Poor Family’s Hope Discarded

Fernando Enriquez was raised close to the earth, his migrant farm family toiling in the soil, harvesting chiles, onions and the occasional crop of pecans near Deming.

It was a hard, humble life of calloused hands, bent backs, leathered skin, little else to sustain them when harvest time was over, as it is now.

But Enriquez was destined for something more. He dreamed of growing something different, something of steel and concrete and glass. And he dreamed of growing his mind.

	More information Prayer service for UNM student Fernando Enriquez 6 p.m. Wednesday, Riverside Funeral Home chapel, 225 San Mateo NE. Funeral 10 a.m. Thursday, Riverside Funeral Home chapel. Burial to follow in Mexico. To donate to Fernando Enriquez Memorial Fund: Any branch of New Mexico Educators Federal Credit Union, account No. 3989800; or at CAMP offices at UNM, Room 3045, third floor, Mesa Vista Hall. Donations can also be made through PayPal at ivandermullet.blogspot.com.

He wanted to be an architect, wanted to build his way out of poverty, wanted to be the first in his family to go to college.

He wanted to make his family proud.

And he was doing that. Enriquez, 23, had come to the University of New Mexico through a program that helps children of migrant workers transition from high school into their first year of college. He was in his third year at UNM and making plans to transfer to its School of Architecture when he was cruelly, crudely returned to the earth, thrown headfirst 65 feet down a collapsed lava tube in the vast volcanic fields of El Malpais National Monument about 20 miles south of Grants, his body pocked with multiple blasts from a shotgun.

That he was found at all is because of the remarkable work of an Albuquerque Police Department Missing Persons Unit detective, the State Police, Grants Police Department, the National Park Service and Grants Fire and Rescue.

That his family will be able to give him a proper burial next week is because of the remarkable generosity of many others, some who never knew him.

Last Halloween, family members became concerned when they couldn’t reach Enriquez by phone. Later, they found his apartment at the Cinnamon Tree near Central and Louisiana SE unlocked and his ATM card gone.

His parents, who had always worried about their son attending school in the “big city” of Albuquerque, filed a missing persons report with APD on Nov. 10. His father traveled to Albuquerque and posted fliers around UNM begging for help in finding him.

Claudia Cano, a recruiter with the College Assistance Migrant Program, or CAMP, that Enriquez had been a part of, decided to help.

“After talking with the father, she realized that Fernando had been a CAMP student,” said Ivan Olay, CAMP director. “She had never met Fernando. It was quite a coincidence.”

Olay had known Enriquez, an affable, hardworking student who loved wearing fashionable clothes and spiking his hair in a trendy upsweep of bleach-blond tips.

“We called him a fashionista,” Olay said. “He had a great personality, always talking to everyone. He was also a great student. Our program can be very intensive, and he was always willing to come to everything. He took advantage of everything. He appreciated the opportunity he had.”

APD detective Dan Torgrimson tracked the usage of Enriquez’s ATM card to a Walmart in Grants. And that led to surveillance camera footage. And that led to two suspects known well to Grants police for their criminal histories of robbery and burglary and repeated probation violations.

Police say they believe the suspects knew Enriquez and “took him by force” from his apartment, then killed him in Cibola County.

The investigation led authorities on Dec. 1 to a deep, rock-spiked hole in the Double Sinks area of El Malpais off N.M. 53.

Charged with first-degree murder are Bryce Franklin, 23, and Clifford Bearden, 20. Both were on probation for unrelated crimes at the time Enriquez disappeared. Both are expected to be arraigned Jan. 7 in Grants.

Records show both men’s lawyers have in the past sought to claim insanity defenses, though it is not clear why.

Also arrested was Franklin’s mother, Sandy Franklin, an elementary school teacher in San Rafael, accused of conspiracy to commit tampering with evidence for allegedly wiping a shotgun, possibly used in the homicide, with window cleaner and hiding it at the family’s lake home in Bluewater.

Nearly four weeks after Enriquez’s body was recovered from El Malpais, it has yet to be buried.

“This is a family of limited means,” Olay said, speaking on behalf of the family. “They are not working during the winter and don’t have the financial resources to cover the cost of a proper burial.”

So Olay and others put out the word to raise money, using social media, a blog, a news release and a phone call to me.

But before I could write a single word, the CAMP and UNM communities, French Funerals and strangers from as far away as Washington and California raised the goal of $3,900.

“It was amazing,” Olay said. “People really came together for Fernando.”

Olay said he hopes to continue to raise enough funds to set up a memorial for the slain student, perhaps a scholarship for other disadvantaged students like Enriquez who dream of something better.

“It would be nice to remember him that way,” he said.

Funeral services are finally planned for next week. And then, Enriquez’s family will take him to Mexico to bury him, to take him home to the place they came from, to return him to the earth.

UpFront is a daily front-page news and opinion column. Comment directly to Joline at 823-3603, jkrueger@abqjournal.com or follow her on Twitter @jolinegkg. Go to www.abqjournal.com/letters/new to submit a letter to the editor.
— This article appeared on page A1 of the Albuquerque Journal