Las Cruces Bowling Alley Massacre ////// Part 1

Summary

True Crime Garage: Las Cruces Bowling Alley Massacre – Part 1

Episode Release Date: February 17, 2025

Hosts: Nick and the Captain

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Introduction

In this gripping episode of True Crime Garage, hosts Nick and the Captain delve into the harrowing case of the Las Cruces Bowling Alley Massacre. Set in the serene city of Las Cruces, New Mexico, this episode meticulously unpacks the events of February 10, 1990, when a seemingly ordinary morning turned into a nightmare. Through detailed discussions, insightful analysis, and the recounting of a chilling 911 call, the hosts aim to shed light on one of the most disturbing unsolved cases in the state's history.

The Incident: A Nightmarish Morning

The episode opens with a vivid portrayal of the tragic events that unfolded at 1201 East Amador Avenue in Las Cruces. On February 10, 1990, two gunmen stormed the bowling alley, leading to a brutal robbery that escalated into a mass shooting and arson.

Notable Quote:

Nick: “The call comes in at precisely 8:33am… Melissa Repass, whose bravery and quick thinking, despite having been shot several times, called 911 and without doubt prevented further loss of life in a case that would later be dubbed the Las Cruces Bowling Alley Massacre.” [07:49]

Detailed Timeline of Events

Early Morning Preparations

Stephanie Cenac, the day manager and daughter of the bowling alley owner, arrived early to prepare for the day. Accompanied by her 12-year-old daughter, Melissa Repass, and Melissa's friend, Amy Hauser, they intended to oversee the bowling alley's daycare services.

The Robbery and Massacre

Shortly after 8:00 am, Steve Cenac, Stephanie's brother, arrived to retrieve his backpack. He noticed the main door was unlocked, a detail he later reported to authorities. Within minutes, two armed men entered the facility, took hostages, and demanded access to the safe. The gunmen proceeded to steal approximately $4,000 to $5,000 before turning the scene into a hellish environment.

Notable Quote:

Captain: “We're looking at the motive as robbery… for some reason or other they decided to rid themselves of any witnesses.” [48:25]

As the situation progressed, another employee, Steve Tehran, along with his two young daughters, entered the bowling alley and tragically became victims themselves. All seven individuals present were shot multiple times, and the perpetrators set the office ablaze before fleeing the scene.

The Chilling 911 Call

One of the most disturbing segments of the episode is the reenactment of the actual 911 call made by Melissa Repass. Despite being a 12-year-old who had already been shot multiple times, Melissa's call provided crucial information that enabled emergency services to respond swiftly.

Notable Quote:

Melissa Repass: “Please help me… They told us all to get down. They shot me five times.” [03:26 - 07:05]

This call highlights Melissa's incredible bravery and resilience in a dire situation, as she attempted to save her own life and those around her.

Investigation Efforts: A Massive Manhunt

Following the massacre, law enforcement launched an extensive manhunt involving multiple agencies, including the Las Cruces City Police, State Police, Sheriff's Department, University Police, US Customs, Border Patrol, and the FBI. Utilizing six aircraft and helicopters, authorities set up roadblocks and scrutinized countless vehicles in an effort to capture the elusive gunmen. Despite these efforts, the perpetrators evaded capture, leaving the case unsolved for decades.

Notable Quote:

Nick: “Police set up 10 roadblocks in and out of the city… six aircraft and helicopters were used, this including a U.S. customs Blackhawk helicopter. But the suspects successfully eluded capture.” [34:42 - 35:47]

Suspect Descriptions and Leading Insights

Eyewitness Steve Cenac provided the first breakthrough by describing the two men he witnessed during his brief stop at the bowling alley. The descriptions painted a stark contrast between the two suspects:

• Older Suspect:

  • Hispanic male
  • Approximately 45-50 years old
  • 5’6” in height
  • Weighing around 135-240 pounds
  • Black hair combed back, brown eyes

• Younger Suspect:

  • Hispanic male
  • Approximately 29-30 years old
  • 5’10” in height
  • Weighing around 170 pounds
  • Dark complexion

Despite these detailed descriptions and composite sketches released to the public, the elusive nature of the perpetrators meant they remained at large.

Notable Quote:

Nick: “The two gunmen had a considerable age discrepancy… one is approximately 29 or 30 years old, and the other is around 45 to 50 years old.” [38:20 - 39:20]

Media Coverage and Public Impact

The Las Cruces Bowling Alley Massacre received national attention when it was featured on the iconic show Unsolved Mysteries in April 1990. The episode, titled “No One Spared,” aimed to generate leads by showcasing composite sketches and urging public assistance. While the segment spurred numerous tips and interviews with over 312 potential suspects, none yielded fruitful results.

Notable Quote:

Nick: “The case was also featured on everyone’s favorite old show, Unsolved Mysteries… It was really just the wanted segment, flashing those composite sketches of the two suspects and asking the public for help.” [50:30 - 52:56]

Documentary and Renewed Interest

Decades later, filmmaker Charlie Minn released a documentary titled A Nightmare in Las Cruces around the 20th anniversary of the massacre. This film reinvigorated interest in the case, leading to new tips and bringing closure to some family members of the victims.

