New Mexico True Crime

Welcome to Part 3 of my series on New Mexico unidentified bodies. Here are a few more cases that I think could be solved. Read my other posts on this topic: Part 1 and Part 2. 2015 Wagon Mound John Doe Wagon Mound John Doe has a real chance at being identified because he has… Read more: The Unnamed: New Mexico Unidentified Bodies Pt. 3

When I first read about Upham Girl, all people knew about her was that she was a skeleton found under a tarp by rabbit hunters near the Upham exit of I25, close to Hatch, NM. Her body was discovered on March 10, 1985. She had curly blonde hair and blonde pubic hair. She had a… Read more: Dorothy Harrison: Formerly Upham Girl

If you look up New Mexico Jane Does, you will most likely come across Becca, or the 1991 Albuquerque Jane Doe. This unidentified decedent was found hanging from a metal showerhead by a suitcase strap in the Super 8 Motel on Central, Albuquerque. She was found alone in her room by a motel security guard… Read more: “Becca” or the 1991 Albuquerque Jane Doe

Today I bring to you part 2 of the Unnamed, about unidentified decedents in New Mexico. Unidentified bodies keep getting discovered in our state, and law enforcement cannot keep up with them. Scrolling through NamUs for New Mexico is depressing. A lot of families out there are hurting for answers, and a lot of victims… Read more: The Unnamed: New Mexico Unidentified Bodies Pt. 2

Ten years before the Sena children disappeared from Albuquerque, a little girl named Patricia Joan Chesher disappeared. Patricia Joan Chesher was only twelve when she apparently disappeared into thin air. This sad case has several persons of interest, indicating the dangerous life this little girl was forced to lead. However, no one has ever been… Read more: The Baffling Disappearance of Patricia Joan Chesher

Mary Lou Sena and Billy Sena have been missing since September 22, 1979. Their case is one of Albuquerque’s oldest cold cases. No one knows what happens to these kids, but there is a strong suspect, a former boyfriend of Billy Sena’s mother. A statute of limitations prevents charges from being filed so justice will… Read more: The Sena Children: Runaways or Victims of Violence?

The murder of Ovida Coogler, better known as Cricket Coogler, is one of Las Cruces’s oldest cold cases. She disappeared on March 30 or 31, 1949, and was found in the desert 17 days later. While her murder has never been solved, the aftermath has made history.  Coogler left work at the Deluxe Cafe, now… Read more: The Mysterious Death of Cricket Coogler

Every once in a while, I like to visit New Mexico cold cases. I hope to find updates, but usually, there are none. I hope that by highlighting these cases, I may draw attention to them and maybe even encourage someone to come forward with something, anything. You can see my first two New Mexico… Read more: Bizarre New Mexico Cold Cases Pt. 3

Marian Arietta Cordell Chandler, who went by Arietta, was known by her friends as a fun-loving person. She would do anything for a fun time. She once bought her friends roller skates just to go out skating for an afternoon. A Santa Fe native, she had a lot of friends, a husband, and many pets.… Read more: The Awful Rape and Murder of Arietta Chandler

Ashley Rosales is a woman missing from Belen. She was last seen by her sister Amity when they had an argument and Ashley stormed away on September 9, 2017. Someone else allegedly saw her on September 16. But she has been missing since. Ashley is half Hispanic, half Native American. She was 29 when she… Read more: Ashley Rosales

“This one will not be unsolved,” said Torrance County Sheriff, Ron Grist. Famous last words. Because Dorothy Jean Sturges was shot in her living room in Estancia on December 6, 1990, and her death is still unsolved all these years later. Dorothy Jean Sturges, better known as Jean, was found by her cleaning lady the… Read more: The Murder of Jean Sturges

Who killed Tammy Terrell, and why? This beautiful seventeen-year-old from Roswell disappeared on September 28, 1980. She was dropped off at the State Fair in Roswell and later sighted at a Denny’s in Roswell with an unidentified white couple around 10 pm. Somehow, police know that she was talking about going to California with the… Read more: Tammy Terrell: The Arroyo Grande Jane Doe for 41 Years

