On Christmas Day of 2019, the quiet suburban community of Rio Rancho, New Mexico, was shaken by a grim discovery. Inside a home in the Northern Meadows subdivision, 45-year-old Hispanic female Marilyn Velasquez was found deceased, the victim of a shocking act of violence that also claimed the lives of her two sons. The tragic event unfolded after concerned relatives were unable to reach the family, prompting a welfare check that would reveal a scene of profound loss.
Marilyn, along with
her children, 22-year-old Roberto Velasquez and 14-year-old Adrian Velasquez, had been shot and killed. The investigation into the four deaths quickly focused on a murder-suicide scenario, with authorities identifying the suspected shooter as Marilyn's 50-year-old husband and the boys' father, Carlos Velasquez, who was also found deceased at the scene from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. A firearm was discovered under his body, further cementing the theory of a murder-suicide.
As details emerged, a portrait of a family in turmoil began to surface. Court documents revealed that Carlos Velasquez, a retired Army veteran, had been suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Furthermore, he and Marilyn were in the process of a divorce. Friends and family were left to grapple with the devastating reality that a man who had served his country had turned a weapon on his own family, annihilating them before taking his own life. The community mourned the loss of Marilyn and her two sons, whose lives were cut short in an act of domestic violence that left a lasting scar on all who knew them. Due to the nature of the crime as a murder-suicide, with the sole suspect deceased, there were no arrests to be made in the case.
