If you go out to the wilderness to commit suicide, would you buy brand new hiking boots and camping gear, get a haircut, buy some property, and enroll in a Master’s program at Santa Barbara beforehand? Would you fill in your VIN number with putty, cut up your ID, and throw away your license plate before heading out into the deep wilderness and shooting yourself? Arsalan Serajian apparently did all of these things before “committing suicide” in a canyon in the Gila Cliff Dwellings park in October 2007.
At least, that’s according to state police. But his family objects to that version of events. They think that Serajian was murdered, possibly by some people he picked up in Truth or Consequences, where he was last seen alive on Super 8 security cam footage. I do think the circumstances of his case are very weird, but I also don’t know if murder is the only rational answer for what happened to him. It is really hard to make sense of this case because of the many oddities surrounding it.
Serajian was twenty-six, an avid hiker, and a computer science student in California. When he came to New Mexico, he had adventure on his mind. He was not into guns, drugs, or radical groups, and he seemed to be pretty cheerful and motivated, at least according to those who knew him well. His family heard from him every month and became concerned when they didn’t hear from him after he went to New Mexico.
He traveled to New Mexico by himself and spent the night of October 6 at a Super 8 in Truth or Consequences, hereafter called T or C for short. He was seen on security cam footage there the morning of October 7. That was the last for sure sighting. In T or C, he bought two quarter pound cheeseburgers when he didn’t normally eat fast food. He also pulled four thousand out of his bank account and also bought camping gear and hiking boots (though it’s not clear if he used the cash for this, or if he had the cash on his body, or if the cash was missing).
We don’t know what he did next. All we know is that is that by October 12, he drove to the Cliff Dwellings, when his car was first seen there. Then there was a possible sighting of him there with his backpack on October 14, a whole week after he was last seen in T or C.
He was reported missing on the 28th of October when staff realized his car had been sitting in the Gila Cliff Dwellings parking lot for 2 weeks. A ranger checked it out and discovered his keys were sitting on the floor and his license plate was missing. That’s when law enforcement were called in.
He was found dead 2 months later in one of the canyons near Woody’s Trail. Cause of death was a shotgun wound to the head.
To give you perspective if you are not familiar with the area, the Gila Cliff Dwellings is a national monument in a remote area of the Gila National Forest. It is reachable only by a very long, windy, twisty two-lane highway climbing up a forested mountain. The highway seems more narrow than normal roads and doesn’t have guardrails. At the top, you reach a large, rectangular parking lot; there is only one way out of the parking lot and that’s back down the highway. There are no other roads leading out of here. It takes many miles to get out of this place, either by car or on foot.
The actual park itself is 533 acres, featuring many hiking trails and springs and natural wonders. There is a small visitor’s center and a ticket hut at the start of a small foot bridge that you must cross to hike uphill to the monument, which features the carved cliffside dwellings of the ancient Mogollon people. The monument is reached by a hiking loop and you have to climb up ladders to get into the cliffside dwellings. There are many other hiking trails throughout the park leading to a variety of beautiful destinations.
Park staff first noticed Serajian’s car in the lot the 12th, which means he arrived at the monument at least 5 days after his last confirmed sighting in T or C. While this seems strange that staff didn’t ask questions about the car just sitting there, please remember that thousands of people visit the Gila Cliff Dwellings, year-round. The staff could easily have overlooked it.
The car was unlocked with the keys left on the floor, which seems fitting for a suicide. The VIN on the window was scratched out, the license plate was missing, and the other VIN was filled with some type of putty. OK, these could be the actions of someone intending to commit suicide, attempting to delay discovery and identification long enough to ensure that he really died. They could also be the actions of a murderer, attempting to delay identification of their victim.
Evidently, someone saw Serajian leaving his car with a backpack on the 14th. That means his car was there 2 days at least before it was left unoccupied. But despite seeing him leaving the car with his backpack, nobody saw him spending time mutilating his car, which does make it seem possible that someone did this after the fact OR these mutilations were done before he even reached the parking lot. But if he did this stuff to his car before driving to the national monument, he took a big risk driving without a license plate. Maybe he mutilated his VIN numbers somewhere, then drove to the parking lot, removed his license plate discreetly somehow so that no one noticed, chucked it in the trashcan on his way up to the trail, and then hiked up to the canyon where he was found dead. I don’t know what happened, no one does, but that’s the first weirdness.
