Family found body parts at crash site more than a week later

An Albuquerque family is trying to grieve the loss of their son following a fiery crash, but when they stopped by the crash scene, they made a disturbing discovery. Hector Sanchez, 18, was going to be a senior this year at Rio Grande High School but he died in a crash last week along I-40. When his family went Monday to set up a memorial, they were devastated by what they found.

New Mexico State Police said the crash involved a semi and SUV on I-40 east of Laguna. Esparza and the family went to the crash site Monday to put up a cross for Sanchez and discovered the unimaginable. “We found his hand,” Sanchez’s aunt, Joanna Cheno, said. They said they found and brought home Sanchez’s right hand. There were things at the site of the crash more than a week later. They ended up leaving with a whole bag of Sanchez’s belongings including a hat, boots, car key, pieces of his phone and vehicle. During the interview, they made another gruesome discovery. “We didn’t know the nose was here,” Cheno said. “We didn’t know that until right now.”

The family also found identifying paperwork at the scene which made them question why it took several days to learn of the crash. They said Sanchez was traveling to Arizona when it happened, and they filed a missing persons report that day after not hearing from him. They called local law enforcement agencies repeatedly until finally getting an answer four days later. The family is demanding answers from NMSP who the family said did not call them back until KRQE News 13 got involved. The family said an officer came by Monday evening. According to the family, the officer asked them how they knew there wasn’t a second victim. (Maybe the body parts belonged to someone else) “They don’t care,” Cheno said. “They don’t care about any citizen of New Mexico because if they cared enough, they would not leave his body behind.”

NMSP said there was a delay in the death notification due to the condition of the body, and the SUV wasn’t registered in Sanchez’s name. NMSP said they turned the hand over to OMI for positive identification after the family contacted them on Monday.

https://www.krqe.com/news/albuquerque-metro/family-says-they-found-body-parts-of-loved-one-at-crash-site-more-than-a-week-later/