Welcome back to the Path Went Chile for part two of our series about the
Lost Cruises Bowling Alley massacre. Robin, do you want to catch everyone up
on what we talked about in our previous episode. Well, this case took
place in February of nineteen ninety in the town of Los Cruses, New Mexico,
at a bowling alley called the Los Cruses Bowl, and it was a
shooting in which there were a total of seven victims. Started off when the
bowling alley's manager, Stephanie Senak, who was the daughter of the owner,
was working there alongside her twelve year old daughter Melissa Repass and Melissa's good thirteen
year old friend, Amy Hawser, and they were opening up for business about
an hour ahead of time, and they also had the bowling alley snack bar
cook idahole Gean working there. But all of a sudden, two men described
as being Hispanic, ranging from like the thirties to their late forties early fifties,
came in with guns and took all four victims into the office and told
them to lie on the floor while they took money out of the safe.
But around the same time, another employee from the bowling alley named Stephen Turan,
along with his six year old stepdaughter Paula Holgeen and his two year old
daughter, Valerie Tran just happened to walk into the office and the two men
forced them to li on the floor as well, and after they got what
they were looking for, they decided to fire bullets into all seven of the
victims, a total of twenty five shots in total, but remarkably, Melissa
would survived and was able to make it to the phone in order to call
nine to one one. By this point, the men had also set the
office on fire, but the police and fire department arrived at the scene and
got medical attention. It turned out that Amy and Steven and his two daughters
were all pronounced dead at the scene, but Ida, Stephanie, and Melissa
all wound up surviving their wounds, though Stephanie would die nine years later due
to complications from her injuries. It was such a savage crime that everyone was
shocked, but they have never been able to find any suspects who seemed like
promising candidates to be the two killers. There's been speculation that they might have
been searching for something else while they were there, because Even though about between
four to five thousand dollars was taken from the safe, some other money was
left behind, and the surviving victims say that the two men were searching through
the office appeared to be looking for something else, and there have been a
lot of rumors that it could have been drug related because the son of the
owner, r J. Senak, who happened to work as a bartender at
the Bowling Alley. He was rumored to be involved in drugs and would die
of an accidental overdose in nineteen ninety seven. There were also rumors that the
owner, Ron Seenak, might be involved in something illegal and could have known
who the term perpetrators were, but he was thoroughly investigat by law enforcement and
they found nothing in his background to suggest he was involved in anything illegal or
at any knowledge or involvement in the crime. So after thirty years, this
case is still unsolved and the identities of the two shooters is still unknown,
but it's considered to be one of the most senseless and horrific unsolved cold cases
currently on in North America. So on our last episode, we mentioned that
this case was the subject of its own documentary titled A Nightmare and Los crusis
and I consider it to be one of the most downbeat and disturbing true crime
documentaries I've ever seen. I certainly would not recommend it for squeamish viewers,
as it features actual photographs and video footage of the victim's bodies at the murder
scene. But on a lighter note, if any of you listeners are pro
wrestling fans, you might be surprised to learn that the director, Charlie Minn,
briefly worked as an announcer for the World Wrestling Federation during the mid nineteen
nineties, but he has since gone on to direct documentaries about a number of
infamous crimes, including the sand Seedrome McDonald's massacre, and the story of Wanted
Family annihilator Robert Fischer. Unlike most of the unsolved crimes featured on a podcast,
there are still living survivors here who can share their full story about what
happened, though we still don't know the identities of the perpetrators or the full
story behind their motive. One of the most vivid sections of A Nightmare and
Los Cruses is when they play the full audio of Melissa repasses Panic nine one
one call in which he's trying to report what happened while dealing with the excruciating
pain of gunshot wounds to the head. Judging from their interviews, is clear
that Melissa and Ida Holgeen have still not gotten over the trauma of the entire
ordeal. And I think that Ida in particular is plagued with survivor's guilt over
the fact that she got to live while a number of children. I can't
imagine the kind of grief that would come from that. You have not just
the children. These are children, remember that went into the daycare. These
are kiddos who were at the all all the time because their dad worked there,
their family and friends worked there, and so their normal staples in your
life. And you have a father who everyone I'm sure adored there, who
was working to better his life. He was going to try to become a
police officer, and was just about to have his last days at the bowling
alley, and he's on the floor next to you cradling two of his children
and all of them get killed, along with another young person next to you.
The survivors get would be so overwhelming, But just the PTSD and the
imagery that would be stuck with you, the complex PTSD that would never really
leave. I don't think when you not only know the people you cared about
died, but you saw it, and you saw the horrific moment, and
then you also had to deal with your own losses and the own physical and
emotional repercussions as you're trying to heal from your own injuries. So this is
just a overwhelmingly pitiful case that was so senseless. That was the best word
you could have used for what. They didn't even walk away with much money.
