This is one of the cases that I hold close to my heart because I am from Las Cruces originally, I have bowled at the alley where these murders happened, and my mom later told me how children were murdered in there. It broke my heart right open and I never went back to that building. I want to see this solved before I die. There are composites, fingerprints, and maybe even DNA that can be tested with our improved technology. I really think it could be solved. Maybe it hasn’t been because somebody really doesn’t want it to be.
While this massacre occurred in 1990, it haunts Las Cruces to this day. Some people drive past the building on 1201 E Amador and genuflect. Candlelit vigils were held in front of the building for a long time after the crimes.
The building has been vacant since June 2018. And the crime sits unsolved in case folders and evidence boxes, gathering dust like the bowling equipment inside 1201 Amador. It’s been over thirty years since the Las Cruces Bowling Alley Massacre. There was ample forensic evidence and a few eyewitness accounts, yet no movement forward. The case is still open, but will it ever be solved?
There were many victims of the massacre: the five who died, the three who were injured, and the many family members and friends of the victims who had their hearts shattered that day.
The Las Cruces Bowling Alley Massacre
Only four people were inside Las Cruces Bowl at 1201 E Amador at 8:00 am on February 10, 1990. One of them was Stephanie Senac. Stephanie Senac was the daughter of the owner, Ronald Senac. She was the manager and she was opening the bowling alley that morning. She had brought along her daughter and Ronald’s granddaughter, Melissa Repass, who was 13. Melissa had her friend, Amy Houser, with her. Both Melissa and Amy babysat kids in the bowling alley’s daycare. Then there was Ida Holguin, who cooked at the bowling alley and was there to prepare food bright and early for the first patrons of the day. Steve Senac, Stephanie’s brother and Ronald’s son, also came in for a bit to grab his backpack and say hi before leaving before 8:00 am. He didn’t work till later.
Then two men entered the building through the unlocked front glass doors. Ida Holguin glanced up from her prep work at the snack bar and thought these men must be from the cleaning company that was expected that day. She later described the men as normal looking and not wearing masks. It seemed like just any other day at Las Cruces Bowl to everyone in the building.
But then the men both brandished .22 pistols at Ida Holguin, demanding that she lead them to the manager’s office. She scurried to the office, where Stephanie and the girls were. The men demanded that the women all get down on the floor as they rifled through papers and cabinets in the office, clearly looking for something. Then they demanded that Stephanie open the safe while they continued to hold her at gunpoint. They removed about $5000 from the safe but left a majority of the money behind, which seems odd.
Just then, Steve Teran, the alley’s pin mechanic, entered the bowling alley. He had brought his two-year-old daughter Valerie Teran and six-year-old daughter Paula Holguin (not related to Ida Holguin). His wife was at college and he couldn’t find childcare so he planned to leave the little girls in Melissa and Amy’s care. He didn’t care for Ronald Senac or the crowd who frequented the bowling alley, so he had recently put in his two weeks. While he looked forward to moving on with his life, but he was a dedicated, hardworking man and he planned to show up until his two weeks were up.
That’s when the two men seemed to panic. They ordered Steve and his daughters into the office and then they opened fire, shooting all of the victims multiple times. Twenty-five rounds were fired. The men showed absolutely no mercy to anyone, not even the innocent little children. They shot Paula Holguin in the head.
After that, they set fire to the papers in the office and fled the bowling alley, taking off on foot southbound down Amador. They were seen by a man on a ladder, painting a building across the street, who had no idea what was going on until sirens and emergency vehicles pulled up to the bowling alley. That man did not realize he was the only eye witness to the Las Cruces Bowling Alley Massacre aside from the few survivors.
Melissa Repass wasn’t dead, miraculously, even after being shot five times. She managed to drag herself to the phone and call 911. The call from Melissa can be heard here. It’s utterly heartbreaking to listen to a scared little girl, clearly in pain. Melissa said she didn’t see the men but she knew they were black and she could feel the flames that were burning her feet. She could feel the bullets in her head. “I’m going to die, I just know it,” she sobbed and this part is especially heartrending. She was also worried about her mom and the others.
