I remember when Jose Flores first went missing. It was all over the news on June 26, 2017. I knew a few people on the search and rescue teams that got called out all night to comb the woods near Ruidoso’s Hale Lake for him. It would take almost 2 years for him to be found on April 5, 2019. His remains were in an unspecified “remote area,” not that far from Hale Lake, where he had last been seen alive.
Jose had gone to Hale Lake on June 25, a Sunday, hours before he was due at work. He supposedly went out there with a friend to look for antler sheds. This is odd, considering antler sheds drop between January and March, and they are eaten by rodents relatively fast, so you don’t wait until June to look for them. March is the ideal shed hunting season. I don’t think they were out there looking for antler sheds, honestly. Furthermore, Jose’s family said that he was not really the outdoorsy type.
Around 6 am Monday morning, the friend called his father for a ride and returned home safely without Jose, which is certainly suspicious. The friend claimed that they went down separate paths and he never saw Jose again. I am curious what he was doing all night out in the woods. Did he and Jose bring camping gear?
Jose’s white Nissan pathfinder and cell phone were found in the area. The cell phone was downloaded and the car was combed for evidence. Why didn’t Jose take his phone with him? Service is spotty in the area, but you can still get a signal some places, and his friend clearly had his phone and got a signal strong enough to call his dad for a ride. So it is weird that Jose left his phone in his car.
It is also weird that his friend didn’t try to search for him. Almost like the friend knew exactly where Jose was….
Jose missed work on Sunday which is when people became concerned. The search for him began on Monday using helicopters, horses, and dogs. It only lasted two days before it was called off by Lincoln County Sheriff, Robert Shepard. No wonder Jose was not found for two years. Those two years allowed his body and the possible crime scene to decompose to the point where crucial evidence may have been lost.
On the surface, this does sound like a simple case of someone getting lost in the wilderness and succumbing to the elements. But Jose’s death is classified as a homicide. The actual cause of death has not been released. His family is sure something bad happened to him in the Lincoln National Forest. Some people online speculate his death had to do with drugs, but I do not know if Jose was involved in anything like that. He was only 26.