Town note
Fort Sumner is named after Edwin Vose Sumner, a former military governor of the New Mexico Territory.
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FILE 466 / 10 February 2024 / 70 MIN / express
We're going to Fort Sumner, New Mexico, in eastern central New Mexico, east of Albuquerque, about two and a half hours away. about 0:04:28
Fort Sumner is named after Edwin Vose Sumner, a former military governor of the New Mexico Territory.
about 0:05:57U.S. Fort Sumner was a military fort charged with the internment of nearby Navajo and Mescalero Apache people from 1863 to 1868.
about 0:06:03The federal government closed the fort in 1868 and sold its buildings to Lucian Maxwell, a man who owned a great deal of land in New Mexico.
about 0:06:19In the late 1870s Maxwell's son Pete became close friends with Billy the Kid, who hid out in the area.
about 0:06:34Fort Sumner is named after Edwin Vose Sumner, a former military governor of the New Mexico Territory.
about 0:05:57U.S. Fort Sumner was a military fort charged with the internment of nearby Navajo and Mescalero Apache people from 1863 to 1868.
about 0:06:03The federal government closed the fort in 1868 and sold its buildings to Lucian Maxwell, a man who owned a great deal of land in New Mexico.
about 0:06:19In the late 1870s Maxwell's son Pete became close friends with Billy the Kid, who hid out in the area.
about 0:06:34Billy the Kid is buried in the old military cemetery in Fort Sumner.
about 0:06:56Billy the Kid was killed just south of town by Pat Garrett.
about 0:10:49Billy the Kid's original tombstone was stolen years ago, and the grave now has a replica.
about 0:09:41"1,364"
No direction stated.
As told in 2024 about 0:05:06
"$35,556 a year"
Comparison: "about half the national average". Direction: below.
As told in 2024 about 0:05:17
"$134,600"
No direction stated.
As told in 2024 about 0:05:25
3.0 / 5 · average of 3
“A very small rural community, quite peaceful and for the most part a very nice little town; the reviewer would like to see it grow a little and have one or two things for the kids to do.”about 0:07:24
“The community is great and treats one another like family; the downside is that there is not much to do because it is the middle of nowhere.”about 0:07:52
“A higher cost of living than other areas with more conveniences, too far from shopping, utilities double or triple those in other towns, water that is often brown or rust coloured so bottled water is an added expense, and a school that was a joke.”about 0:08:04
A.J. Harden was born in Fort Sumner, New Mexico, on 2 April 1938, one of a pair of twins; his brother was known as C.J. He grew up in the town, worked in the logging industry in Alaska and Oregon in the 1950s and 1960s, served in the US Navy, and spent years as a long-haul truck driver for Furs Trucking before owning and operating his own truck. He married Virginia Roberts in 1962. The couple lived in Wellington, Texas, and Dixon, Missouri, before returning to Fort Sumner, where they built and ran a hamburger stand. Virginia died on 16 March 2016, and Harden was diagnosed with cancer the same year.
She had a long relationship with Sean Perkins, and when it ended in 2019 she moved in with her grandfather to care for him, cooking, cleaning, reminding him to take his medication and driving him to appointments. Harden made a will leaving her his house.
On 15 October 2020 a man named Chad Abeta, who had lived in a rented house in the 1900 block of Shenandoah Drive in Fort Sumner for about five months, noticed a large tool chest dumped in the trash pit behind the property. A relative who was dumping rubbish there asked about it, opened it and was met by an overwhelming smell. Inside was a body wrapped in blankets, with the head visible and black duct tape around the mouth, wrists and a leg. The body was too decomposed to identify at first, but the clothing and a doctor's appointment card for a July appointment in a shirt pocket gave the name A.J. Harden.
She claimed she had taken her grandfather to a nursing home in Wellington, Texas, about six months earlier but could not remember its name. Days later she said a great-aunt had checked him out, then named the Shady Oaks Retirement Estate. The police could find no such place. She gave them a phone number for her grandfather that had no voicemail set up. On 22 October she said she needed to speak to her lawyer and never called back.
The Social Security office gave Harden's retirement address as a lake house on Tamarack Lane in Fort Sumner. He also said he owned a tool chest like the one described and had left it at the lake house, but police found no tool chest there.
He said he did not believe her and told her she had killed her grandfather to get his house. He also said that in mid-August, while she was dumping the trailer at the trash pit, she had FaceTimed him after the trailer's tyre blew out; he offered to help but she insisted on finishing alone, then abandoned the trailer.
A warrant was issued for first-degree murder, tampering with evidence and fraud.
Michael Gutierrez, 26, an oilfield worker from Fort Sumner, was beaten in the early hours of 5 February 2021. Police found a garden hose and bloodstained hammers.
August 2020; body found October 15th, 2020 / Fort Sumner, New Mexico
As told in the episode, on 10 February 2024.
Accused
February 2021 / Gutierrez's house and a friend's house, Fort Sumner, New Mexico
As told in the episode, on 10 February 2024.
Accused
Accused
Public places are marked on the map.
home
about 0:21:47body found
about 0:23:23home
about 0:38:03landmark
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about 0:06:56crime scene
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about 0:56:44hospital
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about 0:55:29police
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