Officers arrived with pretty impressive speed (you can hear them in the 911 call talking to Melissa through the door) and firemen put out the inferno in the office, accidentally destroying a lot of evidence in the process. They declared little Paula, Steve Teran, and Amy Houser all dead at the scene. Paula was a sweet and vivacious six-year-old. Her dad was a member of the National Guard and loved her and her sister very much. Amy Houser loved children and was only twelve. They all died from gunshots to the head.
Meanwhile, Ida Holguin, Stephanie Senac, and Melissa Repass were all rushed to the hospital. So was the little two-year-old Valerie, but she passed away there. The bullet had severed her spine, so if she had survived, she would have spent her life as a quadriplegic. In one day, Audrey Teran was brutally robbed of her beloved husband and two beautiful baby girls. I don’t know how she survived or how her life is now, but my heart breaks for her. I think ultimately she was killed that day, too.
Stephanie Senac survived for 9 years with diminished quality of life. She finally succumbed to her injuries in 1999, leaving her daughter with no mother. I’m not sure if Melissa’s father was around. So Stephanie was murdered after all, even though it took longer for the men to claim her life than the others.
Just because the others survived does not mean that their lives went on as normal. Being shot in the head robs you of so many abilities. Ida Holguin spent many months in the hospital and endured much painful physical and occupational therapy just to be able to walk again and use a drinking fountain.
Melissa Repass also needed a lot of help to recover. Melissa not only lost her mom and best friend, but she also has to live with head trauma and the flashbacks of the trauma.
Neither woman will go to the bowling alley or talk about the event that shattered their lives that day.
The trauma the victims’ families endured is also awful. There’s the survivor guilt that people like Steve Senac and Audrey Martinez-Teran must have felt for years. Amy Houser’s brother, Mark Woods, grieves her and feels anger that nobody has paid for what was done to his little sister. Audrey Martinez-Teran lives with heartbreak everyday, waiting for answers, waiting for justice, and despairing more and more every day that neither will come.
Theories
Now at first glance, this may seem like an armed robbery that went wrong. After all, these guys demanded cash, and left with lots of it.
But then you consider other aspects of the crime scene. Like how they left some money in the safe. Sorry, but if I were robbing a bowling alley safe, I would take all of the cash in front of me.
Also, the way they shot everyone execution style, even the kids, for no reason at all. Why not just take the money and run? And they way they were rifling through the papers for something – what were they looking for? Add in the rumors that Ronald Senac used the bowling alley to launder money for a Mexican cartel, you start to get a different picture of what may have happened that tragic morning on February 10, 1990.
People from neighboring businesses reported hearing gunfire, and one person working on his roof saw the two men fleeing the bowling alley on foot. But for the most part, no one saw or heard anything. A neighbor said that he thought he heard someone shooting off caps. Someone else said their dogs started barking at 7:30 am, though the killings happened around 8:20 am. All in all, this crime was relatively quiet, carried out in an efficient manner.
Some have pointed out that this crime is like a professional hit because it was so quiet and efficient. They also point out how the killers shot each of the victims execution-style with cold precision using small handguns, indicating that they were experienced shots. Thus, some think that these men may have been hired to settle some cartel-related conflict with Ronald Senac and to send Senac a very strong message.
Steve Senac came forward that day and said that he saw two Hispanic men striding toward the bowling alley just as he left; one was carrying a briefcase which he handed to the other. Based on his account, two composites were made of the men. Ida Holguin later confirmed these composites matched the men. She claimed she had spotted these men at the bowling alley before, casing the place, and it is clear that this crime was planned, not some random crime of opportunity. She felt that they were not robbing the place, but rather looking for something specific. The older one had a Hispanic accent, while the younger one did not, suggesting the younger one had been raised in the United States.
