Mom of Alpharetta woman found dead says she was moments from picking daughter up when she vanished

COBB COUNTY, Ga. — The mother of an Alpharetta woman whose remains were found in Tennessee said she was headed to pick her daughter up when she vanished.

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Maury-Ange Martinez, 20, vanished last August. She was reported missing in Gwinnett County but was later seen in Cobb County. Her remains were found earlier this month in a wooded area in Chattanooga.

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Channel 2′s Cobb County Bureau Chief Michele Newell was across the street from the Rockledge Apartment Complex in Cobb County where Martinez was last seen alive.

Newell spoke to Martinez’s mom, Anita Darling, who said she never stopped searching for her daughter.

The last time Darling heard Martinez’s voice, she was minutes away from her.

“I was nine minutes out and she called me from a number I didn’t recognize and said that she knew this person and they were taking her back to where she needed to be,” Darling said. “Exactly 10 p.m. that night was the last time she read my text. Very strange”

Police said that now, their focus is on who may have concealed Martinez’s death. They’ve identified several persons of interest.

Police said Martinez was reported missing in Gwinnett County, but then investigators tracked her to Cherokee County. She was last seen alive in Cobb County.

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Darling said it was a relief when her remains were found.

“She’s not, you know, having things done to her,” Darling said. “She’s not being tortured. So there was this strange relief of that.”

Darling said she loved creating moments with the most important people in her life.

“She loved fashion and color and photography, just making people feel good,” Darling said. “I know that something happened to her. Her sisters deserve to know and I deserve to know. Step up and say something.”

Authorities are considering the investigation one of concealing a death. The Hamilton County Medical Examiner in Tennessee will determine Martinez’s cause and manner of death.

Several persons of interest have been identified.

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