Hundreds of people have been found dead in New Mexico and they don’t have their names back yet. Here is the first part of my series on New Mexico unidentified bodies. Read about their cases and see what you can do to help. If you have any information, your best bet is to contact the New Mexico State Police at either 505-827-9604 or 505-841-9256, or the Chief Medical Examiner of New Mexico at 505-272-3053. You can also reach out to the sheriff’s office in the county where the decedent was found. I list as much contact information as I can for each case.
1978 Guadalupe County Jane Doe
In 1978, the body of a young woman was found by a highway worker along Highway 297, at the junction of I40 and US Highway 84 near Santa Rosa. She had been shot twice in the head with a .22 handgun only a few hours to a few days before being discovered. She had strawberry blonde hair but brown pubic hair, leading cops to think she had dyed her hair, though I think it is fairly common for body hair to be darker than head hair. She also had blue eyes, weighed about 145 pounds, stood at 5’8”, and was about 17 to 25. Three of her wisdom teeth had been pulled and she had four fillings, indicating at least a fairly economically healthy background. She was clothed in blue denim cutoffs, brown moccasins, a red bandana, Native American jewelry, and a denim halter top, definitely a 70s style.
We actually know who killed her. It was a Natural Born Killers-type couple, named Ronald Lanphear and Diana Geisinger. I write more about them in this post.
I really think this Jane Doe can be identified. We know that this girl’s birthday was July 11. We also know she said she was 17, meaning she must have been born in 1961. We know her mom resided in California. We also know what Jane Doe looks like. Yet she has still not been identified and there is a long list of rule-outs on her NamUs page.
It is entirely possible she lied to the couple about her age, her birthday, and/or her mom in California. As a teenage runaway, she may very well have lied about going to see her mom to avoid being turned into the police.
She has DNA and dental records on file, which should identify her sooner or later. If only we had the papers that this serial killer couple stole from her and threw away.
If you think you know who this young woman is, help give her her name back by contacting the New Mexico State Police at either 505-827-9604 or 505-841-9256, or the Chief Medical Examiner of New Mexico at 505-272-3053.
https://law.justia.com/cases/california/supreme-court/3d/26/814.html
2006 Rockhound State Park John Doe
Rockhound State Park is a remote park near Deming, NM. It is known for its high variety of minerals and is a treasure trove for rockhounds. But it is also known for being quite remote and treacherous.
John Doe was found in November, 2006. His age range is estimated to be 35-50, and his race is believed to be Caucasion or Hispanic. He was only five feet tall and his weight is impossible to determine because he was a complete skeleton. We don’t know his eye color, hair color, or anything else about him. One of his limbs was missing though it’s not clear which one. Since he had been dead for years by the time he was discovered, it is possible an animal carried his limb away. He was wearing a baseball cap, pants, and one shoe. Clothes were scattered hundreds of yards away, and theorized to belong to him.
The John Doe had a lot of healed injuries, indicating a rough or at least very active lifestyle. His right femur had a healed fracture with a medullary stabilizing rod put in place. His clavicle and ribs were fused together from a traumatic injury from the past. And he had a healed nose fracture. The first thing that came to my mind when I read these injuries was “jockey” or “race car driver.”
We don’t know anything else about this man. Not even a cause of death. His death was estimated to be around 2004-2006, though. I think it’s entirely possible he was a hiker or rock hound who got lost somehow and eventually succumbed to the elements. This state park is desolate and dry, searing hot in summer and blisteringly cold in winter. There is little available water. While there is no evidence that he was a victim of homicide, this also cannot be ruled out. Suicide is another possibility that can’t be completely eliminated.
If you know anything, reach out to the NM State Police or Luna County Sheriffs Office at (575) 531-3002.
https://www.namus.gov/UnidentifiedPersons/Case#/7092
https://unidentified-awareness.fandom.com/wiki/Luna_County_John_Doe_(November_2006)
https://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1721umnm.html
2000 Luna County John Doe
This young man felt such despair that he laid his head on the railroad track as a train was coming on August 9, 2000. The train ran him over and he didn’t even move. I can’t imagine the despair it would take to lie on a humming railroad with a train screaming toward you and not move out of instinct. His missing profiles don’t mention anything about a toxicology report so I don’t know if he was under the influence of anything, but his cause of death was listed as suicide by vehicle.