Also, his license plate was never found, so what did he do with it if he removed it himself? It could be he threw it in the trash on his way up the trail. The trash gets changed frequently. Since they didn’t realize the car was abandoned for weeks, that would give the trash plenty of time to be changed several times.
Horses, helicopters, dogs, and search and rescue teams combed the national park area for Serajian without success. It wasn’t until a hiker discovered a shred of an ID card that said “-jian” and turned it into park staff that they knew to search the canyon off of Woody Trail. This is how Serajian, his backpack, two sawed-off shotguns, and a pistol were found in the snow on December 21, 2007.
As far as I can tell from online articles, the rest of Serajian’s ID was never found. It’s possible that he cut up his own ID to try to slow his identification to prevent someone from saving him. Still, it just seems really weird. Like someone intentionally was trying to erase evidence of his existence.
Theories
Now his family believes that the answer to what happened to Serajian lies in his final known night in T or C. That’s because his behavior there was odd for him. They think he may have picked someone up there who killed him.
On the sixth, Serajian pulled four grand out of his account. I have not found any information about whether this cash was on his person or not. That could be motive for a robbery, but this whole thing seems rather elaborate for a robbery. He did buy some expensive camping gear, which was left in the car. Did he use the cash for that? It seems strange for a guy to buy nice camping gear, right before killing himself. Most people wouldn’t do that if they were planning to commit suicide. They might pull out the money to give to charity or to leave with their body for their funeral expenses, but not nice stuff that they would enjoy using.
Before leaving T or C, he bought two cheeseburgers at McDonald’s, when he didn’t normally eat fast food. While that may seem weird to people who knew him, I must point out that I’ve been known to pick up some McDonald’s when traveling and tired, despite my aversion to fast food. I don’t think this is necessarily a clue that someone else was with him. But with the other evidence, it could indicate that.
Serajian also bought an AR-15 when he wasn’t known to be fond of guns, or at least, there was a box in the car for one. I want to mention this AR15 was not with him in the canyon or in his car; it has never been found, period. There was also a beer bottle and a pack of cigarettes in his car, when he didn’t drink or smoke. Now these things do seem really weird. Did he buy the gun because he decided to kill himself? Did he feel threatened, so he bought it for protection? Was he drinking and smoking to cope with some strong emotions? Or did he have someone else with him?
When he was found, he had a pistol and two sawed-off shotguns littered around him. In this case, why would a murderer leave not just one, but three weapons at the crime scene? Generally, guns are pretty expensive and they are also pretty traceable. Leaving one gun to stage the scene to look like a suicide is very plausible. Leaving three…well, that just seems unnecessary and reckless and weird. All three guns were apparently purchased by Serajian.
I want to talk about the AR-15. That’s a semi-automatic rifle, commonly used for hunting or collecting by gun fanatics. There are thirty shots per magazine, making it great for shooting into a herd of running feral hogs or for target practice because you don’t have to continually reload. Why did Serajian even buy this weapon when he wasn’t known to be a big gun guy? The only people I know who own AR-15s are big gun people. Did he just get into guns? Or did he need this gun for some reason? Or was the box there for some reason, but he didn’t actually buy the gun?
Another thing….What about the five days that are unaccounted for? Where was he, what was he doing, and who was he with? Could gas station receipts or security cam footage find him anywhere? Did he visit other parks in New Mexico? Maybe police could check parks and motels and restaurants and gas stations between T or C and Silver City, if they haven’t already. Since they have ruled his death a suicide, this makes me wonder if they have even properly investigated it.
