The Santa Fe New Mexican from Santa Fe, New Mexico • 2

A-2 THE NEW MEXICAN Sunday August 9 1992 UNSOLVED A brother's bitterness turns to peace inmate ft-ho was paroled three days before death The inmate who had been in and out of prisons since 1963 for charges including burglary robbery and various drug offenses was supposed report to the Delancey Street drug rehabilitation program in Alcalde on the day of his release but did not show up Police said a palm print found on car was similar to the Newspapers at the time reported that the man actually had been released two days early The man who left the penitentiary on foot was stopped by deputies at a convenience store on State Road 14 about an hour after his release He was not detained because he had parole papers The same guard who had released the inmate spotted him in downtown Santa Fe on the day before the killing The guard and a state police officer tried to detain the inmate but failed By this time authorities knew he had not reported to the Delancey Street program but they failed to follow the standard procedure of putting his name on the national police computer network He officially listed as a parole violator until after he was suspected in the Rivera case The mixup involving the parolee caused a short but intense furor Some politicians called for the governor to fire the state Corrections Department secretary However on the day of funeral police announced the parolee had been cleared in the killing His fingerprints match those found in car and two women said they had been with him on the night of the murder There were others who were looked at in the early days of the investigation Before the end of the month police located a man named Michael Car-mello who lived on the Papago Indian Reservation in Arizona Police flew to Tucson to administer polygraph Carmello was cleared by the test "I think the killer was jLncero said think use his own Likewise Lucero said he doubts there was really a blue pickup waiting for the priest at the rest stop Also in August 1982 a 32-year-old Florida man and a 17-year-old Pennsylvania boy who were suspected in the killing of an Arizona clergyman were questioned about Rivera Investigators cleared the pair Another suspected clergy killer was questioned in November 1982 A Dulce man in Albuquerque in connection with the killing of priest in Odessa Texas the previous December was interviewed by Rivera investigators They learned the man was working in Memphis Tenn at the time of death In the next few years police traveled at least twice to California in pursuit of killer They followed a tip about a transient in Beverly Hills who was said to have robbed a church and threatened a clergyman in Utah Ulibarri FH photo Some 3000 people turned out to mourn Father Reynaldo Rivera at a funeral procession at St Francis Cathedral on Aug 10 1982 Montana His blood-stained clothing was found folded and left in a pile His car was abandoned miles away Ulibarri and Lucero disagree over the relevance of the Montana case Ulibarri says he has gut the disappearance of the Montana priest and the killing of Rivera are the work of the same man Lucero think so There is no connection whatsoever he insists When Unsolved Mysteries aired its show on Rivera in 1988 a deluge of tips came in by phone from all over the country must have gotten a thousand Ulibarri said The show focused on the similarities between the Montana case and that of the Santa Fe priest Many callers directed attention to other killings of priests or ministers never realized until then how many clergy people are killed in this country" Ulibarri said None of the tips panned out After publicity from the show died down the tips started drying up only call on it we got last year was Unsolved Mysteries calling to ask if there was anything Ulibarri said still encourage anyone with any information on this case to said Lucero would love nothing more than to solve tins said police determined this man was not in New Mexico at the time Rivera was shot Later Santa Fe police got a call on the Crime line from a man in Sacramento who said another man was bragging about killing a priest Police went to Sacramento and tracked down the barroom braggart Investigators verified he had been in a mental hospital at the time of the Rivera slaying then the question was how did the guy who called us know about the Ulibarri said Police learned the caller was originally from Santa Fe and had a criminal record Ulibarri said However they could find no evidence to lihk him to the murder The investigation eventually branched into two different directions A Police got a tip that a former Santa Fe resident who police say had been involved in a string of crimes here in the early 1980s was involved in the Rivera killing This suspect had been arrested and imprisoned in New York in 1983 New Mexico investigators flew there to interview and polygraph him Lucero said this man has not been eliminated as a suspect Meanwhile Ulibarri got word of a priest who disappeared in 1984 in Continued from Page A-l said The keys wee missing sacrament bag wallet and glasses were never found Investigators also discovered that the mysterious caller have telephoned the rectory from the rest stop south of Santa Fe The pay phone there was out of order on the night of the killing know where he called Lucero said far as we know he might have been right across the street from the cathedral and followed him out of Lucero believes Rivera was outside the city when he met his attacker interviewed people who saw him driving by at various points in From the very beginning police had leads to follow about possible suspects Most of them turned out to be false The