten years ago, on the anniversary of her father’s slaying, Joselyn paid detectives at the 34th Precinct in Washington Heights a visit.
“I went to the police station,” she said. “I said, ‘I want to know what happened.’ “
The discussion got her thinking: “I started to ask myself, ‘What if I find him? What if I try?’ “
In 2006, she searched Myspace.com for Santos’ name, but came up with nothing. She later searched Facebook, again with no results.
Then in 2008, she signed up for a free promotional search on Background.com, and right off the bat Santos’ name popped up.
Encouraged by the results, Joselyn paid $70 fees to Background.com and similar sites, including USA-Peopleseach.com, Peoplelookup.com and Intelius.com.
“They all had it. They had his address. They had his phone number,” Joselyn said. “He must have thought it was all over, that he had gotten away with it.”
She took the information to the 34th Precinct, where it was given to Detective Robert Dewhurst of the cold case squad.
“I can’t take all the credit. The 34th Precinct and the cold case squad did all the work,” Joselyn said.
Detectives called her Friday to give her the good news.
“I was silent. I was quiet. I was in shock. Like now,” she said. “I believe it, but I don’t believe it.”