Here are another list of strange New Mexico cold cases. If you know anything, please call Crimestoppers at 505-843-STOP. You never know what small details might solve a case and give a family closure after many years of wondering. Michelle Nina Sanchez Michelle Nina Sanchez was found nude on the I40 mile marker 230 exit… Read more: Bizarre New Mexico Cold Cases Part 2

I think it is bizarre how some people just go missing without a single trace. Whatever became of them is just a giant question mark. Like Barbara Holik, Atonette Antonia “Toni” Padilla is one such case. She vanished without a trace from her Silver City home on July 3, 2020. There has been no sign… Read more: Antonette Antonia Toni Padilla

This triple homicide in El Rancho, NM, is not well-known by many people in New Mexico. Yet it is one of the worst crimes I have ever heard about. A psychopathic sixteen-year-old named Nicholas Ortiz killed three members of his friend’s family with a pickaxe on June 19, 2011. His motive? Apparently, robbery. Cherie Ortiz-Rios… Read more: The Ortiz Pickaxe Murders

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… Read more: Margaret Pointer

The assassination of Deputy Juan Ortiz is proof that New Mexico still held onto its Wild West roots, long after the dust had settled from the Rough and Ready Riders and long after Billy the Kid took his last shuddering breath. It can still be wild sometimes today. This tragic revenge tale left many people… Read more: Deputy Juan Ortiz

This is a strange double murder that happened in Los Lunas in April 2004. The victims were Eddie Verdugo and Joyleen Chavez. The two were living together but not married when they were assassinated in their Los Lunas home. The killer still hasn’t been apprehended and not many details are available about their case.  On… Read more: Eddie Verdugo and Joyleen Chavez and The East Side Locos

When a hiker found a skeleton and a sun-bleached plastic purse in the desert in 1994, he had no idea he had just cracked open a seven-year-old missing persons case. The body of Helen Torres Chavez had been baked by the sun and gnawed by animals for years in the desolation of the Alamo Reservation.… Read more: Helen Torres Chavez

Lisa Wortman’s death and dismemberment was one of the worst in Albuquerque history. Amazingly, few people know about this crime. It is officially unsolved all these years later. Lisa Wortman had dreams of going to law school before that was all taken from her. She was an ambitious, well-liked UNM student with a bright future.… Read more: Lisa Wortman: The Girl in a Sewer

This is an upsetting one. Carlos Garver was a homeless man living in Albuquerque in the 1980s. People knew him as “Rags” or “Ragman.” He was known to be eccentric. He tended to hang out in the UNM area, panhandling.  On March 5, 1988, Garver was sleeping in a crude shelter he had constructed behind… Read more: Carlos “The Ragman” Garver

What the hell happened to Shawn Allen Tise? Shawn Allen Tise was only 23 when he left his sister’s house in Las Cruces on January 6, 1995. He wasn’t seen alive again. His sister lived near the Robledo Mountains, which are close to Radium Springs and a common hiking destination.  A family decided to go… Read more: Shawn Allen Tise

Rodney Jones‘s death has always deeply unsettled me. It is probably one of the first cases that I stumbled on accidentally that got me into true crime. I think Rodney Jones deserves his name back – because Rodney Jones is just a guess at his real name.  Rodney Jones is a John Doe. His well-decomposed… Read more: Chained to a Telephone Pole: Rodney Jones

What made Carlos Herrera murder two innocent teenagers on a Good Friday pilgrimage? No one knows – not even Carlos himself. I happen to know one of Herrera’s cousins and she said he told family later on, “I don’t know why I did it.” Eventually he died in jail and the truth of his motive… Read more: Carlos Herrera and the Good Friday Pilgrimage Slaying

