https://www.southernnewmexicounsolvedmurders.com/news daily 0.75 2023-05-29 https://www.southernnewmexicounsolvedmurders.com/news/welcome monthly 0.5 2023-04-18 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60734fb903c5b927473cbd35/1618224799004-QK4A976YD5OSRQP0FPMC/Christine+proflile+photo.jpg News - Welcome! Christine L. Steele Journalist, wanderer, storyteller. https://www.southernnewmexicounsolvedmurders.com/news/your-donation-can-help-highlight-a-cold-case monthly 0.5 2023-04-18 https://www.southernnewmexicounsolvedmurders.com/news/true-crime-podcast-features-david-ortiz-jr-missing-case monthly 0.5 2023-05-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60734fb903c5b927473cbd35/698cd321-0e63-4488-81fb-9a9fff511b8d/Liz+and+David+at+David+and+Nichole%27s+grave.JPG News - True Crime podcast “True Consequences” features Silver City missing person David Ortiz Jr. - Make it stand out Parents of Silver City missing person David Ortiz Jr. and murder victim Nichole Ortiz at the cemetery at the graves of their children. The grave for their son David Jr. is empty as they wait for his remains to be found to lay him to rest next to his older sister Nichole, who was murdered on Sept. 29, 2012, nearly two years after her brother went missing on Halloween night, Oct. 31, 2010. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60734fb903c5b927473cbd35/362002c0-3188-4f3d-933f-d69197adb4ae/David+Ortiz+and+son+screenshot.jpg News - True Crime podcast “True Consequences” features Silver City missing person David Ortiz Jr. - Make it stand out 18-year-old David Ortiz Jr. holding his infant son Joshua shortly before David Jr. went missing on Halloween night, Oct. 31, 2010. His body has never been found and no one has ever been charged in his disappearance. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60734fb903c5b927473cbd35/afa8c1ab-bc9e-410e-ae09-482172a36d9f/True+Consequences.jpg News - True Crime podcast “True Consequences” features Silver City missing person David Ortiz Jr. - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.southernnewmexicounsolvedmurders.com/home daily 1.0 2023-05-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60734fb903c5b927473cbd35/6f640b9b-0d71-4aba-8ee7-0a5944ad10a8/Unsolved+3x7+Bumper+Stick.jpg https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60734fb903c5b927473cbd35/1618190238701-HUCPT2ZQZ4O5VK5UXD9Z/Tim+Edwards.jpg Home - John Timothy “Tim” Edwards December 30, 2005 Tim Edwards was a retired Arizona educator and athlete and New Mexico rancher who was found brutally murdered on the road to his ranch on his way home from town with a load of hay and groceries for a New Year’s Eve get together. His case has been highlighted on America’s Most Wanted, and in newspapers in New Mexico and Arizona. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60734fb903c5b927473cbd35/1618207098652-QFH6WQDXD1B0FI1GB5HO/Joey%2BMoreno%2Bcrime%2Bscene%2Bphoto.jpg Home - Joey Moreno September 22, 2008 Joe Louis “Joey” Moreno was found shot in the head three times execution style on a remote stretch of highway near the Arizona border. Car lights on, engine running, radio playing, private driveway, mile post 3, Highway 78. No arrests have ever been made. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60734fb903c5b927473cbd35/1618208131306-LI4EZR7MANY6E099Y7K4/Lorraine%252BRamirez.jpg Home - Lorraine Ramirez June 28, 2014 Lorraine Ramirez went missing in April or May 2014. Her car was found parked at the Lower Gallinas Campground on Highway 152 in the Black Range of the Gila National Forest. Grant County Search and Rescue conducted a search but turned up nothing. Her remains were located 1.6 miles past the Lower Gallinas Campground outhouses on June 28, 2014. Lorraine was on oxygen and it is unlikely she was able to get to where her remains were found in a very remote part of the campground on her own. Her death was listed as undetermined by the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator. No one has ever been charged in her death. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60734fb903c5b927473cbd35/1618215481153-9CE79GPOFIKGHF3990BM/grijalva_maria.jpg Home - Maria Raquel Grijalva November 14, 2014 Maria Raquel Grijalva went missing Aug. 3, 2014. It was reported she went for a swim in the swollen Mimbres River. Her remains were discovered by a rancher in the dry riverbed in the Mimbres Valley on Nov. 14, 2014. Her death is listed as undetermined by the New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator. No one has ever been charged in her death. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60734fb903c5b927473cbd35/1618198484661-3OYWRWCMX3TQQFLQUFDX/Roberto+Benavidez.jpg Home - Roberto Benavidez Garcia April 20, 2012 Roberto Benavidez was a 22-year-old college student at Western New Mexico University in the spring of 2012, when he was found beaten in the head and unconscious in the middle of Aztec Street in Hurley, New Mexico. No one has ever been charged in his death. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60734fb903c5b927473cbd35/1618204301959-9XR1XC40GSHK8SCEVF5P/David%252BOrtiz%252BJr.