In the autumn of 2020, Shayla Jenna Hammel, a 34-year-old mother of two young children, was living in the small town of Saguache, Colorado. Known to those who loved her as a "beautiful light," her life was intertwined with the rugged landscape of the San Luis Valley. Originally from Northern California, where her mother resided, Shayla had built a life in Colorado, but by the end of October, the light that she brought to her family and friends would be tragically extinguished.
The last
time Shayla's family had contact with her was in late October 2020. She was known to be with her boyfriend, Myron Martinez. As the days turned into weeks with no word, concern grew into alarm. On Thanksgiving Day, November 26, 2020, a family member officially reported Shayla missing to the Saguache County Sheriff's Office. Her husband, who was incarcerated at the time, was notified by his mother and children that they had been unable to reach her.
The search for Shayla became part of a grim and complex investigation that had begun weeks earlier. On November 10, while executing a search warrant for stolen property at a rural site in the Los Sauces area of Conejos County, investigators made a horrifying discovery: human remains. This led them to a second, nearby property where more remains were found. In total, the dismembered and burned bodies of multiple victims were located in what came to be known as "burn pits."
A multi-agency task force was formed, and investigators soon identified a suspect: a 26-year-old man from the area named Adre Jordan Baroz, who went by the nickname "Psycho." A manhunt was launched, and on November 19, 2020, Baroz was arrested at a motel in Gallup, New Mexico. At a press conference, Alamosa Police Chief Ken Anderson described Baroz as a "danger to the public," and urged law enforcement to work quickly to get him off the streets. The condition of the remains made identification a slow and meticulous process, but in late December, a forensic odontologist confirmed that some of them belonged to Shayla Jenna Hammel. Another victim was identified as her boyfriend, Myron Martinez.
The investigation revealed that on October 27, 2020, Martinez had gone to Baroz's apartment in Alamosa to purchase drugs, with Shayla waiting for him in a car outside. Inside the apartment, Baroz stabbed and shot Martinez. He then instructed his brother, Julius Baroz, to "take care of" Shayla. According to witness accounts, Shayla was taken to a rural property and held for two days before she was killed. Her death was part of a killing spree by Adre Baroz that claimed the lives of five people between August and November 2020.
In February 2024, Adre Baroz pleaded guilty to five counts of first-degree murder, five counts of tampering with a deceased human body, and additional charges of assault and kidnapping. In May 2024, he was sentenced to five consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, plus an additional 140 years. His brother, Julius Baroz, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit murder and was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Two other men, Francisco Ramirez and CJ Dominguez, also pleaded guilty to charges related to tampering with human remains for their roles in helping Baroz dispose of the bodies. The case, which involved over 50,000 documents of evidence, had a "huge impact" on the San Luis Valley, according to former Alamosa Police Chief Ken Anderson, who expressed relief that justice was served.
In the wake of the tragedy, a friend of Shayla's family created a GoFundMe page to help her mother travel from California to Colorado to be with her grandchildren. The page remembered Shayla as a "beautiful light in everyone's life, now dimmed forever." The case of Shayla Hammel stands as a heartbreaking reminder of a life cut short by senseless violence, leaving behind a grieving family and a community scarred by the actions of a serial killer.
