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16 stairs, 1 bullet and 36 years.
I never knew Officer Stephen Sandlin in person, only through stories told, crime scene documents and autopsy reports. Over the past couple of weeks, as we began re-reporting it and visiting old sites and talking with community members, it’s clear I’m not alone. Many have never forgotten his story and have kept a keen eye on its unfolding saga over the years hoping to see a resolution.
Go Back
In the late summer of 1988, a few months after Sandlin was killed, I was a 30-year-old single mom with two young children when I moved to Estancia to be near my sister and her family. I had no job prospects but I had a Nikon camera and knew how to write. In the spring of 1989, I began covering Estancia High School sports and local government for the local newspaper.
But the news I really cared about was Sandlin’s death, the drama in Mountainair — about 23 miles south of my home — and the shady sheriff’s department.
Myself and the rest of the staff of the weekly Torrance County Citizen along with fearless Albuquerque Journal reporters were hungry to gobble up every bit of information, tip, gossip or piece of paper that came our way. And some of us held on to those things, just in case. It didn’t matter that we got threats, that just made us more tenacious.
Torrance County, 1988
The sprawling Torrance County has hundreds of miles of dusty ranch roads fanning out from the foothills of the Manzano mountain range east to the Salt Lakes. This isolated area fosters the perfect storm of illegal marijuana growers setting up operations and corrupt law enforcement…… to read more, visit citydesk.org.