Denise Duran, a female from Albuquerque, was shot on the night of June 25, 2025, in the parking lot of an apartment complex at 404 Española St. SE near Zuni Road and Louisiana Boulevard. Police and media reports describe a sudden burst of gunfire that left her mortally wounded; officers found her in the lot and she later died at the hospital. APD's ShotSpotter registered two volleys about ten seconds apart around 11:25 p.m., matching what witnesses recounted from the scene, and detectives
began tracing a red Dodge Charger connected to the attack.
Investigators used the city's license-plate reader network and surveillance video to follow the Charger's movements before and after the killing. Early case summaries noted that someone inside the car fired the first rounds before a resident from the complex stepped outside and returned fire as the Charger fled. These details, paired with timestamps from ShotSpotter and store cameras showing the Charger in the hours leading up to the shooting, formed the backbone of the initial case narrative.
Detectives arrested 54-year-old Erick Pacheco in early July after identifying him and the Charger on video and through records. A contemporaneous broadcast report, citing court documents, said Duran had approached Pacheco's vehicle shortly before midnight and that shots were fired; Pacheco was booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center and charged with an open count of first-degree murder and related offenses.
Within days, APD identified a second suspect, 21-year-old Joseph Carlos Rivera, as the alleged primary shooter. Rivera was charged with an open count of murder, conspiracy, shooting at or from a motor vehicle resulting in death, tampering with evidence, shooting at an occupied dwelling, and felony criminal damage; he was taken into custody on July 16. Reporting also noted that Rivera had been found driving Pacheco's Charger on June 29, and that the vehicle—later searched under warrant—showed evidence consistent with the gunfire exchanged that night.
Public records and memorial pages confirm Duran's name and date of death but do not provide a verified age or ethnicity. What is clear from police statements and local reporting is that the homicide occurred in the complex's lot just before midnight on June 25, 2025, that a red Dodge Charger was central to the investigation, and that two suspects—Pacheco and Rivera—were arrested and charged in connection with her killing as the case moved from an urgent overnight investigation to a coordinated series of arrests the following month.
