Body of missing Downs man found near Hubbard Museum

A Ruidoso Downs man who was the subject of a missing persons search all of last week was found dead Monday lying next to the Hubbard Museum of the American West just steps away from his home.

His distraught family is still waiting to learn exactly when and how he died, and also whether he might still be alive if he had been found sooner.

Andrew J. Dutchover, 25, had last been seen on July 9, according to his mother, Melissa Terrazas, who said her son lived with her in a condominium at Champion’s Run just north of the museum. She said Thursday it appeared he had fallen down a steep slope near the northeast corner of the building.

Ms. Terrazas said she had been tormented last week by fears and rumors that somebody had been after her son and might have murdered him. But now she said it seems his death may have been an accident.

“That’s what they’re thinking,” she said. “But until we get the autopsy results we won’t know for sure. He might have been trying to run up the hill, fell back and hit his head on a tree.”

Ms. Terrazas said her son was working hard to recover from problems with drug addiction but may have been using them on the day he went missing.

She said he was with a female friend when he fell down the slope. The woman, who she said was using drugs at the time, went to the nearby home of one of Ms. Terazza’s cousins and remarked that “something happened” to Dutchover but made no further effort to get help to him.

“When you’re involved in that kind of lifestyle, nothing else matters,” she said.

Ms. Terrazas said a city worker came across her son’s body Monday while trimming weeds next to the museum.

“They found my son between an air conditioning unit and a tree,” she said.

Lincoln County Sheriff Robert Shepperd said Thursday his office and Ruidoso Downs police were investigating the death jointly but were not yet prepared to release any information about it.

Ms. Terraza said Dutchover leaves two young sons “he was absolutely crazy about” who live with their mother in Mescalero and a large extended family of siblings, aunts and uncles in the Ruidoso Downs area who were alarmed by his disappearance and are now mourning his death.

“He was a jokester, always making jokes,” Ms. Terrazas recalled. “He was always nicely dressed, that was his thing. He was very generous, would give anybody the shirt off his back. Everyone says he had such a contagious smile.

“He loved music, and he loved writing,” she added. “He’s done that since he was in 4th grade.  He loves his family very much, his brothers and sisters.”

Ms. Terraza said the discovery of her son’s body capped an agonizing week during which she begged Ruidoso Downs police to help her find out what happened to him.

“I had heard horrible rumors that someone was trying to kill him,” she said.

Dutchover was listed on the state Department of Public Safety missing person’s web site. On July 14 two sheriff’s deputies were sent to Bonito Lake to look for tracks, drag marks or other clues that his body might be there. Two others were sent to the area around Hail Lake and Dry Lake.

But Ms. Terrazas was frustrated by what she said was the slow response at the Ruidoso Downs Police Department to her pleas for more sense of urgency about her missing son, even after he had been gone for more than 48 hours.

“That’s upsetting in all this too,” she said. “I begged them to help me.”

Ruidoso Downs Mayor Gary Williams could not be reached for comment.

Ms. Terrazas said Dutchover worked at the Ruidoso Downs Race Track for seven years as a cook at the Billy the Kid Casino, but he had not worked there recently.

“I want the friends that he knew and the community of Ruidoso Downs to know that I want something good to come out of this,” she said. “I want to beg these kids to stop doing these kind of drugs and get help. I feel that I have to be the voice for Andrew. Andrew would want to save somebody if he could.”

Family and friends plan a dinner at 3 p.m. Saturday at the Ruidoso Senior Citizens Center to raise funds for burial expenses. There is also a fund raising web site at gofundme.com/andrewdutchover.