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Las Cruces Bowling Alley Massacre Pt. Two · The Path Went Chilly

0:26
Welcome back to the Path Went Chile for part two of our series about the
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Lost Cruises Bowling Alley massacre. Robin, do you want to catch everyone up
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on what we talked about in our previous episode. Well, this case took
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place in February of nineteen ninety in the town of Los Cruses, New Mexico,
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at a bowling alley called the Los Cruses Bowl, and it was a
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shooting in which there were a total of seven victims. Started off when the
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bowling alley's manager, Stephanie Senak, who was the daughter of the owner,
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was working there alongside her twelve year old daughter Melissa Repass and Melissa's good thirteen
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year old friend, Amy Hawser, and they were opening up for business about
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an hour ahead of time, and they also had the bowling alley snack bar
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cook idahole Gean working there. But all of a sudden, two men described
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as being Hispanic, ranging from like the thirties to their late forties early fifties,
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came in with guns and took all four victims into the office and told
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them to lie on the floor while they took money out of the safe.
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But around the same time, another employee from the bowling alley named Stephen Turan,
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along with his six year old stepdaughter Paula Holgeen and his two year old
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daughter, Valerie Tran just happened to walk into the office and the two men
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forced them to li on the floor as well, and after they got what
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they were looking for, they decided to fire bullets into all seven of the
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victims, a total of twenty five shots in total, but remarkably, Melissa
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would survived and was able to make it to the phone in order to call
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nine to one one. By this point, the men had also set the
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office on fire, but the police and fire department arrived at the scene and
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got medical attention. It turned out that Amy and Steven and his two daughters
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were all pronounced dead at the scene, but Ida, Stephanie, and Melissa
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all wound up surviving their wounds, though Stephanie would die nine years later due
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to complications from her injuries. It was such a savage crime that everyone was
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shocked, but they have never been able to find any suspects who seemed like
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promising candidates to be the two killers. There's been speculation that they might have
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been searching for something else while they were there, because Even though about between
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four to five thousand dollars was taken from the safe, some other money was
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left behind, and the surviving victims say that the two men were searching through
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the office appeared to be looking for something else, and there have been a
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lot of rumors that it could have been drug related because the son of the
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owner, r J. Senak, who happened to work as a bartender at
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the Bowling Alley. He was rumored to be involved in drugs and would die
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of an accidental overdose in nineteen ninety seven. There were also rumors that the
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owner, Ron Seenak, might be involved in something illegal and could have known
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who the term perpetrators were, but he was thoroughly investigat by law enforcement and
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they found nothing in his background to suggest he was involved in anything illegal or
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at any knowledge or involvement in the crime. So after thirty years, this
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case is still unsolved and the identities of the two shooters is still unknown,
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but it's considered to be one of the most senseless and horrific unsolved cold cases
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currently on in North America. So on our last episode, we mentioned that
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this case was the subject of its own documentary titled A Nightmare and Los crusis
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and I consider it to be one of the most downbeat and disturbing true crime
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documentaries I've ever seen. I certainly would not recommend it for squeamish viewers,
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as it features actual photographs and video footage of the victim's bodies at the murder
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scene. But on a lighter note, if any of you listeners are pro
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wrestling fans, you might be surprised to learn that the director, Charlie Minn,
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briefly worked as an announcer for the World Wrestling Federation during the mid nineteen
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nineties, but he has since gone on to direct documentaries about a number of
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infamous crimes, including the sand Seedrome McDonald's massacre, and the story of Wanted
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Family annihilator Robert Fischer. Unlike most of the unsolved crimes featured on a podcast,
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there are still living survivors here who can share their full story about what
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happened, though we still don't know the identities of the perpetrators or the full
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story behind their motive. One of the most vivid sections of A Nightmare and
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Los Cruses is when they play the full audio of Melissa repasses Panic nine one
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one call in which he's trying to report what happened while dealing with the excruciating
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pain of gunshot wounds to the head. Judging from their interviews, is clear
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that Melissa and Ida Holgeen have still not gotten over the trauma of the entire
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ordeal. And I think that Ida in particular is plagued with survivor's guilt over
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the fact that she got to live while a number of children. I can't
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imagine the kind of grief that would come from that. You have not just
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the children. These are children, remember that went into the daycare. These
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are kiddos who were at the all all the time because their dad worked there,
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their family and friends worked there, and so their normal staples in your
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life. And you have a father who everyone I'm sure adored there, who
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was working to better his life. He was going to try to become a
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police officer, and was just about to have his last days at the bowling
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alley, and he's on the floor next to you cradling two of his children
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and all of them get killed, along with another young person next to you.
