Second body found at Hill residence
Homeowner discovered dead two days after woman found deceased

By Leslie Wood
Staff Writer

GALLUP — Police are investigating a second death this morning at the same Hill Avenue location where a woman was found dead on Friday afternoon.

A police spokesman initially identified the location as on Aztec Avenue; however, police now say the residence has a Hill Avenue address.

Division Commander Brent Mowrer, of the Gallup Fire Department, said firefighters were dispatched to 909 1/2 Hill Ave. at about 4:30 a.m. on Sunday and extinguished a small blaze at the residence's front door within about five minutes of their arrival. When firefighters entered the residence, they found a man dead inside one of the house's rooms. He was identified as 63-year-old Peter Joe, of Gallup.

Mowrer said firefighters tried to revive Joe, but he was already deceased. The state fire marshal's office and officials from Gallup fire and police departments are conducting the investigation into the cause of the early morning blaze.

"The fire was started under suspicious circumstances," Mowrer said.

Officials did not immediately know if the fire caused Joe's death or if he was dead prior to the blaze. Joe's body was transported to the Office of the Medical Examiner in Albuquerque to determine his official cause of death.

Mowrer said investigators are also awaiting test results from a state lab to rule whether the fire was an arson.

On Friday, at the same location, police found the body of a Native American woman who also died under suspicious circumstances, according to Erin Toadlena-Pablo, a spokeswoman for the Gallup Police Department.

Police have identified the woman; however, the agency will not release her name until next of kin is notified. Toadlena-Pablo said officers have not immediately been able to locate the woman's family.

The woman was also transported to Albuquerque for an autopsy to determine her cause of death.

Toadlena-Pablo said investigators have interviewed several witnesses and the person who informed police about the woman's death. Some of the individuals were intoxicated, she said.

No one has been arrested in connection with either incident.

Toadlena-Pablo said Joe, who owned the Hill Avenue residence, often allowed local transients to come and go from the house. Joe was not considered a suspect in connection with the woman's death, she said; however, police suspect the deaths are connected.

"We're not saying it's homicide, but there is suspicion there," she said.

Toadlena-Pablo said she will release additional information following a police debriefing about the case this afternoon.