Welcome back to the Path one, Chile for part two of our series about the unexplained death of Steve Sandlin. Robin, do you want to catch everyone up on what we talked about in our previous episode. Well, Steve Sandlin was a twenty one year old rookie police officer with an infant son, who was also engaged to be married and was following in his father's footsteps. All
he'd ever wanted to be was a police officer. He was assigned to a small town called Mountaineer, New Mexico, which only had a total of four officers on the force, including Steve. But then eight weeks into his tenure there, Steve wound up debt inside his own police station under suspicious circumstances,
after he was shot to death with his own gun. The police chief, David Carson, tried to say that Steve's death may have been a suicide because they had an argument earlier that day, or possibly an accident because Steve was playing with his gun, but of course his friends and family did not believe
that. It saw a lot of suspicious discrepancies going on. There were hints that Steve was very disillusioned about stuff that was going on on the job, and he had even had a meeting with the New Mexico Attorney General's office.
He had also been involved in a drug bust with a marijuana dealer in which fifty four pounds of marijuana suddenly went missing from a police evidence trailer, and after Steve's death, a bag of what might have one bag of what might have been this marijuana was found inside a drawer inside Steve's home, and it seemed likely that it had been planted in an attempt to assassinate his character.
There was some suspicion on Chief Carson himself because numerous witnesses said they saw his patrol car parked outside the police station during the approximate time period of Steve's death. And he also really didn't have an alibi for that time period and just said that he could not remember where he was. I know that there was a man named James Garantino who was the Assistant Attorney General in New Mexico. He wound up getting fired from his superiors for pushing too hard into this case
and not leaving it alone. So he became a parent that there was a major cover up and conspiracy going on. It was not until nineteen ninety five when Steve's death was finally reclassified as a homicide, and they have paid tribute to him in the last few years, but unfortunately there are still no answers about his death and if whoever killed him has gotten away with it for over thirty five years, well, I think it's safe to say that this story
is sketchy as hell. I really can't think of too many unsolved cases where a police officer was killed inside their own police station. Steve Sandlan sounded like an incredibly ambitious, enthusiastic young man who only wanted to do good and could have potentially had a great career in law enforcement. But unfortunately it sounds like
you wound up getting hired by a rather dysfunctional police department. Now, you do have to cut the Mountaineer PD a little bit of slack, because a Mountain Air is a pretty isolated small town, and these types of police departments obviously do not get the same amount of manpower, resources and training that a police force in a larger city would receive. After all, they only had
a total of four officers when Steve joined up. But when a force this small suddenly winds up dealing with a crime that's much bigger than what they're used to dealing with. You can see how things might go wrong. In other words, if they seize fifty four pounds of marijuana in a drug bust and have to leave it lying around on the floor inside the station because they don't have any secure facilities to properly store it, then they're probably in way over
their heads. Now it's up for debate Webther the Mountaineer PD was actually complicit in Steve's death or just watch the investigation. But either way, it's still a pretty infuriating situation because Steve deserved much better. He just sounded like the type of person you'd want to have as a police officer in your community because he was finally getting to do the one thing he'd always wanted to do since he was a child, and was treating it with the seriousness it deserved.
But it sounds like working for the Mountaineer PD did a lot to destroy Steve's passion for his job in a fairly short amount of time. Before we start analyzing this case, I should discuss Chief David Carson, who seems like a pretty sketchy character for starters, his real name was actually David Joseph Shanklin, but he apparently decided to change it after his father got married to his ex
wife, which sounds like a pretty awkward situation to say the least. This decision may have also been motivated by the fact that Carson had an extensive criminal record for misdemeanors under his former name. Believe it or not. While Carson was police chief, David Joseph Shanklin still had an active warrant on him in Hamilton County, Ohio, which stemmed from a nineteen seventy five arrest for passing
bad checks. Since the war was only applicable in Ohio, Shanklin slash Carson did not have to worry about it, so he was able to be certified as a law enforcement officer in New Mexico and became police chief of Mountainair in September of nineteen eighty seven. Oooh okay, I'm shaking my head, going,
wait, what if you have an active warrant in another state? I feel like you should still not be qualified to serve and protect when you're passing bad checks and doing many misdemeanors, whether your name's the same or not, and whether you've moved or not, very interesting. It is to me concerning that he does have Yes they're misdemeanors, but he has his history of being willing to break the law if he's passing bad checks, is he in financial
distress? Is he one of those people who just doesn't care and believes he's above the law. Either way, I don't think it puts him in a very good position to be police chief of a even a small little town, because to me, it shows questionable judgment and a lack of ethics and responsibility. Yes, people can change, Yes people go through phases, but this wasn't like it was, you know, thirty five years ago. It was at the time of Steve's death. It was just thirteen years before he had
