LAS CRUCES, N.M. (AP) — Detectives are examining dozens of new tips related to the massacre at a southern New Mexico bowling alley more than 30 years ago following the announcement of a new reward.
The tips come a month after Las Cruces police detectives announced a $30,000 reward for information leading to the suspects behind a deadly robbery that left four dead, KVIA-TV reports.
Police say two unidentified robbers came into the Las Cruces Bowl in February 1990 and shot seven people before burning a portion of the building. The assailants lined up all seven victims on the floor in the cramped office, shooting each in the head multiple times at close range.
Three of those fatally shot were children.
Helicopters and planes from the U.S. Customs Service, Army and Border Patrol assisted in the search for the two men reported by witnesses to be driving a tan or green van or utility vehicle.
No arrests were ever made.
Las Cruces Detective Amador Martinez said he’s combing through 50 to 60 tips he’s received since holding a news conference in early February.
But Martinez is careful sharing details.
“I can’t go too into it because (the tipsters) name people who haven’t been charged or they’re just suspects at this time. It wouldn’t be fair to them,” Martinez said. “Some of the people who have been suspected of this crime in the past, their names have popped up again. And even though they’ve been looked into, I’ve decided we’re going to do it all over again.”
His efforts can address questions lingering in the mind of Ida Holguin, the former cook at the bowling alley who survived the massacre.
“Do they really have the case open?” Holguin told KVIA-TV in February during an interview about the 30th anniversary of the shooting. “That’s what I want to know.”