The Murder of Sheriff's Deputy James McGrane Jr. In New Mexico

Two days ago a terrible and very public murder occurred in New Mexico on the highway that winds it's way through Tijeras Canyon just to the east of Albuquerque.

The murder victim was a young sheriff's deputy making a routine traffic stop. He had the misfortune of stopping a notorious criminal who was under indictment for murder....No one seems to know why this man was out on the streets rather than in jail where he belonged.

The well respected, and well loved deputy was a fellow officer of my nephew, who is a detective with the department, and who knew him well as a fine human being and an effective officer. He was patrolling an area not far from where both my nephew and niece and their families reside.

Compounding this murder tragedy is the fact that this two time murderer, Michael Paul Astorgas, identified also as a notorious gang member, is still on the lamb in the Albuquerque area. The police think that they are hot on his trail, but that he is being helped by gang members still loyal to him. It is a frightening scenario to all of us in this area and of course we are all outraged by the loss of this fine young man.

As it happens, our son-in-law has been assigned by his newpaper to closely cover this story. You can view the lastest article from his paper www.albuquerquetribune.com along with his pictures from last night's paper.....The picture with the police shotgun with the suspect's picture attached, was played huge on the front page of the Albuquerque Tribune last night indicating the drama and outrage attending this whole crime and the ensuing man-hunt.....Honestly one of our son-in-laws most definitive pictures ever.....Go to the site and the article to see what I mean....All of the pictures illustrating this article belong to him....

This picture really stikes at the heart of this outraged community.....If I were this suspect, I would be scared, really scared.....They will find him and when they do, it is not gonna be pretty....It will be surprising indeed, if he and anyone helping him makes it to jail alive....

I will continue to report on this breaking story as it unfolds....

Voyager

 

I almost feel sorry for this bastard, because when they get him, it's going to be all over but the crying for him.

This article strikes terror in my heart. My daughter has 3 more years until she retires from police force. With all the crazies out there today, it can't go fast enough for me.

Great pictures...

 

Wy....

I certainly do not envy you having a daughter on the police force.....Not that I do not admire and revere she and officers like her....It is just that the dangers of that profession have just become overwhelming.....

We worry about our nephew constantly.....To make matters even more dangerous for him, he is not only a detective, but also a member of the police department's highly trained SWAT teams, and has been in on all of the high profile cases requiring a SWAT team here for the last 4 or 5 yrs.....

I know that he will be in on any sort of stand-off that might occur in this case as well....And as I stated before, you can just believe that this is going to be a desperate no-holds-barred situation....

Keep in touch with me on this you guys, I mean it, I am a bit of a wreck over this....Also that my son-in-law will no doubt be there with his telescopic lens watching the bullets fly......

A very scarey and sad time here in this community.....
Voyager

 

I'm so sorry, Voyager, for the man who lost his life, for his family, friends, and fellow officers who now have to deal with the loss and aftermath, and for your community living with the fear and injustice of it all.

If the devil doesn't make it to Mexico, he'll be caught. If he does....

Coward that he is, he has no thought of the suffering and stigma he's leaving for his own unborn child and "baby mama." He's obviously too drugged out and evil to comprehend or care about the damage he has done to countless others.

It's very sad. What can we do for you now? How would you like for us to help?

 

Hi Kiddos....

It is almost 10:00 PM....We had Maya with us this evening while the Scoop's had a dinner date, so I am late in posting...

Just after I posted this morning, I had a terrible scare.....I was just out of the shower, in my robe, when the doorbell rang....I was not expecting anyone and so as is my habit, I do not answer if I am not expecting anyone....The bell rang again and the dogs were barking their little heads off and still I did not answer.....Thought it might be some sort of delivery, but then thought that if it was they could come back or leave it in the courtyard....

Especially when there is a fugitive on the loose but actually most times if I am not expecting anyone, I just don't answer the bell....

The bell rang again and I peeked out one of the front bedroom windows to the courtyard and saw two Hispanic men in jeans and sweatshirts.....One standing at the door with a metal carpenters "square" sort of rapping it on his hand and the other lounging against the now closed outside courtyard door.....

I went to the front door and without opening it shouted through the door that we were "NOT INTERESTED" and to "GO AWAY PLEASE!".....

The pups were now barking so loud that I could not hear the shouted reply.....I repeated my statement, and still they remaind lounging in the courtyard as if I had not said anything....