that warrant signed for the bad checks. So he had to start a law enforcement career pretty quickly after these misdemeanors had been on his record. And so I'm wondering how quickly this someone changed should become this perfect law abiding citizen when they've had a history of multiple run ins with law enforcement themselves. And correct
me if I'm wrong. Maybe one of you two know, But with law enforcement officers, don't they have to provide their financial information to their employer because they need to be beyond reproach in the sense that if there are major financial issues or deep into debt, say they've got a gambling addiction, even if gambling is legal there, then that could potentially open them up to making really rash or poor decisions, like say they do a drug bust and they decide
to keep the drugs or keep money that they find because they need to pay off you know, Peter or Paul over there. I think there are departments like that, or especially federal government, when you get into like you know, FBI and things like that. I know that they ask, you know, for everything but your first child. But when you look at a small town where there's only four officers operating there, I doubt the hiring procedures are
strict. We're in a tiny little town. I guarantee you it's not as difficult to get through the hoops here in a tiny little town of two thousand people as it is in let's say Dallas, Texas or San Francisco or something like that. I just don't think there's a big pool to pull from and so and there's, like you said, not as many resources are personnel able to do the background checks and things like that, so I think it's just
more lax in a small town police department. That's what I'm thinking as well. Because it was the nineteen eighties, it's not clear to me if they found out about his previous criminal history, or if they just missed it in the background check, or if they did know about it but just didn't care because they figured, Well, the arrest warrant is only applicable in Ohio, so it's not really our problem here. But like you said, people can
change after they make mistakes to commit crimes. But the problem is that he still had an act of warrants, so he never showed up in course court to face his charge or take full responsibility. And that definitely paints a picture of someone who has no remorse about his past mistakes and has not really changed his spots. But here's the craziest antidote about Carson. He actually has a connection to an entirely different case which was featured on Unsolved Mysteries and took place
in another state. On February eleventh, nineteen ninety one, a young married couple named Eric and Pam Ellender were murdered inside their home in Sulfur, Louisiana. They both had received fatal shotgun blast to the head while they were in their bed, and their infant daughter was in the house of the time, though thankfully she was left unharmed. The following day, eighteen year old Chris Prudeholm and three accomplices were arrested for driving eric stolen car after a sought off
shotgun was found in Prudholm's apartment. He quickly confessed to killing the Ellanders and was indicted on two counts of first degree murder. Over two weeks later, his body would be found hanging from torn bed sheets inside the shower room of the Calcasoux Correctional Center, and this left Prudeholm in a coma for nine days before he died. A suicide note was found in pru Udoam cell which he
took sole responsibility for the murders and claimed that he enjoyed them. While the Calcashu Paris Sheriff's department believed Prudholm was the lone perpetrator and officially closed the case, but the reason it got featured on Unsolved Mysteries was because Pam's father believed other people were involved in the murders and that they were part of a satanic called the Skaters, an acronym for Satan's kids against the establishment. Yeah,
what can I say? It was the early nineties and people loved their satanic panic Anyway, Prudholm's three accomplices who were busted in the stolen car alongside him did get charged with being accessories after the fact, and that's pretty much where the investigation ended. But here's how this connects to Steve Sandlin's case. David Carson lost his job as Mountainair police chief in March of nineteen ninety, and there was a lot of conflicting stories about whether he resigned or was fired.
Afterward, Carson moved to Louisiana and became an intake officer at the Calcashue Parish Jail. According to another employee, the shower room where Prudholm was found hanging could only be accessed by deputies who possessed special rovers keys. One of these deputies was Carson, and he reportedly left prudholme into the shower room before he hung himself. Another inmate would also claim that Carson had forced him to sign
a false witness statement classifying Prudholm's death as a suicide. Rumors circulated that Carson had Prudhom killed in order to prevent him from implicating other people in the Ellender murders, including the Calcashoe Parish sheriff's son. Now, if you've heard Robin's views on the case, you'll know that he does not believe there was a major conspiracy or a satanic called the Skaters. And it's very unlikely that Carson
murdered Chris Prudeholme the Carson murdered Chris Prudholm to protect anyone. But even though Carson's name was never mentioned in the Unsolved True segment about the Islanders, it's pretty crazy that you would be involved in two separate cases from the show which otherwise had nothing to do with each other. This is very, very crazy, And like you said, is there a link to actually his responsibility in
one or either of them? Not necessarily, but it's just odd. It's very bizarre, and it's eerie that you have a Carson holding keys to a place where this inmate hangs himself, and then you have where we're pretty sure he at least would be aware of more information than he let on around his own department and Steve's death. So, oh, man, the story about Carson from the time you told me his dad married Carson's ex wife and he has this criminal record. It's just so out there and out of this world.