And there's also a feeling of fear among the survivors as well, knowing
that the two perpetrators are still out there and that there's always a possibility they
could come after them again, Oh absolutely, and maybe a possibility that I
somehow know them or they're linked to someone that knows me, and so now
that I've lived, what if they come back to finish me off? And
like Idaho, Gien was basically debilitated by her PTSD and Stephanie's SENAC before her
death was essentially a gooraphobic. So these are huge mental health implications, and
that fear that these people would come back and finish what they started clearly haunted
the survivors. It's so unfortunate. At least we have Melissa Repass, who
seems to have been able to move on with her life. We don't know
what she did or did not deal with from a mental health perspective. Just
because she had children and seemed to, you know, forges this path forward
doesn't mean that she didn't deal with what happened at the Los Cruss Bowling Alley
every day of her life. Another vivid moment in the documentary is when they
show live footage of the police approaching Audrey Tehran in the Bowling Alley parking lot
to inform her that her husband and daughters have been shot. Losing an entire
family is one of the most devastating things a person can endure, but what
makes the situation all the more tragic is the horrible luck which allowed this to
happen. The only reason Stephen Tehan brought the two kids to the bowling Alley
to begin with was because he couldn't find a babysitter, and if they had
arrived just a few minutes later, they would not have walked in on the
crime while it was in progress. And of course Another tragic element is that
Stephen had just given his notice to the Bowling Alley and only had three days
left to work there when he was killed. You're right, So Stephen comes
in, remember when the four victims are already lying on the ground of the
office where they've been forced into the office to get access to the safe.
And then Steven just unknowingly brings the two babies in to go see Stephanie.
Remember, they're going to stay at the Bowling Alley daycare. So children were
welcomed there, they were celebrated there. So that morning, when his wife
says, I've got this test at the cosmetology school. I've got to go
work on my career too, he says, no problem, I'll take the
kids to the daycare at the Bowling Alley when I go to work. And
the people we love and care about will love and care about our babies.
And so she gets this phone call to rush to the scene, and she
finds out that not only have they been shot, but that her husband,
who had just graduated and was working towards becoming a police officer, and her
two babies, her whole entire world was executed in a moment. It was
taken away from her and she's learning it. You know that the horror that
takes over and the nightmare that you think this is not real life had to
have just come over her. I can't even fathom watching that scene. I
don't think I could get through this documentary. No. I've heard a lot
of people tell me that that they've tried watching A Nightmare and Lost Cruises,
but it's just too much for them because they show such disturbing, gritty footage.
But I guess if there's a silver lining, it's that Audrey did get
remarried and have two more children. So even though she lost everything, which
would have completely broken some people, she was able to recover and live a
full life, though I'm sure she still struggles with the trauma every day.
As you recall, Stephanie Cenac's brother Steve, stopped by the alley mere minutes
before the crime took place and likely saw the two perpetrators hanging around outside.
One detail I've always been curious about is the fact that the alley's front doors
were unlocked, even though they were not scheduled to open for business for nearly
another hour. It seems like Stephanie just simply forgot to lock them, and
Steve said that he even mentioned this to her when he picked up his backpack
from her office. According to Steve, he could have locked the doors himself
while he was leaving, but he didn't have his keys with him. So
I guess my big question is did the two gunmen know the doors were going
to be unlocked? If they saw Steve leave without locking the door behind him,
then this could have made them realize that they could just walk right in.
But if Stephanie had locked the doors, then what was their original plan?
How would they have convinced anyone to let them inside. I have to
wonder if they initially intended to enter the bowling Alley after it opened for business
at nine am, and it was just dumb luck that they found out the
doors were unlocked and were able to do it earlier. I definitely do not
think that it was just two people passing by going ooh, let's rob the
bowling Alley. I just saw this kid leave and the doors were unlocked.
This is so planned and calculated. But what did happen and what could be
the case is exactly what you just said, Robin. They were watching and
canvassing the bowling alley, making their figuring out what they're doing, and they
see Steve leave, he does not lock the door, and they say,
shoot, let's go now. It's way less difficult when the public's not there.
We're going to go before they open. Now. The reality is is
if that was the case, if they were waiting till nine nine to fifteen,
nine thirty, when the front door should have been unlocked to the public,
it's very possible that when ten, fifteen, twenty people are setting up
to bowl, that they got executed first, and then they forced employees into
the office and killed all of them as well. And so it's scary to
think had those doors not been unlocked, would they have been just as comfortable
killing thirty people forty people. These are the kind of men that I would
say absolutely they wouldn't have cared how many people were in the bowling alley at
the time. If you're willing to kill tiny children, a two year old
baby, then I just don't think that the sheer number of people is going
to be something that's going to deter or you in any way, shape or
form. Like you can argue that those actions are psychopathic to be able to
kill the most innocent. It's like people that kill animals or torture animals or
torture children, kill children. These people, and I mean, I don't
know if one was the dominant and one was the submissive, if one was
kind of leading them and not forcing the other one's hand, but motivating them
to do what needed to be done. They may have had different profiles like
personality wise, but either way, it's absolutely egregious to be annihilating children.
