Man Confesses to Dismembering Mother and Storing Remains in Freezer, Bodycam Footage Reveals

New disturbing revelations have emerged from a puzzling murder case in New Mexico, where a man is accused of killing his mother, dismembering her, and storing parts of her body in a freezer for several weeks before authorities apprehended him.

Leroy Felix Vallejos, aged 49, faces multiple charges, including two counts of first-degree murder, three counts of battery, two charges of evidence tampering, and one count of abuse resulting in death, as per records from the Bernalillo County jail.

The victim, Ernestina Lucero, 69, was reportedly killed during the fall of 2025 at her residence on Rhode Island Street NE in Albuquerque.

In October 2025, family members and neighbors reported Lucero missing. That same month, Vallejos allegedly contacted his mother’s home health care provider, requesting payment despite claiming not to have seen her for over a week, according to a criminal complaint accessed by local CBS affiliate KRQE.

Authorities conducted a welfare check at her home, where Vallejos permitted law enforcement to search the premises, as detailed in the complaint. He allegedly told officers that his mother was vacationing in Mexico with her boyfriend. However, investigators grew suspicious upon discovering Lucero’s medication in the bathroom, as noted in the charging document.

During their search, officers examined a chest freezer and, after shifting some boxes of frozen food, uncovered garbage bags containing what they identified as female human remains, according to police reports.

Body-worn camera footage recently obtained by KRQE shows the immediate interaction after the gruesome discovery.

“What’s up, boss?” the defendant asks.

To which the officer replies: “Let’s step outside.”

“All right,” Vallejos replies.

Then the officers makes the arrest, saying: “Go and put your hands behind your back. She’s in the freezer.”

A further search of the home found bloodstains under the sink, according to law enforcement. In a custodial interview, Vallejos admitted to choking his mom to death some three weeks prior, police said. The defendant went on to say Lucero was conspiring against him with others and she was part of a “group of people giving their lives to darkness,” according to the complaint.

“I f–ing strangled her, eh,” Vallejos says in the footage.

Later, the defendant and a detective go over what happened after the woman was killed and dismembered.

“I put her in the freezer,” Vallejos says.

The detective clarifies: “Okay, you left her in the freezer.”

Slightly annoyed-sounding, Vallejos replies: “I told you, I put her in there and I left her in there.”

The man then reportedly described how he used an electric saw to dismember the victim’s body — before focusing on the purported nature of the relationship between mother and son.

“I went for years and years, trying to please her, trying to make her happy,” the defendant told a detective. “I begged, I pleaded.”

At one point, Vallejos relays concerns that his mother was somehow involved in the supernatural, telling the detective: “It’s witchcraft. She did witchcraft on me. I don’t know what she did.”

During another interaction, however, the admitted killer appears somewhat contrite about the brutal matricidal violence.

“I just went off, man, I didn’t think about it,” Vallejos told the detective. “During, it was just like, why couldn’t you just leave me the f— alone? What did I ever do to you? Besides love you?”

Later on, the defendant added: “I messed up, man. I wish I didn’t do that.”

Vallejos also told detectives he thought about turning himself in — but was worried about what would happen to his dogs.

In December 2025, a court deemed the defendant incompetent to stand trial. Earlier this month, he was committed to New Mexico Behavioral Health Institute in order to receive mental health services until he is deemed competent to stand trial.