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Author: Lisa

Lisa Maue lives in Carrizozo, New Mexico. Formerly a reporter, Lisa continues to write about the people and places in south-central New Mexico.
A Police Officer Shooting: The Story of Two Accounts

A Police Officer Shooting: The Story of Two Accounts

Before the police officer shooting of Timothy Jones in Ruidoso in 2015, the last fatal officer shooting in Ruidoso took place on April 23, 1971. Paul Green, who had been arrested earlier in the day, asked to make a call and was led to the police department’s phone, dialed a number, suddenly dropped the receiver and ran from the building. Officer Victor Brooks ran after the escaping prisoner. In his later retelling of events, confirmed by the dispatcher, Brooks yelled…

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Movie poster of "I Survived BTK"
“I Survived BTK” A Story of the Quest for Redemption

“I Survived BTK” A Story of the Quest for Redemption

One of the first scenes in the documentary “I Survived BTK” (also known as “Feast of the Assumption: BTK and the Otero Family Murders”) is Charlie Otero speaking from prison where he was serving a 44-month sentence after accepting a deal to plead guilty for aggravated battery. The scene is ironic but telling. Otero’s life was upended when his parents and two young siblings, ages 11 and 9 were murdered by Dennis Rader, Wichita’s BTK killer. Charlie at age 15…

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Picture of DVD cover of "The Silence of Cricket Coogler."
“The Silence of Cricket Coogler” and Corruption at the Highest Levels

“The Silence of Cricket Coogler” and Corruption at the Highest Levels

The murder of Ovida “Cricket” Coogler in Las Cruces in 1949 rocked New Mexico’s political machine and sent reverberations throughout the country. Coogler was an 18-year-old waitress whose body was found in a field south of Las Cruces by some rabbit hunters. She had been raped and run over repeatedly by a car. As the press, particularly Walt Finley, working for the El Paso Herald Post, started digging into the murder, corruption from the local sheriff “Happy” Apodaca all the…

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