I don't know what to say, but it's really pitiful that you have this another murder case and Carson's tied to it, and up on on some mysteries as well. Very very interesting. Yeah, it certainly seems like trouble seems to follow this guy around wherever he goes, and you start to wonder that this just cannot be a coincidence. So now let's get back to the Steve Sandland case. I'll state right from the outset that I do not believe
Steve's death was a suicide or accident. Yes, in so many of these cases where a victim is suspected of completing suicide, their loved ones will always say it couldn't have happened that way because they were not the sort of person who would kill themselves. But that doesn't necessarily mean that people who looked fine in the outside might not have had some inner demons which compelled them to take their own life. These types of things do happen, but I really don't
think it's likely in this particular case. I have my doubts that a young man with a Beyonce and an infant son, who was making plans for Mother's Day right before he was killed, would suddenly decide to shoot himself over a disagreement with his boss. It's true that Steve was becoming a bit disillusioned with his job, but he still had a whole lot going on for him,
so suicide is a very implausible scenario here. The autopsy also concluded that the god might have been as much as two feet away from Steve's head when it was fired. And I have my doubts that someone planning to kill themselves would do this, since that increases the possibility that a suicide attempt won't be successful. Yeah, everything here is too new for someone to be suicidal at this point. I think, like you said, he has a fiance, he
has an infant son, and they're making plans for Mother's Day. Mother's Day is clearly a big deal when you have an eighteen month old little one, moms worked hard. This is the first Mother's Day. He can actually help you make a little craft and fun things like that you know, And so I don't know. I just think he has this new job, he's got this sweet little family that he's growing, and he has a job that he's passionate about. Remember, he wanted to follow in dad's footsteps, and he's
only eight weeks on the job. Getting confronted about being too ambitious at week eight is not a reason to melt down and to feel distressed. He's frustrated because I'm doing my job the way I'm supposed to the way my dad taught me to do it, and this man isn't respecting that, and he calls his wife to vent. That's all that was. He wasn't so distraught about his career that he was thinking of ending his life. I just don't buy it. And when the autopsy says that the gun could have been as far
as two feet away from his head, you're absolutely right. Anyone who says I'm gonna, you know, inflict a life ending wound is not going to hold the gun away from their head. If you did survive, you wouldn't have any brain function and things like that. So it's just it's just not possible. I have to be with the family sentiment that says, just no way in this case. Even if he was frustrated enough that he was disillusioned and he was wondering like, Okay, maybe there this isn't the town for
me. I mean, I don't like my boss. There could be some other things going on here. He has the possibility to transfer somewhere else. He's young, he's only eight weeks into the job. His father has that in with the Albuquerque Police. There's so many different potential situations where he could find employment elsewhere to think that he got into a minor argument about parking tickets, like who cares in the grand scheme of things, Like Ash said,
it's just venting to his wife. If he was going to end his own life over this, why would he do it in the police station. Most people who typically tend to end their own lives don't do it as a statement making thing in a public place. It just none of it makes sense. The playing with the gun doesn't make sense. It's so obvious that this is
murder. It's just atrocious police work. That the scene wasn't properly sealed off, the evidence wasn't collected in a way that the police department should have done so. By some kind of forensic standards, and that they just were so quick to say, oh, was likely a suicide or or an accident because he liked to play with his gun. It makes me even more suspicious of them, the fact that they suggested that explanation that he could have been playing
with his gun. Because I was the son of a police officer, I just find it so unlikely the gun safety wasn't ingrained in him from a very young age, and that now as a police officer, it's been like he's been hit over the head with it because he's had to go through all that training. Like actually brought up in Part one that he would have learned how to handle a gun, how to store a gun, how to use a gun, so that you're so comfortable with it. It's like an extra appendage.
It's not something where he's just gonna like pull out this dangerous thing when he has no intention of using it. It just none of this makes sense. And then there's Chief Carson's theory that Steve's death was an accident because he was playing with his gun, like I just mentioned, and it accidentally went off. Well, I guess the theory might make sense was if Steve was
eight years old. Otherwise, I think it's pretty insulting. In fact, I have a few feeling that any police officer who has had weapons training would find the idea insulting. Yes, there are documented cases in which cops were killed or injured because they mishandled their gun and it went off accidentally. But by all accounts, Steve was a very responsible police officer who took his job
very seriously. And it's hard for me to believe that a twenty one year old man would feel compelled to pull out a loaded gun and play with it like some kid until it discharged and killed him. It's interesting how Chief Carson kind of contradicted himself in interviews where he expressed his reasons why he didn't believe that Steve was murdered. During his Unsolved Mysteries interview, Carson stated that Steve was just too good of an officer for someone to get the drop on him,
grab his gun and shoot him with it. But wait, if you think he was such a good officer, why would you also believe that he would be irresponsible enough to play with a loaded gun. As far as I'm concerned, the fact that there was insignificant an ammounsive gunpowder residue on Steve's hands seems to cancel the possibility that he could have fired the gun himself, intentionally or otherwise. Since his death was eventually reclassified as a homicide, i'day's pretty
clear cut that he was a victim of foul play. But the big unanswered question here is how did it happen and who was involved? I think about it like this too. Remember he's telling his wife that he's alone at the station. He is basically just a security guard, and he's kind of smart smart alec about the fact that if that's what they want me to do,
that's what I'll be. And he's frustrated. Is it possible that, since it's so slow there, that he's alone, that he takes his gun off of his hole, like out of his holster or off of his belt like in the holster and sets it on the table or something like that to get comfortable because he's sitting for a long period of time, and someone comes in and takes it off the or grabs it over his shoulder or something like that.
