Investigation underway

In the early afternoon on Dec. 27, around 2:14 pm on the day leading up to the New Year, McKinley County Sheriff’s officers found an unattended body on Country Road 1.

The body was reported by a man, 44, from Gallup, who discovered a decomposing leg while walking with his dogs around Rock Springs.

“My dogs were nibbling on something. I went to go check what they were eating and I notice a leg that had green pants,” he told MCSO Dep. Josie Bowman in a statement.

The identity of the deceased person is not yet known, although officers did find identification near the body at the scene. They have yet to confirm a link between the ID and the physical...

Latanya Livingston

Dec. 26, 6:35 pm

1st DWI

McKinley County Sheriff’s Sgt. Tammy S. Houghtaling was responding to an anonymous tip about an intoxicated driver who had staggered into her vehicle with a young child in tow, according to the police report. Houghtaling located the reported car on Highway 602 and Skeets Road, where she encountered Livingston, 25, with a child in the backseat.

Livingston was unable to give the child’s age when Houghtaling asked, first telling the officer seven months, then six, then “maybe about a year,” according to the report. The child was only wearing a tank-top shirt and no jacket, despite the winter temperatures outside.

Livingston...

Alcohol appears to be a factor in crash

KIRTLAND – On the start of Christmas Eve, at about 1:46 am, New Mexico State Police were notified of a crash near the intersection of U.S. 64 milepost 42 and County Road 6500 in Kirtland, N.M.  The crash involved a Commercial Motor Vehicle and a sport utility vehicle with multiple occupants.

Officers arrived on scene and learned that the 2018 Kenworth CMV was approaching a red light at the intersection and had begun to slow. The CMV was struck from behind by a 2016 Buick Sport utility vehicle traveling west, in the same direction. Indicators at the scene show no signs of skid marks or braking prior to the impact.

The driver of the Buick Mr...

On Dec. 26, at about 8:13 pm, McKinley County Sheriff’s Dep. Roxanne Slim was sent to Buttercup Lane in response to an attempted suicide. A woman had called in the report over her father, who could be heard in the background of the call “yelling ‘Don’t look for me… don’t come back for me…” according to the police report.

Upon arriving at the scene, officers were directed inside the residence by another woman who appeared “scared and in a panic,” according to the report.

Slim handcuffed Tommy Denetclaw, 49, who denied that he had attempted suicide, and told the officer that he had held the woman who met the officers against her will inside the house because...