Posted on 04/30/2026 3:14:32 PM PDT by CedarDave
The family of Freddy Ray Baca told authorities they "long feared what had happened to him,” although they never reported him missing.
On Wednesday, those fears were confirmed.
Remains found in 2023 “between two walls” in a building in Ruidoso Downs have been identified as Baca, who was 41 or 42 when he was last seen in 2018, the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office announced in a news release.
The sheriff’s office said the case is being investigated by the 12th Judicial District Major Crimes Unit. The release did not give a cause of death for Baca, and a call to the sheriff’s office was not immediately returned.
On June 21, 2023, construction workers found “mummified human remains” in the walls of a building in the 27000 block of U.S. 70 in Ruidoso Downs, according to a Facebook post made by then-Sheriff Michael Wood. The building is in a rural area west of Ruidoso where the Rio Ruidoso runs alongside farmland and RV parks.
Wednesday’s news release states the sheriff’s office teamed up with Marshall University in 2024 to obtain a DNA profile from the remains and use it in a genetic genealogy search. Authorities found 30 people across the nation with “familial ties.”
This month the search yielded a close relative who said “they had a family member who had been missing for years.” Dental records were used by the Office of the Medical Investigator to identify the remains as Baca.
“It was learned Freddy was last seen by family in 2018,” according to the release. “Freddy was not reported missing, but those who loved him had long feared what had happened to him.”
(Excerpt) Read more at abqjournal.com ...
That was one of the stories that started me on Poe at the age of 8 or 9.
For the half of a century no mortal has disturbed them. In pace requiescat!
Wouldn't that be just a room?
He should have left when he sensed the walls were closing in…
OK we drove around and looked for this playing detective.
The article is wrong about being West of Ruidoso. It’s west of Ruidoso Downs and east of Ruidoso, assuming the address is correct. By an antique store called Lotsa Stuff.
The only thing I can think of that was under major renovation in 2018 and again in 2023 is a big restaurant that was a lot like the Rainforest Cafe with all sorts of pine trees and fake forest in the inside. A huge sink hole opened up and it had to close.
It’s all next to the Lincoln National forest and it’s not like we don’t have 500 miles of desert around us other places. So with a little planning you could find a heck of a better place to hide a body if you’re not a moron. Sounds impromptu.
No one has ever heard of this supposed local. Some talk of him being a drug addict/drifter/drunk that is decidedly speculative.
I’m thinking he’s really from El Paso or somewhere and got busted stealing copper wire at the construction site (or whatever) and whoever caught him killed him, panicked, and stuck him in a wall.
Or he pissed off a fellow drifter who used to do construction work.
“Wouldn’t that be just a room?”
Or he was really really skinny and somehow got trapped in the 2x4 area separating the wall of one room from the wall of an adjacent room.
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