Now terror began to tug at the edges of my heart, I ran and got the cell phone, and called Mr. V. asking if perchance he had ordered some work done that he had not told me about....No was the answer and he was sure about it....If they don't leave immediately, call 911 he advised me.....

I stood pressed against the front door with the phone for perhaps another five minutes listening to them chat with each other, not able to really hear what they were saying, when suddenly they left, leaving the front courtyard door ajar.....

I was torn between looking like an idiot and calling 911 and the fear of having them suddenly start breaking down the door or smashing a window.....Why would they stay when I had shouted for them to leave!?

Long story short.....Called Mr. V. back and told him that they had just left.....We have no idea who they were or why they were here and why they stayed lounging in our courtyard for over 10 minutes.....I was so terrified! Yep, mainly because of the current situation with the murder suspect in our area....Can't even believe this happened....probably just some sort or coincidence, but non-the-less terrifying....I had just finished writing to you guys a few minutes before about this whole murder scenario! GAWD! What next!

OK, so then I had a whole day planned with Jilly and thank goodness, I could not bear to have stayed here all of today alone after that.....I am actually fine now, but can't tell you how terrified I was at the time.....One of the guys looked alarmingly like the murder suspect only he had a mustache.....I know, you guys probably think I am nutzo....

I did not tell the kids and don't think that I will.....too scarey....

The good news is that Mr. Scoop has been assigned to the national basket ball tournaments to photograph for the weekend which will keep him away from the crime scenes and the other piece of good news is that our nephew is now the lead detective on this case and so will be managing the case from a desk mostly and a safe distance at least and will not be on the SWAT team should that become necessary.....So those worries are now at bay.....

Of course, the bad news is that this monster is still at large and is terrifying our community....As you have just heard, me included.....

Hope the Schnauzers scared him away for good!
Voyager

PS Koldcase, thanks so much for caring....The authorities are doing everything possible....I honestly have never seen so many police cars on the road in my life here.....Just say a few prayers for both the brave officers and for all of us living here too.....How unfair that he should be able to cause so much terror with his evil self.....
Voyager

 

Well, bless your little scared heart, Voyager, I know what you mean when people come to the door unexpected and unknown. I never answer, either, and keep the phone in hand to see if they go away. I have called 911 when a strange person was going door to door in the 'hood, but didn't look at all like he was a salesman or anything, no clipboard or notebook, and wearing scruffy jeans and a long sport jersey. The cops came and found him and said he was a salesman (magazine, I hate it when they come here), but later that evening I saw him hanging out at the end of the street waiting to be picked up. I felt silly about it all, thinking I must have been wrong with my description, because I was sure he had nothing in his hands to indicate he was taking information/orders or showing products. But there he was that evening, NOT A THING in his hands, no coat on to conceal anything, either. It was strange, and I know those traveling companies hire people who aren't necessarily someone you'd want to open your door to when you're alone.

Having said that, it sounds to me like a couple of workmen got the address mixed up and ended up at your house. A carpenter's square is a common tool used by workmen. Maybe they said that to you when you couldn't hear because of the dogs barking. Maybe they didn't understand what you said, either. Perhaps they thought you had to get dressed or something. Dogs are a big deterrent to burglars, as well. Just doesn't add up that they'd stand there knowing you had dogs, knew they were there, and could easily call 911 if they tried to break in, if that was their intention. But I'm just guessing. Glad they left.

You did the right thing, though: don't ever answer the door when you're alone. That's not only good sense, it's good training defense teachers teach women. We've even had a group of burglars whose MO is to barge in when people answer doors in our town. So we're extra careful.

Well, glad to hear your loved ones are safe for now. It's a scary world, isn't it? Take care and let us know what's happening with this fugitive killer.

 

OMG Voyager, I would be terrified too! Bastids. Please keep us updated. Thank God I have 3 dogs, two of them German shepherds. I know that if anyone got in our house, my female would rip their off. I have no doubt. She is a force to be reckoned with. And the male pup, Zip, is 95 pounds. Never seen him be mean with anyone (unlike the female 10 year old). That is so scary, especially with some nut on the loose.

 

Thanks Thor and Koldcase!

I will tell you that yesterday at the door, I certainly wished that my little Schnauzers were German Shephards!

We still do not know who those to men were....no clue!

