Horror in the Church Graveyard

Days of Pure Evil

It happened exactly 40 years ago today, October 30 1982, in Tres Padres, New Mexico and the little town has never recovered.

Early on that fateful morning, the body of a 3 year old local girl was found in the Saint Angelo’s Catholic Cemetary just next to the eighty year old church.

She had died of strangulation.

The small tight-knit community was devastated and beside themselves with horror about the act of unspeakable evil.

That, however, wasn’t the end of the story. The following night, on All Hallows’ Eve morning, the four-year-old daughter of a local rancher went missing. She was found under similar circumstances, also in the old church graveyard.

It was All Hallows Eve and the town went mad with grief, fear, and anger. It was now obvious a serial murderer was amongst them and every neighbor was suspect.

Everyone gathered in the town square across the street from Saint Angelos. Accusations started to fly. Fights broke out. Everyone was angry, scared and extremely threatened by the horror of the tradgedies.

Eventually, Pastor Bartholemew, Judge Lewis, Doc Martinez, and the town’s sheriff, Bud Alvarez, got everyone calmed down and they came up with a plan.

They armed the fathers of all the young girls in the town aged two to age 12. Some also had armed family members stand guard. A couple families with young girls left town. The rest were basically stuck there because it was a very poor community.

Despite the planning and extra steps the town of Tres Padres took, there was a third little girl found strangled in the church graveyard early morning the next day.

Father Bartholemew, peering down into the graveyard from the belltower window, said he’d seen a shadow moving between the old headstones. Dean Hernandez, who had volunteered to guard his brother’s home, was found in a pool of blood from his throat being slit.

That was the last killing and they never found the killer.

I drove past Saint Angelo’s Catholic Church and Cemetary today. It was quiet. No-one was around. There was no yellow police tape. A chill went down my spine.

Today is exactly forty years to the day from the first of those three ghastly murders of innocent young girls that destroyed the community of Tres Padres, New Mexico and it looks just like any other normal day. But, it’s not. This morning, the body of a three-year-old local girl was found in Saint Angelo’s Cemetary strangled to death.

~ The Haunted Wayfarer