FBI assembled a psychological profile of the killer Lucero said to this his motive was Lucero said was someone who wanted to get back at the Catholic Church in general felt the church had betrayed him' somehow Maybe someone close to him had died and he was angry the church help him that the church do job had to be someone who was familiar with the Lucero said knew that if he called for last rites a priest would come he wanted the body to be found because he left the body out in the he said After Malibu was found near Grants police got word of a stranger seen in the western New Mexico city trying to cash a check in a tavern The owner of the bar reported his car was stolen that day and he suspected the man with the check State police thinking this might be killer looked into the case They eventually learned the identity but determined he was not involved in the murder I remember correctly this man had been in jail in Albuquerque on a drunken driving when the priest was killed Lucero said Meanwhile in Santa Fe police were looking very closely at a 39-year-old A cross marks the site where the body was found It has been stolen and replaced many times A suspect once one has ever been arrested for the slaying of the Rev Reynaldo Rivera But there are those who believe the killer did not escape prison There is a suspect who while in a New York prison was questioned by New Mexico authorities about possible involvement in the Rivera slaying The man who is known to have been in New Mexico at the time of the killing was given a lie detector test about Rivera The results were never disclosed According to agent Eric Lucero the New Mexico State Police detective in charge of the Rivera investigation the the man is still considered a possible suspect although there is not enough evidence to link him to the death The man now 42 was released from the Queensboro Correctional Facility in Long Island City NY in early 1989 Lucero said he believes the man still lives in New York There is no record of the man serving any prison time in New Mexico Gilbert Ulibarri deputy police chief in Santa Fe said that around the time of the Rivera killing in August 1982 the man was suspected in about a dozen residential burglaries Then police said he committed a higher-profile crime that got him arrested holding up Fenn Galleries on Pasco de Peralta A clerk who was working at the gallery that day recalled the robbery in 'a recent interview was a real pleasant person who came to the counter and asked to see a Rolex said the woman who asked not to be identified took a step back and produced a gun and told the gal at the counter not to move backed out of the gallery but as soon os he hit the door (the other clerk) screamed" she said Forrest Fenn who owned the gallery and another man were in the to a a By DONNA ROY The New Mexican ESPAftOLA Fred Rivera was bitter and angry for several years after the death of his only brother whom he still respectfully calls Father Reynaldo He believe that someone had killed a person who had dedicated his life to serving God the church and his fellow man made me question the value of life How could someone as good as he was be away like that? But I realize now that his death changed my life in a positive way As soon as I let go of the anger and bitterness I became more said Rivera who is city manager A handmade photo album packed with pictures of Reynaldo priestly life lay open on a kitchen table in Fred Santa Cruz home recently as he reflected on the past Reynaldo Rivera was born in 1924 to Juan and Refugito Rivera Fred Rivera described Reynaldo as a quiet youth who loved to play football and carve At the age of 14 Reynaldo joined the Franciscan seminary in Cincinnati Ohio His first parish was in Parkview near Tierra Amarilla His last was at St Francis Cathedral in Santa Fe where he served as One of his duties as a priest was administering last rites to dying parishioners On Aug 5 1982 Rivera think twice about administering those rites to a non-parishioner as other priests at that time might have lot of priests were spooked about that kind of thing because priests had been killed before and they go unless it was someone from their Rivera said it came to his religious obligations he was very said Rivera Fred Rivera remembers the day he heard that his brother had been killed Her and his wife Helen had traveled to Louisiana to visit their daughter as part of their 25th wedding anniversary celebration When they returned to Tucumcari where Rivera then worked he had a message from his sister Elizabeth Abeyta just said he had disappeared and they find him We went to Santa Fe and joined in the search for Father he said The day Reynaldo Rivera was found Fred Rivera and a nephew had been searching the Waldo area in a truck He said he saw a New Mexico State Police helicopter land at the Interstate 25 rest stopouth of Santa Fe -They were talking to a couple who said they found the body The minute I heard where we took he said got there before the helicopter and I saw him He was puffed up but I knew it was him touch Rivera immediately left and went to tell his mother because he want her to hear it from anyone else Like many family members of murder victims Rivera think the police did everything they could to find his killer thought the FBI should have been brought in The family was just hurt because the police arrest -the Rivera said Hie FBI was called in to produce a psychological profile of tne killer state police say Rivera also said he believes that the church did not push as hard as it could for a resolution of the murder "The Franciscan order believes In forgiving and letting go I think they just wanted it handled that he said