By Roger Lanse
Human remains were discovered near the Tadpole Fire, approximately 12 miles north of Silver City on June 24, 2020, by U.S. Forest Service employees. A notebook with suicide notes, male and female clothing, a rusty Smith & Wesson revolver, and a Walmart receipt dated Aug. 5, 2015, were found near the remains. "Human bones were scattered all over," a Grant County Sheriff's Office report at the time stated.
On July 5, 2020, Toni Padilla, 58, was reported missing by her daughter. According to a Silver City Police Department report, the daughter stated she dropped her mother, who was high on cocaine, off at her mother's friend's house on Broken Arrow Drive in Silver City at about 1 p.m. on July 3. The friend told Padilla's daughter that Padilla left his house around 4 p.m. The daughter was unable to raise her mother afterwards by phone and pinging her phone revealed a location on Monte Street in Arenas Valley. GCSO deputies searching the area were not able to locate her.
The first case is still considered open, according to GCSO, but no new evidence has been discovered. The Padilla case, according to the SCPD, is also active and open, but no new evidence has been found.