Human remains found as investigators search for missing King County woman

New details in the discovery of human remains in a wooded area of Renton on Tuesday after a woman vanished without a trace after leaving a Seattle Mariners game.

Now the King County Medical Examiner is trying to determine if the remains belong to the missing woman.

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But the family of Leticia Martinez-Cosman appears to be proceeding as though she is no longer alive. A relative has started a GoFundMe page for her special needs son.

The GoFundMe account was started by Amy Cosman who says she is the son’s aunt. She outlines the story of Leticia’s disappearance, and writes that her son needs full-time care, his life now turned upside down.

This comes a day after human remains were found in a wooded part of Renton, near State Route 167, but we still don’t know to whom they belong.

Drone 7 shows the area where Seattle police found human remains Tuesday. Detectives said they were acting on leads they got while investigating the disappearance of Martinez-Cosman.

Seattle Police: Body discovered in case of missing woman

“Big trucks came down, with the guys in the white suits to investigate,” said a neighbor near the scene. “One of the police said, ‘Yeah, they found a body.’”

This comes 12 long days after 58-year-old Martinez-Cosman and 46-year-old Brett Gitchel were last seen together at a Seattle Mariners game.

Here’s a timeline of the disturbing events. The game was March 31. Two days later, Gitchel allegedly kidnapped her special needs son, drove to Renton and tried to strangle him. He fought and stumbled out of Gitchel’s vehicle, the honking horn alerting neighbors.

“After the honking, like that’s like when we seen him right here by himself,” said a Renton neighbor. “And you didn’t see a vehicle take off. Never seen the vehicle take off. Never seen it, I didn’t even see the headlights.”

Two hours later, Martinez-Cosman’s vehicle was found abandoned and on fire in Seattle. That’s when Seattle police took over the case. On April 5, they arrested Gitchel for the attack on Martinez-Cosman’s son.

Then Tuesday, the disturbing discovery of human remains — the site just a mile and a half from where Martinez-Cosman’s son allegedly escaped Gitchel’s grip.

The gravity of the case, only now settling in for the neighbor who called 911.

“If we wouldn’t have called the cops,” he said, “I feel like maybe something else would have occurred that night.”

Indeed, the King County prosecutor has charged Gitchel with attempting to murder her son.

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