Veteran reporter returns to her roots to probe cold case of rookie cop shot in police station

16 stairs, 1 bullet and 36 years.

I never knew Officer Stephen Sandlin in person, only through stories told, crime scene documents and autopsy reports. Over the past couple of weeks, as we began re-reporting it and visiting old sites and talking with community members, it’s clear I’m not alone. Many have never forgotten his story and have kept a keen eye on its unfolding saga over the years hoping to see a resolution.

Go Back

In the late summer of 1988, a few months after Sandlin was killed, I was a 30-year-old single mom with two young children when I moved to Estancia to be near my sister and her family. I had no job prospects but I had a Nikon camera and knew how to write. In the spring of 1989, I began covering Estancia High School sports and local government for the local newspaper. 

But the news I really cared about was Sandlin’s death, the drama in Mountainair — about 23 miles south of my home — and the shady sheriff’s department.

Myself and the rest of the staff of the weekly Torrance County Citizen along with fearless Albuquerque Journal reporters were hungry to gobble up every bit of information, tip, gossip or piece of paper that came our way. And some of us held on to those things, just in case. It didn’t matter that we got threats, that just made us more tenacious. 

Torrance County, 1988

The sprawling Torrance County has hundreds of miles of dusty ranch roads fanning out from the foothills of the Manzano mountain range east to the Salt Lakes. This isolated area fosters the perfect storm of illegal marijuana growers setting up operations and corrupt law enforcement.

This kind of drug activity should not be much of a surprise. During prohibition, the north and south N.M. Highway 14 corridor was a boot-legging area supplying moonshine to a thirsty Albuquerque and Santa Fe. Hiking through the backwoods from Tijeras south to Punta de Agua it was not that uncommon to come across an old still. Or by the late 1980s, stumble upon an outdoor grow operation. 

Many ranchers and landowners would tell us at the newspaper about the sophisticated and sometimes dangerous grow operations that they would find in remote areas of their ranches. 

Mountainair at that time was a farm and ranch town of about 1,100 residents but its schools, churches, grocery and feed stores and other businesses served the surrounding area. On the surface, it looked like a bustling little town centered around its churches, schools and community events. But the undertow was much different.

The mayor, police chief and some of the town administration were being accused of malfeasance. A grand jury was called to investigate. Rumors and allegations swirled like dust devils.

Nationwide, the late 1980s and early 1990s saw the unraveling of the CIA’s involvement in the Contra-crack cocaine trafficking fiasco. Tales and news articles alleged that rogue pilots used remote airstrips — possibly even one 20 miles south of Mountainair — to transport illicit drugs, guns and other contraband. Toward the mid-1990s, methamphetamine labs started to pop up along the corridor as well.

Today, Torrance County is still considered by the Drug Enforcement Agency to be a High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, or HIDTA, along with Bernalillo County and 15 other New Mexico counties.

Speculations and suspects

In the months following Sandlin’s death, a slate of suspects, theories and questions were soon drawn up. 

Was it a shady sheriff or one of his minion deputies? Was the police chief involved? The mysterious army intelligence officer visiting the small town? The local kingpin marijuana grower? Who stole $50,000 worth of marijuana from the sheriff’s department? What did the Attorney General’s Office know at the time? Were other suspicious deaths that occurred in the same time frame connected?

We had clandestine meetings with sources at local cafes, high school ball games and over drinks at Mountainair’s Rosebud Saloon and Estancia’s Blue Ribbon Bar. We heard tales of law enforcement corruption from many different agencies in the area who were said to be trafficking drugs using various modes of transportation — including the isolated airstrip south of Mountainair.  

National media took an interest when Unsolved Mysteries filmed a segment on Sandlin’s death.

Within a year, the sheriff of Torrance County and three deputies were indicted on charges of larceny and stealing from people’s homes while executing search warrants. Rumors swirled that some deputies had been involved in drug trafficking going through the county especially in and out of Mountainair. The four all had high-powered lawyers and the charges were eventually dropped by the then-attorney general who was criticized by his own prosecutors for not doing enough to find Sandlin’s killer. 

Now What?

Recently, while talking with Sandlin’s father, Tom, we heard in his voice the deep, unending grief. Those who remember say the reopened case brings up bad memories. But maybe there is one more chance to resolve the tragic death of this young man who always wanted to be a cop. Follow along with City Desk ABQ as we unravel this decades-old cold case.