Notable Quote:

Nick: “This documentary was released around the 20th anniversary of the massacre… Since its release, more tips have been reported to the local police.” [53:33 - 55:32]

Analysis: Premeditation and Execution

Nick and the Captain analyze the meticulous planning evident in the massacre. The perpetrators demonstrated intimate knowledge of the bowling alley's operations, timing, and security measures, suggesting premeditation. Their swift execution—from entering the facility, controlling the hostages, stealing the money, to eliminating witnesses and setting the office on fire—indicates a cold-blooded and calculated approach to ensure no evidence or survivors could impede their escape.

Notable Quote:

Captain: “This is a very perfect case study for indiscriminate homicide robbery… they had a mission to carry out and let's go for it. A, B, C, D, and E. And then we're out of there.” [32:02 - 34:01]

Conclusion and Teaser for Part 2

As the episode concludes, Nick and the Captain reflect on the enduring mystery of the Las Cruces Bowling Alley Massacre. They emphasize the need for ongoing vigilance and hope that renewed interest, through documentaries and true crime discussions, will eventually lead to justice for the victims.

Notable Quote:

Nick: “A lot more to dive into tomorrow. And until then, be good, be kind, and don't litter.” [55:32 - End]

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This episode of True Crime Garage not only recounts a tragic event but also serves as a testament to the relentless pursuit of truth in unsolved cases. By combining meticulous research with engaging storytelling, Nick and the Captain offer listeners a comprehensive understanding of the Las Cruces Bowling Alley Massacre and its lasting impact on the community.

Transcript

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[Nick]

Foreign welcome to True crime Garage. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing, thanks for listening. I'm your host, Nick. And with me as always, is a man that used to be thereford. Now he's Hereford. He is the captain.

[Captain]

Well, whether you're there for or Hereford, cheers to you.

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It's good to be seen and it's.

[Captain]

Good to see you. Thanks for listening. Thanks for telling a friend.

[Nick]

Today we are featuring Aztec Death Whistle by Tactical Brewing Co. Garage grade four and a half bottle caps out of five. This is an Imperial white stout brewed with coffee, cinnamon, habanero and chocolate. I like to drink this one nice and cold. Speaking of nice, here are some nice friends of the show right here. First up, a shout out to Gary in Oligon, Michigan, and a big shout.

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Out to Matthew in Nashville, Tennessee.

[Nick]

Next up, captain, we have a guy, well, I think it's a guy named Jason in Atlanta, Georgia, who says he's not just telling a friend about the show, he's telling everyone about tcg.

[Captain]

Well, good work, detective. And I know a guy from Kalamazoo, Michigan. Nathan.

[Nick]

Next up, we have Paige and David in Broxton, Georgia. And last but certainly not least, we have Luanna in Watervale, Australia. Everyone we just mentioned went to true crimegarage.com and contributed to this week's beer fund. And for that we thank you.

[Captain]

Yeah, a little BWR you in beer run for all of our old episodes. Download the Stitcher app, they are free. And check out our bonus show called off the record. And Colonel, that's enough of the business.

[Nick]

All right, everybody, gather round. Grab a chair, grab a beer. Let's talk some true crime.

[Emergency Dispatcher]

Emergency.

[Melissa Repass]

Please help me.

[Emergency Dispatcher]

Slow down, slow down.

[Melissa Repass]

We were all shot and. Hold up.

[Emergency Dispatcher]

Okay, where are you at?

[Melissa Repass]

1201 East Amador Cross Cruises Bowl.

[Emergency Dispatcher]

Lost Cruises bowl.

[Melissa Repass]

Yes.

[Emergency Dispatcher]

Okay, and there were shots fired.

[Melissa Repass]

Yes. All of us were hurt.

[Nick]

Huh?

[Melissa Repass]

All of us were hurt. I think I'm the other one conscious.

[Emergency Dispatcher]

All of you were hurt. Okay, we're gonna name this Rolling, please. Okay, what's your name?

[Melissa Repass]

Melissa Ripass. Please hur.

[Emergency Dispatcher]

Okay, Melissa, we've got Them dispatched. Did you see who did it?

[Melissa Repass]

No, sir. They told us all to get down. They shot me five times.

[Emergency Dispatcher]

Okay, we'll get them rolling. Melissa, just hang on. Take a deep breath. That patrol unit's in route. How many people are hurt?

[Melissa Repass]

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.

[Emergency Dispatcher]

Seven people are hurt?

[Melissa Repass]

Yes, I think seven subjects hurt.

[Emergency Dispatcher]

Okay. Okay, Melissa.

[Melissa Repass]

It hurts.

[Emergency Dispatcher]

It hurts. Okay, Melissa, I've got an ambulance and I've got the police officers en route. They'll be with just shortly.

[Melissa Repass]

Okay.

[Emergency Dispatcher]

Okay. You didn't see what any of the men were wearing? You didn't see what any kind of the men were wearing or anything?

[Melissa Repass]

No, nothing.

[Emergency Dispatcher]

Huh. They just walked in. Do you know if they were black men, white men? Two black men?

[Melissa Repass]

Yeah.

[Emergency Dispatcher]

Okay. No, they've left two black male. Okay, okay. It's okay, Melissa.

[Melissa Repass]

There's a fire, too. There's a fire right on the desk. They're gonna burn us up.