Is it possible that someone had another weapon or threatened him and said give me your gun, right and he's going, uh, and it happened that way, or it is possible that they stun him and overpower him and take his gun. But you don't see like much bodily injury or any sign of a struggle supposedly at the scene. I think there's multiple ways someone could have
gotten their hands on his gun. And we know for a fact that the shell casings are the striations on the bullets that they all match his weapon specifically, not just his type of weapon. Yeah, that's correct, Okay, So it's not like it could have been another issued weapon that's the same making and model. I think he could have been I think he could have been overpowered. I think he could have been lackadaisical and stuck his holster up on
the table. And I think he could have been threatened and handed over his gun. That seems least likely because as a law enforcement agent, you going to have to kill me to get it. But there's a lot of scenarios that could have occurred in that situation. If it was someone that he knew or trusted, he wouldn't have had his guard up too, and they would have been able to approach him, get close enough and just go for the gun because he would never assume that he would be under threat or that somebody
would be taking his weapon. What if someone even said something to the effect of, hey man, I need to see your service weapon. I'm I might I got to trade it out, or we're going to take it and do something with it. I mean, theoretically, if you think Chief Carson was the trigger man, it could have been a thing Steve, I need you to hand over your gun for a second, and then he just takes
the gun and shoots him. That's true, And the gun was never tested correct for fingerprints or anything like that because they thought it was a quote suicide. I think they probably would have checked it at some point. But it's also possible that whoever fired the gun could have wiped it clean a fingerprints. I mean, I don't trust him for an air PD. But since this was investigated by the Attorney General's office, I'd liked that they that they did
eventually look into that. But I mean they did fire their assistant Attorneys General who was looking really hard into this case. So like, I just don't know how much faith I haven't anybody that's true. Yes, well, I'd say there's a good chance that Steve's death was somehow connected to the arrest of Melvin King and the Big Drug Bus, which netted around one hundred thousand dollars worth of marijuana from his home. Since King was released on bond, he
was definitely a free man at the time Steve was killed. He told investigators he was not an Ountain air on that particular evening. But I have no idea if this was ever verified. Now for years. One aspect of this story, which was downplayed during the Unsaw Mystery segment, was a woman being heard in the background during Steve's final conversation with Michelle Sturdevant, as they never
really addressed who this woman could have been. Michelle said she thought it sounded like she heard yelling, but Steve apparently told her that the woman was looking for the town hall. The building which housed the police station was too flo with town hall making up the first floor and the station making up the second. At first, I wondered if this woman might have had no relation to the case and was just a random citizen who wandered in asking for directions,
but left before Steve was killed. However, there's one major problem. This woman never came forward and has never been identified. Mountain Era is a very small town and Steve's death was a pretty big deal there, so if the woman was a local resident, it's hard to believe she wouldn't have heard about what happened. If she had no involvement, why not clarify that with the
authorities. While I have a theory about who this woman probably was, Melvin King had a girlfriend named Susan Sprague, who also ran into trouble with the law. Three days after the drug bust at King's house, Sprague's house was searched and she was arrested after a small quantity of marijuana, along with some drug paraphernalia, was found there. It was suspected that the couple was in
the business of distributing marijuana together. But of course, once all those drugs went missing from the Torrance County Sheriff's office, the charges against both King and Sprague were dropped. We know King died in two thousand and four, but I have no idea what happened to Sprague. If King was involved in Steve's death, there would not surprise me if he sent Sprague into the police station to keep Steve distracted until someone else got the drop on him and used his
own gun to shoot him. Obviously, Steve would have recognized King if he walked into the station, but since Sprague was arrested by the state Police, not the Mountaineer PD, I'm not sure if Steve would have known her. Of course, if King was the trigger man, he could never be prosecuted for the murder since he's dead. But it seems unlikely that he would have acted alone and someone in law enforcement had to be complicit in what happened.
