45-year cold case murder of WWII vet solved with mysterious call

Case went unsolved for decades before tip-off about a buried body

George Seitz (Queens County District Attorney/George Clarence Seitz)

A 75-year-old New Yorker has been charged with carrying out a murder 45 years ago, after investigators were allegedly informed of the whereabouts of a body.

Martin Motta, who is set to appear in Queens District Court on Friday, faces charges of murdering 84-year-old WWII veteran George Seitz in December 1976.

Investigators believe that Mr Motta, who owned a barbershop, is responsible for the death of Mr Seitz, who New York Police Department (NYPD) deputy chief Jerry O’Sullivan said “left his residence to go get a haircut and he did not return”.

Dan Sunders, from the Queens District Attorney’s Office, told ABC7 News that “the deceased was known to carry large sums of cash and apparently did so on that particular day”.

Although the WWII veteran was reported missing in December 1976, his body was not found until 2019 following a tip-off about the whereabouts of a body.

Witnesses were reportedly afraid to report the incident to the NYPD.

A woman told NYPD investigators that she watched her mother and stepfather bury a body in a Queens garden in 1976 in the Richmond Hill area. She was aged-11 at the time.

Advanced investigative technology allowed the remains of Mr Seitz to be linked to Mr Motta through a piece of evidence, although it remains unclear what that exactly was.

Mr Saunders added on Thursday that Mr Motta had been “indicted and has been charged with a single count, intentional murder, murder in the second degree”, CBS New York reported.

Mr Motta was arrested in Jamaica, Queens, on Wednesday, and it is not known if he has a lawyer.

“After 45 years, the alleged killer of a WWI veteran is being held accountable and brought to justice,” Queens district attorney Melinda Katz reportedly said.

“We hope the identification of the remains and the indictment in this case will begin to bring peace and closure to his loved ones.”