[Emergency Dispatcher]

Are the men still there?

[Melissa Repass]

I don't know.

[Emergency Dispatcher]

You don't know?

[Melissa Repass]

I don't know. They put us in the office.

[Emergency Dispatcher]

They put you in the office?

[Melissa Repass]

Yes. I need a fire engine, too. Please help me.

[Emergency Dispatcher]

Okay, Melissa, she said they locked them in the office. She doesn't know if they're still there or not.

[Melissa Repass]

The door's open. There's a fire.

[Emergency Dispatcher]

It's on Amador. Yeah.

[Melissa Repass]

Please help.

[Emergency Dispatcher]

Can you smell smoke, Melissa?

[Melissa Repass]

Yes, I could see it. Okay, can I get the fire extinguisher?

[Emergency Dispatcher]

Fire department, too. Y says she smells smoke that may have lit the building on fire.

[Melissa Repass]

No, it is on fire.

[Emergency Dispatcher]

It is on fire.

[Melissa Repass]

It is.

[Emergency Dispatcher]

Okay, Melissa, can I go get by utility one? Oh.

[Melissa Repass]

Ow.

[Emergency Dispatcher]

Okay, Melissa, we've got them coming, hon. We've got them coming. If somebody.

[Melissa Repass]

My mommy.

[Emergency Dispatcher]

Okay, Melissa, there's a police officer there now, okay?

[Melissa Repass]

There is?

[Emergency Dispatcher]

Yes, there he is. He's going to try and find you.

[Melissa Repass]

We're in the office.

[Emergency Dispatcher]

Just tell me at 33 traffic. Okay, hold on. Melissa, we've got the ambulance coming. They're just down the street. Huh? She advises. All seven are shot. They're injured, they're in the office. Where's the office at, Melissa?

[Melissa Repass]

In the door, the first desk. And then you take a right and we're right in the field, okay?

[Emergency Dispatcher]

She says you go in, do the first desk, take a right, and right there at the office. Okay? I'm giving the directions on how to get to you, to the police officers that are there.

[Melissa Repass]

Oh, my God. Please help me.

[Emergency Dispatcher]

We're helping you, Melissa. We've got them rolling, okay? You got to be Brave. Got to be strong now. Okay.

[Melissa Repass]

Oh God. It's going to burn us right now.

[Emergency Dispatcher]

Okay. Can you see flames?

[Melissa Repass]

Yeah.

[Emergency Dispatcher]

Okay.

[Melissa Repass]

It's burning us.

[Emergency Dispatcher]

Okay.

[Melissa Repass]

Oh, I got bullets in my feet.

[Emergency Dispatcher]

Okay.

[Melissa Repass]

The bullets in my head.

[Emergency Dispatcher]

You bullet the bullets in your head too.

[Melissa Repass]

I got you. I'm still here.

[Emergency Dispatcher]

Go ahead. I hear the officers telling you to get out.

[Melissa Repass]

I. There's nobody out.

[Emergency Dispatcher]

Was that the police officer?

[Melissa Repass]

Get out then.

[Emergency Dispatcher]

Get out. Okay.

[Nick]

We have been doing this for a long time now, Captain, and we have played and reviewed many 911 calls on this little garage show of ours. And that, my friend, is one of the more disturbing ones I have heard on this show or really anywhere. Yeah, what you just heard was a 911 call that came in at 8:33am on the morning of February 10, 1990. The caller is 12 year old Melissa Repass, whose bravery and quick thinking, despite having been shot several times, called 911 and without doubt prevented further loss of life in a case that would later be dubbed the Las Cruces Bowling Alley Massacre. Las Cruces is the second largest city in the great state of New Mexico. Albuquerque is the largest. Shout out to my old friend, Jose Salazar. Las Cruces today is pretty big with a population of over 100,000 people. Our case is 30 years old and this case is going back to 1990. And unfortunately, all of this time has passed and yet this case remains unsolved. It looks like the population was right around 57,000 back in 1990. So the city has almost doubled in size since the day in question. Las Cruces is home to New Mexico State University and It's located just 41 miles north of the Mexican border at Sunland Park. Anytime you get this close to the border, Captain, this could play a part in the bigger picture here. If someone did something terrible and wanted to flee, well, one would not have to go too far. I mean, you could enter the Las Cruces bowl at 8am or so, Rob, kill, steal thousands of dollars, leave by 8:30 ish and with the right amount of horses, you're in line to cross the good old Mexico line at 9am but the other thing we should point out is Las Cruces was safe in 1989. For the entire year, the city of Las Cruces only had two homicides. 1990 would be an entirely different situation. Let's go through the known details of this case. On the morning of Saturday, February 10, 1990, 34 year old Stephanie Cenac was scheduled to open the bowling alley for the day. A couple of quick things to note here, Captain, that will be of particular interest. It's a Saturday morning after what is regularly a very busy and profitable Friday night at the bowling alley.

[Captain]

Yeah, a lot of bowling alleys have their leagues on Friday nights.

