Authorities have no leads in brutal September beating of 19-year-old woman
Oct. 22—Santa Fe police investigators have been combing through surveillance video and exploring possible leads in the severe beating of a young woman last month outside her apartment building in the Hopewell Mann neighborhood.
Valicity Lazoya, 19, was airlifted to University of New Mexico Hospital after she was found lying unconscious in a pool of blood in the parking lot at Sangre de Cristo Apartments. She was badly bleeding from her right ear, and her face was swollen, a police report says. An officer wrote she was gasping for air and had sustained "severe cranium damage."
Police have not identified any suspects in the nearly month-old case.
"We are hoping video surveillance can tell us what time did she get there, when did she arrive and when did this occur," Lt. Jimmy Montoya said in a recent interview. "Were they waiting for her? Was there one attacker, more than one?"
Anita Vargas, a caregiver with a client who lives at the complex, discovered Lazoya late Sept. 22 as she was leaving her client's home for the night and made the initial 911 call.
She said in an interview earlier this month she had learned from Lazoya's mother the young woman was "still in an induced coma" and "they were waiting for the swelling to go down before they could talk to her."
Santa Fe Police Captain Aaron Ortiz said Friday that Lazoya's condition is now "stable."
Lazoya's mother did not respond to messages seeking comment.
Vargas told police she was in the parking lot at Sangre de Cristo Apartments around 10:15 p.m. Sept. 22, taking out the trash for her client and didn't see anyone. When she went back outside to leave for the night around 11:30 p.m., she said, she saw Lazoya out of the corner of her eye.
"I had to double-take, but I noticed her and noticed she was injured, Vargas said in the interview. "I threw my purse into my car and grabbed my phone and called 911. I asked her if she was OK, and I could [see] she was really hurt. As someone who has post traumatic stress disorder, I was shocked."
Officers were dispatched to the call at 11:34 p.m., according to the police report.
But Vargas said she waited about 22 minutes for five officers to arrive, and it took another five minutes before the officers "gave clearance" for an ambulance to respond.
She found Lazoya's phone and wallet near her body, Vargas said, and "nothing was stolen."
The police report says Vargas handed officers some of Lozoya's personal effects, including a cellphone with her driver's license tucked inside the case. That helped police identify the woman, who was wearing scrubs.
As the ambulance was preparing to take Lazoya to a local hospital, Vargas said, a man came out of a nearby apartment and told police he'd seen a woman in the parking lot earlier and she "looked upset but wasn't hurt or injured."
As he was walking to his vehicle to complete a Door Dash delivery, the man told police, he noticed a woman was trying to open the trunk of a white Nissan Altima parked in the lot. When he returned, he found her bleeding on the ground, according to the police report.
Ortiz said Friday police have since disproven the man's claim Lazoya was attempting to open the Nissan's trunk. They have identified the owner of the vehicle and ruled out the possibility that the person was involved in her beating, he added.
The Nissan had blood on the rear trunk and quarter panel and a bloody palm smudge on the front passenger window, the report says. A white Chrysler Town & County van parked to the right of the Nissan had blood marks on the left rear bumper and what appeared to be a piece of hair and a blood mark on the bottom right rear window frame.
Neither vehicle was Lazoya's, according to the report. Officer Robert Metzgar wrote her vehicle, a silver Kia Soul, was backed into a spot in the rear parking lot of the apartment complex.
There was no blood on the Kia.
Police found a brown shipping box to the left of the Nissan that contained two pairs of Air Jordan sneakers, according to the report. A bill of sale indicated the shoes belonged to the injured woman.
As officers were wrapping up their investigation, a woman who identified herself as Lazoya's mother approached one of the patrol cars and asked what had happened. After she was informed of her daughter's poor condition, the mother "lost her mind," Officer Robert Metzgar wrote in his report.
A man who lives in the complex told officers a camera he had set up inside his apartment pointed out the window in the general direction of where Lazoya had been found. He powered up his computer and attempted to find the relevant footage, "to no avail," the report says, but still provided the camera's SIM card to police for investigation.
Vargas said she's been working for the same client at the complex for about 10 years and isn't scared to go back, but she is more cautious.
"I ordered a little stun gun for protection when I leave," she said. "It's just dark where that parking lot is. ... The vibe is not good to be alone in, actually."
She added, "I know Santa Fe is going through a rough time with drugs and all the homeless issues, but when you see something like this happen to a young child like her, it makes you want to make change. But it's hard to know what to do for our community.
"I just pray she remembers something," she said of Lazoya.
Anyone with information about the incident should tell the police, Vargas said.
"The family just really needs that," she said. "It would mean a lot because right now they have no leads. Nobody has said anything."
