'Hit list' probe still hitless

By Jim Tiffin
Cibola County Bureau

GRANTS — Dozens of students and teachers from Grants High School were interviewed in January with no results in connection with a "hit list" that was found at the school.

Grants Police Detective Moses Marquez said investigators have hit a dead end. There are no more leads in the case, he said.

Marquez is asking the public to contact him at the police department (505) 287-4404 or call CrimeStoppers at (505) 287-8400 with information about who created the list on Jan. 10, that threatened to kill six students and a teacher.

A source close to the investigation, who asked to remain anonymous, said that the names on the list were all females.

There was a list preceding the Jan. 10 one, on Jan. 7, both lists were written in colored markers and the colors matched. The first list did not list specific names only that someone would be harmed, Marquez said Monday afternoon.

Marquez said he could not disclose whether the handwriting on the lists were the same.

Police investigators think that among the many interviews they did with students at the high school, they talked with the person who made the list because the lists stopped, he said.

"We will be bringing in a number of students from the high school a second time to talk to them," he said.

"We talked to a number of teachers at the school, too," he said.

Even though school may be ended for this school year before the students are recalled, police have names, addresses and telephone numbers of everyone that was interviewed; so asking them to return will not be a problem, Marquez said.

At the time of the incidents at GHS, security was increased with police on campus before, during and after school as well as school district security.

Weapons were also found on the school campus, on Jan. 3. Those weapons included different types of knives, a bat and a BB gun. They were found near the science building. Police said they are not sure whether the weapons are linked to the notes.

The note threatening to kill the students and the teacher was found in a girls restroom in the main school building.

Parents of students at the high school were notified with a letter from the school district informing them what had happened and what police and school district officials were doing at the time.

— To contact reporter Jim Tiffin, call (505) 287-2197, or e-mail: tiffin.independent@yahoo.com.