[Nick]

Stephanie Cenac is the day manager at the bowling alley, but she is also the daughter of the bowling alley's owner, Ronald Cenacle. It's my understanding that Ron started up Las Cruces bowl in 1984. So the bowling alley at this time in our case timeline, has been open for six years and is operating with a good deal of success. Stephanie brought to work with her that morning, her 12 year old daughter Melissa Repass, and Melissa's 13 year old friend Amy Hauser. The two were planning to run the bowling alley's daycare for the day. Now, it's unclear what time the three of them, you know, manager Stephanie Cnack and the two girls arrived, but we do know they were the first to arrive at the bowling alley for the day. The next to arrive would be employee Ida Holgame. Saturday is typically a busy day for most bowling alleys, but on this day at Las Cruces bowl, there were some events scheduled for this day and they were expected to be quite Busy starting at 10am when they have a youth league starting up action. And then they were also anticipating a busy lunch hour. Ida was in charge of the kitchen that morning. This would mean arriving early before the doors open to prep food so they can keep up once they start to get busy at 10am yeah, there's nothing.

[Captain]

Better than some hot nachos with that bowling ball grease mixed in.

[Nick]

The only place that I drink pictures of beer, the bowling alley. I don't know what it is. I will never get past a great pitcher of beer at the bowling alley. Everything we just talked about started before 8am that morning. And we know this for good reason, because just before 8am another bowling alley employee will arrive on the scene. This is Steve Cenac. So you can tell by the last name Cenac that Steve is Stephanie's brother, also son of the owner and uncle to Stephanie's daughter Melissa. Steve is not scheduled to work on this day. It sounds like he worked there the busy Friday night before. He was actually en route to go to class that morning, but he left his backpack there the previous night. Very simply, he was going to swing by the bowling alley, retrieve his backpack and then be on his way.

[Captain]

Yeah, I'm guessing he went to the university.

[Nick]

This is to be a very quick in and out for Steve. Right. So Steve said that when he arrived, he went through the building's main door. The only thing that seems to be strange to him is when he arrived, he found that the door was unlocked. He says he went and he grabbed his book bag in the office. He saw his sister, his niece, and his niece's friend. He told his sister that the door was unlocked and advised her to lock the door. Hey, you gotta lock the door. We're not open yet. He then left. Later, of course, he would be asked if he locked the door when he left. He says he did not. I don't know if this was because he was in a hurry, or maybe he didn't have his keys with him.

[Captain]

Yeah, or maybe he's trying to prove a point to his sister. Hey, when you open up the bowling alley, you need to keep the doors locked. That's your responsibility.

[Nick]

All the reports that we have, they have Steve leaving the facility around sometime after 8am Some state just after 8 and others as late as 8:15. The thing here is, all reports are in this time frame and only vary by a matter of just a few minutes. So we have employee Ida working in the kitchen and manager Stephanie doing the books in the office. And after Steve leaves, the two girls, they leave the office and they go to the front of the building to get something from the vending machines. It is at this time that the two girls see two men enter through the unlocked door. One of the men went into the kitchen. Ida says she was busy working, not aware that someone else had entered the kitchen. She started to chop up some lettuce when she felt something shoved into her side. She looked down and it was a gun. The unidentified man had a.22 caliber pistol and ordered her into the bowling alley's office. The two gunmen walked Ida and the two girls into the office where they confronted Stephanie. The gunman ordered the women and children to lie down, face down in a corner of the office. The four all have been corralled, all face down in this corner of the office while the gunmen were taking approximately 4,000 to $5,000 from the bowling alley safe. This after asking where the safe was. And we should note, Stephanie is the only one with access to the safe right now. There are some conflicting reports, Captain, as there always are in these matters. But most reports stated that the younger gunman and note, judging by appearance, there seems to be a considerable age discrepancy between our two offenders. This will later cause the one unidentified gunman to be labeled and referred to as the younger gunman or the younger assailant and the older gunman or the older assailant. So most reports state that the younger gunman moved the money from the safe to a briefcase. The briefcase was brought to the scene by the perpetrators. There are a couple of reports that one or both of the younger girls was ordered by one of the offenders to load the briefcase with cash from the safe.

[Captain]

Yeah, this is very similar to, like, a bank robbery. But normally in a bank robbery, you have somebody go up to a teller, they slide a note saying, give me all the money. Right. They normally don't go to the safe. You even see this with, like, Point Break in movies, like the Town, where they're like, don't go to the safe. It's too risky. Well, yes, this is a business, and yes, they only have one safe, and there's not that many employees, but this is a large location that these two individuals have to basically control and contain. So this is like a bank takeover.

[Nick]

The lanes itself, there were 32 lanes, plus a kitchen, an office. I mean, you're picturing this. I believe there were pool tables, dartboards. So this is a large building. But at this time, because the. The building is not open to the public because they're closed, they're getting ready to open. There's very few people in this large space. And usually with businesses, you kind of have to go to the safe where the. In a bank, you see that sometimes they don't want to go to the vault.

[Captain]

Right.

[Nick]

But in a business, you want to go to the safe. Because a lot of times these businesses are trying not to keep a lot of cash on hand or cash in the register itself, in case there is some type of robbery or if you close up, somebody breaks in, then they have to break into the safe, which is usually very difficult to do to get to the actual big stash of cash.

[Captain]

But again, with this business, I mean, this is a bowling alley. It's not like a lot of people have worked in a bowling alley. If I told you, well, I'm going to go rob a restaurant or something, a lot of people have worked in the restaurant. They kind of understand how it works. So what I'm getting at is that these two individuals had to know a lot about who worked there, if there was security, what time people were arriving, how they arrived, what exits there were.