Yeah, I think there's this feeling that the lack of concern for the fifty four pounds of marijuana that were supposedly just scattered in the corner and eventually moved to a trailer that was broken into. How would anyone know where those drugs were unless someone said, oh, yeah, we just moved those over to the trailer, or hey, guys, heads up, it's in this trailer over there and there's not good security on it. Hey, heads up,
we have a single officer alone at the station right now. It's just very bizarre how convenient almost everything seems. If you did have a drug ring going on, where the evidence was stolen, where one of the arresting officers was murdered. Are the police. Is there someone of those four individuals who works there that's getting a kickback from King and Sprague, or is it completely unrelated to law enforcement and it just happens to be this drug ring that's operating and
wants to eliminate one of the arresting officers. Either way, it is very difficult to look away from King and his girlfriend as potential suspects in this case. Another important detail is that Steve ordinarily did patrol when he was on duty, and he was specific complaining to Michelle on the phone that if they want me to be a security guard, I'll be a security guard. So it sounds like it wasn't a common practice for him to work shifts inside the police
station. So it makes you wonder if someone from law enforcement told King or whoever the killer was, that Steve would be there on that particular night. Ooh, like he got in trouble that night and he said, you're just going to sit your rear in at this destiny and take it easy, man. You don't need to be on the streets. And then he's actually getting set up to be murdered. So if the mountaineer Peedi was involved. There's
a good reason to be suspicious of Chief Carson. We know that Stephen Carson had a conversation earlier that day about Steve writing too many traffic tickets, though it sounded like they each had differing opinions about how he did. This conversation was but since Steve had recently expressed concern to his father that there was something going on in the town which he did not like, I have to think
that there was more to this disagreement than traffic tickets. The biggest issue with Carson is that he really doesn't have a credible alibi for the twenty five minute window between seven oh five and seven thirty, which is the approximate time period when Steve was killed. When questioned about his whereabouts, Carson reportedly said he
quote blocked out, which is not a very satisfactory answer. There were also multiple witnesses who were certain they saw Carson's patrol car parked outside the police station between seven fifteen and seven twenty five. If it was just one or two eye witnesses, I could chalk them up to being mistaken. But there were apparently several witnesses who remembered seeing the vehicle there, and when you couple into Edmundo Diaz's account of Carson appearing to be very upset when he picked him up
at seven point thirty, there are some disturbing implications here. And then there are strange circumstances of how Steve's body was discovered in the first place, as Eugene Wright claimed he walked into the station, saw Steve's body and radioed Carson. Yet when Wright was questioned by Army investigators, they seemed to think that
he was withholding information and knew more than he was telling. There just seemed to be an awful lot of discrepancies during the forty five minute window between when Steve finished his phone conversation with his fiance and when Chief Carson radioed for medical assistance. What's also scary is remember Wright said that if he told the truth of what happened, that he was going to go to jail. And yet he's buddy buddy with Carson because he directly calls him right like he makes a
personal call to the chief of police after he finds the body. Oh yeah, Like he was friends with Carson's son. So I could definitely see him a lying about what happened. If he was asked to, now, tell me, why was he in the police department in the first place, Why did he even stumble upon Steve's body, That's a good question. I'm not sure that was ever specified. I mean, he could easily say, well, I'm friends with Carson's son. Maybe he thought that the chief would be
working there and he decided to go in to see him. But maybe. I mean, the Army hasn't released many details about the discrepancies in right story and what they think he's withholding, So maybe he did not provide a convincing story about why he was in the police station in the first place, and that's why they became suspicious. It's also incredibly strange that no one from the
Mountaineer Police Department bothered to show up for Steve's funeral. I know Carson claimed the experience would have been quote unquote too emotional for himself and his men, but my god, I think the vast majority of police officers will tell you that if one of your own is killed in the line of duty, then you show up at their funeral, regardless of what your personal feelings about the
victim might be. If Steve's father could convince several members of the Albuquerque Police Department to make the nearly eighty mile trip to Mountaineer to pay their respects, then it's ridiculous that Steve's fellow officers could do the same thing. I mean, even Frank Peeler, who was roommates with Steve for a brief period time, didn't even attend, and then one week later he suddenly resigns from the
police force. There are just nothing but red flags here. All that being said, I'm not sure that anyone from the Mountaineer PD actually pulled the trigger and shot Steve. Remember, one year later, we had a statement from a witness who claimed that a law enforcement officer from another agency had confessed to murdering Steve. Though it sounds like this part of the investigation was never followed
up on because James Scarantino got fired from the Attorney General's office. But if this story is true, then it would not surprise me if the law enforcement officer who made this alleged confession belonged to the Torrance County Sheriff's office. That place sounded like an even bigger mess than the Mountaineer PD. They somehow managed to lose fifty four pounds of marijuana, and Sheriff Gary Watts and three of his deputies would later be indicted on charges of larceny and conspiracy. So you
can pretty much connect the dots here. Stealing fifty four pounds of drugs from a trailer outside a police station is pretty brazen, so would not surprise me if this so called theft never actually happened. I could chalk it up to police incompetence. Where not for the discrepancies about when this theft occurred. Sheriff Watts claimed the marijuana was stolen one week after Steve was killed, but five bags of marijuana were found inside Steve's kitchen drawer only three days after his death.
