Murdered After a Ball Game - DEADLY FIRST DATE?

LETICIA MARTINEZ-COSMAN INVITED A GUY TO WATCH THE SEATTLE MARINERS PLAY. THAT NIGHT, SHE DISAPPEARED

- TRISTAN BALAGTAS

As a single mom with a full-time job who was also caretaker to her 24-year-old son with special needs, Leticia “Leti” Martinez-Cosman, 58, rarely got a chance to get out of the house and have a little fun. A die-hard Seattle Mariners fan, Leticia had tickets for a March 31 game at T-Mobile Park. On a whim, she invited a man she had met a couple of weeks earlier at a warehouse store food court to join her. “She noticed he was wearing a Mariners hat, and one thing led to another,” says Leticia's brother Ricardo Martinez, 53, who spoke with her over coffee shortly before the game. “She hadn't been out in a while, so she says, 'Okay, let's just see how this goes.'”

At the ballpark, Leticia took a happy selfie with her new love interest, Brett Gitchel, 46, and sent it to a friend. The couple looked like they were having fun together.

But Leticia never came home that night and was reported missing by her brother on April 2. Meanwhile, according to the King County district attorney, Gitchel—a Washington State native with previous felony theft convictions—kidnapped her son Patrick Cosman from the family’s West Seattle home at 2 a.m. on April 2. Gitchel drove him to a remote wooded area in Renton, Wash., about 12 miles away, and was attempting to strangle him when Patrick, who has autism, managed to escape and run to safety.

Two hours later Seattle Fire Department personnel responded to a call about a car fire—Leticia’s Honda SUV was “engulfed in flames,” but there was no sign of her.