Murdered D.C. Jogger Wendy Martinez to Be Buried in Wedding Dress

The woman who was stabbed to death in Washington, D.C., last week will be buried in the wedding dress that she would have walked down the aisle in later this year, her mother said.

At around 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Wendy Martinez, 35, was stabbed six times in the head, back and neck while jogging near her apartment in Logan Circle. Martinez was the chief of staff at FiscalNote, a software and data company. She was also an avid runner.

Less than 48 hours later, her mother, Cora Martinez, told WRC-TV that her daughter had become engaged a week before the attack and would be buried in the wedding dress she was set to walk down the aisle in.

"I never imagined this was going to happen, and my heart is broken because my daughter was supposed to be married in two months," Cora Martinez said. "Over the weekend we went to look for her wedding dress, so when I saw my daughter dressing up, or trying out her dress, I never imagined that she was buying the dress for her burial."

Immediately after the attack, Wendy Martinez managed to make her way to a nearby takeout restaurant in a bid to get help. "She understood that she had to fight and she got up and she ran into this restaurant and she asked for help, so that makes us so proud she had the energy, the strength and the audacity to fight," her mother said.

Following the attack, authorities charged Anthony Crawford, 23, of Northwest D.C., with first-degree murder while armed on Wednesday night. Police revealed that surveillance footage of the suspect led to his identification and subsequent arrest.

According to WTOP, police said the attacker did not appear to have a motive in carrying out what appeared to be a random attack.

Cora Martinez said she harbors no resentment toward her daughter's killer despite what he took away from her family. "My heart has no room for hate, has no room for resentfulness… I am asking my family to do the same. I am asking Daniel and her friends to do the same. Just let it go," she said. "Wendy's at peace, she's happy, and we want to follow that example."

Daniel Hincapie, Wendy's fiancé, expressed his sadness at the unexpected death of his wife-to-be. "She was full of energy and she was so excited," he said. "And I was so excited, and it's a terrible tragedy.

"One of the last things that she did this year was to train me for my first full marathon early in the summer," Hincapie added.

"So, I would like to keep that. I would like to keep running for her and just helping…her community, her projects and all the dreams that she had. Hopefully, I will be able to continue that, continue her legacy."

A GoFundMe account was set up on Wednesday to crowdsource money for Martinez's memorial expenses. At the time this article was published the page had raised $17,486, exceeding the $10,000 target.