So I agree with you Ash. I think there was no way that even
if there was thirty or forty people, if they thought that they could get
away with it, I think they would have gone through with it. And
you got to think too, that two year old that they executed, that's
a baby that's still being carried by their parents, that likely still wearing a
diaper. I mean, this is a tiny child. And they looked at
that baby's face, that baby was looking at them, and they shot her
in the forehead. That is it's just insanity. It is pure, pure
darkness. Now, one aspect to this story, which rarely gets mentioned,
is that another similar crime took place in Las Crusis less than one month earlier.
On the morning of January fourteenth, nineteen ninety, thirty two year old
Salvador Lozano showed up for his job as an attendant at raised Shell service station
and open for business at eight am, but around two hours later, customers
walked inside to discover Salvator's body on the floor. Someone had bound his hands
behind his back and fired a bullet into the back of his head before stealing
five hundred dollars from the station. Sadly, Salvador's wife gave birth to a
baby girl only two days after he was murdered. This case has not gotten
nearly as much attention as the Bowling Alley massacre, but it also remains unsolved
to this day. At the time, investigators did not believe that there was
any connection between the two crimes, but it's hard to overlook the similarities.
Both of them took place in the early morning hours, around the time the
business opened, and in each case, robbery was involved and the victim was
shot in the head while they were lying on the floor. Several months later,
a man named Robert McDaniel was arrested on forgery charges and claimed that he'd
been present when Salvador Alazana was killed, and then he also knew the identities
of the people who committed the Bowling Alley massacre, but much of the information
McDaniel provided turned out to be false, And as far as I can tell,
if this lead never went anywhere, these sound very similar. You have
somebody who waited for a business to open. They went in and ordered the
owner to get on the floor, They got money from the cash register or
the back office, and then they shoot the individuals that are on the floor
in the head and walk out. And it's only a month later. The
Bowling Alley is much more escalated. Had you committed a crime in the same
town, of the same magnitude, where you kill the person and there's kind
of no heat coming in your direction, you would be even more inclined and
more brazen to say, we've gotten away with it. Let's go. I
don't care if there's seven people there. I don't care if there's forty people
there. Let's do this. I bet there's more money at the Bowling Alley
than there was at the gas station, and I think it is. I
mean, if you're responsible not to say could these two be linked? It
frustrates me to no end when you have people like Robert McDaniel, who say,
oh, I was present and I know who did the Bowling Alley murder,
and he feeds police false information because he stole time and resources that those
officers could have been following the lead that actually could go somewhere. Oh yes,
it seems very obvious that McDaniel was just saying that to maybe help beat
his own forgery charges. It's very common for sometimes arrested criminals to make out
false leads about other unsolved crimes in order to help themselves, so I wouldn't
put much stock into what he says, but I do agree that I don't
think Salvatory A. Lozzano's murder got much attention in the local press at all,
So if this was committed by the same person, I could see them
feeling empowered and thinking, we can do this again, and let's do it
at a bowling alley. But I'm sure that because the Bowling Alley massacre had
a total of seven victims, some of them being children, and got so
much mainstream news, I'm sure they realized that if we do this again,
we can't do it in Las Crusis because it's just going to bring us a
tiny heat doesn't it seem like an odd time, Like, don't you both
think for somebody to decide to rob a place, you're robbing an establishment,
be it the shelf, service station or the bowling alley in the morning hours,
how do you know that they haven't deposited the money from the day before.
You would think at the end of the evening, when they're closing,
before they've gone and done a bank deposit, would be the best time to
strike, would it not? Exactly? Yeah, from my experience work in
retail, it was common practice for the manager to drop off the knight's deposit
at the bank at closing so that there wouldn't be all that much money in
the store when they opened the following morning. And I recently did a Trail
Went Cold episode about this about the Lane Bryant shooting, which was another mass
murder which took place at a Lane Bryant clothing store in Illinois in two thousand
and eight, And it was the same type of thing where the perpetrator came
in in the early morning hours, right after the opened, and there just
wasn't that much money on the premises, so they killed all these people for
a very small take. So it always is weird to me when people decide
to perform robberies that early in the morning. So, on one hand,
I could see how the same person or persons who shot Salvador A Lozzano might
be responsible for what happened at Las Crus's Bowl. It's possible that the perpetrators
were planning a robbery and only expected one or two employees to be on the
premises. According to the surviving victims, the gunman seemed flustered by the fact
that so many people were there, and I'm sure they must have really been
taken by surprise when Stephen Turan and his two girls came walking in. But
even though they took between four thousand and five thousand dollars from the safe,
the fact that they still left some money behind makes me think that robbery was
not the primary motive for this crime. The two men looked through some cabinets
before they even opened the safe. They gave off the impression that they were
searching for something else and became frustrated when they could not find it. I
know there's been speculation that the perpetrators were searching for a stash of drugs,
which I'm sure was fueled by the rumors the Bowling Alley's bartender, RJ Senak
was heavily involved in drugs and performed drug transactions on the premises. Unfortunately,
there was virtually no information out there about RJ other than what was presented in
The Nightmare and Los Cruse's documentary. The police thought he seemed very distant when
questioned about the murders, but they couldn't find any evidence to implicate him,
and he died of an apparent drug over seven years later. If RJ was
involved with drugs, I guess it's possible that the two men were expecting him
to be at the Bowling Alley that morning and became frustrated when they discovered he
wasn't. But if they originally went there searching for something like a secret stash
of drugs, it's surprising that they wouldn't even attempt to ask Stephanie or anyone
else where. It was that was gonna be my question for you, Robin.
