Seattle cops recover body after woman last seen in selfie vanishes

Seattle police investigating the disappearance of a woman who was last seen in a selfie taken at a baseball game have discovered a body – as it emerged that a man seen in the photo with her allegedly kidnapped her son, tried to kill him and torched her SUV.

Leticia Martinez-Cosman, 58, was last heard from when she went to a Seattle Mariners game at T-Mobile Park on March 31 and sent a friend a smiling selfie of herself and Brett Gitchel, 46, in the stands.

“SPD Homicide Detectives followed leads obtained during the investigation which resulted in the recovery of a deceased subject in the Renton area Tuesday afternoon,” police said in a statement, KCBY reported.

“The King County Medical Examiner’s Office will confirm the identity of the deceased and the cause and manner of death,” they added.

Gitchel has not been charged in Martinez-Cosman’s disappearance and possible death, but he faces a slew of charges in connection with the ensuing abduction of her adult son.

Martinez-Cosman’s friend forwarded the selfie from the baseball game to police, along with various text messages, after she went missing, the news outlet reported, citing court documents.

The missing woman and the friend had first met Gitchel at a south Seattle Costco on March 19, KCBY reported.

“Within a three days period, Brett Gitchel was the last person to be seen with Leticia Martinez-Cosman. Brett Gitchel would drive Leticia’s vehicle to a remote area outside Seattle for a short period of time the next day, kidnap and attempt to kill her son and burn Leticia’s vehicle,” the documents state, Fox 13 Seattle reported.

Martinez-Cosman’s brother Ricardo Martinez reported her missing on April 2.

On the same day, Gitchel allegedly woke up her 24-year-old son — who has intellectual disabilities — at about 2 a.m. and told him his mom had been involved in an accident and that he’d drive him to the hospital.

After driving around in the SUV for “what seemed like hours,” according to the son, Gitchel said he needed to get some water and stopped the vehicle, according to the documents.

He later got in the back seat and tried to strangle the victim, who managed to bite him on the hand.

Gitchel told the son “he was doing this for his mother and that this was to spare him from being committed to an institution because of his conditions,” the documents state, according to the Seattle Times.

The son finally managed to escape from the SUV and contacted his father, who told him to call 911, as Gitchel sped off, officials said.

When cops found Martinez-Cosman hiding in some bushes, he was visibly upset, bloodied and had difficulty explaining what had just happened.

Investigators later obtained surveillance video that showed Gitchel outside Martinez-Cosman’s home in White Center at about noon April 1, the documents say.

The suspect drove to Golf Drive South, where firefighters responded to a fully engulfed vehicle fire near T-Mobile Park at about 7 a.m. April 2.  

The torched SUV was later determined to be Martinez-Cosman’s Honda CRV, which Gitchel allegedly set afire using a gas canister he bought at a nearby Shell station, the Seattle Times reported.

On April 5, police arrested Gitchel at a Shoreline Costo and accused him of stealing $10,000 worth of jewelry from a Costco in Seattle’s SODO neighborhood, according to the paper.

He has been charged with first-degree attempted murder, first-degree kidnapping, second-degree unlawful possession of a firearm, first-degree theft and second-degree arson.

The King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office on Monday asked a judge to set Gitchel’s bail at $5 million.