[Nick]

Well, and regardless of who loaded the cash into the briefcase, I did bring that up, because I think we'll swirl back into that a little bit later. But either way, soon after all of this commotion in the office. Another bowling alley employee. This is 26 year old Steve Tehran. He's the bowling alley's mechanic. He walks into the bowling alley. With him is his two daughters, two year old Valerie Tehran and six year old Paula Hogin, no relation to Ida. The two little kids, they were going to spend the day at the bowling alley's daycare while Steve worked his shift. Not seeing anyone in the alley. Steve and the two girls entered the office and unfortunately stumbled onto the robbery and progress. The three of them were ordered, just like the previous four, down to the floor and to put their heads down. The gunman then shot all seven victims multiple times at point blank range. Then the offenders gathered a bunch of papers from around the office, scattering them about the desk and the floor, and ignited the papers, setting the office on fire before fleeing the scene. The bowling alley fire was reported at 8:33am so let's examine the time frame of everything going on here real quick before we get too far along. A lot of things start to go into motion around 8am this is when Steve Cenac arrives to get his backpack and leaves without locking the door. Sometime between a few minutes after 8 and 8:15 per the reports. So during a very short time frame, as little as 17 minutes to maybe 29 minutes at the very, very most. And I think, Captain, this all went down closer to the 17 minute range.

[Captain]

I would agree.

[Nick]

Let's call it 20 or so minutes. Two guys enter the bowling alley, take four persons hostage from three different locations inside the bowling alley they robbed the joint. Reports state that the men searched through filing cabinets or desk drawers, or both, stole money from the safe and the register, if there was money in the register yet.

[Captain]

And what time was the bowling alley supposed to open? 9:00am okay, so that to me, like I said, it's the knowledge of the business, who works there, the exits, what time. They have to have this all done so there's not the public involved. And this was very quick. We'll get to the money, we're going to shoot any eyewitnesses and then we're going to set the place on fire. Which one? Get rid of the witnesses as well, but also get rid of any evidence, fingerprints, anything that they might have messed up. Fire destroys all that, right?

[Nick]

And not only did they shoot all seven victims, they managed to control all four. And then on top of that, intercepted three more victims, controlled them before shooting all seven. And reports stated 25 shots in total were fired. Then the two gunmen set the office on fire and fled the scene, all in a very short amount of time.

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[Captain]

All right, we're back.

[Nick]

Cheers to you captain.

[Captain]

Cheers to all the pirates.

[Nick]

The 911 call heard in today's trailer. The call came in from our little hero. This is 12 year old Melissa Repass who has been shot multiple times. Five times. This in the hands and the head. The hands likely as the result of trying to shield herself. The call comes in at precisely 8:33am James Hash is the man working dispatch that took the call that day. The call lasted a total of 4 minutes and 2 seconds and you can hear on the call that an officer or officers arrived on the scene before the end of the call. So a good response time by our police department of under four minutes and by 8:37am a nightmare that started just 25 or so minutes earlier. Now we have police, fire, rescue and emergency medical services dispatched and some of them are starting to arrive at 1201 East Amador Avenue the La Cruces Bull first responders were walking into hell, responding to a dire situation of a robbery, a mass shooting and a fire.

[Captain]

Yeah, execution of seven people.

[Nick]

Officers responding to the call arrived and they found a smoldering fire in the bowling alley office with a lot of smoke. Now at home, we have Detective Chuck Franco. He gets a call from his sergeant saying there has been a major crime. Several people are dead. We need you here right away. Down at the crime scene, his boss didn't go into specifics, simply saying there was a major crime and we need you here now. He wouldn't say anything else. Detective Franco could hear and feel the severity of the situation just from the brief call, but also the serious tone of his sergeant on the call. But when the seasoned detective arrived at the scene, he had no idea what he was walking into. This would be one of the most horrific crimes in the history of Las Cruces. Amy Hauser, Paula Hoguin and Steven Tehran were pronounced dead at the scene. Valerie Tehran was rushed to the hospital, but declared dead on arrival. The survivors were rushed to the hospital. The dead were left in place in the building for crime lab personnel, which arrived on the scene around noon. The dead were removed from the building.

[Captain]

At 4pm we have dead adults, but we have dead children as well. I mean, that's just makes it worse.

[Nick]

Yes, it's a special kind of evil. It's a certain kind of evil that thankfully does not exist in very many people walking on this planet. That took out just some regular good people on that very sad day.

[Captain]

Well, it seems these perpetrators, it seems almost like their actions are very militant. You know, we're going to go in there. We're not going to be in there long. We're going right towards the money. We're going to take all the eyewitnesses, we're going to put them all in one location. We're going to cover our surroundings. We have new eyewitnesses that come into play. We put them into the office. Now we're containing the situation. We're going to shoot all of them. I think all that was premeditated once we get them into the office. We've seen takeovers before. We've seen robberies gone bad. We've seen all these things before. And a lot of times, even if there's violent violence towards the people that they kidnapped or took hostage or however you want to phrase it, there's sometimes discussion, like in the hi Fi murders, there's almost like a discussion of what do we do with these individuals in this case, it doesn't seem like that at all. It seems like no. Step one, go into the building. Step two, take all the hostages and put them in the office. Step three, get all the money. Step four, shoot all the hostages. Step five, light the place on fire and then take off.