Ricky Abeyta’s January 26, 1991, massacre in Chimayo is one of the freakiest and deadliest in New Mexico history. Yet few people have heard about him, or about his victims. Those who remember what he did get choked up as they think of the horror and pain he inflicted on so many people. Abeyta had… Read more: Ricky Abeyta and the Chimayo Massacre

New Mexico has had its fair share of serial killers over the years. But one of the first documented serial killers soiling our beautiful state was Charles Kennedy. Kennedy was the owner of an inn in Elizabethtown, near Cimarron. The guests who checked in there never left.  By 1870, New Mexico was in the midst… Read more: Charles Kennedy of Elizabethtown: New Mexico’s First Serial Killer

Most of the murder victims you read about are described as sunny, upbeat people who “really lit up the room” or similar such things. But these things are not said about Lana Williamson. In fact, papers describe her as having a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde personality. Lana  was a transient woman who did not… Read more: Lana Williamson: Hated in Life, Forgotten in Death

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… Read more: The 1978 Guadalupe Jane Doe

Joseph Earl Sneed was only 19 when he found his parents shot to death in their Silver City home on August 18, 1964. His father was Joseph Alvie Sneed, 46, and his mother was Ella May Sneed, 41. The autopsy found that the couple had been shot with a .22 handgun that has never been… Read more: The Sneed Double Murder

Who murdered Mattie and Patty? And why kill two little girls having a night of fun? What happened to Teresa Reyes? When police trace the number hidden in the teddy bear? What happened to Esther Valdez? Will the man she disappeared with ever be investigated properly? Did Christopher Welch kill Micaela Torres-Avila? Why is he… Read more: The NM Cases I Really Want to See Get Solved

Though most of my entries center around New Mexico, El Paso is often jokingly regarded as part of New Mexico. “New Mexico can have it,” some Texans say. There are a few older El Paso homicides from the 1960s that have captured my interest. So, join me for a change in scenery and let’s review… Read more: Weird Old El Paso Cases that are Colder than Cold

These two Santa Fe cold cases are quite likely related. They seem too intertwined to be mere coincidence. Tamara Britton first disappeared in August, 1984. But when her former roommate Teal Pittington vanished just days later only to eventually be found dead, the case got even weirder. Unexpected twists and turns in the case leave… Read more: The Identity Thief and the Murder Victim: The Tale of Tamara Britton and Teal Pittington

Two women vanished from the same house on Wheeler Street in Albuquerque, five months apart. Lisa Duncan was found in a shallow grave and she had died a horrific death. Velda Leyba’s body has never been found but the search for her uncovered two female skeletons in a South Valley field. What was going on… Read more: The Murders on Wheeler Street: Velda Leyba and Lisa Duncan

A SunTran bus driver showed up at Harriet Moldov-Taylor’s Albuquerque apartment on September 27, 2003, to take her for her dialysis appointment. He entered her apartment out of concern when she didn’t answer the door, for she had already missed two dialysis appointments. He was horrified to find the 56-year-old disabled woman on her floor,… Read more: Harriet Moldov-Taylor

Ann Linda Riffin’s story reminds me a bit of both Jennifer Pentilla and Melissa Crabtree. Ann Linda Riffin was a 33-year-old woman with the heart of a young girl and a taste for adventure, who had recently moved to New Mexico from New Jersey to try something new. She was last seen on September 13,… Read more: The Baffling Disappearance of Ann Linda Riffin

Reading about people who have disappeared in New Mexico, I was disturbed at how so many seemed to vanish into thin air, leaving just a vehicle and some belongings behind. What happens to these people? Will they ever be found? These creepy cases have left more questions than answers. Many surviving loved ones are left… Read more: Disappeared, Just a Car Left Behind

Robert Marcos Romero’s case is one of those infuriating ones where the perpetrator is pretty obvious, but justice will never be done. Robert Romero, or Robbie, was only seven years old when he vanished while walking to a friend’s house in Santa Fe in 2000. In the years since, his case has remained unsolved and… Read more: The Heartbreaking Story of Robbie Romero

