14-03-2025
Deming couple accused of child abuse held without bond
DEMING, N.M. (KRQE) – A Deming couple accused of physically and sexually abusing their eight children and making them live in filthy conditions will remain in custody until trial.
Sixth Judicial District Court Judge Jennifer DeLaney granted the state's motions to hold Melvin Cordell and his wife, Valerie Cordell, without bond in the Luna County Detention Center as they await trial.
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Melvin Cordell, 50, pleaded not guilty to 24 charges of sexual assault and child abuse. Valerie Cordell, 41, is facing 18 charges.
Investigators believe the Cordells also allowed other people to sexually abuse their children, whose ages range from 16 years old to 6 months, and photograph the kids naked in the shower, according to court documents.
The couple's oldest child told investigators that she got pregnant twice and had 'unwanted sex' with her father and at least one other adult relative.
She also claimed that her parents starved the kids as punishment.
The Sixth Judicial District Attorney's Office said in a news release that the children lived outside, year-round, sleeping on a mattress in a semi-underground cave with 4 to 6-foot tunnels, or in broken-down vehicles.
Officials believe the abuse took place between 2014 and 2024 on a 35-acre property on Opatah Drive NW. Investigators wrote in the criminal complaint that the property resembled a landfill as it was filled with trash, buckets of feces, soiled clothes, rotting food, broken appliances, and more.
Valerie and Melvin Cordell were arrested on Feb. 21, 2025, and booked into the Luna County Detention Center.
New Mexico State Police began investigating the Cordells in October 2024 after the couple's 16-year-old daughter reported the abuse while at the New Mexico National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Academy in Roswell. The children were placed in protective custody with the state.
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