Match! CO - Pagosa Springs, WhtMale 1282UMCO, 20-28, Oct'82 *Stewart Simmons*

[noZme]

Congrats vermontaigne!
WS is proud of you.

 

[damitajo1]

So has Jane Doe been confirmed? I was just about to send NamUs the "tip." I discovered it after I read the article about "John's" identification today.

 

[Caughtbycat]

Awesome job vermontaigne!!! May the Simmons be at peace with the closure.. And congrats also to Det Barter... Some cold case dets with burnout with the low reward of solving little cases. Bless u all and the person who started the thread

 

[Roselvr]

Congrats for giving Stewart & Margo's families closure!

NM - Pagosa Springs, WhtFem 55UFNM, 25-35, @ San Juan River, Sep'82 *Margaret Walden*

Second victim in 1982 double homicide identified

 

[Tulessa]

Congrats for giving Stewart & Margo's families closure!

NM - Pagosa Springs, WhtFem 55UFNM, 25-35, @ San Juan River, Sep'82 *Margaret Walden*

Second victim in 1982 double homicide identified

Oh wow! How awesome is this!! :blowkiss:

 

[wintermute]

Great job Vermontaigne! Your matches resulted in leads in the investigation, and perhaps the perps will be caught because of your great work. That is truely awesome

 

[JusticeWillBeServed]

33-year-old cold case finally leads to two arrests

http://www.abqjournal.com/804552/33yearold-cold-case-finally-leads-to-two-arrests.html

Late last week, Barter issued arrest warrants for two suspects in the 33-year-old case. Antoinette Palmer, 58, who also goes by the name Tina Madrid, was arrested in Mesa, Ariz., and booked into the Maricopa County Jail on two counts of murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

And Martin Martinez, 70, who still lives in southern Archuleta County near where the bodies were found, was charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit murder.

Palmer told authorities Simmons had been living in her bus for about a month but said she wasn’t involved in the murder. But other people who spoke with authorities said Palmer implicated herself in the two deaths, according to the arrest warrant.

Barter believes there are two possible motives for the deaths: Either they were drug-related, or Palmer was jealous about Simmons’ possible relationship with the female victim.

For Joanne Simmons, the news that arrests have been made after so many years was the best she could have hoped for.

“I think my heart stopped beating. Even though I expected it, it was just the most stunning and welcome news,” she said. “Maybe now Stewart can get the justice he deserves. My family have suffered enough for 34 years that it’s worth it to at least try to get a conviction in this case.”

 

[Roselvr]

33-year-old cold case finally leads to two arrests

http://www.abqjournal.com/804552/33yearold-cold-case-finally-leads-to-two-arrests.html

I'm so happy to see this arrest! So thankful their families will have justice! Prayers to their families <3 So thankful vermontaigne called in the match! I'm sure it helped get justice

This should be listed as a match. I was the tipster. Wanted to remain anonymous, but brother I told shared it with Facebook. Wouldn't post here, but I've tried to send private messages to two mods and my sent box isn't showing anything.

I asked that Websleuths be credited, but the name didn't appear in the Pagosa Sun article. On the plus side, I guess I can blog about how many things had to go right with the info available online for the match to happen, in hopes that helps someone searching for a lost friend/loved one. Can forward email conversation with Detective Barter to a mod for verification, if they'd like. I'd just hoped this forum would get the credit.

 

[Ray_of_hope]

Wow vermontaigne!!! Congratulations and peace to the families! :yourock:

 

[Cubby]

Amazing they were not only id'd , but also arrests!

 

[Redwhiteandblue]

Does anyone have an email address for Det. Barter?

 

[Roselvr]

Does anyone have an email address for Det. Barter?

I'm not seeing him listed on the Archuleta County Sheriff&#8217;s Office website. This should be his email addy though.
gbarter@archuletacounty.org

 

[Redwhiteandblue]

I'm not seeing him listed on the Archuleta County Sheriff&#8217;s Office website. This should be his email addy though.
gbarter@archuletacounty.org

thank you so much. I'll try that!

 

[margarita25]

Chances are very high that it's Margaret. I was reading through Charley Project's '82 missing in relation to a different UID, chronologically, when I came across Stewart and Margaret's cases. The camping with a sailor thing clicked with Stewart's circumstances. Her mother had stated that the last time she heard from Margaret was when she wired money to Durango for her. I did a Google search, and up popped an article that stated witnesses who believed they'd seen the couple, based on description provided by LE, said that they had been (I paraphrase) up and down the stretch of highway from Durango to Pagosa Springs all summer. I ruminated, dawdled, and finally emailed Detective Barter after New Years. One of the reasons I didn't email it in sooner was that I knew from Charley Project that Stewart had in childhood fractured his skull from ear to ear, and there was nothing in NamUs or elsewhere that indicated the UID had a healed fracture of the skull.