I have furniture scheduled to be delivered this morning, but even talked to the furniture people yesterday to see if their delivery people had the wrong day and were trying to deliver yesterday.....Nope, they said.....They did not and were on schedule for Saturday....Soooo, mystery continues.....

There is so much crime here Koldcase (maybe everywhere for all I know!) and we have had a rash of home invasions this year with serveral people in nice neighborhoods actually being killed in their own homes....No wonder we are all untrusting and nervous about even opening our own front doors to others....I am not usually quite so nervous about it though....Just this murderer on the loose has all of us really on edge ya know.....

We are always careful about locking up and about checking who is at the door before we open it.....We used to have an intercom system but the remodelers accidentally took it out when they were redoing our wiring a couple of years ago....Could surely have used it yesterday!

Voyager

 

Checking back in to see if there's been any progress in finding the murderer, Voyager.

 

Hi Koldcase....

:unreal: Sadly, no, Koldcase.....The papers are still full of the murder, the officer's visititation and the funeral plans.....The APD and the Sheriff's Office are working thousands of hours of overtime searching and interviewing....

This guy was a major player in the prison gangs that exist here for men who were recruited while in prison and remain gang members all of their crime-ridden lives....
The authorities think that Astorgas is probably still in our area being hidden and aided by gang members, just waiting for the heat to disipate before being transported to another state or to Mexico.....

I do have a feeling that they will capture him or have a shoot out soon....The reward on his head is now $50,000. with more reported coming soon.....Money is a huge incentive out here for someone to come forward....It should happen soon too....

Thanks for asking, KC, I will keep the forum updated on the progress with this dramatic case.

Voyager

 

Astorgas Buddy Arrested....

This morning's Albuquerque Journal has an article of the front page documenting the arrest of one of Astorgas prison buddies, a fellow gang member who is now up on charges of aiding and abetting Astorgas in his recent flight after the murder of a sheriff's deputy....

Above the front page story is a picture of the two arresting sherrif's detectives escorting the prisoner in handcuff's.....One of the detectives is my handsome nephew, Tim, who is the lead detective on this case....

I went to the Journal on line to see if his picture survived to the web edition and evidently it did not....Darn, I wanted you all to see how handsome and determined he looks!

The important thing, of course, is that they are making progress in this case in tracking down this vile suspect....It is only a matter of time before someone turns him in for the reward or under pressure of interogation.....

The funeral, held this week, was heavily reported in all of the media here, and was a very formal, emotional and heartbreaking event celebrating the life of this dedicated officer, Deputy James McGrane, Jr......

Voyager

 

koldcase....

Just an aside here....I am so glad that I did not call 911 the other day when I had the two unidentified men at the door....No, I still don't have any idea who they were, but on the news the other night, just a couple of days after my scare, a woman in another neighborhood called police to report that an Hispanic man resembling the description of the suspect, had appeared to be breaking into her home when her dog scared him away....

Her whole neighborhood was covered with SWAT teams within minutes and a full square mile perimeter surrounding her home was closed off for a full day, two schools in her area put in lockdown, and the press was everywhere....

The suspect in her "almost break-in" and only possibly the murder suspect was never found....

There is so much sensitivity with the police force, both city and county right now that there is a hair-trigger reaction time and a huge show of force right now....I would have been totally humiliated to have brought all of that huge energy to focus on a false alarm......Whew!

Just goes to show, though, the focus of resources that have been made available in this case....The police force has zero tolerance for cop killers, that is being made abundantly clear....

Our governor has already gone about investigating why this guy was still on the street with an outstanding murder warrant on his head and having just visited his parrole officer who knew nothing about the outstanding warrant....This whole department proceedure is being overhauled and a bundle of new money allocated for new computers and computer soft ware to allow for better reporting and information access in the whole system....

Too little too late for Deputy James McGrane, but it may save other law enforcement personel and indeed us ordinary citizens being murdered on the streets in the future....

Voyager

 

I hope this all ends without another innocent being harmed or killed. This fugitive has to be desperate, feeling like the hunted prey that he is.

Hopefully, they will get him without any more bloodshed.

As far as your dogs go, Voyager (and I think Thor will back me up on this), I know German shepherds have a deep, threatening bark, but no criminal in his right mind wants to tangle with any dog, little or big - mostly because of the noise they make and the attention they draw. From the other side of that door, they wouldn't have known what kind of dogs you have or how many there were. Just having dogs barking usually scares most criminals off.