[Nick]

You're right. You're absolutely right. It really looks like the two of these gunmen had agreed upon everything that they set out to do that morning before arriving inside the walls of the bowling alley. This is actually a better case study of what we did, what, a month or so ago when we covered the hi fi murders. That's labeled as an indiscriminate homicide robbery case study. The problem with that is once there, some of the offenders decided to torture the hostages. That's not part of that whole bit. It's only a part of that story of that case. Here it's even more precise, even more just straight up cold blooded. We have a mission to carry out and let's, let's go for it. Here's what we're going to do. A, B, C, D and E. And then we're out of there. This is a very perfect case study for indiscriminate homicide robbery. Just meaning that no matter who is in there, they are going to be taken out because we don't want any eyewitnesses afterward. The early reports were that four are dead, three are wounded. Police would not comment on the identities of the survivors, but did say that the survivors were believed to be in critical condition. Detectives were hoping to get some good information from them.

[Captain]

Well, and hold on. I think one of the reasons that they did that is, like I said again, the knowledge that these individuals would have to know to carry out these crimes so precisely. They would possibly know some of these individuals. The individuals might not know them, but that the perpetrators would know those individuals, if that makes any sense at all.

[Nick]

Well, even if they don't, they know that they're in the hospital.

[Captain]

Right?

[Nick]

So it's the same situation as the hi fi murders where we have some survivors, thankfully, we have some survivors who might be able to identify these guys by description at least, or give clues or leads to the detectives. And they're not going to say who these people are. They don't want it make it. They don't want to make it any easier for you to locate them in the hospital. And we very likely have officers set up for security purposes to make sure that these two gunmen don't come back and try to finish the job after they learn that they were unsuccessful in killing all, all of the witnesses because we know that that was their goal.

[Captain]

Right.

[Nick]

Police set up 10 roadblocks in and out of the city, stopping every vehicle and asking the driver and passengers questions. We know we are looking for two men, we are looking for two guns who got away with about four to five thousand dollars. That's the simplest form of what we are looking for. Police set into motion a massive manhunt for the killers immediately. This included, but was not limited to the following Las Cruces City Police, State Police, the county's Sheriff's Department, University Police, US Customs, the Border Patrol and the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency. Six aircraft and helicopters were used, this including a U.S. customs Blackhawk helicopter. But the suspects successfully eluded capture.

[Captain]

Right, but we. Okay, but we have no eyewitnesses outside of the bowling alley, so we don't know what these individuals were traveling in.

[Nick]

Well, let's get to, to leads and suspects here and see what we do have because we do have some leads on the suspects and some fairly good ones, I guess. First, remember Steve Cenac, who left the bowling alley right before this robbery homicide went down?

[Captain]

Right.

[Nick]

He says during his quick stop that he saw two guys and given the very short time frame we are working with, these two guys might be the perpetrators. He says he saw two guys, one older than the other. Both he believed could be Hispanic. He saw the men come from around the back of the building to the side of the building. One guy gave the other what appeared to be a briefcase. I believe Steve said it was the younger suspect that then kind of kneeled down and looked at Steve. Steve told the investigators about this and provided a description this very shortly after the case broke. Now two other witnesses, a man working outside said he saw men matching this description given to police by Steve, that he saw the two men running from the bowling alley parking lot. Another individual working nearby said they heard the gunshots but saw nothing. Based off of what Steve saw and what he reported to police as well as the other eyewitness that we just discussed here is the descriptions of the perpetrators that was released to the newspapers. One man is described as Spanish with a dark complexion, approximately 29 or 30 years of age, 5 foot 10 inches in height and weighing 170 pounds. The suspect possibly had a 6 to 8 inch blue steel revolver in his possession. He was last seen traveling in a westerly direction from the intersection of Espina and Amador Avenue. The second suspect is described as a Hispanic male, 5 foot 6 inches in height, weighing 135, 240 pounds, with a medium build and dark complexion. He has black hair combed back and brown eyes, approximately 45 to 50 years of age. So a discrepancy of 15 to maybe 20 or more years between the two perpetrators.

[Acorns Advertiser]

Yeah.

[Nick]

And we do end up with a vague vehicle description and we also end.

[Captain]

Up with sketches as well.

[Nick]

Yes. Yeah, well, we'll get to that part of it because the first descriptions that come out of our suspects are these computer generated, I don't know if that's the right term, computer generated images, but they're computer images that are put together and released. We do end up with vague, a vague vehicle description. In the papers anyway, it says the suspects may have been driving a green older model utility van or truck or pickup. And some descriptions of this state that it was a four wheel drive vehicle. That to me, Captain, for vehicle description is about as vague as it can get. When it says older model utility van or truck or pickup. It's kind of like we don't really know.

[Captain]

Yeah, but this is also in a time where there was less vehicles on the road like that.

[Nick]

Anyone, whether you're familiar with this case or not, is, will be familiar with the sketches that the captain was talking about, the suspect sketches that come out. This actually comes out five days into the investigation. And the way that this comes about is these are not technically different. It's not different descriptions of the two suspects. It's just a better composite drawing of the two suspects.