You have undoubtedly heard of the West Mesa Bone Collector. But did you know that Albuquerque had another suspected serial killer in 1987-88? This man’s MO was running over young women around Albuquerque and leaving them in the road to die. He claimed 3 victims and severely injured and emotionally scarred 4 others. The first… Read more: The Hit and Run Killer of Albuquerque

Most of the time, I think the West Mesa Bone Collector was Lorenzo Montoya. Now that he’s dead, he’s out of the way and the killings have stopped. But other times, I don’t think the West Mesa Bone Collector is a serial killer preying on women alone, as so many people think. Sometimes, I think… Read more: Something Fishy About the West Mesa Bone Collector Murders

In 2006, Melissa Romero was found shot to death on a couch at 302 E Reed St., Roswell. In 2015, four people were found shot in the home, only one of whom survived. What the hell is going on at this house?  Unfortunately, the goings-on at this tiny, unassuming house in South Roswell offer a… Read more: 302 E Reed St.

Today I bring to you the heartbreaking case of Teresa Reyes.  Teresa, better known as Terry, was just 17 when she left her parents’ apartment to go party with some “gangster types with shaved heads” on July 1, 1998. Though she had run away from home before, she always stayed in touch with her mother,… Read more: Teresa Reyes and the Secret in the Teddy bear

Esther Valdez has been missing from Chama since 1984. She would be 49 now. Her story is an odd one and answers do not appear to be forthcoming. In 1984, Esther was 17 and just beginning to taste the life of a young adult. She enjoyed partying and drinking. She also had a job as… Read more: The Disappearance of Esther Valdez

Cindy Ray was so excited to have a daughter as she arrived at her prenatal appointment. Little did she know that Darci Pierce was lying in wait.

Robert Fry is the very embodiment of colonial racism in Farmington. This is Part 2 of a 3-part series on the dark underbelly of Farmington.   Joseph Fleming, age 24, was tasked with working at the Eclectic on Thanksgiving 1996, already an unpleasant prospect. Matthew Trecker decided to stop by that night, as he was a… Read more: Bloodlust and Racism: Robert Fry and Leslie Engh

Farmington seems like a nice place on the surface. But it has an unusually high number of missing and murdered people, especially Native Americans. When will justice be served?

Today I bring to you a weird mystery from the Four Corners area…a mystery of 3 fugitives on a murdering and robbing rampage, or rather, the mystery of what happened to them and what they had planned. This is the bizarre and entirely true story of the Four Corners Fugitives. First off, who are the… Read more: The Four Corners Fugitives

If you need a roommate, you try your best to find someone sane that you can bare living with. Sometimes it doesn’t work out like that, though. Roommate situations are seldom easy or ideal, but in these cases, they wound up being deadly. Here are some of New Mexico’s worst roommate stories. Robert James Lustig… Read more: Deadly Roommates

The San Juan River Murders are a fascinating example that decades-old cases can be solved. But they are notoriously hard to prosecute.

Jonathon Garnand and Devone Blake were only 19 when they were murdered. Garnand’s mother was tormented for over a year by the killers. Why did it take so long to catch them?

AJ Griffyn moved to Albuquerque to be near where Breaking Bad was filmed. He didn’t anticipate what was waiting for him in the simmering New Mexico desert.

Jose Flores vanished under suspicious circumstances near Ruidoso, NM. His body was found almost 2 years later. And something doesn’t add up.

