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Category: Front Page News Front Page News
Published: 20 April 2016 20 April 2016

By Roger Lanse

Four years ago, Roberto Armando Benavidez Garcia, 22, a Western New Mexico University student, visited his mother in Hurley as he often did. The sun had set that Friday, April 20, 2012. On the face of it, an ordinary evening like a million before in Hurley, but tonight would be out of the ordinary.

During his visit, Roberto unexpectedly discovers his dog is missing from his mother's yard, and grabbing a pink and black leash, walks out the door to find his pet, calling out to allay his mother's fear that he was going out into the night, GǣIt's OK, Ma, I'll be back.Gǥ

Roberto never came back. His body was found around 10 p.m., in a pool of blood, bludgeoned to death, in the middle of the street in the 300 block of Aztec Avenue, an empty pink and black leash by his side.

The hands of a young man who attended the San Francisco Institute of Art after graduating from high school will never again hold an artistG