Martina Lundy’s granddaughter reported her missing after plans, calls and responsibilities suddenly stopped.
LAKE CITY, Fla. — Martina Lundy’s granddaughter went looking for a dress before a family wedding and instead found the first sign that prosecutors now say pointed to murder: Lundy was gone.
The disappearance of Lundy, 61, from the Lake City home she shared with boyfriend Aaron Hokanson has become a first-degree murder case in Columbia County. Hokanson, 60, is accused of killing Lundy after she threatened to report him for viewing child sexual abuse images. Her body has not been found, but prosecutors say her sudden break from family, pets, money and daily duties shows she did not leave by choice.
The family’s alarm grew from the ordinary details of Lundy’s life. She was expected to attend a wedding with her granddaughter during the weekend after she vanished. She kept close contact with relatives. She cared for two dogs that family members said went with her everywhere. She collected rent from tenants on a steady schedule. Assistant State Attorney Sean Crisafulli later described those routines as evidence that Lundy had not started over somewhere else. “Martina Lundy did not abandon her daughter,” Crisafulli said. “She did not abandon her granddaughter that she raised as her own.”
Authorities said Lundy was last heard from in the early morning hours of May 30, 2024. At 2:23 a.m., she left a voicemail for her daughter. Investigators said Hokanson could be heard on the recording as Lundy confronted him about his sexuality. Hours later, at 7:22 a.m., data showed Hokanson starting his vehicle. Investigators have not said publicly what they believe happened during that span or where Lundy’s remains may be. They have said the recording and vehicle data help mark the point at which a missing person case became a homicide investigation.
The next day, Lundy’s granddaughter arrived at the SW Carpenter Road home to pick up the wedding dress. Hokanson told her Lundy had left the day before because she was upset over a late-night call from her daughter, according to the sworn complaint. That explanation did not satisfy relatives. Lundy’s phone was not with her, investigators said, and family members told police it was strange for her to be unreachable. The granddaughter reported her missing to the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office on June 4, 2024, after several days passed without contact.
Investigators said the story Hokanson gave family members later changed in ways that raised more questions. Police said he claimed Lundy “took off” on her own. Authorities also said he told relatives that he had filed a missing person report when he had not. Prosecutors allege that false claim delayed or confused the response to Lundy’s disappearance. They also said messages sent from Lundy’s phone appeared designed to create the impression that she needed time away. One message said she was going away for a few days and wanted to get away from people.
The sworn complaint says Lundy and Hokanson had dated for about two years and lived together, but the relationship had turned volatile. In March 2024, the couple traveled to the Florida Keys. During that trip, investigators said, Lundy suggested that Hokanson go to a gay bar, and he refused while denying he was gay. The dispute did not end with that trip. Authorities said Lundy later recorded confrontations with Hokanson. The recordings became part of the evidence described in the complaint and part of the state’s theory about why she was killed.
According to investigators, Lundy told her brother in the days before she disappeared that she had recorded Hokanson admitting to watching child sexual abuse images “at least 100 times.” The complaint says Hokanson claimed he had been molested as a child. Investigators wrote that Lundy told him that did not excuse watching child pornography. She also told Hokanson he would never be around children and that she was going to tell his daughter, police said. Lundy later said she would have him arrested by the end of the week, according to the complaint.
That alleged threat changed the case from a domestic dispute into what prosecutors describe as a motive for murder. Police said Hokanson destroyed his cellphone and laptop and deleted search history after Lundy confronted him. WCJB reported that the unsealed complaint also described deleted searches related to pornography and pills. Authorities have not announced charges against Hokanson tied to the alleged material. The first-degree murder case focuses on Lundy’s disappearance, the alleged effort to silence her and the actions investigators say Hokanson took before and after she was last heard from.
Family members also pointed police to what Lundy left behind. Prosecutors said $73,000 in cash remained in a bank safe-deposit box. Lundy’s dogs were not with her. Her tenants were not contacted in the way relatives said they would have expected. Her phone last pinged at the home, according to authorities. Those facts matter because the state must explain how it can pursue a murder charge without a recovered body. Prosecutors are presenting the case as one in which absence, routine and digital records all tell the same story.
The defense has challenged that view, arguing during a pretrial release request that the state’s evidence is circumstantial. Hokanson’s attorneys said he had ties to the community and could appear for court if released. A judge denied the request after the 26-page complaint was unsealed. Hokanson remained jailed, and prosecutors later obtained the first-degree murder indictment. He had originally been charged with second-degree murder before the upgraded charge was returned by a grand jury.
The legal case will now turn on whether prosecutors can persuade a jury that Lundy is dead and that Hokanson killed her. The state is expected to rely on phone data, vehicle data, recordings, family statements, alleged false statements and the missing routines that first led relatives to sound the alarm. Hokanson’s defense is expected to press the lack of a body, the circumstantial nature of the evidence and any gaps in the timeline between the voicemail and the later vehicle data.
For Lundy’s family, the wedding dress errand remains one of the clearest markers of the loss. A planned family weekend became a search. A missing phone, unattended dogs and a silence that relatives said made no sense became part of a murder case. Prosecutors say those small signs matter because Lundy’s life was not one she would have walked away from without a word.
For now, Hokanson is being held without bond while the case moves through Columbia County court. Lundy remains missing, and no trial date has been publicly announced.
Author note: Last updated April 29, 2026.