Texas pair ID’d as couple found shot
Police still looking at circumstances
A married couple from Texas have been identified by New Mexico State Police as the man and woman found shot dead in a pickup truck on the side of New Mexico’s busiest east-towest thoroughfare.
Jacob Kokotkiewicz, 31, and Ursula Tammy Kokotkiewicz, 32, were both found shot in the head after a State Police officer who was directing traffic along Interstate 40 saw a blue pickup truck pulled over west of Albuquerque on Thursday.
The officer, who was dealing with a tractor-trailer that overturned while carrying radioactive material, went to check on the truck and found the bodies inside.
Jacob Kokotkiewicz, who was in the driver’s seat, had a 9mm handgun between his legs.
State Police officials have not said how long they believe the bodies were there or offered any hints as to who they believe the shooter is. They have not said whether they believe a suspect is on the loose or whether it could have been a murder-suicide.
“Police are still investigating the motive behind these deaths and details of this scene,” State Police spokeswoman Elizabeth Armijo said in an email Monday morning. “This investigation remains open and ongoing.”
The couple lived in Flower mound, Texas, Armijo said, and Ursula Tammy Kokotkiewicz taught English in the Dallas area, according to her Facebook page.
Officials with the Dallas Independent School District did not return a phone call
Monday.
Posts on Ursula Tammy Kokotkiewicz’s Instagram account show she had been traveling to national parks in the Southwest.
She posted about visiting Sandia Crest on June 26, the first stop in her travels.
“New Mexico is a lot prettier than I remembered,” she wrote with a picture of the mountains.
A follow-up post shows her at the Four Corners monument, and she then apparently traveled to Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park and Zion National Park in Utah.
Her last post was on June 27 from a spot in Zion National Park called Angel’s Landing.
The bodies were found two days later in New Mexico.
Family members of Jacob and Ursula Tammy Kokotkiewicz couldn’t be reached Monday.