Since there appeared to be a police evidence tape on the bags, I have to believe this was some of the same marijuana which was seized from Melvin King's house and booked into evidence at the Torrance County Sheriff's office. Otherwise where else could it have come from. When you couple in the fact that Steve's tape recordings of his traffic stops also went missing from his house. With that explanation, then you can't come to any other conclusion than there being a cover
up here. And you've got to remember both of these departments are in on this single drug deal, right like one's arresting Melvin and one's arresting the girlfriend. Is that correct? Yeah, that is true. They were both arrested in different places. And even though the Mountaineer PD sees the marijuana, they obviously trusted the Torrance County Sheriff's Office enough to allow them to store it inside
their police station because there wasn't any places inside the Mountaineer station. So it's possible that the anger, like you said, is coming from the Torrance County Sheriff's office. And they all know each other. It's one big circle, and so it's possible there is a loyalty of those four officers who serve in
the police department to help protect guys that are in the sheriff's office. And if Steve's a problem for the sheriff's office, their attague could be like, well, you're kind of a problem for us too, and therefore, maybe
the police department's not responsible for his death. But they didn't care enough to investigate because there was an assumption that they're friends and individuals who are part of the sheriff's department were the ones involved and they were just going to look the other way and correct me if I'm wrong, But say like they somehow are all involved together in, you know, doing illegal things, and Steve is a problem. Typically doesn't a sheriff's department. They aren't accountable in the same
way that a police department is to the mayor. Isn't that correct? Uh? That would make sense because the Mountain Air PD is part of the city, whereas the sheriff's office is part of the entire county. So I never really thought about that, but that would make sense that a sheriff's office would not have to be accountable towards the town mayor. So there if it's like
the fish rotting from the head and the entire department is corrupt. If you had somebody who was problematic, and you know you had somebody there who was willing to take that person out, you might go, oh, we can't
physically do it ourselves, but maybe these guys will help us out. And that would make sense because if Carson, Diaz, and Peeler, even if they were not personally involved in Steve's death, they still could be feeling like underlying guilt over the fact that they let it happened, and that could explain why they never bothered to attend his funeral, even if they were not the
ones who killed him. The discovery of the marijuana in Steve's house is pretty bizarre, and I'm not quite sure what purpose it was supposed to serve. It was possibly an attempt to discredit Steve in order to make it look like he was stealing drugs, But if that was a case, how come it wasn't discovered during the initial searches by law enforcement and was only found by Steve's
fiance and mother days later. The house was searched by numerous agencies, including the new Mexico Attorney General's office, and I have a hard time believing they all could have missed it, especially since it was hiding in plain sight.
No, the marijuana had to have been planted there. Perhaps they wanted to make Steve look like an unstable drug addict who was stealing evidence to Pete's habit, but there were no traces of drugs found in his system, or this was done to give off the impression that Steve had been murdered by drug dealers. Because he was stealing marijuana from them. Do people typically steal marijuana from drug dealers? Guys? Is that a thing? And if they do it
doesn't lead to murder? No? Yeah, but that doesn't make much sense either, since Chief Carson had strongly pushed forward the theory that there was no foul play and Steve's death was a suicide or an accident. Surprisingly, during his interview on Unsolved Mysteries, Carson did not discount the idea that someone could have planted the marijuana in Steve's house, so it might have actually been done
without his knowledge. Given that the drugs were supposedly in the possession of the Torrans County Sheriff's Office at the time, they were probably the ones who set this in motion. It also could not be a coincidence that Steve was killed the very day after he spoke to investigators from the New Mexico Attorney General's Office.
They never publicly released any information on what they spoke about, but Steve had previously expressed concern to his father that there were things going on in Mountain Air which he did not approve of. It's unclear just how much Steve knew or what he revealed to investigators. But even if he didn't know or reveal that much, someone might have become paranoid that Steve was a liability and could
expose something very incriminating. When Chief Carson spoke with Steve on the afternoon of May seventh and advised him to slow things down and take it easy, this may have been a last ditch attempt to rein him in. But once it became a parent that Steve wasn't going to play ball, the final decision might have been made to get rid of him that night absolutely, Or it could be that Chief Carson truly was like, oh my gosh, I'm hearing rumors
that this kid's a problem, and I'm worried for him. So he's like, listen, man, you gotta knock it off, right. He's maybe trying to warn him and protect him, and it comes off in a confrontational way, but it's it's insane when you think about the fact that they're assuming this is a suicide, and so if they're doing an investigation is home what were they What were they looking for? In my opinion, it would be
something like, was there a suicide note left? Was there evidence of him being harassed or stocked at the time, or distress in his home or things like that. You would look in the drawers, wouldn't you if you're looking for any kind of evidence that like, why investigate if it's a suicide at the police department? Why were they at his house in the first place? And if they were there to try to get a bigger picture, why wouldn't
they thoroughly actually investigate. Yeah, it just seems like the marijuana was probably not there during the original searches, and that for reasons on zone someone decided to plan it there before Steve's family paid a visit. But once again, that just seems pretty pointless because if you're not going to allow law enforcement to find it, then what's the point And why why do an investigation anyway, If you think it's a suicide because you're looking for those missing cassette tapes,
you want to find those because they might have incriminating information. Yeah, they probably he defind those. That's why they've never been seen ever since. It's tough to know who exactly would have been involved in this conspiracy, but my guess is that it all started with Melvin King. King seemed to have a major marijuana distribution operation going on in the area at that time, and it's my guess that some members of local law enforcement were complicit or at the very
least paid off by King to look the other way. However, when Steve pulled King over for drunk driving, busted him from possession, and obtained a warrant to search King's house in order to uncover over fifty pounds of marijuana, he stirred up a major hornet's nest. This would definitely explain why the tape recordings of his traffic stops mysteriously disappeared. Now, I'm willing to believe that at the outset, at least Chief Carson in the Mountaineer PD had no knowledge
or involvement with King's drug operation. They actually worked with Steve to obtain the search warrant for King's house and confiscated all his drugs, and I have a feeling that they would not have gone along with this if they were on King's payroll. But I do think that other law enforcement agencies, most likely the Torrance County Sheriff's Office, were involved with King's operation, which is why all the marijuana evidence went missing and the charges against King wound up being dropped.
