Albuquerque police relaunch web series geared toward solving cold homicide cases

The Albuquerque Police Department is bringing back a video series aimed at solving homicide cases that have gone cold for one reason or another.

APD spokeswoman Rebecca Atkins said the series, "Duke City Case Files" (DCCF), was relaunched Tuesday with a new three-minute episode on the 2021 death of 22-year-old Brittany Ramirez.

Ramirez was dropped off at Presbyterian Hospital with multiple gunshot wounds and died soon after. Atkins said Ramirez left behind a 2-year-old daughter.

In the video, Ramirez's mother, Jessica, said her daughter had an outgoing personality and "just loved to love." Ramirez's father, Angel, got choked up trying to talk, and Jessica Ramirez filled in the blanks: "She was daddy's girl, that's for sure."

"I want to know what happened, who she was with ... what was the situation and how exactly it happened," Angel Ramirez said in the video.

The video showed photos of Ramirez when she was a child, and another in which she is smiling and holding her infant daughter.

Cmdr. Kyle Hartsock, who oversees APD’s Criminal Investigations Bureau, said in the video that detectives learned Ramirez's boyfriend was also shot in the incident. The boyfriend died of an overdose days after.

"We were never able to actually interview him," Hartsock said. He said APD believes the couple were in a car together when someone fired at the vehicle.

"I think, finally, we need some peace and capture whoever did this," Jessica Ramirez said in the video. "We need to close this chapter in our life already."

Atkins, the APD spokeswoman, said the department stopped producing the videos for a few years during a restructuring of the homicide unit amid an increasing caseload.

The series launched in June 2021 with a segment on the fatal shooting of DeAndre Garcia and ended in February 2022 with a piece highlighting the West Mesa murders.

All of the videos have more than 1,000 views, and the first, on Garcia's death, garnered more than 5,000.

"After the initial launch of the series in 2021, the Homicide Unit solved four of the seven cases featured," Atkins said in a release Tuesday.

Journal reporting shows three of the seven cases have been solved, including the deaths of DeAndre Garcia, 20; Jon Paul Carabajal, 19; and Daniel Collins, 34. The three cases do not appear to have been solved as a result of a tipster.

In the deaths of Garcia and Carabajal, the cases had been abandoned for years after the original detective left the homicide unit. The cases were eventually assigned to another detective and solved.

Atkins said the "Duke City Case Files" videos have generated tips but also reignited the conversations on the cases, both internally with APD and in the community.

Old case, new lead

Atkins said they have identified a suspect in a fourth case that was highlighted in the web series: the 1983 homicide of 71-year-old Agnes Tybo.

She said the case has been submitted to the offices of both New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez and 2nd Judicial District Attorney Sam Bregman for "possible prosecution" last year.

Atkins said the case was sent back.

Lauren Rodriguez, spokeswoman for the AG's Office, said the office found there was "insufficient evidence to support a criminal prosecution" of the suspect in Tybo's death.

"No additional information or evidence has been submitted to us since that time," she said.

Atkins said APD has "since been asked for further testing to be completed before another review" of the Tybo case.

She added, "APD continues to work with our prosecuting partners in hopes to further the case with charges."