Do we know if what conversation was had or was the only communication basically,
get in the office, get on the floor, keep your mouth shut,
and that's about all they dialogue about. Because if not, were their
questions like or were their statements when the father walks in with these two kids,
like oh you know, oh crap, Well we're doing it still.
I mean, were there any kind of comments that alluded to the mindset of
these people or what their intent was, or was it very formulaic and calculated
in what they said to these people? Yeah, that's what I From what
I can tell from the surviving victims, the dialogue was very limited and it
was nothing more than just simple orders like get on the floor, open the
safe, get in the office. And they didn't ask any questions, so
if they were searching for something, they didn't try to acquire for Stephanie and
say stuff like where's the rest of the money or where's the drugs? So
that's what makes it all the more bizarre. Was this bar and restaurant or
was it just like a bar with alcohol? I think it was just a
bar with alcohol, because I know they had a snack bar there where Ida
worked as the cook. So I have a feeling that it was probably just
a snack bar which serves some food and the bar was completely separate. So
if that is the case, I think it would be strange to assume that
prior to nine am that RJ would be there, because if it's a bar
that just serves alcohol. I don't know what the liquor laws are in New
Mexico, but I would think at nine AM, you're likely not allowed to
serve liquor, and if you wanted to have a non alcoholic beverage, you'd
likely go to the snack bar. Correct. Yeah, that sounds like a
good point. I can't see a bowling alley serving alcohol that early in the
morning. And of course I have a feeling that if they were specifically looking
for RJ, they would have asked Stephanie or the other employees, where's RJ.
But I see no indication that they did that. There's always been suspicion
that the crime is somehow related to RJ's father, Ron Senak, who owned
Los Cruse's Bowl and was aware in Arizona when this took place. Now,
before I talk any more about Ron, I should preface this by stating he
was thoroughly investigated by law enforcement, and one investigator even stated that he was
quote put under a microscope and they couldn't find anything to suggest that he was
involved in the murders or any illegal activities. But if you watch Ron's interviews
in a Nightmare and Loss Crusis, it's easy to believe that there's still something
off about this guy. He surprised a lot of people by deciding to reopen
the alley for business only one week after the crime, but the way he
tells it, there was a big demand for it. Ron claims that a
church league bowling tournament had been scheduled for Los Cruse's Bowl two days after the
shootings, and the people involved became quite upset when they discovered that the place
was closed. I mean, it would be one thing if Ron was just
some greedy business owner who didn't want to lose money over a crime taking place
at his establishment. But his own daughter and granddaughter were shot, and as
you know, Stephanie Seenak died in nineteen ninety nine due to complications from her
injuries, and by all accounts, she lived the rest of her life in
constant fear and rarely left her home because the men who shot her were still
out there somewhere. During the documentary, some people stated that one of the
hardest things for Stephanie was that the rest of her family just seemed to have
a get over it and move on attitude and did not fully grasp the trauma
that she was experiencing. So maybe the Scenacs were just a very unemotional family
in general, which might explain why Ron comes across as rather cold during his
interviews. But I think one of the most troubling things about Ron is that
he makes a couple statements in the documentary which are directly contradicted by investigators.
For example, Ron claims that the police told him that the shooting was a
random crime, but then cut to one of the detectives who denies ever,
telling Ron that since the police had no idea if it was random or not.
Ron also says that in the week following the massacre, he visited the
police department every day to check on the progress of the investigation, but they
claimed that this isn't true and that they always had to contact Ron themselves whenever
they wanted to speak with him. Perhaps Ron is just remembering things incorrectly,
but I can see why people would get the impression that he might be hiding
something. It seems like either he just lacks some common sense or maybe apathy,
or that he just doesn't make good decisions. Because think about Ron and
his poor family right, like his son struggles with drugs and Dad's like,
you know what, son, you have an addiction problem. I'm gonna have
you run the bar at my bowling alley. Like not a smart decision.
Ron wants to open up for the church tournament. A lot of people would
say, like, oh, that's not the best emotional decision. But again,
we've talked about how grief might have played a role there. We're saying
I will open this establishment. It is a loving family place, and that's
what it's going to continue to be represented as. But I doubt the church
goers were like, listen, you don't open those doors. After this baby
was murdered in this place, I'm gonna be so mad at you. I
think people would understand, especially when they're also preparing funerals for these people.
