The Las Cruces bowling alley massacre occurred in

Las Cruces, New Mexico Las Cruces (; "the crosses") is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New Mexico and the seat of Doña Ana County. As of the 2020 census the population was 111,385. Las Cruces is the largest city in both Doña Ana County and southern Ne ...

, United States, on February 10, 1990. Seven people were shot, four fatally, by two unidentified robbers at the Las Cruces Bowling Alley at 1201 East Amador Avenue. The gunmen shot the victims in an office, then set fire to a desk in the room and left the scene. The case is unsolved.

Shooting

On the morning of February 10, 1990, the bowling alley's manager, 34-year-old Stephanie C. Senac, was in her office preparing to open the business with her 12-year-old daughter Melissa Repass and Melissa's 13-year-old friend Amy Houser, who were planning to supervise the alley's

day care Child care, otherwise known as day care, is the care and supervision of a child or multiple children at a time, whose ages range from two weeks of age to 18 years. Although most parents spend a significant amount of time caring for their child(r ...

. The alley's cook, Ida Holguin, was in the kitchen when two men entered through an unlocked door. One pulled a .22 caliber pistol on Holguin and ordered her into Senac's office, where she, Repass, and Houser were already being held by the other gunman. The gunmen ordered the women and children to lie down while taking approximately $4,000 to $5,000 from the bowling alley's safe. Soon after, Steve Teran, the alley's 26-year-old pin mechanic, entered. As Teran had been unable to find a babysitter for his two daughters—two-year-old Valerie Teran and six-year-old Paula Holguin (no relation to Ida)—he intended to drop them off at the alley's day care. Not seeing anyone in the alley, Teran entered Senac's office and stumbled onto the crime scene. The gunmen then shot all seven victims multiple times at point-blank range. They then set the office on fire by igniting some papers before leaving the alley. The bowling alley fire was reported at 8:33am. Officers responding to the call discovered that Amy Houser, Paula Holguin, and Steven Teran had died at the scene. Valerie Teran was rushed to a hospital, but declared dead on arrival. Repass, despite being shot five times, called 9-1-1 on the office phone, allowing emergency services to respond immediately and saving her life along with her mother's and Ida Holguin's. However, Senac died in 1999 due to complications from her injuries. Police set up ten roadblocks surrounding Las Cruces within an hour of the shooting, and carefully screened anyone leaving the city. The U.S. Customs Service,

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

and

Border Patrol A border guard of a country is a national security agency that performs border security. Some of the national border guard agencies also perform coast guard (as in Germany, Italy or Ukraine) and rescue service duties. Name and uniform In dif ...

searched the area with planes and helicopters, but no arrests were made.

Investigation

The case remains unsolved, but is still under active investigation by the Las Cruces Police Department . In 2016, 26 years after the shooting, a brother of victim Steven Teran (who died in the shooting), Anthony Teran, was included in an issue of the ''

Las Cruces Sun-News ''Las Cruces Sun-News'', founded in 1881, is a daily newspaper published in Las Cruces, New Mexico. History The ''Sun-News'' started in 1881 as the ''Rio Grande Republican'' and went through several mergers to become the ''Las Cruces Daily News' ...

'' newspaper and one of his remarks was noted, "In this day and age, things like this don’t go unsolved. How did we not get these guys? That’s the question I ask myself every day. Numerous people saw these gunmen, so someone out there knows something, and they need to come forward." Authorities are now trying to build a DNA profile from evidence found at the scene.

In popular culture

Movies

A full-length documentary film called ''A Nightmare in Las Cruces'' was released on the 20th anniversary of the massacre. It uses actual crime scene video, pictures and interviews with family members. Filmmaker Charlie Minn hopes it will "move someone to come forward with fresh information and break the case." Since its release, more tips have been reported to the local police.

TV crime informational series

This case was featured on ''

Unsolved Mysteries ''Unsolved Mysteries'' is an American mystery documentary television show, created by John Cosgrove and Terry Dunn Meurer. Documenting cold cases and paranormal phenomena, it began as a series of seven specials, presented by Raymond Burr, Ka ...

'' two and a half months after the murders, and on '' America's Most Wanted'' twice, once in November 2004 and again in March 2010.

References

External links

IMDb A Nightmare in Las Cruces (2011)

A Nightmare in Las Cruces (2011)
{{Mass shootings in the United States in the 1990s Las Cruces, New Mexico Unsolved mass murders in the United States Mass shootings in New Mexico Massacres in the United States Murder in New Mexico 1990 in New Mexico 1990 murders in the United States Massacres in 1990 February 1990 events in the United States February 1990 crimes 1990 mass shootings in the United States Mass shootings in the United States