The composites here show age-progressed photos so that they can possibly be identified now.
I think these men look very alike. Maybe a father and son?
After the horrific crime scene was discovered, New Mexico State Police set up ten roadblocks leaving Las Cruces. At one, four Mexican men were apprehended in a van. They had thousands of dollars of cash on them. But Steve Senac was brought there to identify them and he didn’t recognize them, so they were cleared to leave. The population of Las Cruces is 60% Hispanic. A lot of people work for cash in under the table jobs, doing things like field work and construction, so carrying cash is not that unusual. Plenty of people drive vans, too. So it is very possible that this was a total coincidence. Still, I kind of wonder about that. Carrying hundreds in cash would be totally normal after payday at an under-the-table manual labor job in 1990. But thousands? What the hell did these guys do for a living, drug smuggling? Or robbing bowling alleys?
I also question the veracity of these composites. Steve didn’t actually see these guys go inside. He didn’t even think they had anything to do with the bowling alley until after the shooting, when he decided maybe they were connected. Ida was a shaken-up, traumatized victim who had been shot in the head. Melissa Repass said the men were black, not Hispanic, on the 911 call. So what if these composites are totally wrong?
It is also interesting that Steve Senac left just before the killer arrived. His departure sure was lucky. If Ronald Senac really was laundering money through the bowling alley, Stephanie of all people should have known as his manager. Who knows whether or not Steve was also involved in the family enterprise.
Steve Teran’s brother, Anthony Teran, is an outspoken victim advocate and he wants to know why nobody has come forward and why the police still haven’t solved the crime. He says that police have the technology to solve these types of crimes. He also thinks someone out there knows more than they’re telling. Anthony recalls some odd types hanging around at the alley with Ronald Senac and he also recalls that one of Ronald’s sons, RJ, had a serious drug problem. This is part of the reason that Steve Teran had put in his notice.
Police also have hinted that Ronald Senac might be involved. They find it interesting how uncooperative he was after the murders. Senac was conveniently in Arizona when the murders happened. A police theory is that someone from out of state hired the gunmen to commit the murders to send Senac a message. Police think that the men involved in the crime ran to a place near the bowling alley where they stayed for some time and they may be tied to a group of Cubans living in the area at the time. I wish they had elaborated on this theory in the news, because it’s pretty fascinating.
The bowling alley closed for just six days after these gruesome crimes before Ronald reopened it. Ronald is seen posing for the paper with a smile, in front of the office where three children had just been slaughtered. I find that picture sickening. How could he even consider reopening a bowling alley, with his daughter and granddaughter in the hospital, barely hanging in there with head shot wounds? Maybe he had no choice but to reopen because there was more to his business than just nachos, shoe rentals, and bowling.
It’s also possible that this really was a robbery gone wrong. Maybe the shooters didn’t intend for all this carnage at all. Some say that the arrival of Steve Teran may have spooked the shooters into committing the violence to regain control of a situation. They had to eliminate all witnesses. Their plan ultimately worked in the most tragic way as they still walk free.
No matter their motives, they acted in cold evil and they need to rot in prison and in Hell.
The Bowling Alley massacre is still an open murder investigation. There is now a $30,000 reward for information leading to arrests.
The LCPD are now building a genealogical tree to help solve the slayings, which is awesome, because forensic genealogy has solved many slayings lately. Maybe there will be justice at last. I sure hope there is.
If you know anything or you think the composites look familiar, please contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or NMCrimeStoppers.org.
Sources
https://www.lascrucesbulletin.com/stories/new-footage-added-to-bowling-alley-murder-case-film,2625
https://news.yahoo.com/las-cruces-bowling-alley-massacre-110106431.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall
https://www.grunge.com/858210/chilling-details-from-the-las-cruces-bowling-alley-massacre/
https://americancrimejournal.com/las-cruces-bowling-alley-massacre