[Captain]

Right.

[Nick]

What we have at first is the old system would be you sit down, you tell the detectives, you tell somebody what you saw, and they go, okay, well point to which nose perpetrator A's nose looks like. And okay, so maybe it's nose C10 on their nose category. And then somebody punches that into a computer and after you go through each of the features of the face and the body, then it will, it will, the computer will put all those together. And now you have an image of what this person looks like based off of what your eyewitness says each of the features look like. Once put together. The pictures that were released to the paper, to be honest with you, Captain, it, it was hard for me to discern exactly what I was looking at with those old pictures. Now what we have here is we have Steve Cenac who says, I sat down with somebody else and they actually did a hand drawn sketch of what I was telling them. And when they turned over the page and showed me, I said, wow, that looks exactly like the two guys that I saw. So days into this we have a physical, somebody sitting down and having an actual sketch drawn of the two suspects. We have our number one witness who says it looks just like the two guys that he saw that day. That will then become what I would refer to in this case as the famous composite drawings for the La Cruces bowl case. It's the one that even if you don't know this case very well, but you're kind of dialed into true crime and you're dialed into to crime. You have seen these composite sketches before. You've seen them somewhere, even if you weren't looking in to this case.

[Captain]

Well, yeah, because if you're looking at the one sketches, the first thing you think is, oh, crap, Eddie Murphy did this.

[Nick]

Several people have said that one of the. One of the persons in the composite has a resemblance to Eddie Murphy.

[Captain]

Yeah, like Coming to America. Eddie Murphy.

[Nick]

I look at Eddie Murphy and I don't see a man that has aged more than a few days in physically over decades. We're talking decades. Eddie Murphy still looks very young to me.

[Captain]

Well, I was talking about the thickness of the mustache and the thickness of his hair. Reminds me more of Coming to America than it does like Beverly Hills Cop.

[Nick]

Yeah, Beverly Hills Cop. Good.

[Captain]

Or like Dr. Dolittle.

[Nick]

What I meant, Captain, by famous composite sketches is that when researching other cases, these composites pop up on the Internet. If you go and you try to look up another case and you, you're looking up for suspect composite drawings in that case, there's a good chance that on your image panel there, this image will be in that row. And that's why when we started really looking into this case a few months ago, I thought it was kind of haunting for me to see the composite sketch of the two suspects. Because I'm like, I've seen that several times before. Now I have the case to connect it to.

[Captain]

And who would have thought that the donkey from Shrek would be capable of murders this heinous.

[Nick]

The one thing that's interesting to me about the vehicle description, the vague vehicle description. Yeah, this is 30 years ago. This is a 30 year old case. What we have seen with the composite sketches of the suspects that has been sent out and plastered everywhere over the following three decades after this case broke. We've also even seen age progression sketches based off of those original sketches from 1990. What is left out of the future suspect information is this vehicle description. What that. What I'm kind of inferring from that is that maybe at some point the detectives believe that including this very Vague vehicle description might be hurting that information more than it's helping. So I think it's purposely left out because I think that they go, this might not have anything to do with our case at all. What we end up happening, have happening is that we have Steve Cenac, who is called by police and brought down to the border because they pull over four guys who were stopped in a vehicle and they have a large sum of cash with them. They want to know if Steve believes that any of these guys were the gunmen for that he saw at La Cruce's Bowl. Right. He says he cannot identify any of the four men as being one or both of the two men that he saw that day.

[Captain]

Well, it makes sense though. Hey, we're going to send two people in. We got two people in the vehicle. And maybe the idea was to hit multiple places and they just never did well.

[Nick]

And necessarily the other two guys don't always have to know what the other two guys were up to earlier that day.

[Captain]

Right.

[Nick]

Or the previous day. Regardless, what's important here is Steve says those the people you're showing me are not the two people that I saw at La Cruce's bowl before the murders. Now, there is one very bizarre incident. This all the while, police are securing the bowling alley murder crime scene, setting up and executing roadblocks, questioning and searching the area, and conducting what very quickly became a massive manhunt. This is on the same day as the La Cruces bull massacre. Around 2:30 in the afternoon, police found a man wandering around the streets. He was the victim of a stabbing that took place shortly before they found him. It's thought that the man, who is only identified as a male in his 30s, identified the person who stabbed him and maybe even identified the assailant by name. And now police are looking for that guy too. The attacker was described in the paper as a male, 20 to 30 years old, 5 foot 8 to 5 foot 11 inches tall. The stab victim was taken to the hospital to be treated for his wounds. Unfortunately, that man died while undergoing surgery. The police have stated that this crime has nothing to do with the La Cruces Bowling Alley massacre. And I fully believe them 100% because could you imagine a better break for police in this very difficult situation where you are very quickly executing a massive state and even at the border manhunt for two mass murders that you don't.

[Captain]

Have a solid ID for? Or solid, what a better break of the vehicle? Either.

[Nick]

What a better break that one of them decides to stab the other one and now you got one in a hospital bed and you're out looking for the other one. And, and he's been identified by the person that he stabbed.

[Captain]

Yeah, it's kind of like scream at the end where he, you know, he has to stab his partner so they can cover up the murders.