Due to his head being completely destroyed, identification was very difficult. We do know he had black hair and we know he was wearing white socks with yellow stripes, a blue shirt, white sneakers, and a leather necklace with a yellow-rimmed pendant and a picture of a man in it. This necklace would probably be his most identifying feature. He was believed to be white or Hispanic and between 25-30. So young, yet he had given up on life already. He was 5’3” and about 113 pounds, so he was very slight. He was carrying a bag with water bottles and a can of grape juice, which could be used to find the store he purchased them from and possible surveillance footage. Due to his necklace, short stature, and black hair, I’m inclined to believe he was of Hispanic or Native American descent.
With modern-day DNA technology and genealogy, I’m positive he will be identified. His case probably just needs funding and maybe law enforcement in Luna County needs a push toward the right avenues to identify him. It’s not cheap – but this poor man deserves his name back. There isn’t much available about this case so there isn’t much to go on. Circulating pictures of the man on his necklace would be helpful but I couldn’t find any such pictures. I can only feel empathy for this man’s suffering. He is just one of many John Does in Luna County.
If you know anything, please reach out to the Chief Medical Examiner at (505) 272-3053.
https://unidentified-awareness.fandom.com/wiki/Luna_County_John_Doe_(2000)
https://www.namus.gov/UnidentifiedPersons/Case#/7431
https://www.doenetwork.org/cases/3836umnm.html
1996 Bernalillo County Jane Doe
On May 2, 1996, a jogger found Bernalillo Jane Doe in the desert near Tower Road and 98th Street in Albuquerque. This area is in Southwest Albuquerque and was not as developed as it is today. Her body was badly decomposed and was wrapped in trash bags. The top part of the bags were secured with green electrical wire with a copper core. The bottom part was secured with a white quarter-inch-diameter rope. She had been beaten to death and her clothes were still on, suggesting that her murder was not sexually motivated.
This girl was just a teenager, estimated between 14 and 19. She had light brown hair with a touch of red. Based on her facial reconstruction and hair color, I think she may have been Native American or Hispanic. Her skull and left leg were badly fractured, suggesting blunt force trauma had killed her. Her clothes included blue Levi jeans size 30-32, hemmed above the ankles, and torn on the left leg (perhaps as a result of the beating); Sheer Energy support hose; a black lace 32A bra; and a ribbed V-neck “In Charge” brand sweater, size small (color not specified). She was about 5’2” to 5’4” but her body had been decomposed for about a month, so her weight and eye color are undetermined.
There have been no clues about who killed her – or who she is. Her age suggests that she has people somewhere who miss her. Given the massive number of missing indigenous women, it is possible that a Native American family is desperately seeking her. She may have been so far from home that her family hasn’t connected their missing girl to this Jane Doe. This would explain why law enforcement did not find any matches between her and locally reported missing women. It is entirely possible that she is a runaway, perhaps living with transients or working the streets.
That, or there’s a more nefarious reason why her family hasn’t stepped forward to claim her. Her death could have been the result of child abuse. Her family also may not have been very involved in her life. There are many dysfunctional families, ripped apart by substance abuse and trauma, where children are not supervised and loved as much as they deserve.
LE is notorious for neglecting indigenous female cases. It could be that minimal effort has been made to identify her. However, she has a decent list of rule outs, suggesting that at least some effort has been made. I hope that soon someone identifies her so she can get her name back. Maybe identifying her will also help identify her murderer.
If you know anything, please contact the Albuquerque Police Department at: 1-877-765-8273 or 505-768-2450 or 505-768-2020. Reference Case #96-073223.
UPDATE: This Jane Doe has been linked via DNA to family in the Benton County area of Washington and Phoenix. I think she will be identified soon!
1974 Santa Fe County Jane Doe
Santa Fe County Jane Doe was found near US 285 in Santa Fe County, NM, by a couple from Colorado who had taken a trip to New Mexico to pick pinon nuts on December 2, 1974. Her body was pretty fresh and her face was still recognizable when they discovered her.
This is her composite. But in my experience, composites seldom resemble the actual victim, as Dorothy Harrison illustrates. That makes identification very difficult, among many other factors.
This poor girl was murdered in Santa Fe County by manual asphyxiation. She was fully nude, with only a plain yellow-metal hoop earring and a yellow-metal ring. She had white skin, light reddish brown hair, and blue-hazel eyes. She was slender at about 5’2” and 110 pounds. Based on the composite, it seems she had a classic 70s hairstyle with bangs. It is unclear if she was sexually assaulted, but the fact she was nude leaves a sinking feeling in my gut. On top of that, she was only 14-19, suggesting she was a runaway or abducted from home. I strongly suspect she was from out of state, hence why she has been unidentified for so long.
