NM NM - Patty Pritz, 14, & Mattie Restine, 13, Carlsbad, 11 Aug 1961 - #1

[Sunshine 1950]

Anyone who decides to seek access to search with a metal detector should go in a group for reasons of safety!

I am now a little bit confused by the maps after you posted this last one, SS1950.
The car that someone saw turning around in a pasture, were they observing that from 137 or 285? Earlier, I had the impression the murders happened a ways out 137. According to google maps, there's a road that cuts off of 137, crosses a creek and then turns back toward 285. Somehow I had it in my mind that that was where the bodies were found. Please clarify for me.

Those maps were the ones that Charles Titus sent me...but all I know is what the original investigation stated.....
1:30 p.m. Sunday, August 13, 1961. By Melvin Miller NMSP and Deputy O'Neil, Received report via radio of finding two girls murdered .7 miles west and .7 mile north of the Hamilton Service Station (9.8 miles north of Carlsbad) on US 285. This is taken right off the (copies) original investigation reports I have. That is what Estrada said also.

Maybe someone who knows that area could shed some light on 137...fish1966 can you help out here?

 

[fish1966]

Closer to Carlsbad on 285 heading toward 137 is the road Waterhole Rd. to the left. That was mentioned by WB. That is the road that he and Melton took to the Cox ranch. Those roads did and do go crazy around back there and can come back out again on 137 from the east. I still will try to what he was referring to as the Hardesty ranch. There are so many roads back in there and so many ways to get to the drop sight other that 285. Example: Dark Canyon Rd and back to 285 on 137

 

[Legacy]

17 Aug 1961 Hobbs Daily Front Page

 

[fish1966]

To be coming back from Artesia...the only way would be south on 285. You can see where the girls were left from that road looking to your right. At night the lights would be easily seen. The Hamilton Station has been gone for years and a new highway has been put in with the Brantley Dam but that would not alter anything that would be seen from the highway as far as lights in the area I do not think. It would be worth checking into maybe a gas holding tank in the earth where the station was...if something could have been dropped into it.

 

[fish1966]

Off of Highway 285 it is only .7 miles to the dirt road on 137. The girls were found another .7 miles up that dirt road.

 

[Legacy]

15 Aug 1961 Pasadena Independent CA Page 2

 

[Legacy]

14 Aug 1961 Kingsport Times TN Front Page

 

[Legacy]

17 Aug 1961 Newark Advocate OH Page 32

 

[flipdullpenny]

Closer to Carlsbad on 285 heading toward 137 is the road Waterhole Rd. to the left. That was mentioned by WB. That is the road that he and Melton took to the Cox ranch. Those roads did and do go crazy around back there and can come back out again on 137 from the east. I still will try to what he was referring to as the Hardesty ranch. There are so many roads back in there and so many ways to get to the drop sight other that 285. Example: Dark Canyon Rd and back to 285 on 137

I have asked around and best guess is that the Hardesty Ranch is really close to what is called now McNew Subdivision, it goes to the river around diving rock, It was on the east side of 285 not (137), it was before the old Gas Station.

 

[Carlsbad Native]

In one article, it says Mattie called her mother at 8:30 to say she would be coming home. I don't remember seeing that before. Did I miss it? Also, where was she calling from?

Then in the El Paso article it says "he" purchased ammunition the day of the shooting. Do they know that for sure? Also, the sheriff deputies waited for him to leave town but he didn't show???? So that was the end of it? They didn't know who they were looking for? and couldn't have gone to his house???

This article just doesn't make sense to me.

 

[Legacy]

15 Aug 1961 Corpus Christi Times TX Page 6

 

[Legacy]

15 Aug 1961 El Paso Herald-Post TX Front Page

 

[Legacy]

16 Aug 1961 El Paso Herald-Post TX Page 18

 

[Carlsbad Native]

15 Aug 1961 El Paso Herald-Post Front Page

Thanks for posting these articles. I am having trouble reading some...maybe it's just me but is there a way to make the image larger so it is easy to read?

 

[Legacy]

16 Aug 1961 Hobbs Daily NM Front Page

 

[Legacy]

Thanks for posting these articles. I am having trouble reading some...maybe it's just me but is there a way to make the image larger so it is easy to read?

This board doesn't seem to have a quality magnification tool. You can right click and save to your computer, then magnify them from your picture editor and make them larger. Let me know if that works. I might be able to save them as larger images, if it will help.

 

[Carlsbad Native]

This board doesn't seem to have a quality magnification tool. You can right click and save to your computer, then magnify them from your picture editor and make them larger. Let me know if that works. I might be able to save them as larger images, if it will help.

Thanks, that worked.

 

[justthinkin]

Legacy, thanks for all the articles. Good work!

My eyes aren't so great at reading the small print either, so what I do is to save the image as a photo in windows pictures and fax, then I can enlarge the image of the article with that program.

Any clue as to whom the 33 yr. old guy was who had the scratches on his face?

Now I see where the reports mentioning a small caliber weapon came from---a suspected .32. With no bullets retrieved, I'm guessing the impact to the skull was how they later came up with the weapon being a .38. Still, lots of questions here. That bit about finding a mutilated lifesized doll a month earlier was truly weird.

What kind of credentials did Haynes have to support his findings? Did he have a background in forensics? I feel sure we could find that out.

I'm not sure I buy that the girls weren't beaten. For them to be shot in the temple so close as to leave gun powder residue tells me they had to have been incapacited, likely unconscious when they were shot. I wish we had a diagram of the crime scene with the placement of each girl's body in relation to the road that Melton and Blair were driving on when Mattie's body was spotted.


correction: I have no idea where I got the idea the doll was a blow up type. My bad. On the other hand, why would a reporter refer to a manikin as a doll? That doesn't make sense.

 

[justthinkin]

I think I found the Hughes man name...the one that was friends with Willie D. Blair.

It is Truett Hughes
wife: Marcella JeAnne Phillips
married: June 30, 1938 in Vernon, Tx.

I have that down from the notes I took with BB

This is the very close friend of the Blair family. He gave WB an alibi for when the two young girls were molested. and then again when WB said he had been fishing with the Hughes family the night the girls were missing.

I wonder if Vernon has any old murders or rapes that were never solved, and that are no longer listed on their books? Just a thought.

 

[Sunshine 1950]

In one article, it says Mattie called her mother at 8:30 to say she would be coming home. I don't remember seeing that before. Did I miss it? Also, where was she calling from?

Then in the El Paso article it says "he" purchased ammunition the day of the shooting. Do they know that for sure? Also, the sheriff deputies waited for him to leave town but he didn't show???? So that was the end of it? They didn't know who they were looking for? and couldn't have gone to his house???

This article just doesn't make sense to me.

Mattie didn't call home. Patty did. She called her mother and supposedly her mother told her to walk home....that they weren't going to mess up her plans..which were to go to another party. Connie told me this when I talked to her. But Mattie did not call home...because if she had my mother would have found someone to go get her...that I can asure you. Patty called from the Municipal Park Office...where they would purchase tickets for the rides.