Unmarked gravesite discovered during construction at New Mexico Behavioral Health Institute

An unmarked gravesite has been found on the property of a state-owned psychiatric facility in northern New Mexico.

Contractors were completing excavation work at the New Mexico Behavioral Health Institute in Las Vegas when they uncovered over 20 unmarked graves, according to Joe Vigil, spokesperson for the New Mexico General Services Department.

It is unclear when the graves were discovered, and the department did not answer follow-up questions.

Vigil said the graves were found on the far end of the construction site but did not elaborate further.

Contractors were onsite to complete excavation work for the $223 million expansion project for the facility’s forensics unit when they discovered the gravesite, Vigil said.

Vigil said construction was immediately paused and New Mexico State Police and the Office of Medical Investigator were called in to investigate.

“The remains are suspected to be from between 1889 and 1930,” Vigil said.

The facility opened in 1889 and is the only state owned and operated psychiatric hospital in New Mexico, according to the New Mexico Department of Health.

The State Historic Preservation Office was called and onsite archeologists are determining if the remains can be moved to a new burial site or if some construction will be rerouted to preserve the gravesite.

In 2003, experts from the Los Alamos National Laboratory began to study an “untended cemetery” behind the hospital, according to previous Journal reporting.

“Bodies of those who died at the institution were presumably buried there for three decades, beginning from 1894, but no specific records were kept until 1920,” the article states.

According to the article, the institution did not keep any record of patient deaths or their burial sites from 1894 to 1919. From 1920 to 1984, the hospital recorded nearly 2,000 burials, the article states. Vigil did not know if the 2003 study had any relation to the recently discovered gravesite.

The institute has four divisions that specialize in long-term care: adult psychiatric care, an adolescent unit for teens 13-17 demonstrating sexual harmful behavior, a long-term care facility and a forensic unit to treat people who have been found incompetent to stand trial.

The facility receives roughly 1,000 admissions every year.