Brooklyn Man Allegedly Confesses to Killing and Dismembering Wife Reported Missing Last Month
For the second time in as many months, detectives from the New York City Police Department are combing through piles of garbage at local landfills, searching for the remains of a murdered woman, PEOPLE confirms.
On Friday night, police formally charged Phillip Martin, a 42-year-old Brooklyn man, with the beating death and subsequent dismemberment of his wife, 43-year-old Diana Rodriguez-Martin.
An NYPD statement obtained by PEOPLE confirms Martin faces murder and concealment of a corpse charges. He allegedly confessed to his wife’s killing on Friday.
Diana was reported missing on Feb. 13. The last time anyone saw her was on Jan. 16.
According to investigators, Martin allegedly told them that after beating his wife to death, he chopped her up and disposed of her body, placing her remains in several garbage bags.
“Her remains have not yet been recovered,” the NYPD said in their statement.
Martin has yet to enter a plea to the charges against him. PEOPLE was unable to ascertain if he is being represented by an attorney who could comment on his behalf.
Police confirm Martin has three prior arrests — two of them for allegedly attacking his wife.
Last month, a 40-year-old sex offender was arrested in connection with the discovery of a dead woman’s body parts at a waste station in the Bronx.
Somorie Moses faces concealment of a human corpse and tampering with evidence charges. He was arrested at his Brooklyn home, where police allegedly found a woman’s head inside his freezer — along with a pair of hands and feet.
A woman’s headless torso and a footless leg were discovered by a sanitation worker at the Metropolitan Transfer Station in the Bronx’s Hunts Point neighborhood on Jan. 17.