%252Band%252Bson%252BJoshua.jpg Home - David Ortiz Jr. October 31, 2010 David Ortiz Jr. was just 18 years old when he went missing on Halloween night in 2010, just days after he went to court to seek visitation with his infant son, Joshua. His body has never been found, and no one has ever been charged in his death or disappearance. Two years later, his younger sister, Nichole Marie Leon Ortiz was shot in the head while holding her infant son in her arms on September 29, 2012. No one was ever convicted of her murder. It has now been 12 years since David Jr. went missing. This family has lost two children to violence and no one has ever been held accountable. They deserves answers and justice. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60734fb903c5b927473cbd35/1618218309074-SRG796W1QPGBAKAVQXT2/Toni%2BPadilla.jpg Home - Antonia Annette “Toni” Padilla July 3, 2020 Toni Padilla went missing on July 3, 2020. She was last seen when she was dropped off at a “friend’s” house in the Silver Acres neighborhood in Silver City. She allegedly left the home on Broken Arrow around 3 p.m. that afternoon and has not been seen since. Foul play is suspected in her disappearance. https://www.southernnewmexicounsolvedmurders.com/about daily 0.75 2021-04-12 https://www.southernnewmexicounsolvedmurders.com/history daily 0.75 2023-05-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60734fb903c5b927473cbd35/2823f839-157a-4dd9-ab99-618c2810a318/At+La+Capilla+photo+by+CariSue+Flores%2C+Oct.+2021.jpg History - Founder & President Christine L. Steele I was a journalist and editor of small-town daily newspapers for 16 years. Nearly half of that time was spent managing two different newspapers in Southwestern New Mexico. During my time as the editor of the Silver City Sun-News (June 2009-Dec. 2013, now defunct) and the Silver City Daily Press (Sept. 2016-Feb. 2019), I covered all manner of crime, from burglaries and domestic violence cases to violent assaults, sex abuse, child abuse, missing persons, and murder. A number of those murders and missing person cases went unsolved for many years. Over the course of my career, they began to add up. The small town of Silver City (pop. 10,000), in remote Southwestern New Mexico, is surrounded by the Gila National Forest, which includes 3.3 million acres of pristine forest land and wilderness — and plenty of places to hide a body. Silver City is a ranching and copper mining community known for its quaint, artsy downtown, "four gentle seasons” and a certain Old West corruption and lawlessness that allows crimes like this to go unsolved for decades. The cases we are highlighting have languished for years with little to no progress or even acknowledgment that another year has passed and no justice has been done. Another year passed, and still no justice for these families. I left my journalism career in 2019, but these victims and their families have never left me. I created Southern New Mexico Unsolved Murders in April 2021, after I read in the Silver City Daily Press that Grant County Crime Stoppers was disbanding and distributing the $30,000 it had sitting in its bank account — $30,000 that could have been used to provide rewards for these cases both when they first occurred, and in the many years that have passed. We received a $2,000 grant from Grant County CrimeStoppers in August 2021. I don’t know where the remaining $28,000 went or if it was used for crime prevention or to help solve cases as it should have been. Our goal is to keep these cases alive and raise funds to publicize them locally and nationally with the hope that some answers will eventually be uncovered and justice delivered. Southern New Mexico Unsolved Murders is not affiliated with any organization, media outlet, or law enforcement agency. Donations are welcome. We are a registered nonprofit with the IRS and the State of New Mexico so your donations are tax-deductible. We are raising money for the following: An anonymous tip line through We Tip, a California-based organization that works with municipalities and law enforcement agencies to relay anonymous tips to help solve crimes. ($2,500yr.) Full-page ads in the local newspaper on the anniversary of each unsolved murder or disappearance to remind people that these cases remain unsolved. ($609 per ad) Printing bumper stickers, flyers, and T-shirts. ($500) A billboard on Highway 180 between Hurley and Silver City. ($4,500yr.) Rewards for anonymous tips that lead to an arrest in any of these cases and the location of the remains of David Ortiz Jr. and Toni Padilla. ($5,000 each) Renewal of the domain name and website ($350yr), and the cost of obtaining any public records, including police reports, court documents, and reports from the Office of the New Mexico Medical Investigator, including autopsies, and toxicology and determination of death reports, and any other costs related to the investigation of these disappearances and unsolved murders. Southern New Mexico Unsolved Murders is an all-volunteer organization. No board member or founder is paid any fees or salary or any money for their time. https://www.southernnewmexicounsolvedmurders.com/about-1 daily 0.75 2023-05-28 https://www.southernnewmexicounsolvedmurders.com/what-we-do daily 0.75 2021-04-12 https://www.southernnewmexicounsolvedmurders.com/how-to-help daily 0.75 2023-05-28 https://www.southernnewmexicounsolvedmurders.com/donate daily 0.75 2023-04-10 https://www.southernnewmexicounsolvedmurders.com/donate-1 daily 0.75 2021-04-13