A Mexican Springs woman known as “P.D.” is dead.  The skull of the 36-year-old woman who was reported missing in late January, was found by FBI agents in Mexican Springs after a woman named Stacy Yellowhorse 48, of Mexican Springs led the agent to a location where pieces of the woman’s body were scattered.

Yellowhorse and her boyfriend, Timothy Chischilly, 48, also of Mexican Springs were last seen with P. D. in Gallup Jan. 22, according to court records.

Police say they interviewed a woman who said she was with Chischilly, Yellowhorse, and the victim on that date. She said they were in Gallup and got into a physical altercation. She said she was beaten up during the fight and was still on the ground, when she saw Chischilly, Yellowhorse and the victim get into a big white car and leave the area.

The matter was turned over to the FBI since the victim and suspects lived on the Navajo Reservation. FBI officials said they got in contact with both Chischilly and Yellowhorse on Feb. 1.

Both told the FBI that they dropped off P.D. at a restaurant in Gallup and never saw her again.

The stories changed from one interview to another.

A number of people spoke to officers and agents, including Chischilly’s sister who said, her brother, confessed to her and to other family members, that he had killed P.D. - that he had held her on the ground as his girlfriend used a sledgehammer to kill her.

FBI agents interviewed another witness who told them she heard Chischilly confess that “we killed somebody” and heard him say the person was the woman who had been reported missing.  She also said Chischilly confessed to holding the woman down while Yellowhorse hit her in the head with a sledgehammer,

Another witness told FBI agents that he was also in the room the day Chischilly confessed to murder. He said most of the family members left the room after hearing the confession and did not hear Chischilly go into detail about how the murder was committed.

He said after Chischilly told him that Yellowhorse killed the victim by hitting her over the head with a sledgehammer, Chischilly said the two disposed of the body by “hacking it into pieces” and then burning it, scattering the parts over the Mexican Springs area.

He said Chischilly told him they put the body parts “here and there.” He added that Chischilly then asked him to help clean up the mess, because he did not know “if the dogs had taken the remains.”

He said he and Chischilly then went outside and Chischilly had him look into his car. He said he saw the sledgehammer and knives Chischilly claimed he used to commit the murder. He added that the inside of the vehicle looked as if someone had tried to clean it up. He added that it smelled like blood, some of which was still visible.

Yellowhorse talked to FBI agents again. She said P.D, drove back with them to their home in Mexican Springs. She said she was asleep and when she woke up she heard P.D. screaming.

Yellowhorse said when she looked toward P.D., she saw that her hand was nailed to the floor with a large construction-type nail. She added that she then saw Chischilly on top of P.D. nailing her other hand to the floor.

Yellowhorse said she got scared and ran out of the house.  She said she had to return to the house to get her shoes. When she got back inside, Yellowhorse said she saw Chischilly using a hammer to remove the nails pinning the victim to the ground.

She said the victim was still alive at that time. She said when she found her shoes, she left the house again, returning for a second time a little later. At. that point, she said she saw a large bonfire and smelled the body in the fire.

One of the FBI agents said he was familiar with the house and knew there was a large fire pit about 50 yards from the residence. Yellowhorse said Chischilly kept the fire going for three days, according to court records.

Yellowhorse said the day after the murder, she helped Chischilly remove bloody furniture from the house. She said Chischilly cut the furniture into pieces and burned it. She added that on Feb. 2, she helped Chischilly remove the larger pieces of the victim’s body that did not burn in the fire pit,

That’s when she took an agent to find the skull.

FBI agents were later able to get a search warrant for Chischilly and Yellowhorse’s home. During the search, they found two holes in the floor surrounded by what appeared to be blood.

They found evidence of blood throughout the house. They also searched a nearby dump where they found what appeared to be human remains.

The two are now in federal custody in Albuquerque.

Staff Reports