5 days ago
Man kills parents, teen sister, drags bodies outside to bury, NM officials say
A man has been indicted in the 2024 fatal shooting of his parents, teen sister and the family dog, New Mexico officials said.
In October 2024, Bernalillo County deputies responded to a home in Tijeras after a man called saying he'd heard gunshots coming from a home where a family of four lived, according to the criminal complaint.
He tried to text the family and honked his car's horn to get their attention but didn't get a response, documents said.
When deputies arrived, they found Adlai Mestre leaving the home with a gun in his hand and a magazine loaded with ammunition, documents said.
While being detained, Mestre told officers, 'I killed them and was going to bury them,' documents said.
When deputies entered the home they found 'blood transfer patterns consistent with drag marks and mopping/cleaning,' the complaint said.
They also found a hammer and meat tenderizer with blood on it near the home's front door, officials said.
In a ravine near the home, officers found the bodies of two adults and a teen, officials said.
The bodies were later identified as Mestre's parents, Bertha Huerta Conde and Raymundo Mestre, and his 17-year-old sister, Brielle Mestre, according to a July 10 Facebook post by the district attorney's office.
He's also accused of killing the family dog, officials said.
His sister was known for being a 'long-time' member of the Carrie Tingley Hospital Foundation, a pediatric rehabilitative hospital, and participated in events like wheelchair basketball, according to KRQE.
'She was this amazing young woman. So, I just wish everyone could have experienced what I got to experience,' Kerry Trautwein, a Carrie Tingley volunteer, told KRQE in 2024.
A scholarship was also created in her name, according to the foundation's website.
'The scholarship funds that we established will be able to help a child and their family, or maybe several, to be able to continue to participate in those adaptive programs that our foundation offers,' Executive Director Liliana Prado-Bujanda of Carrie Tingley Hospital Foundation told the outlet.
During his interview with detectives, Adlai Mestre told officers he killed his dad in the living room and his mom as she walked down the stairs, 'but didn't know about his younger sister,' documents said.
Then he dragged them outside to 'bury them in the ravine,' officials said.
He tried to clean up the home but was interrupted by responding officers, the document said.
While officers were finishing his booking paperwork, Adlai Mestre punched the room's wall, then kicked open a hole, and escaped custody before being chased down the hall and taken into custody again, officials said.
He was indicted on charges of murder, tampering with evidence, extreme cruelty to animals, escaping from the custody of an officer and criminal damage to property, officials said.
Tijeras is about a 20-mile drive east from Albuquerque.