You may have heard about the Fountain Murders…one of New Mexico’s oldest known mysteries. But you probably haven’t heard about Frenchy’s murder in Dog Canyon, which is believed to be orchestrated by the same person as the Fountain Murders. Here are these two old mysteries, revealing that crime and greed are not new but instead… Read more: The Fountain Murders and Frenchy’s Cabin

Today, I somberly bring to you the horrific case of Linda Lee Daniels. Like Carly Martinez and Arietta Chandler, Linda Lee Daniels was just living her life, doing nothing wrong, when she was murdered by a group of men. Daniels was a gifted anthropology student at the University of New Mexico. She was pretty and smart.… Read more: Linda Lee Daniels

On a long road trip from Austin, I drove through the Hondo Valley at night on Highway 380, sometime in 2010 or 2011. The rocks in the tall cliffs lining the highway practically glowed white in the moonlight. I remember feeling uneasy and thinking this valley was creepy. I couldn’t get through it fast enough.… Read more: Murder in the Quiet Hondo Valley

An Albuquerque resident complained of a stench emanating from the trunk of a Chevy Sprint parked in their apartment complex in April 1999. When authorities opened the trunk, they found the decomposing body of Stephane Murphey, who had been reported missing on April 18, 1999. She had been raped, strangled with own stretchy workout pants,… Read more: Watch Out for David Bologh, Rapist, Murderer, and Abuser of Women

Janice McKerrow was a 14-year-old middle school student, slain by another 14-year-old student and left dead beside a road with her skull crushed. As a parent, Janice’s story scares me like no other. Her tragic story proves what none of us want to acknowledge – that killers and rapists are not monsters hiding in the… Read more: Janice McKerrow: A Child Killed By Another Child

When I first heard about this case in 2018, Zakaria Fry had not been identified yet. The news said that a rancher in Stanley, NM, near Santa Fe, found the dismembered remains of a woman in a trash box on his property. Police then found another body of a man nearby. The bodies were unidentified… Read more: Zakaria Fry and Eugene Ray

Norma Sahm was from Alamogordo. In 1987, at the age of 17, she was frequently in trouble for truancy. The courts sentenced her to live for two years at a group home for troubled youth in Albuquerque called Hogares Youth Facility.  On June 13, 1987, Norma’s mother Judi Sahm received a call from the group… Read more: Norma Denise Sahm: Home After 18 Years

Paul Apodaca confessed to killing 3 women and raping 3 women. But some things about his confession don’t add up.

In the 1980s, there was a rash of violent slayings of Albuquerque sex workers. The violence was again noted in the early aughts, when sex workers started going missing in droves and then eleven of them were found in a mass grave in the West Mesa. At least 11 more missing sex workers from this… Read more: The 1990s Sex Worker Slayings

In April 2010, one of the worst murders in Las Cruces history occurred: the Delisle Triple Murder. Three respectable people, Gilles Delisle, Helga Delisle, and Peter J. Weith, were shot inside a home in Mesilla Hills. The motive? Money.  Gilles Delisle was a 69-year-old inventor and businessman. He had received a heart transplant from an… Read more: Greed Is the Devil: The Delisle Triple Murder

Victoria Martens I really, really don’t want to write about this case. So forgive me for making it short. Little Victoria Marten’s death was one of the most harrowing in New Mexico and it was traumatic for most of us. The fact her killer is still at large makes us all sick and worried for… Read more: The Heinous Death of Victoria Martens

Debra Lansdell is another missing New Mexico woman. She vanished just three years prior to Tara Calico from the same area. It is unknown if the cases are connected. All these years later, Lansdell still hasn’t been found. This New Mexico nurse deserves justice. Sadly, her case has not been as publicized as Tara Calico’s… Read more: Let’s Find Debra Lansdell

Kenneth Bolagh was abducted in August of 2021 and later found dead, but police refuse to investigate it as a homicide. The evidence begs to differ. Maria Jacquez, Kenneth’s mother, is pushing for Kenneth Bolagh’s death to be taken seriously. I was honestly boggled by this case and I don’t even know what to say.… Read more: What the Hell Happened to Kenneth Bolagh?