Very little is possible to find about this girl. But her DNA, dental imprints, and fingerprints are all on file. There are no rule outs, but someone somewhere knows who she is. She has laid unidentified and without her name for 48 years. I think it’s about time she got her name back.
If you know anything about this murder or have a suggestion for who the Jane Doe is, please call the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office at 505-925-0524. Reference case #40A-2-1.
https://www.doenetwork.org/cases/407ufnm.html
https://unidentified-awareness.fandom.com/wiki/Santa_Fe_County_Jane_Doe_(1974)
Chaves County John Doe
Workers at the Salvation Army in Roswell, NM, were quite alarmed to uncover a real human skull as they sorted through donations the morning of September 16, 2015. They contacted authorities but the decedent still has not been identified. It is one of Roswell’s creepiest mysteries in my opinion, yet so little information exists about the case online.
The person who donated the skull had been cleaning out a storage locker. They apparently thought the skull was fake, hence why they donated it. I still think it’s disturbing that they didn’t ask more questions and call the police to ascertain that the skull really was fake, though. I wonder if they know more than they are letting on.
Pretty much nothing is known about the skull. It is a complete skull with no other skeletal remains accompanying it, so there’s no hair, no eye color, no clothing, no limbs, nothing to go on. The easiest route to identification may be to investigate the person who owned the storage locker. Of course, DNA can also be extracted from a bone sample and put through a forensic genealogy analysis now.
This skull might not belong to a homicide victim. New Mexico has much ancient history and many Native American burial grounds. Sometimes construction sites unearth skeletal remains and the medical examiner and anthropologists determine the remains are very old and unrelated to any crime. This happened in Ruidoso in 2022, for example. So it could be that some disrespectful person found a very old skull buried somewhere, perhaps even unearthed by wind and rain, and decided to keep it because they thought it was cool.
However, nothing exists online to tell me how old the skull was. I hope that it has at least been analyzed to determine age. If the skull is modern enough, then it could be that a crime was committed. No matter what, the victim deserves to be identified.
If you know anything about this skull, please reach out to the NM State Police or the Chaves County Sheriffs at (575) 624-6500.
https://www.namus.gov/UnidentifiedPersons/Case#/15268
https://unidentified-awareness.fandom.com/wiki/Chaves_County_Doe
The Many Others
According to the Unidentified Wiki, there are over 134 Jane and John Does in New Mexico. There are probably more who haven’t been entered into NamUS and DoeNetwork. Some of these Does are just skeletal remains found in the desert or the woods, and we have no clue what happened to them, such as Mora County John Doe. Some are accident victims, such as the two Dona Ana Jane Does who were struck by vehicles in Las Cruces in 2002 and 2003. Exposure has led to many people being found dead in national parks or the desert or the forest, without anyone stepping forward to claim them. A fair amount of the victims are suicide or suspected suicide. Finally, a handful are obvious homicide victims, and most of these homicides have next to no hope of ever being solved.
There are just too many Does to process their DNA at $20k a decedent. That means that many of these people are going to be unidentified for a long time, if not forever. Unless family members step forward to suggest possible matches and volunteer DNA for comparisons, these people don’t have hope for their names to be recovered or for their deaths to be solved. When it comes to some disadvantaged people, such as homeless or those afflicted with drug addiction or involved in sex work, the number of people looking for them may be slim to none. Some are from out of state and no one is looking for them in NM.
Furthermore, a disturbing number of skeletal remains have been found along known illegal immigrant paths, especially in Hidalgo County. Their deaths are not properly investigated. Their families are left in Mexico or South America, wondering what happened to their loved ones. Many of these remains have ID cards on them but they still have not been officially identified or claimed.
Nothing haunts me more than unidentified bodies. It saddens me that you can die alone and sit in an evidence file or a pauper’s grave for decades with no one to claim you. Even worse, there are family members out there, wondering about where you are.
Let’s take a moment of silence to grieve these people who have no one grieving them. And let’s hope that one day each of them gets their name back and a proper grave.
If you really want to help, suggest some of them to DNASolves and use their expert guidance to start crowdsourcing and fundraising for their identification.
https://unidentified-awareness.fandom.com/wiki/Unidentified_Wiki:Cases_in_New_Mexico