Mar. 16—More than two decades have passed since Katrina Whitley’s younger brother was fatally beaten, with his body left, unclothed, in an alley in Las Vegas, N.M.
The pain of the loss is still “excruciating,” Whitley said, in particular because her brother’s killer has evaded justice, with no charges filed, and the unsolved case has gone cold. The family’s appeals to law enforcement over the years have gone nowhere, she said.
Whitley was optimistic a new Cold Case Unit established by the New Mexico Department of Justice, previously the Attorney General’s Office, might revive an investigation into the 1997 homicide of 25-year-old Joseph Ruben Pacheco. But the agency found there is not enough evidence to pursue the case.
Whitley plans to continue pushing for a new review.
She and her three brothers recently began a public effort to draw attention to Pacheco’s death, hoping a new tip or advancements in forensic technology will lead to a resolution. The siblings have shared their story on social media platforms.
In December, Whitley launched a GoFundMe campaign that so far has raised more than $3,000 to offer as a reward for any tip that leads to a suspect. She and her brothers also have participated in interviews about their sibling’s horrific death for a coming episode of a true crime podcast.
An online petition created by Whitley in the past week urges Las Vegas police and the local district attorney to review the case. It had collected 117 signatures as of Thursday.
Gaps in the case file
A close friend of Pacheco found his body following an hourslong search by friends and family members a few days after Christmas in 1997, when the temperatures was 10 to 15 degrees, reports from the time state. Pacheco’s loved ones were concerned because he hadn’t come home the night before.
His body was left down in a stairwell in an alley, with no clothes on. It was covered with blood, cuts and bruises, police noted in reports. Officers found spots of blood on several stairs, a single quarter on the ground and a twin mattress leaning against a wall that was covered with bloodstains.
Police arrived on the scene, behind a Las Vegas bar called La Casita, minutes after the body was discovered around 10 p.m. Dec. 28, 1997.
An autopsy determined Pacheco died by homicide from “blunt force trauma,” according to a report released by the state Office of the Medical Investigator in January 1998. The report describes injuries all over Pacheco’s body, “a pattern of injuries consistent with a beating rather than a fall.”
It also noted specific cuts and debris suggesting the possibility Pacheco had been sexually assaulted.
Investigators’ reports identified three potential suspects in the months after Pacheco’s death, but the documents don’t mention a possible motive for the killing.
Various Las Vegas investigators on the case have for years kept quiet about details of the department’s investigation, Whitley said, but her family kept faith police were doing everything they could to solve her brother’s slaying.
But she recently received the case file through a public records request and was disappointed to find what she said appear to be gaps and unanswered questions.
“In the past, we really trusted and relied on the police, but now we think they didn’t do a whole lot to try to figure out who killed him,” Whitley said.
Her brother Christian Pacheco said their slain sibling, known as Ruben, was “the nicest guy.” He was unaware of any enemies his brother might have had.
“There are a lot of things that don’t make sense to me,” Christian Pacheco said of the investigation into his brother’s death.
Several witnesses told police they had seen Ruben Pacheco at a bar called Dick’s Liquor and Lounge the night before his body was found, documents say. Investigators were led to a man who told them he and Pacheco had left Dick’s and walked to La Casita that night but were turned away at the door. They ended up drinking beers next to an Allsup’s gas station across the street with three other men, he told police.
Documents show other people gave statements contradicting the man’s story. They told police they didn’t see anyone drinking outside the Allsup’s that night. Furthermore, surveillance video taken inside La Casita showed the same man in the bar, a detective wrote, adding there appeared to be blood on the man’s hand.
About two weeks after the killing, police issued a search warrant for a blood sample from the man. Similar warrants for blood samples were issued for two other men in the following months, and investigators identified all three men as potential suspects in various reports.
Evidence logs show the blood samples were sent to the state’s forensic laboratory in Santa Fe, along with blood samples police collected from the scene and samples taken from Pacheco’s body during the autopsy.
The case file includes just one serology analysis.
The report, dated Jan. 21, 1999, states paper towels used to collect blood from the stairs at the scene tested positive for the presence of blood but negative for the presence of human DNA.
In the years after the killing, police received at least two tips — one phone call from a “confidential informant” in January 1999 and another through the Crimestoppers tipline in January 2000. Details about the tips were redacted from reports in the case file.
A brief police interview with one of the suspects seven months after the killing was largely redacted.
In response to a recent request for documents related to the investigation, the department said it did not have any videos or audio recordings available.
‘Authorities have failed us’
More than a year after the incident, a letter to the editor from Patrick J. Trujillo was published in The New Mexican questioning the rigor of the Las Vegas police investigation into Pacheco’s killing and lamenting that “as each month passes, the probability of bringing the murderer(s) of Joseph Ruben Pacheco to justice gets slimmer.”
“We, along with many others, have to wonder how aggressively the Las Vegas Police Department is pursuing this case,” Trujillo wrote. “Does this not shock the community of Las Vegas that there is a murderer free?”
Now, over 25 years later, Whitley and her brothers are expressing similar frustrations.
Her attempts to urge 4th Judicial District Attorney Thomas Clayton to review the case have been ignored, Whitley said.
Clayton did not respond to an email asking questions about the case.
“Despite our efforts to seek justice, the authorities have failed us at every turn,” Whitley wrote in an email. “We’ve pleaded with the Las Vegas NM Police Department, and reached out to District Attorney Thomas Clayton — all to no avail.
“It is beyond comprehension that Ruben’s case file has been left untouched on the DA’s desk for over a year,” she added.
Interim Las Vegas police Chief Matias Apodaca wrote in an email the case recently was forwarded to the state Department of Justice for review. He declined to respond to questions about the case, however, and wrote he was not available for an interview.
The Department of Justice aims to bring closure for those like Whitley and her siblings, loved ones of cold case victims, by applying new investigative tools — like powerful forensic genealogy that has shown success in solving some old crimes. While the agency considered Ruben Pacheco’s homicide for review in its new Cold Case Unit, it determined the evidence in the case was “insufficient” for further investigation, a spokeswoman wrote last week.
“The NMDOJ will continue to work with Las Vegas Police if they locate additional evidence or develop any further leads,” she wrote.
Asked for details about why the evidence wasn’t strong enough to pursue, spokeswoman Lauren Rodriguez later wrote, “The New Mexico Department of Justice is unable to give specific details related to an ongoing investigation. We have not adopted this case at this time, but we have made ourselves available to the Las Vegas Police Department to assist if further leads develop.”
Whitley said she hopes her recent efforts to bring attention to her brother’s unsolved slaying will compel someone to speak up about details they might have kept secret about the incident, even over decades later.
“It’s really frustrating,” she said. “Obviously we want to find out who killed him, and it still hurts a lot.”
Amanda Smith is a dedicated U.S. correspondent with a passion for uncovering the stories that shape the nation. With a background in political science, she provides in-depth analysis and insightful commentary on domestic affairs, ensuring readers are well-informed about the latest developments across the United States.