Who murdered Tim Edwards? He didn’t have any enemies. In fact, he was known as a very nice man. He was just going about his business, carrying hay home to his little ranch near Silver City, when someone drug him out of his truck and slit his throat to the spine. He didn’t deserve this… Read more: Tim Edwards: A Man with No Enemies

November 29, 1999 was the day Carla Simmons was battered and left to freeze to death in the mouth of the Sandia Man Cave. Her van was stuck in some buckled asphalt on the road and ruts showed her desperate attempts to get it free. At some point that night, someone got to her –… Read more: Carla Simmons: A Mother Murdered

Robbie Stroup was only 15 when he went missing in Moriarty in October 2002. In November 2002, a farmer found a human head in his cornfield. Authorities found other coyote-chewed remains in the vicinity. They were positively identified as Robbie Stroup’s. This is the story of Robbie Stroup, and the absolute joke of “justice” that… Read more: Robbie Stroup: A Travesty in Justice

Have you ever been to the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, better know as the Taos Gorge Bridge? The gorge is about twelve miles long and 650 feet deep, carved into the surrounding high desert by the Rio Grande. It lies about ten miles south of Taos. Running across the Gorge is the famous Rio Grande… Read more: The Dark Side of the Taos Gorge Bridge

Today I bring to you some mysterious and bizarre New Mexico cold cases. These cases perplex me, mainly due to the few details available. I’m not sure if the police have more details, or if the cases are unsolved due to the lack of details. It is hard to use deductive reasoning and critical thinking… Read more: Bizarre New Mexico Cold Cases Pt. 1

Barbara Holik was a 33-year-old German-born woman who lived in Taos. She made jewelry and pottery and worked at an art gallery called Spruce’s Taos Pueblo Gallery. Described as shy and quiet, she still had a healthy social life and a big smile. She was also very artistic and fit right in with the local… Read more: Barbara Holik: German Artist Missing from Taos for Almost 30 Years

Jennifer Pentilla vanished while riding her bike in New Mexico in 1991. What happened to her, and where are her body, her bike, and her sleeping bag?

NMSU is my alumni university. I have fantastic memories of my time there and the fun, unique people I met. I also remember the ever-present threat of sexual assault and I try to avoid touching on the pulsing emotional wound of my own sexual assault.  One night, while hanging out with some friends in my… Read more: Violence against Women at NMSU

“There is something wrong here.” Those were the words of rookie cop Stephen Sandlin, just days before he was murdered in the Mountainair Police Station. Sandlin was proud to follow his dad’s footsteps and become a cop. He thought he would genuinely make a difference in the world and put bad guys away. Instead, he… Read more: Mystery in Mountainair: The Murder of Rookie Cop Stephen Sandlin

I don’t know what I would do if one of my children was murdered. I can’t imagine the pain. The parents of David and Nichole Ortiz had to endure that horrific pain twice. Both of their children were murdered two years apart. No one has been convicted of either murder. David Ortiz, Jr.  David Ortiz,… Read more: The Ortiz Siblings: Too Much Pain for a Family to Have to Bear

I’m not sure why three men named Joseph Moreno were murdered mysteriously in New Mexico in the 2000s. But these cases are very disturbing and violent. One of these murders remains unsolved. Apparently, this was a bad-luck name in that time frame. I wish I had more information about these murder victims, but details are… Read more: The Three Murder Victims Named Joseph Moreno

I am sad to write about another woman named Jean who went missing in New Mexico. However, unlike Jean Johnson who has not yet been found, Jean Abla was found dead off of Interstate 40, north of San Jon, in May 1983. Jean Abla was last seen on October 6, 1982. The OMI determined her… Read more: Jean Abla: Another Victim of the Confession Killer

Questa is a tiny Taos County village on the edge of the Kit Carson National Forest, a rich mountainous forest in Northern New Mexico. The nearest towns are Red River and Taos, popular destinations for hunting, camping, hiking, and skiing. Questa is a beautiful place, and it is tight knit and small. Everyone knows everyone. While… Read more: The Quiet of Questa: Allowing Murders to Go Unsolved