Since King was released on bond shortly after he was arrested, I'm sure he believed this young, ambitious, straight ro cop who busted him could pose a potential problem, so he ultimately made the call to have Steve eliminated. Remember, King's girlfriend, Susan Sprague, was also facing her own drug charges, which is why I think she was the woman heard in the background during Steve's final phone call. She was probably sent in his bait to keep Steve distracted
until someone got the drop on him and had him killed. This was probably necessary so that they could get their hands on Steve's gun and shoot him with it, making it easier to craft a cover story that he either completed suicide or was killed accidentally when his weapon discharged. Now, it's hard to know who exactly was involved in this and who actually pulled the trigger. It's tempting to saying that it was Melvin King, but we do have an alleged confession
by a law enforcement officer from another agency who claimed he shot Steve. I can actually believe King might not have been present at the scene when the murder took place, because Steve would have recognized him and been on his guard if he saw King entering the station. But if the perpetrator was another police officer, then it probably would have been much easier to catch Steve by surprise, and like we talked about, it'd be easier to get that service weapon away
from him. I don't think if you were confronted by somebody and they said give me your service weapon, I don't see someone just handing it over. I see them getting a scuffle fussed with them. If you don't have a weapon and you want mine, we're going to have to fight over it, you know what I mean. And I just don't see that being the case. I could see him being more relaxed and maybe having removed his holster from
his belt. I could see another officer asking, like to check a service weapon or ask him to show him a service weapon or something like that, and him falling for that. I do think it has to be involved in
this drug bust. There's too many bizarre elements and mishandling of an entirely too big of an ordeal right to not follow a protocol for the Sheriff's Department to maybe not be caught up in the drug deals with Melvin and that girlfriend would be the perfect cover because Steve had never seen her, the Sheriff's department had
seen her, and so I totally bide this an area. You just described that Melvin King is somehow working with the Sheriff's department and they use the girlfriend as bait to help kind of distract Steve from being on his game in that moment. Just who was it that assisted in that moment? Was it another law enforcement agent? Was it King? Was it somebody that wasn't known yet
to Steve. It's no, it's so difficult to figure out who and what was accountable here now, regardless of who pulled the trigger, I think there were at least three people who did not tell the truth about what happened and are involved, Chief Carson, Edmundo Diaz, and Eugene Wright, the soldier who supposedly discovered Steve's body. I can't say that any of these people were actually present and actively participated in Steve's murder, but at the very least they
helped cover something up and lied to the authorities. It all depends on the timeline. The only reported gunshot that came from a witness who thought they heard one at seven sixteen, and there are witnesses who were called seeing Carson's patrol car parked outside the station between seven fifteen and seven twenty five. If these accounts are accurate, then at the very least, Carson was present when Steve was shot, and whoever was involved probably spent the next twenty to thirty minutes
fabricating a cover story before they called for medical assistance. It's possible that DEAs and Wright were not present for the murder, but Carson enlisted their help to back up his cover story, as Wright was a friend of Carson's son. But as far as the actual trigger man who shot Steve, it may have
been someone we don't even know about. If the confession is accurate and it was really a law enforcement officer from another agency, then perhaps it was someone from the Torrance County Sheriff's office who was involved in me who was involved in Melvin King's drug operation. Is there any chance that Carson's son had something to do with it? Where right is there and happens to show up like, is there a way bay link him in because Carson's son helps carry something off?