But it does just seem like Ron also might just be off, doesn't manage
money well, makes bad decisions, might not be monitoring problems with his own
family and business the way he should be. So could it be sinister,
sure? Could it also just be someone who lacks some of the common sense
you would expect it so you see that come through on a documentary. I
think that's possible. Too. That's what I think as well, and it
makes me feel just so horrible for Stephanie because when you see Ron interviewed,
you think this is not the guy I would want to be my father in
trying to take care of me while I'm recovering from a debilitating shooting that has
essentially turned me into an agoraphobic. And like everyone said, that was one
of the worst things with her to deal with the trauma is that it does
not sound like she got a lot of support from her family, who probably
just wanted her to get back to work at the bowling alley or something and
just did not realize that she is just incapable of doing that because of all
the trauma. Now here's a weird coincidence. At around six am on March
fourth, nineteen ninety one, a fifty five year old custodian named James Chapman
was cleaning the Ideal Lane's Bowling Alley in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, when
he was fatally shot in the head during an attempt at burglary. Police did
not believe the crime was connected to the Los Cruses massacre, and a career
criminal named Carl Percy Libernois was eventually charged convicted of first degree murder and aggravated
burglary. Well, it turned out that before he built Los Cruse's Bowl,
Ron Senak had also owned Ideal Lanes, as the business license was listed under
his name until nineteen eighty five, before its ownership was transferred to a financial
institution by a federal bankruptcy court. Again, the two separate shootings are nothing
more than a coincidence, but it's interesting how Ron ran into financial problems with
two separate bowling alleys. And here's one more interesting anecdote. In July of
nineteen ninety two, after Los Cruse's Bull was bought out and renamed Sun Lanes,
a forty four year old civilian Otero County Sheriff's employee named Roy Nichols fatally
shot his twenty four year old ex girlfriend, Vicky Dean to death in the
Bowling Alley parking lot before turning the gun on himself in a murder suicide.
So it's pretty crazy that so many shootings seem to take place at bowling alleys
in New Mexico. Oh, it's tragic, and it's very busy are but
is I find it really interesting that Ron had filed for bankruptcy before or was
actually taken to court because he's not paying the bills and the least and the
things that he needs to pay for Bowling Alley number one, And then you
see the same thing happen where he falls into financial trouble and he loses the
Bowling Alley. What a month after these murders take place. It does make
you just question what kind of poor decisions could he have made, What kind
of business enemies could he have made, What kind of promises could he have
made to people that might have gotten him surrounded by individuals capable of such brutality.
It's not a random crime. We know that there was planning, There
was confidence by these men who went in. Now, is it planning and
confidence because they've pulled it off before, like with the gas station attendant or
the owner of the little quick mart. Possibly, but it also feels very
much like they knew a lot about that Bowling Alley and they had something specific
that they wanted to accomplish that day. Yeah, we talked about this how
Rod may not have been knowingly involved in anything legal, but he does come
across as someone who does not have a lot of common sense and good decision
making skills when it comes to running a business. So it is quite interesting
to learn that he had another bowling alley go bankrupt only five years earlier,
and we even speculated that this may have been one of the reasons that he
reopened Sunlight Las Cruce's Bowl so soon after the massacre, because he needed the
money badly and needed the income to come in. So it could be a
thing where he may not have technically done anything wrong, but his bad decision
making could have done something to anger the wrong people. And I don't think
it's outside the realm of possibility to believe that he could be hiding something,
just based on the fact that he seems to fabricate certain details. Like Ashley
had said after we'd mentioned about the church group not being able to do their
tournament, and he said that they were upset. I don't believe, for
any like, by any stretch of the imagination, that any church group is
going to push ahead to want to have a bowling tournament at this place where
a massacre just took place, and then secondly that if they can't have this
tournament, that they're going to be very upset. Two days after this happened,
knowing that the owner's daughter and granddaughter were shot. That just doesn't compute
for me. I think it's a full on fabrication in my opinion. Allegedly,
and then the situation where he's saying that he contacted the police NonStop every
day to see what was going on. We learned that that's not the case.
And then the fact that he said that the police officer had said that
they had to contact him. So it's it just feels like he's not giving
us an accurate rendition of the way that events are playing out, and he's
overstating his involvement. So for us to then believe that there's a p that
he's holding on to some information or he's hiding something, Not that it would
necessarily incriminate him, but potentially he may have done some things, angered some
people, made some poor decisions and that might have been responsible for what happened.
Anything is possible. And also his son RJ, who died of a
drug over those years later, Like maybe he knew information about something RJE was
involved in, but he wanted to protect his son and was not forthcoming about
it, or maybe he was just in denial that his son had some addiction
issues. The possibilities are just pretty endless here. I know the police never
found any evidence to incriminate Ron Senak, and it's possible that he legitimately doesn't
know anything, But I still wonder if the crime was a result of something
he was connected with. The two gunmen who entered Los Cruse's bull may have
been expecting Rond to be there and were unaware that he left on a weekend
trip to Arizona. There's been speculation that the crime was some sort of professional
hit intended to send a message to the Senac family, which is why Stephanie
and Melissa were shot. This theory is supported by the fact that some witnesses,
including Idaho Gien, believe they saw these two men frequenting the alley on
a prior occasion, and they did not appear to be doing anything but sitting
there and staring at everybody, as if they were casing the place. The
perpetrators also set fire to the desk in the office in an apparent attempt to
destroy evidence, which is not the sort of thing that you'll usually find if
the motive for the crime was simply robbery, if Melissa had not been able
to make her phone call the nine one one. It's possible the fire would
have completely engulfed the office and killed everyone there, and without the accounts of
the survivors, people might look at this case in a much different light.
