Margaret Pointer

Now I bring to you the 1987 homicide of Margaret Pointer. I don’t write about Alamogordo very often. It’s not that crime doesn’t happen in the town often; just most of the crimes are domestic violence- or drug-related and solved relatively quickly. But Margaret Pointer, like Sharon Lee Gallegos, is an Alamogordo case that has remained unsolved for decades. Recent efforts to reopen Pointer’s case give hope but so far have not led to any astonishing new developments.

Margaret Caroline Pointer was known as Margie to her friends. Pointer disappeared at 6:00 am on November 20, 1987. She was seen having breakfast with a man at the Holiday Inn restaurant on White Sands Boulevard and they even held hands at some point, but then Pointer became upset and snatched her hand away from him. The couple left the restaurant together and Pointer was never seen again. Her 1985 white Nissan was abandoned in the adjacent parking lot.

Pointer left behind a five-year-old boy and a husband who was deployed in Japan with the Air Force. She had dropped her son with a babysitter the morning of November 20, but never returned for him. Though people searched for her relentlessly, there was just no trace of her.

Until March 18, 2004.

A Forest Service crew was thinning forest to lower fire danger on Sunspot Highway when they found a gnawed human bone. The area is part of the Lincoln National Forest in the Sacramento Mountains above Alamogordo, and it is prone to fires. It is a great place to hide a body, as Margaret Pointer had lain there for 17 years without being found.

By the time the forest-thinning crew found Pointer, she had been reduced to a jumble of bones, scattered across five acres and gnawed on by wild animals. Identification was made via dental records and confirmed by the state Medical Examiner on May 27, 2004.

The bones didn’t yield many clues. It is not clear how Pointer died or exactly where she was dumped. But police believe she was abducted from the Holiday Inn parking lot back in 1987 and died a violent death shortly thereafter. 

We don’t actually know who killed Pointer, but there is a very strong suspect. That suspect is Pointer’s lover, Pete Mullins. She was rumored to be having an affair with him while her husband was deployed overseas. The day before Pointer went missing, her co-worker overheard the two arguing passionately about something. They clearly weren’t having a fun time over breakfast when Pointer was last seen, either. 

The same night Pointer disappeared, Mullins showed up at a hunting cabin in the area where her body would eventually be found. He met a few friends there. The men were joking around and taking pictures, and Mullins refused to have his picture taken. He was driving an RV that day, which would be a perfect vehicle in which to transport a body. That RV has never been searched for forensic evidence. Who knows where it is now. 

Detective Lt. Roger Schoolcraft has not given up on solving Pointer’s case. In 2016, he had a FARO laser (normally used in car crash scenes) to recreate the site where Pointer’s body was dumped back in 1987. That could help detectives zero in on what to look for. He also re-interviewed some of her co-workers. Unfortunately, the case is still cold, six years after using the FARO laser and re-interviewing witnesses. 

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/may/25/police-use-new-technology-in-pointers-cold-case/

https://cold-justice-franchise.fandom.com/wiki/Sunspot_Highway