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1 Suspect In Jail For 2 Cold Case Murders

June 26, 2006, 04:56 PM

Two young Austin women were beaten, raped and strangled in their apartments years ago. Police now say their killer is behind bars.

Forty-four-year-old Martin Vega Torres is charged with two counts of murder, but it's for two crimes that happened back in 80s and 90s.

Monday, Torres is in the Travis County Jail on just over $1.2 million bond. He's accused of the heinous murders of Jeeta Graeber and Cerrelle Belt.

Graeber worked as a Braniff Airlines flight attendant. She was described as a happy-go-lucky person. She was killed in her Spyglass apartment in June 1984. Graeber was 33 years old.

Belt was beaten, raped and strangled in her Central Austin apartment in June 1990. Belt was just 19 years old. She was a gifted singer and a college student at Austin Community College and Concordia.

Police say in 1999, they discovered both cases had a DNA connection and a fingerprint. It wasn't until 2004 that the evidence pinpointed to Torres.

The trouble was Torres had been deported to Mexico and was incarcerated in a Nuevo Leon prison for an unrelated crime.

This is the first time a murder suspect has been successfully extradited from Mexico to Austin. Police say they're still trying to connect Torres to other possible victims.

"It's not believed he knew either one of these women. He did reside at the same apartment complex that Cerrelle Belt lived at in 1990. We are working to try to find any connection to the Spyglass Apartments in 1984," Sgt. John Neff with the APD Cold Case Unit said.

The family of Belt said they are relieved and say they don't have to wonder if the killer is walking the streets.