Roswell Daily Record
Vol. 122, No. 299 75¢ Daily / $1.25 Sunday
THE VOICE OF THE PECOS VALLEY
December 14, 2013
www.rdrnews.com
SATURDAY
County, FEMA assess flood damage repairs JILL MCLAUGHLIN RECORD STAFF WRITER
A number of county roads that remain damaged following September’s floods may take six months to a year to repair. Chaves County road staff met with Federal Emergency Management Agency officials this week to assess several roads, including a section of West Country Club that sustained the most damage. All roads are open to the public and no structures were lost but the repairs are extensive, said Terry Allensworth, roads operations director. The cost to repair damages to 17 sections of roadway is still being estimated.
Final totals should be calculated in the next two weeks, Allensworth said. “We haven’t finalized any costs to anything yet,” Allensworth said. County staff toured the damaged areas with FEMA of ficials Monday and Wednesday. President Barack Obama signed a Major Disaster Declaration Oct. 29, making federal funding available to state and local governments on a cost-sharing basis for emergency work and the repair or replacement of facilities damaged by the storms, flooding and mudslides. Chaves County must submit proposals for repair to be reimbursed by the state or federal government
for a portion of the costs. When the first team of FEMA responders arrived, floodwaters were still running, said Public Services Director Sonny Chancey. The county sustained damage from the overtopping of the Rio Felix, Berrendo Creek and Salt Creek. The flooding of the Pecos River didn’t damage county structures. “We were actually dealing with river crossings of three different rivers,” Chancey said. “Which was the first any of us could remember in a long time.” Red Bridge Road, that was closed when Berrendo Creek’s over flowed the roadway, did not sustain See REPAIRS, Page A3
Jill McLaughlin Photo
Chaves County road staff met with officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency this week to assess damages to county roads sustained during September's flooding events. West Country Club Road near Adobe Mesa Road, seen here, sustained some of the more severe damage.
Most of city’s homicides are revenge driven JESSICA PALMER RECORD STAFF WRITER
Mark Wilson Photo
Wagon rides earn money for kids
Mid-Day Lions Annual Horse Drawn Carriage Rides led by Betsy and Zeke prepare to disembark for the Christmas Lights Wagon Ride, Friday evening.
JILL MCLAUGHLIN RECORD STAFF WRITER
The first riders at this year’s old-fashioned horse drawn wagon rides, held by the Roswell Mid-day
Lions Club, warmed themselves by a fire and ate holiday snacks after their tour. Aniston Montoya, 3, bundled in a pink jacket, asked her mom if she
could pet the horses. Lions Club event every “Can I pet his nose?” she year. asked her mom, Sonya. “This is my hobby,” Irby LaNette Irby, of Carls- said. “I really enjoy the bad, driver and owner of the two horses, said she See RIDES, Page A3 enjoys helping out the
Pye, caretaker of Starchild skull, dies
TESS TOWNSEND RECORD STAFF WRITER
Erica Peterson, 25, is wanted for probation violation on original charges of robbery and receiving stolen property. She is 5 feet, 5 inches tall, 110 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. John Anthony Ornelas, 35, is wanted for probation violation following conviction on charges of battery, false imprisonment and possession of a controlled substance. He is described as 5 feet, 8 inches tall, 182 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. Anyone with information about either Ornelas or Peterson should contact Crime Stoppers, 888-594-TIPS (8477). Callers can remain anonymous and could be eligible for a reward.
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TODAY’S FORECAST
Most of the homicides that occur in Roswell stem from two potential sources, domestic disputes or revenge killings. As Police Chief Phil Smith said in a recent Police Committee meeting: “Killings in Roswell are not random events.” Most subjects know their victims and the victims know their attacker. In 2013, the City of Roswell and Chaves County have recorded a total of 11 homicides so far. Of these, one was the result of a domestic. The remaining nine are believed to be vendettas. Revenge killings are not unique to Roswell or New Mexico. They are a nationwide problem, often part of gang wars. For mer Roswell Police Department Commander Leo Lopez referred to gang wars as civil wars, tearing a community apart. “It’s the
same way in every corner of the country.” Vengeance and vendetta are also part of New Mexico history, stretching back to the Lincoln County Wars and before. “Gangs are not new. Gangs started in the 1800s, when people banded together for protection against the Apache,” Lopez said. Former FBI agent Dennis Kintigh says revenge killings are more clan wars, rather than gang wars — something of a Hatfieldsand-McCoys feud. While Lopez attributes vendettas to gangs, he admits that gang associations often follow familial lines. “You are likely to join the same gang that your grandfather belonged to.” The cycle of death, vendetta, revenge and death reverberates throughout a family, like a spider’s web, where one
Fringe scientific researcher and author Lloyd Pye passed away at the age of 67 earlier this week. Pye died in the presence of family Monday in Destin, Fla., according to Roswell resident Donald Burleson, an acquaintance of Pye. The cause of death was cancer, he said. Pye is best known for leading research on a mysterious artifact dubbed the Starchild skull. The researcher and his team, including Burleson, have said that based on DNA evidence, the specimen cannot be human. “Nobody has come out and said outright it’s extraterrestrial, but it’s kind of hard to explain if it’s terrestrial,” said Burleson, a semi-retired mathematics professor at Eastern New Mexico University–Roswell. Burleson also writes a column about UFOs and the search for extraterres-
• VINCENT POWERS
trial life for Record publication Vision Magazine. Burleson provided Pye with statistical analysis of DNA and bone samples from the skull. Claims that the skull is not human have been contested by mainstream scientists. Pye studied psychology at Tulane University, where he received his bachelor’s degree in 1968, according to a concise autobiography on his personal website. He went on to pursue a career in fiction writing. He eventually developed an interest in “hominoids” such as Big Foot, according to the autobiography. His interest led him to publish a book in 1997 postulating an alter native theory of human evolution, titled, “Everything You Know is Wrong.” In 1998, Pye acquired the Starchild skull from a couple in El Paso, Texas, according to the website of Pye’s independent research endeavor Starchild Project. The skull was originally
TODAY’S OBITUARY PAGE A2
See REVENGE, Page A3
Courtesy Photo
Lloyd Pye handles the Starchild skull in a photo posted to Facebook in 2010.
found in Mexico in the 1930s, according to the site. He led an independent team of researchers in analysis of the specimen’s DNA and physical attributes. “If the thing was human, the gene we’re looking at would have been so mutat-
CLASSIFIEDS ..........B8 COMICS .................B7 ENTERTAINMENT .....B6 FINANCIAL ..............B6
ed that the thing would have died, but it didn’t. It lived to be an adult,” said Burleson. Steven Novella, a neurologist at the Yale University of Medicine, criticized Starchild Project research and conclusions in a 2006
INDEX GENERAL ...............A2 HOROSCOPES .......A10 LOTTERIES .............A2 NATION ..................A8
See PYE, Page A3
OPINION .................A4 SPORTS .................B1 WEATHER ............A10 WORLD ..................A9