A violent individual is accused of fatally shooting his parents, teenage sister, and the family dog, subsequently moving their bodies to a nearby ravine to “bury them,” according to prosecutors.
This week, 24-year-old Adlai Mestre was charged with three counts of first-degree murder and animal cruelty for the brutal acts that took place on October 13, 2024, at his residence in Tijeras, as revealed by the Bernalillo County District Attorney.
Police were alerted to the horrific scene following reports of gunshots and found Mestre outside his home, armed with a gun and carrying a loaded magazine, as detailed in court documents accessed by McClatchy News.
Mestre was reportedly scrambling to clean up the carnage when cops arrived – also finding a hammer, a blood-stained meat tenderizer, along with gory drag marks and mop streaks on the floor.
The lifeless bodies of his parents, Bertha Huerta Conde, 51, and Raymundo Mestre, 46, and his 17-year-old sister, Brielle Mestre, were then discovered in a gorge near the scene of the violent massacre, prosecutors said.
“I killed them and was going to bury them,” Mestre told officers while in custody, court documents showed, the outlet reported.
The suspect allegedly told police he killed his father in the living room and his mother as she walked down the stairs – but claimed he “didn’t know” what happened to his younger sister, according to the criminal complaint.
Mestre later kicked and punched a hole through the wall of the interrogation room and briefly escaped before being recaptured, video obtained by KOB4 captured.
In April, a judge ruled the disturbed man, who has a history of mental illness, was not competent to stand trial, but reversed that decision last month, KRQE reported.
He was also charged with three counts of tampering with evidence in the triple homicide.