Now, the only way that I made the tentative connection to Stewart was through Margaret's Charley Project entry. So, it would be really mind-blowing to me if it turned out not to be Margaret, since Margaret has never reappeared. Of course, it's possible, but with all of the info, including the remembered name, Margo, which I just found out about from the Pagosa Sun article, I'd be entirely astonished to find it's not her.

Changing this Flag to Match!.

Congratulations, Vermontaigne

I look forward to the Rio Arriba Jane Doe being matched to Margaret Walden, and we can chalk up another WS Match!

Stewart has a thread in the 1980s Forum I updated yesterday with the good news from here.
GA - Stewart Eric Simmons, 20, San Diego, 19 June 1982

By the way, the person who deserves by far the most credit is Detective Barter. He's a true mensch. If he hadn't reanimated this case in 2009, I would never have found it online. But it goes further than all the incredible time and effort he's put into this case from the time he took it on. The quality of the newspaper articles in the various papers are a credit to the journalists, but also a reflection of the deep discernment of the Detective in getting out the right details without overwhelming them with noise. The families here did their own investigations, and provided Meaghan and the other profile writers at Charley Project and elsewhere with important details that might have seemed too trivial to include. The people who wrote the case profiles wrote them clearly, and included that important information. Charley Project arranged the profiles in an easily accessible chronological order, which happened to be exactly what was necessary in this case. And you guys . . . you taught me all the little I know about how to go about these things, and provided me with a forum in which to do it. So, I was the lucky guy who just happened to stumble across this, but without all that, this serendipity would never have happened.

And I have to say, reading Stewart's family's comments made me feel great that they were alive to know, though theologically I am one of those people who believes they would have known this and much, much more had they already moved on from here. It's strange, but there you have it, and I'm happy for them they have this much resolution.

And as many of you have mentioned many times, when you or I have done what we can, the job for the investigators has just begun again. I'm confident from having communicated with Detective Barter that if the crime is capable of a solution at this point, he and his team will solve it.

Congrats for giving Stewart & Margo's families closure!

NM - Pagosa Springs, WhtFem 55UFNM, 25-35, @ San Juan River, Sep'82 *Margaret Walden*

Second victim in 1982 double homicide identified

33-year-old cold case finally leads to two arrests

http://www.abqjournal.com/804552/33yearold-cold-case-finally-leads-to-two-arrests.html

Awesome!

 

[wintermute]

I'm so happy to read about the latest developments in this case. Fantastic work Vermontaigne!

 

[Roselvr]

thank you so much. I'll try that!

Let me know how you make out. You may have to call him.

 

[Redwhiteandblue]

I haven't heard anything back yet. And I just heard today that Tina Madrid and Martin were released?! Is that true?

 

[Roselvr]

I haven't heard anything back yet. And I just heard today that Tina Madrid and Martin were released?! Is that true?

Looks like it Hopefully they can build a case against them

Woman accused of murder in 1982 cold case released from jail - By Nicole Perez - Wednesday, July 13th, 2016 at 5:02pm

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. &#8212; A woman accused of murder in a 1982 cold case has been released from jail and won&#8217;t be extradited to Colorado where the bodies of a man and woman were found decades ago, according to authorities.

Antoinette Palmer, 58, was arrested on a warrant for murder and conspiracy in Mesa, Ariz., on July 1.

Alex Lowe, deputy district attorney for Archuleta County in southern Colorado, wouldn&#8217;t say why authorities decided not to extradite Palmer. He said the case against her is &#8220;technically&#8221; still open and prosecutors are reviewing it.

Barter said Palmer was a suspect from the beginning, and blood and bullet casings were found in a bus she owned at the time of the murders. But the evidence laid out against her in the arrest warrant is mostly circumstantial, relying on interviews with people &#8212; including a confidential informant &#8212; who pointed to her as a suspect.

 

[Redwhiteandblue]

Looks like it Hopefully they can build a case against them

Woman accused of murder in 1982 cold case released from jail - By Nicole Perez - Wednesday, July 13th, 2016 at 5:02pm

Thanks for the article. I tried a Google search and didn't find it. I still haven't heard back from the detective, ill give it another day and then contact him a different way.

 

[Roselvr]

Thanks for the article. I tried a Google search and didn't find it. I still haven't heard back from the detective, ill give it another day and then contact him a different way.

I highlighted her name until arrested, right clicked, search with google, nothing came up so I removed everything except her name and arrested to get the article