For sure. I also think you have to again pay attention to the ages
of the perpetrators. These were older men. These were people that were described
in their thirties and forties, maybe forties to fifties. These were not young
teenagers doing some chaotic robbery that they kind of got overwhelmed and killed people.
They knew what they were doing. They had clear instruction of what they needed
people to do. Get in the office, open the safe, lie on
the floor, and when they got what they wanted, they executed these people
by shooting them in the head and even shooting a child who was looking at
them. And so for me, it makes sense that these are careered criminals.
These are people who understand that one they're capable of it, that they
can get away with it, that they're entitled to do what they want and
can take a life with the drop of a of a bullet in their head.
I mean, it's insane to me so to think could they have been
professional hitmen or people hired to kill these individuals. I think that's very possible.
I think that it is very possible. They wanted revenge, They wanted
to make a point, They wanted to send a message either Ron or his
son. Nothing in the women's background has this idea that they associated with ced
people. But dad and son have a different background. They seem to have
a questionable behavior, and so the fact that these men were seen prior to
the crime casing the place and sitting back awkwardly watching family's bowl, watching employees'
behavior, it definitely signals something of a planned attack that was meant to say
something and to leave no survivors that could identify who they were. However,
if the crime was a professional hit designed to send some sort of message to
Ron Scenac, it was a very sloppy one. Even though they fired around
twenty five shots to the victims, the perpetrators did not check to make sure
everyone was dead, and three of the victims wound up surviving. Also,
if this was some sort of hit against the Senac family, it's surprising they
would have let Steve Senak leave before they went inside. As murdering the owner's
son definitely fits a revenge scheme. While I believe that godmen were always planning
to murder everyone no matter what, I think, the sloppiness of this crime
is due largely to the fact that they had to deal with a lot more
people than they expected and were caught completely off guard when Stephen Turan and his
two daughters came walking into the office. Whatever the case, I still believe
the main reason for committing this crime is because they wanted something else from that
bowling alley besides the money inside the safe. Otherwise, I see no reason
why they would have left some of that money behind. Otherwise, I see
no reason why they would have left some of that money behind. I think
there is still definitely a big piece of the puzzle missing here. I think
there could be. Is it possible too that the twenty five shots? Wow,
you're right. If they're professional hitmen, you almost think they would know
how to shoot and kill with a single bullet or two. But is it
possible that twenty five shots is all they had to fire off? That is
true. Yeah, we don't have no how many bullets they had in their
guns, but it could be a thing. Is that they just fired everything
they had, and even though some of the victims were not dead yet,
they figured, well, we can don't have anything else to shoot them with,
Let's just start a fire and hopefully they'll be engulfed when the fire completely
destroys the office. But they may not have expected that Melissa would have enough
wherewithal to get back up and call nine one one. I think if you
shot them in the head, your idea would be there at least incapacitated enough
not to be able to get away from smoke, inhalation and all the things
that would come from a fire in golfing that office. Maybe that was a
thought, But then again, remember we all just talked about the fact that
they also could have planned to shoot when the bowling alley opened, which would
have meant they probably were prepared with more bullets, because what if there was
a family bullying? What if there were fifteen people that walked in when the
door's opened. There's been some confusion about whether the two gunmen brought vehicles to
the scene. Some early newspaper articles about this case say that the perpetrators may
be driving a four wheel drive vehicle, possibly a van, but this detail
is not mentioned in A Nightmare and Los Crusus, or most recent accounts of
the case, so I'm not sure how legitimate this information is. There are
apparently eyewitness accounts to the two men running across Amador Street, and as far
as I know, Steve Senak did not report seeing any additional vehicles parked near
the alley when he was there. I would be really curious to know if
the perpetrators had access to a vehicle that morning, which would have allowed them
to flee Lost Crusus. I know investigators spoke to a woman named Irma Tierna
who claimed that she harbored too men at her place following the shooting, and
they were right under the police's noses while they were searching for them. But
even though she passed a polygraph test, Tirina later recounted her story and died
of a drug overdose. And this lead hit a dead end, much like
the drug angle with RJ. Senak. The sole source of Irma Tirrena's story
is a Nightmare and Los Crusus, so we don't have any additional information about
her. Truthfully, unless they had no access to transportation, I would be
really surprised if the gunmen remained in Los cruises following the shooting. They had
to know the committee a crime in which they shot seven people, four of
them children, was going to bring a ton of heat the likes of which
the area had never seen before. I know the police set up roadblocks to
check everyone who was leaving town, but this did not take place until around
two thirty pm, so the perpetrators already had a six hour head start.
