SFPD asks public for help in solving 1987 murder
Patricio Pacheco was bludgeoned to death with a carpenter’s hammer
SANTA FE — Santa Fe police detective Tony Trujillo thumbs through a black threering binder filled with pages of information about unresolved Santa Fe murder cases dating back decades.
Most of the cold case victims are women, but not all. The Santa Fe Police Department last week sent out a media release saying it was seeking the public’s help with the 1987 murder of Patricio Pacheco, who was bludgeoned to death with a carpenter’s claw hammer at his apartment on Agua Fria Street.
SFPD issued the release on Sunday, June 12, believed to be the 29th anniversary of Pacheco’s death.
“We’re trying to get the word out,” said Trujillo, who is working the cold cases with Detective Jimmie Montoya. “We believe there’s still somebody out there who has information. Through the physical evidence we have and people coming forward with information, whether it’s something about Mr. Pacheco or the people he associated with, we can find out who his killer was.”
Key to the effort are the advances that have been made in forensic DNA analysis since many of these murders occurred.
“It’s all about DNA,” Trujillo said. “Back then, they didn’t think about handling evidence with DNA in mind.”
It wasn’t until the late 1980s and early 1990s that DNA profiling became practice.
At the time of the Pacheco murder, ABO blood typing collected from saliva was common. That method, however, serves only to narrow the list of possible suspects and is not nearly as precise as DNA matching, which renders a profile as unique as a fingerprint.
Trujillo said some persons of interest in the Pacheco case submitted saliva samples back then and some hair samples were taken. The hair was used to try to match hair found at the crime scene back then. Now, DNA profiles can be extracted from hair.
And DNA has since been lifted from the murder weapon, a hammer found on the floor of the apartment. “Mr. Pacheco’s DNA was found on the working end of the hammer and unknown DNA was found on the handle,” the detective said. “There is a profile there. We’re not saying it’s the suspect’s, but it is something to work with.”
Trujillo won’t name any suspects in this or other cases.
“We don’t want to identify any of them. After all these years, they may think they have gotten away with it,” he said.
Newspaper articles in the days following the murder describe Pacheco as a quiet man who kept to himself. He especially enjoyed taking his nieces and nephews out to eat or for ice cream.
“Everybody liked him. He was really a likeable guy,” his sister-in-law, Theresa Pacheco, told the Journal at the time.
Known as “Bito,” Pacheco was 40 when he was killed. He worked at the family-owned Owl Liquor Store much of the time, but labored at other jobs here and there.
He’d also check in with his mother on a daily basis. He watered the lawn of her home on Kathryn Place on Thursday night. When he didn’t show up Friday or Saturday, his mother grew concerned and asked one of her other children to check on him.
They found the door to Pacheco’s apartment slightly open and Pacheco slumped on the couch, barefoot, in front of the television set.
“We believe he knew his assailant and that it was someone he trusted. The scene dictates that,” Trujillo said.
It looked like Pacheco had spent a relaxing evening at home hanging out with a friend or two. There was a six-pack of empty Budweisers on the kitchen counter, more cans on the dining room table and a few at his feet.
“Chances are they got pretty intoxicated,” the detective said.
Accessing the scene, Trujillo said Pacheco may not have seen it coming.
“He apparently was watching TV. He may have dozed off and someone came up from behind,” Trujillo speculated.
The hammer used to strike Pacheco in the head was found on the floor of the apartment.
While the crime scene says a lot and there’s physical evidence, “to be honest, we don’t know a motive,” Trujillo said. Pacheco’s wallet wasn’t taken and it doesn’t appear anything else was missing. There was a vague suggestion that Pacheco might have had a safe in the house, but that couldn’t be substantiated.
Though it’s not mentioned in the newspaper articles, Trujillo said Pacheco was gay.
Could that have been a motive? Could it have been a hate crime?
“Could be,” he said.