I actually don't have any information about Carson's son because They've never mentioned him in any articles. I have no idea if he was even in Mountain Air during that time period, so yeah, if he was involved, they've never publicly named him regardless. This is just a very sad tale of an honest young man who was finally living his dream of becoming a police officer and only wanted to do the right thing, but ended up getting swallowed up in a
web of corruption. When he pulled over Melvin King for what seemed like a routine dui, he inadvertently wound up getting embroiled in something which was a lot bigger than he expected and led to him ultimately being killed. Sadly, after all this time, I'm not sure if any of the people who were involved
could still be indicted for their roles in Steve's murder. Melvin King is now dead, and while David Carson was still alive at the time I released my original Trail and Cold episode, he passed away in January of twenty twenty three. But even if Steve's killers are never brought to justice, at the very least, his death was reclassified as a homicide, and the same police station
where he was killed is now named after him. That's how he deserves to be remembered, rather than as someone who completed suicide on the job or was killed because he was playing around with his gun. However, since multiple people were likely involved in what happened, someone out there probably still knows something and could come forward with the full truth and provide closure for Steve's loved ones. So if you happen to have any information on the unsolved death of Steve Sandlin,
please contact the appropriate authorities. Jules Ashley any final thoughts in this case, My heart really just goes out to Steve's family and the idea that he had this young fiance and an eighteen month old baby, planning Mother's Day with his love, right and getting to celebrate with his little one, and he's murdered on the job, a job that he really had dedicated his life to pursuing. Right, I'm going to be like my dad, I'm going to
serve and protect my community. And when he took that oath and he put that badge on, he meant it. He was going to do his job. He was going to protect the streets, he was going to get drugs off the streets. And then he calls his wife and he says, if they want me to be a security guard, I guess I'll just be a security guard. He's getting in trouble for doing his job, which is enraging to him, and that's the last time his wife's gonna hear his voice.
He's killed in his place of employment. And what do they do. Everybody turns their back on Steve. They don't just turn their back on Steve by not attending the funeral and doing the right thing. They turned their back on the widow and the eighteen month old baby who he left behind. And so at the end of the day, the only beauty in this case is that you see, twenty five years after his murder, you see the very police department that he served step up and say to his fiance and his son,
we cared about Steve, we care about his legacy. In fact, we're going to name a building after him in erect a statue because he deserved better and you deserved better. And so I love that Steve's son is growing up knowing who his father was and that he was a hero and someone who was pursuing this beautiful career. But what a tragedy to think at the very least nobody cared enough to investigate this thoroughly, and at the very worst, the
men he had taken that oath with might be responsible for it. I feel so terribly for the family. It must have felt like this abandonment, dealing with the death of her fiance and the father having a child there, and knowing that the police department they didn't have the constitution to show up. They were too distraught by this. This is such a no no law enforcement departments don't necessarily go, oh, you're too sad, you don't go to the
funeral. No, everybody goes. Everybody goes. It's so telling, especially since Peeler, who had once lived with Steve that he resigns a week later. I think if law enforcement at this point in time wanted to crack this cold case, if Peeler is still alive, that would be the one that I personally would lean on, because I think that although I don't believe he was directly involved, I think that he would have information that could likely lead
to who was the perpetrator. But I am definitely inclined to think that the Torrence County Sheriff's Department had something to do with it. But it seems to be a conspiracy of many all linking back to King's one hundred thousand dollars marijuana load that was confiscated and then stolen back, and part of it seems to have been planted in Steve's home. To what end, we have no idea.
It's just such a confusing and convoluted case where it seems pretty clear that multiple law enforcement agencies, given the fact that we had scandal In that was at assistant district attorney, right that we had Scarantino who was fired while while being assistant district attorney when he was digging deeply into this case and the investigators
were reassigned. It seems like he might have been getting too close to some kind of answers that maybe would have put people in legal peril or like their whole entire investigative unit or department could have been put in the hot seat. And for whatever reason, multiple agencies seemed to potentially allegedly conspired together for this strange type of silence. But things would have moved on by now, like it's so many years later. We're looking at nearly forty years later, and
yet this isn't solved. When the landscape has entirely changed, so I'm just curious as to why nobody has come forward with more information after all of these
years. Yeah. I remember being introduced to this case when I saw it on Unsolved Mysteries over thirty years ago, and at the time, his death was still classified as undetermined, and to me, this seemed like one of the most obvious examples of a death being misclassified as a suicide or accident, because it seemed pretty obvious that it was murdered, and unlike a lot of these these other cases, they did finally reclassify it as a homicide, so
at least that kind of honored cees memory. They knew that he was a victim on the line of duty who was not responsible for his own death, and it is good to know that as time has gone on that the current people in power have been trying to right this wrong and hopefully find justice for
him. But I think the problem is that so much time has passed, a lot of the potential players on this are now dead, and a lot of evidence was not preserved or it was lost, and there's probably still a code of silence going on out there where there might be people who know the
truth but do not want to come forward. But yeah, this is just so frustrating when you hear about a police officer who's actually passionate about his job, wants to do the right thing, and then as a span of only about eight weeks, he becomes completely disillusioned and says that this is not for me, this job is not what I've expected. And I can only imagine what he might have uncovered during that time period to make him feel that way.
And this is what beats a lot of good police officers down, where if the system is so corrupt and broke in and a lot of bad people are protecting each other, it can be very hard for like a good cop to break through and do the right thing. And it sounds like Steve was trying to do something but then wound up being killed before it could happen. But like we said, at the very least, his wife and his former fiance and his son who is now an adult, have finally got to experience
ceremonies which have honored his memory. He has a monument of him, and he has an entire police station named after him, so they have done him right. But until this case is conclusively solved, it's going to remain a major travesty 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
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