Joel 'Deano' Valdez: Two months later, family still searching for missing New Mexico man

When Joel “Deano” Valdez said he was going to do something, he would always do it, according to his family.

So when Valdez, 36, a Marine veteran and journeyman lineman for American Power, didn’t come home to Coyote on Sept. 18 after a job in Silver City, everyone close to him knew something was amiss.

“He’s just one of those guys who grew up on the ranch like I did, bucking hay, just working sunup to sundown,” said Daniel Trujillo, Valdez’s cousin. “He’s a really hard worker, and you can always count on him to show up, whatever it is.”

It first dawned on Trujillo that something might be seriously wrong when Valdez didn’t appear for work the next day. Still, he and other family members did their best to reassure Valdez’s wife, Vikki Valdez, with whom the veteran has three small children: two boys, 10 and 4, and a 4-year-old girl.

But Trujillo’s fears deepened after a text he sent to Valdez that Saturday also went unanswered when Trujillo was hunting grouse in the northern New Mexico high country.

Possible explanations filled the void left by Valdez’s silence — that he might have gone on a long run to gather firewood for the approaching winter season or that he needed some space after a family argument.

But when Vikki Valdez told Trujillo no, that life had been business as usual, the family confronted the reality that Valdez might be in danger. She reported him missing on Sept. 21 to New Mexico State Police.

Two months later, still no one has heard from Valdez, but his family hasn’t stopped searching for him. State police told the Journal on Monday that the case remains under investigation.

This month, the family raised $2,000 for information leading to Valdez’s whereabouts. Monique Garcia, another cousin, said the national nonprofit Angels’ Voices Silenced No More contributed another $5,000, raising the reward to $7,000. They’ve also posted regular updates to a Facebook page they’ve dedicated to the case.

The family continues to organize searches for Valdez every weekend.

This past Saturday, family, friends and volunteers combed the outskirts of Santa Fe, where Valdez was spotted by a surveillance camera outside an Allsup’s on Cerrillos Road. Searchers employed drones for an aerial view while searchers canvassed the low scrub hills on foot, in vehicles or on ATVs near Santa Fe Regional Airport.

According to the family, Valdez left Silver City around noon on Sept. 18 and texted his wife to say he was on his way home to Coyote around 2:30 p.m. Then he spoke with a cousin on the phone about an hour later.

His credit card statement showed a charge for gas at the Allsup’s on Cerrillos Road around 5:30 p.m. that day and a cash withdrawal at a nearby Wells Fargo ATM that his family said didn’t seem out of the ordinary.

But they found other charges that raised concerns, including a large purchase of gas — enough to fill up multiple vehicles, they said — as well as purchases at a car wash and retail store.

The family cancelled the card around the same time three more purchase attempts were made, just hours after Vikki Valdez reported her husband missing on Sept. 21.

The 36-year-old family man was known to drive a white 2015 Chevy Silverado 2500, which was reportedly seen in Albuquerque by a tipster who contacted the family on Sept. 22.

The family has posted photos of Valdez’s truck to Facebook, along with Valdez’s personal belongings, including a custom-made wallet, his work boots and a spool for electrical wire that the 36-year-old lineman kept in the bed of his vehicle.

“There’s options for law enforcement,” said Aaron Benzick, a Plano, Texas, police detective and founder of Solve the Case, a nonprofit dedicated to tracking missing persons cases nationally. “I can tell you that there’s a lot to work with on this case. That ATM activity the next morning and this vehicle are the absolute key.”

Benzick said if Valdez’s truck was stolen, then its license plates, numbered NM 248-THP, would almost certainly have been changed. But other unique details — like scratches or the license plate frame itself — could remain as clues for people on the lookout. He said the specific model of truck Valdez drove would also have come equipped with OnStar, a GPS tracking service for lost or stolen vehicles.

To date, however, Garcia said state police has been mostly tight-lipped about the investigation.

“We were speaking to them once a week,” she said, “Now, we’ll reach out to them with information to share periodically. We’re working with the investigations bureau of state police, and they’ve been receptive. We understand it’s an open investigation, so a lot of the information they’re holding close to the chest. But it’s hard, it’s hard not having answers.”

In response to a Journal inquiry this month, New Mexico State Police Public Information Officer Amanda Richards said the Valdez case remains open but is not the subject of a criminal investigation. The agency has yet to release new information on the case, such as any photos or video that may have caught Valdez’s movements or those of a potential criminal suspect.

“When appropriate, and when it may assist the investigation, the New Mexico State Police will release information to the public requesting assistance,” she said. “These decisions are made on a case-by-case basis depending on the needs of each investigation.”

Richards said state police has issued eight missing person alerts this year, “and only one remains active: a Missing and Endangered Alert for Melissa Casias,” a 53-year-old Taos County woman last seen on June 26.

Benzick said police might sit on information if they have identified a person of interest they might be eyeing for arrest. But in other cases, he said he’s had success turning to the public for assistance when a case is growing cold.

Several years ago while investigating a murder in Texas, for example, he said he was stumped on identifying a suspect vehicle caught on surveillance video, so he turned to Reddit and quickly got a correct answer.

“I could have been kind of prideful, like, ‘I don’t want to admit I can’t figure something out,’ you know, keep everything hush-hush, but I did the opposite,” he said. “I took my evidence to Reddit, and I said, ‘I can’t figure out what this car is. Can you guys help me?’ And I got a lot of crazy noise, but I also got some people saying, ‘Hey, have you considered a Lincoln MKZ,’ which I had not considered. Turned out to be the make and model of the car and helped kind of kick that can down the road on my investigation.”

He said there also appears to be sufficient evidence to shift Valdez’s disappearance toward a criminal case.

“If you start seeing things like potential bad actors using his bank account, that’s all you need to anchor that investigation and open it up,” he said.

Garcia said the family has recently begun working with a private investigator, who didn’t wish to be identified for this story. She said a PI is helping the family understand what might be happening behind the scenes, generate possible leads and “break through communication gaps.”

She also knows the Valdez family isn’t alone in their search for a missing loved one.

“We’re doing our best to continue with the momentum and continue keeping interest in this case,” Garcia said. “We know that there’s hundreds of people missing in New Mexico. We’re notified people missing every single day, so we really appreciate the support that we’ve received from the media, and hope that we can kind of keep it at the forefront of the media until we get some answers.”