Now, if they are still stupid enough to break into a house with dogs barking, a fierce German shepherd sitting there waiting for them would be just the ticket.

 

Thanks for the update, Voyager. Glad to see they're making progress and putting the thumbscrews to the scum helping this killer. If they harass his buddies and those hiding him enough, at least it puts pressure on his community to help bring the coward in to be responsible for his actions, not everyone else. I just hope he doesn't make it to Mexico.

We would love to have seen your handsome, brave nephew! Maybe next time....

I know what you mean about calling 911. It's a tough decision. You don't want to bother LE when they have real crime to deal with, if you don't have to. But everyone gets twitchy when something like this happens. It's completely understandable.

I agree about the dogs, too. Burglars do not want to deal with getting bitten by an aniimal. They don't know how much hassle the animal will be, plus they leave DNA with the dog, not to mention, teeth marks on themselves. Also, while certainly the most depraved don't mind being violent, most burglars just want to get in and out, with nothing more than a chance at a sentence for burglary if caught. Throw an animal in the mix, they've either got to stop to fight it, things can escalate, and it's a factor that is unknown. Easier to just move along to an empty house, isn't it?

I'm just so sorry for the family of the slain officer. When I meet young officers, so clean cut and spit-shined, professional to the core, I think, oh, god speed! They have such courage to face the worst of our species every day.

 

Scary situation Voyager. I sure hope the bastid is caught soon. And ditto to what WY says. You all know how much I love German shepherds and although any dog can be a deterrant and a pain in the butt to a criminal, I truly feel protected with my two. Especially my female, who is smaller. I have no doubt she would attack an intruder.

 

That just sucks.

 

Progress Being Made In The Hunt....

The search for Astorgas is just as intense as ever and is getting ever more focused as we enter his second week on the lam after the killing of Sheriff's Deputy James McGrane....

On Saturday evening at 8:00 MST America's Most Wanted aired a segment on Astorgas and his history and his most recent crime of murdering an officer of the law....Within just hours, the local authorities here were given over a hundered tips that were called in to America's Most Wanted switch boards.....Some of the tips have resulted in searches and others in arrests of possible accomplices among his friends, relatives and associates....

Currently the authorities are working with the FBI on this case, because as of this week, Astorgas has also been placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List.....

From all the information that has been gathered so far, the authorities are surmising that Astorgas is still hiding locally and are spending a great deal of time and effort in our local community and surrounding areas with that idea in mind....

Also expected to help in the effort to find Astorgas, is the now $130,000. reward currently being offered for information leading to his arrest....Up from $50,000. just a few days ago.....Someone's gonna talk for that much, despite fear from prison gangs etc.....Just watch, money talks....

So far, his wife (7 months pregnant, they married last Sept.), his aunt (a motor vehicles supervisor with the state who is suspected of making him new false ID's), and two of his best buddies (former prison mates and fellow gang members) are all in custody on charges of aiding a suspected murderer (a few others with other connections and other charges too!). This is a really evil, corrupt portion of the community, so ingrained with crime, criminal background, and gangs that it is just terrifying to think that they are living in one's own city.....

I believe that rather than backing off as time goes on, this investigation in intensifying.....Don't believe that Astorgas will come out of this one alive, one way or the other....There is so much fury directed toward him and his loyal kin and friends at this time......The pressure is really on....

Voyager

 

Good News....

Astorgas has been captured!....More details later...

Voyager

 

Astorgas Capture....

Astorgas Capture, in Juarez Mexico, just across the border from Elpaso Texas, occured around 2:30 this morning.....He was arrested without incident by members of the Mexican police force and will be extradicted to New Mexcio within a two day period....

There is much relief for our community here in Albuquerque especially among the police community who have been working 24/7 without time off to apprehend this desperate criminal (he is also wanted for the previous murder of a rival gang member earlier this year).....

For all the further details and continuing coverage on this case you may go to the websites of our local newspapers here in Albuquerque, www.albuquerquetribune.com and www.albuquerquejournal.com

In one of the articles, it tells us that and FBI unit and a Sheriff's detective component are waiting with Astorgas in Juarez until his extradition....I believe that my nephew is there with that Sheriffs' detective component....will call my niece-in-law, his wife, this afternoon to check on this....

Voyager

 

This is very good news!