Have you heard about Charles Cox, or the 1960s Texas Torso Murders? Not many people know about these heinous unsolved crimes from 1959-1964. Their sheer awfulness definitely warrants more attention. I only just recently discovered these murders and now I’m obsessed. I really want these horrible murders to be solved. Several of the victims have… Read more: Charles Cox and the 1960s Texas Torso Murders

With all the craze about Dahmer after the new Netflix feature dropped, I started to think about the Foxes Lounge Killer of Albuquerque. He’s not actually called the Foxes Lounge Killer; in fact, he may not exist at all. But in the late 90s, 8 Albuquerque homicides bore striking similarities. The Albuquerque Journal picked up… Read more: The Foxes Lounge Killer

Have you heard about Mattie Catherine Restine and Patty Sue Pritz? I think their double murder is one of the most troubling unsolved crimes in the state. Not many people know about this double murder from 1961, but they should. So this is the story of Mattie and Patty, two innocent girls who were cruelly… Read more: Mattie and Patty: Carlsbad’s Cruelest Cold Case

Quemado is a tiny village in the middle of windswept plains and knobby pink rock formations in western New Mexico. It is about 125 miles south of Albuquerque and an hour east from Springerville, AZ on Highway 60. Not much is there, beyond some decrepit adobes and trailers, a dingy mechanic’s garage, a gas station,… Read more: A Dark 3 Years in Quemado: The 1990s Quemado Slayings

Previously I wrote about the rash of women who were killed in Albuquerque in the 1980s. In the same time period, there was a disturbing rash of disappearances and murders of women in Santa Fe, too. The 1980s became known as “The Decade of Fear” in Santa Fe, as twelve women were murdered or went… Read more: The Santa Fe Slayings: A Decade of Fear

The West Mesa Bone Collector has never been caught. It is truly disturbing to think that he could still be out there, preying on other women. I worry that he, or someone like him, might hurt me, my daughter, or any other woman that I care about.  The women that he killed were all daughters,… Read more: The Creeps Behind the West Mesa Serial Killings

You have probably heard about the West Mesa Bone Collector, a prolific serial killer in Albuquerque. If you haven’t, here is a write-up that can bring you up to speed. Here is a list of the victims and a glimpse into their lives. I’m not going to cover the whole case simply because so many… Read more: The West Mesa Bone Collector’s Unfound

The disappearance of the Heberer and Lorius couples is one of New Mexico’s oldest cold cases. In 1935, George Lorius, Laura Lorius, Albert Heberer, and Tillie Heberer all left their home in Illinois for the vacation of a lifetime. They intended to visit the Hoover Dam, then called the Boulder Dam, which was newly built… Read more: Lost Skeletons in the Desert: Heberer and Lorius

Her name was Sharon Lee Gallegos. But for decades, the world knew her as Little Miss Nobody. In 2022, that changed when advanced DNA technology gave the little girl her name back. What happened to this little girl from Alamogordo, New Mexico? Nobody knows but her killers; all we do know is that Sharon Lee… Read more: Sharon Lee Gallegos: Little Miss Nobody for 62 Years

Girly Chew Hossencraft’s story is truly heartbreaking and bizarre. Girly Chew was a lovely young woman, who died at the hands of her whacked-out conspiracy-buff husband and his equally disturbed mistress. Though her husband and his mistress have been convicted of her murder, her body has yet to be found.  From Malaysia originally, Girly moved… Read more: Where Is Girly Chew Hossencrofft?