Los Crusis is only forty five miles from the Mexican border, so they would
have had more than enough time to flee the country before the manhunt started.
For all we know, both of these men may have spent the past three
decades living in Mexico and never returned to the US. This would explain why
law enforcement had no success in tracking them down or identifying them, even though
the composite sketches of their faces had been plastered everywhere. Oh, that's very
possible. I didn't realize the location of where this city was located. But
you're right. If they're only forty five miles from the Mexican border, that
can't take more than an hour an hour and fifteen minutes to get to the
Mexican border. They're Hispanic men, so it's possible that that's their hometown is
in Mexico, that they have family in Mexico, that they have a place
that's safe and can harbor them there where they can just disappear and come home
and no one knows what happened. And you know, that's over in the
United States, that's in New Mexico, and we're here in Mexico. Right,
it's just these two separate worlds, even though it's only forty five miles
apart. So for me, I would think that these two men had a
car, had a vehicle, but that it would have been parked a couple
blocks away or behind a few establishments away from the bowling Alley. They wouldn't
be as brazen. I don't think to pull up to the front of the
bowling alley, park their car and then go in. Remember they're scene running
across the street. I'm assuming they strategically placed their car and that's how they
eventually got away. The police doing a roadblock two thirty I just don't think
you had any hope of that being successful. It's too far gone. Even
if these men were on foot six hours later, they're sixty miles away,
you know, I mean they're jogging, running, doing something. Yea,
there at least they could have probably gone to the border by two thirty,
So I just I think they had to have a vehicle somewhere close. Yeah,
I do agree. It's fairly common practice sometimes for robbers to part their
cars away from the location where they're committing their crime, just in case any
witnesses come by and can't identify their vehicle. And back in nineteen ninety,
border security was a lot more lax, and two Hispanic looking men just driving
across the border into Mexico is not going to raise any red flags, particularly
since word about the shooting did not spread for several hours. So yeah,
they somehow managed to make it to the border before they started circulating their sketches,
and they remain managed to remain under the radar, Then you can understand
why they've never been caught. And here's a pretty horrifying thought. If these
men were capable of firing a bullet into the head of a two year old
girl, then they were certainly capable of committing other horrific crimes. So who
knows what else they may have done and gotten away with After all this time,
we can't even be one hundred percent certain that the perpetrators are still alive,
especially since one of them was described as being in his late forties or
early fifties. But the good news is that this story has continually remained in
the spotlight since nineteen ninety as it seems like everyone associated with this case has
been relentless in their attempts to get it solved and bring the perpetrators to justice.
I'm sure they will not give up, and hopefully we will see closures
someday. There was currently a thirty two thousand dollars reward for information, so
if you happen to know anything about the Los Cruses Bowling Alley massacre, please
contact crime Stoppers at one eight hundred two to two tips. That's one eight
hundred two to two eight four seven seven. Jules asked any final thoughts in
this case we see justice in the form of answers in the case. I
don't know that you're ever going to have these perpetrators brought to justice because,
like you said, these men were described as in their thirties to forties or
forties to fifties, which would make them at this time what eighty three years
old potentially or even older. So what might be a perk in that event
is that if one of these individuals passes away, that on their deathbed they
make a confession that they've confided in somebody, and once that person is deceased,
the person that they confided in or told or bragged about this crime to
says, listen, there's no more risk. I don't have to protect this
person. Yes, I loved them, but I want this case to have
answers, and it is possible that somebody would come forward and share that information
after the death of these two perpetrators. So my prayer is that the case
continues to remain in the spotlight, that there continues to be a remembrance of
these victims from the tiniest little two year old up to their father, and
that you have people that not only keep their memory alive, but continue to
fight for and raise awareness so that someone does come forward one day. It
is one of the most tragic and horrific cases I've heard of because of the
callousness of it, because of the lack of information, and that it seems
as if it's very difficult to look away from the reality these people have done
something like this before. To have that much confidence and that little care for
the people that they took that day. This case is such a tragedy,
just the outright evil to kill four people at the bowling alley and to shoot
small children, a two year old baby. I just think there's a very
few cases where we see such disregard for human life. Like Ashley had brought
up earlier in one of our episodes, what is the likelihood that a two
year old is going to be able to report any deep tales about those who
are the perpetrators, Like there's there's no chance they likely could not articulate anything,
and there's going to be so much trauma associated with this. I'm I'm
just in shock. I was familiar with this case before we covered it,
but I find it to be a case of contradictions in that it seems so
calculated and like it could be a deliberate hit. But then there's bits of
it where you have three surviving victims where you shot them all but you didn't
check to see if they were dead. You had two people who were perpetrators,
you would think that one of them would have been there checking to see
if these individuals were deceased. If you cared enough to point a gun and
shoot at them. You'd think that you would care enough to find out if
they were indeed deceased, and they didn't do that, which is so strange,
and it seems like it must have been aimed at rj or Ron Senac.
