In the early morning hours of October 5, 2022, a tragic event unfolded in a home on La Luz Drive in Taos, New Mexico, that would cut short the life of 52-year-old Shirley Reyes. The quiet of the dawn was shattered around 5:00 a.m. when Reyes's 19-year-old son, suffering from gunshot wounds, managed to make his way to a neighbor's house to report that both he and his mother had been shot. When police arrived at the residence, they discovered Shirley Reyes deceased inside her home.
Her son was immediately transported to a local hospital for his injuries.
The investigation into the homicide quickly pointed to three local teenagers. The wounded 19-year-old was able to identify two of the alleged assailants, 16-year-old Javier Romero and 14-year-old Elijah Hamilton. Further investigation implicated a third teen, 14-year-old Rickey Fresquez. According to court records, the three teenagers had planned to burglarize the Reyes' home, a plan that tragically escalated to violence. The swiftness of the investigation was aided by the suspects' own families. Later on the day of the incident, Elijah Hamilton's parents brought him to the New Mexico State Police office. Javier Romero was taken into custody by officers that afternoon. The final suspect, Rickey Fresquez, was brought in by a family member in the early morning hours of October 7th.
All three teenagers were arrested and booked into a juvenile detention center. They face a litany of serious charges, including first-degree murder, conspiracy, aggravated burglary with a deadly weapon, aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. The violent death of Shirley Reyes, a woman described by her family as a loving mother and grandmother, left her family and the Taos community in a state of shock and mourning. Her daughter remembered her as a petite woman who "stood 7ft tall," a testament to her strength and spirit. As the legal process against the three young men began, the family was left to grapple with their profound loss and hope for the recovery of Shirley's son.