Janis Pulliam was a 43-year-old La Cueva High School employee and a mother of two. Recently divorced from her husband, she decided to take a two-day trip to Elephant Butte with a “special someone.” That proved to be the fatal mistake of her life.  Janis left on July 10, 1989. She left a note that… Read more: Janis Pulliam and How Murder Haunts the Generations

Have you heard about the vicious double murder of Judy and Thomas “Cotton” McKnight? It’s a wild tale of deep-rooted corruption and deliberate obfuscation, missing evidence and mishandling of fingerprints, and more. There are clear suspects that have never been properly investigated. Meanwhile, this case has grown moldy in the State Police evidence room. So… Read more: Judy and Cotton McKnight: A Tale of Police Corruption and Cold-Blooded Murder

My wonderful friend, KC Bonnell, sold me the perpetual digital license to this photo: I want to thank KC for this. KC is a talented New Mexico photographer and artist, with a deep love for the Sacramento mountains. I highly recommend his photography and digital art. You can look at his cool art and photography… Read more: The Pinto Train Depot

Truth or Consequences, NM, is a quiet, small town on the I25 corridor, between Las Cruces and Socorro. It is best known for its hot springs. In fact, it was called Hot Springs until 1950, when radio show host Ralph Howards promised to air his show Truth or Consequences from any town that changed its… Read more: The Toy Box Killer: Where Are the Bodies?

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… Read more: The Unnamed: New Mexico Unidentified Bodies

The December 1995 Torreon Cabin Murders left New Mexico in horror. Ben Anaya, Jr., and Cassandra Sedillo were executed at close range while they slept in bed. Cassandra’s two little boys were then locked in the cabin to starve to death over the next few weeks. It would not be until April 14, 1996 when… Read more: Pure Evil Parading as People: The Torreon Cabin Murders

How do you just vanish into thin air? Leaving only his car behind in a place it wasn’t supposed to be, Geoffrey Spangler has been missing without a trace since November 8, 2021. His parents are frantically looking for him. It always perplexes me when I read about someone who vanishes without a trace, especially… Read more: Geoffrey Spangler: Vanished Into Thin Air in the Southern NM Desert

Chests bursting with gold and jewels, skeletons languishing in the darkness, a secret government coverup, and Watergate. The Victorio Peak Treasure Tale has it all. The legend of gold in Victorio Peak is one of the most intriguing gold legends in New Mexico, and it endures to this day, with Ova Noss’s family still fighting… Read more: Doc Noss and the Victorio Peak Treasure

One of the greatest New Mexico mysteries (in my humble opinion anyway) is the legendary disappearance of folk singer and songwriter Jim Sullivan. This story sounds fake, but it is 100% true. Let’s dive in! Jim Sullivan: Who He Was Jim Sullivan was an interesting person. He rode the wave of 1960s psychedelic folk rock… Read more: Carried Away by a UFO: The Story of Jim Sullivan

If you are a true crime junkie, then you have probably heard the name “Tara Calico” before. This missing Belen lady had her whole life ahead of her when she went for a bike ride on September 20, 1988, along Highway 47 in Valencia County. But then something happened to her and she has never… Read more: My Sweet Audrina in the Back of a Van: The Story of the Missing New Mexico Sweetheart Tara Calico

I am sad to write about yet another indigenous woman who vanished without a trace. Fortunately, Pepita is one of the few victims in my blog who seems to have a solid backstory to her personality and her life before she seemingly vanished into thin air. The likely culprit is pretty obvious, too, though of… Read more: Pepita Redhair: Vanished in Albuquerque

I’ll bet you have heard of the West Mesa Bone Collector, an uncaught serial killer of sex workers in Albuquerque in the early 2000s. But are you aware that in the 1980s, there was a rash of murders of Albuquerque women who worked Central as well? Yup, the same thing happened in the 1980s as… Read more: A Serial Killer or Just a Sick Society?: the 1980s Albuquerque Prostitute Murders

When someone just disappears, loved ones typically assume something is wrong. After all, disappearances aren’t normal. But law enforcement are the first to say that missing loved ones usually turn up. Maybe they just wanted some alone time. Maybe they got lost. Maybe they made plans and forgot to communicate. Maybe something bad did happen… Read more: Jean Johnson: Aliens, Alzheimer’s, or Cougars