But then you have the other son, Steve Senak, who if it
was going to be some family vendetta, why didn't they go after him.
I'm really confounded by the fact that somebody hasn't come forward. I mean,
we had Tireena come forward. And although the logical part of my brain wants
to think that these guys left Las crusis if they had access to a vehicle,
which I think if you're going to commit a crime like this, you
would want to have a vehicle parked somewhere. But maybe they knew ti Arena
or they ran into her and thought this is a place to just hide out
the fact that she passed a polygraph whatever in regard you want to pay to
polygraphs. I mean, I think there is some validity to her story.
It's not just this fabricated story that she came up with. If she could
back it up, like her vital signs are changing, She's not sweating.
It's not obvious that she's lying. It's just too bad that much like r
J. Senac who died of a drug overdose, we also have Tierna who's
dying of a drug overdose. It's really really heartbreaking. There's so many victims
in this case, even seeing Stephanie Senac die those years later after being rendered
essentially a goora phobic, so taking the joy out of her life. It's
nice that we see Melissa repass thrive, but there's just so many victims here,
and we've got a community that's victimized. And I think it's really interesting
the shell station, the raised shell station where the individual had their hands bound
behind their back and they were shot and there was five hundred dollars stolen.
It was also in the early morning hours. I think that the parallels there
are really interesting. And with the other Bowling Alley were until nineteen eighty five
we saw ron Cenac's name on the deed until he lost that government forfeiture or
bankruptcy or It's all very interesting. There seems to be these links that are
a little more than tenuous, but I can't quite put my finger on it,
and I'm just shocked that this hasn't been solved by somebody coming forward with
information. Yeah, I mentioned earlier that I still remember seeing this featured on
Unsolved Mysteries and America's Most Wanted back in now Seen ninety and I seem to
recall that their segments were produced very quickly after the crime took place because there
was an urgency involved, saying, this is one of the most horrific murders
to take place in the United States within the past few years, so we
really want to get the word out, show the composite sketches of these two
men, and hopefully it will be solved soon. And quite honestly, back
then, with so much attention being paid to this, I never thought that
we'd be here thirty four years later and we still wouldn't know the identities of
the people who did this, and that the crime would still be unsolved.
I mean, it's one of those ones because we have surviving victims, we
know exactly what happened, we know how the crime was carried out, but
the problem is that we just don't know the identities of the two men who
did this and what their motive was. I've always been inclined to believe that
it was something more to this than a robbery, that there was some sort
of personal grudge here, or perhaps they were looking for something else. But
the fact that they showed no qualms about shooting children and were playing to set
fire to the offs to destroy all the evidence, and that they had also
been allegedly casing the place beforehand, makes me think that there's just something more
to the story. That maybe something was going on in the senoc family which
investigators have just been unable to figure it out, which is why these two
men decided to target the bowling alley, and because their faces have been circulated
so much, I am inclined to believe that they probably made it over the
Mexican border a short time after this crime took place, before the major manhunt
started, and if they managed to stay off the radar, then that could
explain why they've never been identified or caught. I mean, I certainly hope
that's not what happened, because I don't want to rule out the possibility that
they will never be found or that there aren't people out there with information about
what happened. But because of all the publicity, I have to assume that
someone out there might have a pretty good idea who these guys are and maybe
has the necessary information to share with law enforcement which will help this case break
this case why open? I mean, we've seen these past several years that
a lot of cold cases that are decades old have wound up being solved,
and sometimes if they have the necessary physical evidence, they can still conclusively lake
a crime to a deceased suspect and close the case even though they can't technically
charge them. And maybe that will happen with this case as well, even
if the perpetrators are already deceased. But it has haunted me, but for
just so many decades, so many years, and there are just so many
victims in this case, a couple of survivors who are still dealing with trauma
to this day. So if I had to make a list of cases we've
covered on this podcast that I really want to see solved in my lifetime,
this would definitely be near right near the very top. Robin, do you
want to tell us a little bit about the Trailment Cold Patreon. Yes,
the Trail Cold Patreon has been around for three years now, and we offer
these standard bonus features like early ad free episodes, and I also send out
stickers and sign thank you cards to anyone who signs up with us on Patreon
if you join our five dollars tier Tier two. We also offer monthly bonus
episodes in which I talk about cases which are not featured on the Trail Went
Cold's original feed, so they're exclusive to Patreon and if you join our highest
tier tier three, the ten dollar tier. One of the features we offer
is a audio commentary track over classic episodes of UNSAWD Mysteries, where you can
download an audio file and then boot up the original Unsolved Mysteries episode on Amazon
Prime or YouTube and play it with my audio commentary playing in the background,
where I just provide trivia and factoids about the cases featured in this episode.
And incidentally, the very first episode that I did a commentary track over was
the episode featuring this case. So if you want to download a commentary track
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about the Jewels and Nashty Patreons. So there's early ad free episodes of the
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be sure to bundle up because cold trails and chili pass call for warm clothing.
Music by Paul Rich from the podcast Cold Callers Comedy