[Nick]

Yeah. So those two things have nothing to do with one another. But remember we stated earlier that La Cruces, the whole city, for the entire year of 1989 only had two homicides. On this single day in 1990, they have a situation where two separate incidents ended up in homicides. And the one unfortunately was multiple homicides. Four people were killed. In a press conference that evening, the police chief apologized to the room full of reporters. This for not having much information to pass along to them. This poor man told the room he was sorry, but it has been a very hectic day.

[Captain]

Well, like you said, with such a safe area, the whole department and the community has to feel somewhat defeated.

[Nick]

Yes, 100%. I mean, we have the police chief who feels defeated. Some other feedback, some other thoughts going on at the time. We have a statement from Captain Fred Rubio. He said the following. He said, we're looking at the motive as robbery. We're looking at the motive that for some reason or other they decided to rid themselves of any witnesses. And we also have a local business owner that was interviewed by the papers who offered up some speculation, saying that he thought that the persons responsible studied it, I'm guessing, meaning the business in the building and planned it, the robbery, especially because Friday night, after all of the leagues and everything and all the business, that's one of their busiest nights. Meaning they would make off with a pretty good take on Saturday morning. The case was also featured on everyone's favorite old show, Unsolved Mysteries, and aired in April of 1990 on season two, episode 19. It was one of four stories, some may remember it, it was the Bobby Kennedy episode.

[Captain]

Well, and also we're thinking that they got roughly around $4,000, 4,000 to $5,000.

[Nick]

Is what has been reported.

[Captain]

So that'd be roughly 8,000 to $10,000 in today's money. So we're not talking about like this could get you out of trouble if maybe you owe somebody drug money, maybe you owe some, some bad gambling debts or whatever. Right. But this is not money that's going to set you up for the rest of your life.

[Nick]

Right? Right. 100%. It's not life changing money unless you're in some serious hot water with somebody.

[Captain]

Yeah, unless it's getting hot in the hot tub on. In the hot.

[Nick]

On Unsolved Mysteries, the Las Cruces Bull Murders segment was titled no One Spared. It was a short part of the episode and the story was the only one that fell under the wanted category.

[Captain]

That's kind of a shitty pun, don't you think?

[Nick]

What's that?

[Captain]

No one's spared. Well, that's the thing, because you got strikes and spares.

[Nick]

That's the thing with Unsolved Mysteries that I, that I like to try to point out when we do reference it because a lot of times we, we don't get any information like the, the cases are never called, what the victim's names would be or what the case goes on to be known as. You know, we covered Boys on the Tracks, which generally that case of the, of those two teenage boys is known as Boys on the Tracks. That case, I believe was called Friends Till the End or something like that.

[Captain]

Right.

[Nick]

And this one was called no one's no One Spared. And you're right, it absolutely is kind of a bad pun there. But it's also. That was the intention of the two gunmen was to get rid of all seven of these people. Or what's terrifying is it didn't matter to them how many people were there at all. If it was one, they were going to attempt to kill one person. If it was seven, 10, 12, whatever it was going to be, they were going to attempt to kill that many people. It was only about a four minute piece. But one thing that I think is really kind of cool that we should give a big kudos to Unsolved Mysteries for you got to keep in mind that they're recording and producing all of these episodes in advance of them being released. Right. This case took place in February, February 10th of 1990. It was in April that they aired the, their coverage of the Las Cruces bowling alley murders. And it was really just the wanted segment, flashing those composite sketches of the two suspects and asking the public for help. Think about the turnaround on that. It's two months turnaround, really, that's them stepping in. Some people would look at that and say they only did four minutes on this big case. That's them stepping in and saying after the fact providing some kind of help, any help that they could.

[Captain]

Well, it's tough sometimes when these cases come out and they start getting some legs on them in the social media world and people say cover them. And you go, well, there's not a lot of information out there and maybe we don't have a source that we can get information that's not out in the media yet like we've had. Well, like we've been able to do in many cases. But some of the cases when it's a missing person or it's a murder of a child, you just put out the episode the best you can in hopes that it gets people talking and leads to some results.

[Nick]

The interesting thing that I found here, Captain, was I went back and I was looking. Okay, well, what was going on on the local scene right around the time of the Unsolved Mysteries episode that featured this case. And what I found was we have Police chief. Well, then Police Chief Ron Axel. He says publicly that 312 potential suspects had been questioned by that point. So about two months later. That's a lot of potential suspects that they have spoke to by this point. And it does look like the unsolved mystery spotlighting the case did generate some leads, but. But those don't seem to have really gone anywhere. The piece did inspire future filmmaker Charlie Minn to make a full length documentary film called A Nightmare in Las Cruces. The documentary was released around the 20th anniversary of the massacre. So in 2010 it came out and it features actual crime scene video pictures and interviews with family members. Since its release, more tips have been reported to the local police. And this film really got a lot of folks talking. Not just talking about potential leads or potential suspects, but it got people that were very close to the crime, the victims themselves, to get out and talk. You know, sometimes it takes the passing of time for people to not be afraid or to have some time to grieve for their lost loved ones before they can come out and speak to what they know about the case or their feelings on a tragedy such as this.

[Captain]

A lot more to dive into tomorrow.

[Nick]

And until then, be good, be kind, and don't litter.