On a Tuesday morning, June 18, 2013, in Albuquerque, New Mexico, 27-year-old Hispanic male Michael Sanchez was starting a new chapter in his life. He was on his way to his first day as a manager at a local car dealership, a promotion he had earned after a year of dedicated work detailing cars. Before heading to his new job, he stopped for gas at a Valero station.
This routine stop, however, turned into a scene of brutal violence that would tragically end his life.
The conflict that led to this fatal encounter had been brewing for weeks between Sanchez and his neighbor, Ricardo Villanueva-Cordova. The issue was Villanueva-Cordova's small dog, which Sanchez had complained barked excessively and ran loose in their mobile home park. The dog had reportedly bitten Sanchez on three separate occasions. Sanchez had filed two reports with animal control, resulting in a warning and later a fine for his neighbor. On the morning of his death, Sanchez had once again approached Villanueva-Cordova about the dog's barking from the previous night. Following this confrontation, Sanchez left for work, but Villanueva-Cordova followed him.
At the gas station, as Sanchez was fueling his vehicle, Villanueva-Cordova pulled up and attacked him. The assault was captured on the gas station's surveillance video. In a matter of seconds, Sanchez was stabbed 29 times. Witnesses saw the assailant flee the scene in his car. Sanchez was rushed to the hospital but succumbed to his injuries on the operating table two hours later.
In the aftermath of the attack, Ricardo Villanueva-Cordova disappeared. He allegedly called his girlfriend after the incident and told her, "I just killed somebody." Authorities believe he fled to Mexico. About a year after the murder, a Bernalillo County grand jury indicted Villanueva-Cordova on charges of first-degree murder and kidnapping. Despite efforts from law enforcement, features on national television shows, and the persistent pleas of Sanchez's family, Villanueva-Cordova remains a fugitive from justice.
