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Monday, February 08, 2010
Massacre Mystery
By Joline Gutierrez Krueger
Journal Staff Writer
The children were the worst of it.
Among the youngest shot and killed Feb. 10, 1990, was Paula Holguin, 5. The long-haired little girl with a bullet in her brain crawled to where her father, Steven Teran, lay dead, face down in the office of Las Cruces Bowl.
She died next to him, a look of terror frozen on her face.
Her uncle saw that look.
Anthony Teran, then 19, had been the one to identify Paula's body. He had also identified the bodies of his older brother Steven and Steven's youngest daughter, Valerie Teran, 2.
Amy Houser, 13, also died that morning in what became known as the Las Cruces Bowling Alley Massacre, one of the bloodiest mass murders in state history.
A fifth victim — Stephanie Senac, bowling alley manager and the owner's daughter — died years later from injuries she suffered in the shooting.
Two more survived their gunshot wounds, including Senac's teenage daughter.
Twenty years have passed since that Saturday morning, and Anthony still sees his niece's scared face.
"That kills me to think about what those last terrifying moments must have been like," he says. "These were babies. Who shoots babies?"
I met Anthony Teran seven years ago while he was trying to bring attention to a crime that had never been solved, never been explained and was never going to be forgotten if he could help it.
"I knocked on the door of everybody," says Teran, who lives in Phoenix. "I rattled cages. I was not about to let people forget."
This year, though, he has help.
Last fall, former KRQE sportscaster Charlie Minn began working on a feature-length documentary about the bowling alley killings.
Like Teran, it was a case that had haunted him for the past two decades.
"I've checked in on this case on and off for years," says Minn, now a New York-based filmmaker who is bankrolling this endeavor. "For me, it's become a one-man crusade, and nothing would make me happier than if these creeps got caught. It's unreal what they got away with."
Minn spent several weeks in Albuquerque and Las Cruces filming how he envisions the horrors of that day. He interviewed family members, witnesses and detectives.
The production was fast-tracked so that it could premiere Wednesday, the 20th anniversary of the shootings.
Minn makes no excuses for the graphic nature of his film.
"It's just the brutal truth," he says. "If anybody has a problem with it, I tell them, this is what happened."
Based on witness statements and what Las Cruces detectives have pieced together over the years, what happened began before 9 a.m. on a Saturday, a time when almost no one would usually be at Las Cruces Bowl (which Minn was granted permission to use, though the owners and the name have changed).
Steven Teran, a pin mechanic, arrived early with his daughters after dropping his wife off at a beauty school nearby.
Also, there were snack bar cook Ida Holguin (no relation to Paula), manager Senac and her 15-year-old daughter, Melissa Repass, and Melissa's friend Amy.
Two armed men walked into the bowling alley, ordered the seven to the floor and ransacked the place in search of something they apparently never found.
They took $5,000 but left cash behind.
Then they unloaded as many as 25 rounds execution-style into the backs of their victims' heads.
The men set fire to the office before leaving. Repass, critically injured but still alive, snuffed out much of the fire and called 911.
Only Repass and Ida Holguin are alive today — one lives in seclusion, the other lives in mental anguish.
No arrests were made, no suspects named.
"I'll be honest. I don't think the detectives have had one strong lead," Minn says.
He is hopeful that the film with reignite interest in the case and lead to the arrests of those responsible.
Teran hopes for that as well.
"My brother was 26 and now I'm pushing 40," he says. "I've lived nearly twice as long as he was on this earth. I honor him by never letting people forget him and those beautiful little girls."
Those who see the film will not soon forget them, either.
UpFront is a daily front-page news and opinion column. You can reach Joline at 823-3603, jkrueger@abqjournal. com or follow her on Twitter @jolinegkg.
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