Suspect identified in Santa Fe area hit-and-run crash that killed mother, injured two children

Deputies have identified a suspect in Tuesday’s hit-and-run crash in Santa Fe County that killed a mother — a decadeslong employee with the city of Santa Fe — and injured her two children.

Mario Mendez, 29, is facing several charges, including homicide by vehicle, two counts of child abuse and tampering with evidence, in the crash that killed 43-year-old Monique Maes.

The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office is still looking for Mendez and asked anyone with knowledge of his whereabouts to call the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office at (505) 428-3720.

Santa Fe Mayor Alan Weber released a statement mourning the loss of Maes, who had worked for the city since 2000 and most recently served as an administrator with the Buckman Direct Diversion water treatment plant.

“We will do all we can to help ensure Monique’s children are comforted and cared for during this tragic time,” Weber said.

A colleague said in a Facebook post that Maes was nearing retirement and “planned to enjoy the rest of her life dedicated to her children, gardening and traveling.”

The colleague said Maes was known for having a “beautiful bright smile and infectious laughter” and they would miss their “lunchtime chit chat.”

“I will think of you at the sedimentation basins when I need to feel peace, calmness and the healing energy of the water, our favorite spot,” the colleague wrote. “... You are gone too soon, but you are retired to a more peaceful, heavenly place.”

Santa Fe County deputies were called around 6:10 p.m. to the crash along Paseo Nopal, north of West Alameda, and found Maes critically injured and her 8- and 12-year-old children with minor injuries.

A woman told deputies she saw a white SUV “drive recklessly at dangerous speeds” past her on Paseo Nopal before losing sight of the vehicle, according to an arrest warrant affidavit filed in Santa Fe Magistrate Court. The woman said soon after, she saw two children standing near the road and, nearby, a woman’s body on the ground.

Deputies said evidence at the site of the crash showed the SUV driver hit the family as they walked on the shoulder and crashed into some shrubs before fleeing the scene. At the scene, deputies found broken pieces of the SUV along with a cooler and sleeping bag.

Inside the sleeping bag were documents with Mendez’s name on them, according to the affidavit.

The woman told deputies the SUV driver was a man with a bowl-cut-type hair and dark-colored mustache. Around 10 p.m., an anonymous caller reported a suspicious SUV, with heavy front-end damage, abandoned in a rural area northwest of the city.

Inside the SUV was a case for the sleeping bag found at the scene.

Deputies said the owner of the SUV told deputies he had sold it for $500 to another man three months earlier. Deputies presented a photo array to the previous owner and he identified Mendez as the man who bought the SUV.

The woman who came upon the crash wasn’t certain during a photo array, but told deputies, “I guess the closest to the suspect would be this one” and pointing at the photo of Mendez.

Deputies said they then learned that Mendez’s driver’s license “was invalid because it had been surrendered.”

Online court records show Mendez has a warrant out for his arrest for not paying $264 in fines or showing up to a hearing in a September 2023 traffic case. In that case, Mendez had been ticketed for speeding, not having insurance, registration or a driver’s license.