What really puzzles me…if Serajian was murdered by someone from T or C, then why didn’t this person steal his car? How did this person leave the Gila, which is at the end of a very long twisty, windy drive? Unless the killer was willing to take the long hike, it seems inefficient for them to have abandoned the car with the keys on the floor. Maybe they had an accomplice who followed them in a car and drove them out of the Gila Cliff Dwellings parking lot. Which seems like a pretty elaborate plot to kill a man when robbery was not the motive and he was not found to be involved in anything like drugs, gangs, or radical groups that would make him a logical target.
Furthermore, if Serajian met his killers in T or C, why did they wait all the way to the Gila Cliff Dwellings to kill him? The Gila Cliff Dwellings is a good 111 miles from T or C. Sure, the Gila is a little more remote, but there are a lot of tourists there. Killing someone at a motel in T or C actually seems less conspicuous and risky than at a popular tourist spot at a national monument.
True, Serajian did die in a remote canyon and wasn’t found for a long time, which means that his killer or killers chose a good spot to get away with murder. But it just seems weird to travel with someone for 111 miles, march them out to a spot in a popular tourist destination, shoot them dead, litter guns around them, cut up their license, and then leave without taking their car. Plus, you’ve got a lot of days that are unaccounted for between when Serajian was last seen in T or C and when his car was first spotted in the Gila Cliff Dwellings. We don’t know if he went directly from T or C to the Gila Cliff Dwellings or if he took a detour first. So I just don’t think he picked someone up in T or C. There’s no evidence of it.
It seems more likely that Serajian was killed by somebody he met at the Gila Cliff Dwellings, somebody who had their own transportation from the spot. Why he was killed is still unclear, but it could have been a random creep who decided to target him, maybe a racial hate crime. Maybe he was getting involved in some sort of radical religious or political weirdness, hence the guns he was purchasing, and he met someone at the Dwellings involved in that stuff who put an end to him.
Another theory that popped into my head is that Serajian got a little too into survivalism. This could explain his choice to buy the AR-15 and the camping gear. He was going to live out at the park and shoot himself dinner. He didn’t want to be found and to return to society and the school year waiting for him, so he chose to cut up his ID and to sabotage identifiers on his car. In fact, he had been reading Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer prior to his death, which may have inspired some of this behavior. He had also enrolled in summer classes in Santa Barbara the year he died but didn’t show up for classes, suggesting he was dissatisfied with his schooling and yearned for something else in life.
But the problem with this theory is….why didn’t he take his expensive camping gear with him to sleep in, if he was headed out into the wilderness to live? Why did he pick a heavily traveled tourist destination for this venture instead of a much more remote area of national forest, such as the Mineral Creek area or Turkey Creek Wilderness Area, both of which are close to the Gila Cliff Dwellings (and home to a few survivalist types)? And, of course, why did he shoot himself in the head?
I don’t know what happened to Arsalan Serajian and I probably never will. This seems like one of those super complex cases that will never be solved. I just know that Serajian suffered a lot at the end. Whether he shot himself or he found himself staring down the barrel of a shotgun wielded by someone else, the terror, despair, and pain he must have felt is beyond my comprehension. His family continues to suffer from a lack of answers. In the vacuum of unknowing, they think the very worst, which is only normal. I wish they could find some answers and closure.
If you take the principle of Occam’s Razor and apply it to this case, you have a man who hiked out to the middle of nowhere with three guns. He died of a gunshot wound to the head, from a bullet that matched one of the weapons found with him. Steps were taken to delay his identification. There was no sign anybody was with him at any point on his trip; the people who saw him on the trail reported he was alone. Suicide just seems like the easiest explanation and that’s the conclusion the state police reached. But his family isn’t buying it and I’m not sure that I am, either. Prove to me he killed himself and I’ll believe it. Without proof, the possibility of foul play is still there.
Serajian was laid to rest near his family in Kentucky on Christmas Day in 2007. What a horrible Christmas present. Anyone with information should call Serajian’s father at (606) 477-6217 or the New Mexico State Police District 4 office in Las Cruces at (575) 827-9309.
https://www.abqjournal.com/19825/updated-at-920am-body-of-missing-man-found-in-gila.html
https://www.reed.edu/reed-magazine/in-memoriam/obituaries/september2010/arsalan-serajian-2004.html