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Friday, June 19, 2009
Missing Persons Case Solved?
By Jeff Proctor
Copyright © 2009 Albuquerque Journal
An eight-year-old mystery may have been solved Thursday when authorities pulled a car out of Cochiti Lake that contained the remains of an Albuquerque man and possibly his three children, officials said.
Richard Robert Sanchez's ex-wife reported Sanchez and the children — ages 12, 8 and 2 at the time — missing from Albuquerque in August 2001, officials said. Sanchez was believed to have abducted them.
According to the National Center For Missing and Exploited Children, the children were, in descending order of age: Richard Anthony, Daniel Isiah and Christopher Leo Sanchez.
Sanchez had taken the children in August 2001 during a weekend visit in which he was allowed to see the children as part of a custodial agreement.
At the time, he was facing charges that he had raped a family member — the crime lasted several hours, during which the victim was assaulted with a stun gun and a two-pronged cooking fork, according to a news release issued by the U.S. Marshals Service. A 5-year-old witnessed the crime.
After hearing he was being sought by authorities, Sanchez turned himself in. He was released on bail and ordered to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet, the Marshals Service said.
In August 2001, Sanchez, who was 35 at the time, was allowed to spend the weekend with his children as part of the custodial agreement.
He cut off his monitoring bracelet, took his three children and fled the Albuquerque area, according to the Marshals Service. The case was featured on the FOX television program “America's Most Wanted” in 2003.
State Police became involved in the investigation Wednesday when the department received a report from the owner of a pickup truck who said his vehicle had gone into the lake.
“Our dive team was out here doing an exercise, anyway, so it worked out well for us to assist in this case,” State Police Lt. Eric Garcia said.
The truck was never found, he said.
But as police scanned the lake with sonar and divers on Wednesday, they found the sedan under water, Garcia said.
Officers arranged to have the car removed Thursday morning and obtained a search warrant to open it. On Thursday, the State Police dive team discovered human bones inside the vehicle that had been pulled out of Cochiti Lake.
The District Attorney's Office last year asked for the assistance of the Marshals Service in finding Sanchez. Believing he had fled New Mexico, the Marshals Service obtained a federal warrant for unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.
Officials said APD detectives worked the case “exhaustively” for more than three years in an effort to find Sanchez and the children. Family members told detectives working the missing persons case that they didn't believe Sanchez would hurt the children, officials said.
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