Before body was found Fred Rivera said he and other searchers located a cave that appeared to have been used for devi 'worship To this day Rivera believes that Father Reynaldo was killed by a Satanic cult think they were just looking for a priest any priest and they fount Father Reynaldo" he said Santa Ee Deputy Police Chief Gilbert Ulibarri who worked on the case said Satanism was ruled out early in the investigation because there were no unusual markings on the body that police associate with devil worship After a time the family gave up hope that killer would be identified On the first anniversary of his brother's death Rivera and his fam ily went to the site where the body had been discovered and found flow ers and a wooden cross there with the name Inscribed on It Months later the cross would dia appear A enr later another cross was there to take its place But that and other crosses that would follow would disappear as well I thought the FBI should have been brought Jred Rivera A priest disappears in Montana I imprisoned next office when the clerk screamed ran down the street chasing Fenn recalled The suspect was eventually arrested but not before the Rolex was pawned in Albuquerque Fenn said The pistol he used turned out to be a toy Fenn said The man was sent to the state mental hospital in Las Vegas for observation From there he and another man escaped stealing a vehicle on the way He turned up in New York where he was arrested in a car containing items taken in a burglary Lucero said "The state trooper who stopped him saw him putting something in his glove Lucero said It was a pistol and this time it a toy According to New York state corrections records the man was convicted of possession of stolen property and having a concealed weapon He went to prison Aug 12 1983 a year and a week after Reynaldo Rivera died In Dccembei 1987 state police told reporters that new evidence In the case had led detectives to New York getting a lot closer to presenting new information to the district office and in a police spokesman said at the time The spokesman would not give any details about the new evidence The information" never led to an indictment Although the Fenn Galleries suspect is the only suspect in the Rivera case who has not been cleared Ulibarri said have a gut feeling (the suspect) is not our man I could be wrong but I don't think it's him" Lucero refused to give his opinion about the man in New York but sud the man fits a psychological prolile prepared by the I III on killer "About all I can tell you is that it's hard to eliminate him as a he said Steve Terrell Police have long said autopsy indicated he had been choked with a wire by one person while another shot him Ulibarri said a bloody wire clothes hanger bent in an oval shape was found near Kerrigan's clothes Ulibarri said robbery was ruled out in the Kerrigan case because his wallet containing about $200 was left with his clothes was somebody who wanted to kill a priest" Ulibarri said Church officials told Montana police that New Mexico hip had been for according to press reports Ulibarri said that while in New Mexico Kerrigan had been at a monastery in Jemez Springs tried my best to link him with Father Rivera but I could never find any evidence they knew each he said A 1985 press account said Montana investigators had a possible suspect in the Kerrigan case under surveillance in another state which was not identified No arrest was ever made Ulibarri said The possible Montana connection was the focus of the 1988 Unsolved Mysteries episode about Rivera Eric Lucero the New Mexico State Police detective in charge of the Rivera investigation disagrees with UU-' barri about the significance of the Kerrigan disappearance "There Is no connection Lucero said Lucero said whoever killed Rivera wanted the body to be found why the body was left in an open field not far away from the road body he emphasized is still missing Ulibarri responded killed Kerrigan left his clothes in a neat pile right by the road If he want people to know (Kerrigan) had been killed why would he leave the clothes Stava Terrell lmost two years after the Rev Reynaldo Rivera was murdered in New Mexico a Catholic priest disappeared in Lake County Montana The Rev John Patrick Kerrigan according to police and Associated Press reports was reported missing July 23 1984 Kerrigan a native of Butte Mont had vanished two days after he was transferred to-the parish at Ronan a town of about 1500 people on the Flathead Indian Reservation in northwestern Montana He had last been seen July 20 a Friday stopping at a local bakery on the way home from jogging Kerrigan did not show up for Mass on Friday or the following day The day he was reported missing Kerrigan's blood-stained clothes were found on the shore of Flathead Lake near the side of a highway about five miles outside Ronan car which also contained blood stains was discovered a week later several miles away The Montana body never has been found According to the Associated Press a Montana detective learned that Kerrigan had been in New Mexico for three months in the spring of 1983 When he contacted New Mexico authorities he learned of the Reynaldo Rivera murder Santa Fe Deputy Police Chief Gilbert Ulibarri who investigated the Rivera case has said for years he believes the Montana case is connected with the local murder are many similarities" Ulibarri said in a recent interview Kerrigan was 58 and Rivera was 57 he said Rivera's body was found near a road a few miles out of town So was Kcrngun's clothing The cars of both priests were found miles away Roth men died in the summer one shortly befoio Aug 1 the other shoitly after Roth dime brown Chevrolet-.