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The survivors get would be so overwhelming, But just the PTSD and the
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imagery that would be stuck with you, the complex PTSD that would never really
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leave. I don't think when you not only know the people you cared about
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died, but you saw it, and you saw the horrific moment, and
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then you also had to deal with your own losses and the own physical and
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emotional repercussions as you're trying to heal from your own injuries. So this is
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just a overwhelmingly pitiful case that was so senseless. That was the best word
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you could have used for what. They didn't even walk away with much money.
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And there's also a feeling of fear among the survivors as well, knowing
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that the two perpetrators are still out there and that there's always a possibility they
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could come after them again, Oh absolutely, and maybe a possibility that I
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somehow know them or they're linked to someone that knows me, and so now
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that I've lived, what if they come back to finish me off? And
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like Idaho, Gien was basically debilitated by her PTSD and Stephanie's SENAC before her
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death was essentially a gooraphobic. So these are huge mental health implications, and
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that fear that these people would come back and finish what they started clearly haunted
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the survivors. It's so unfortunate. At least we have Melissa Repass, who
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seems to have been able to move on with her life. We don't know
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what she did or did not deal with from a mental health perspective. Just
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because she had children and seemed to, you know, forges this path forward
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doesn't mean that she didn't deal with what happened at the Los Cruss Bowling Alley
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every day of her life. Another vivid moment in the documentary is when they
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show live footage of the police approaching Audrey Tehran in the Bowling Alley parking lot
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to inform her that her husband and daughters have been shot. Losing an entire
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family is one of the most devastating things a person can endure, but what
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makes the situation all the more tragic is the horrible luck which allowed this to
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happen. The only reason Stephen Tehan brought the two kids to the bowling Alley
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to begin with was because he couldn't find a babysitter, and if they had
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arrived just a few minutes later, they would not have walked in on the
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crime while it was in progress. And of course Another tragic element is that
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Stephen had just given his notice to the Bowling Alley and only had three days
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left to work there when he was killed. You're right, So Stephen comes
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in, remember when the four victims are already lying on the ground of the
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office where they've been forced into the office to get access to the safe.
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And then Steven just unknowingly brings the two babies in to go see Stephanie.
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Remember, they're going to stay at the Bowling Alley daycare. So children were
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welcomed there, they were celebrated there. So that morning, when his wife
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says, I've got this test at the cosmetology school. I've got to go
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work on my career too, he says, no problem, I'll take the
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kids to the daycare at the Bowling Alley when I go to work. And
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the people we love and care about will love and care about our babies.
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And so she gets this phone call to rush to the scene, and she
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finds out that not only have they been shot, but that her husband,
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who had just graduated and was working towards becoming a police officer, and her
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two babies, her whole entire world was executed in a moment. It was
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taken away from her and she's learning it. You know that the horror that
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takes over and the nightmare that you think this is not real life had to
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have just come over her. I can't even fathom watching that scene. I
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don't think I could get through this documentary. No. I've heard a lot
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of people tell me that that they've tried watching A Nightmare and Lost Cruises,
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but it's just too much for them because they show such disturbing, gritty footage.
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But I guess if there's a silver lining, it's that Audrey did get
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remarried and have two more children. So even though she lost everything, which
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would have completely broken some people, she was able to recover and live a
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full life, though I'm sure she still struggles with the trauma every day.
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As you recall, Stephanie Cenac's brother Steve, stopped by the alley mere minutes
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before the crime took place and likely saw the two perpetrators hanging around outside.
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One detail I've always been curious about is the fact that the alley's front doors
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were unlocked, even though they were not scheduled to open for business for nearly
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another hour. It seems like Stephanie just simply forgot to lock them, and
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Steve said that he even mentioned this to her when he picked up his backpack
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from her office. According to Steve, he could have locked the doors himself
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while he was leaving, but he didn't have his keys with him. So
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I guess my big question is did the two gunmen know the doors were going
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to be unlocked? If they saw Steve leave without locking the door behind him,
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then this could have made them realize that they could just walk right in.
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But if Stephanie had locked the doors, then what was their original plan?
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How would they have convinced anyone to let them inside. I have to
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wonder if they initially intended to enter the bowling Alley after it opened for business
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at nine am, and it was just dumb luck that they found out the
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doors were unlocked and were able to do it earlier. I definitely do not
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think that it was just two people passing by going ooh, let's rob the
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bowling Alley. I just saw this kid leave and the doors were unlocked.
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This is so planned and calculated. But what did happen and what could be
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the case is exactly what you just said, Robin. They were watching and
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canvassing the bowling alley, making their figuring out what they're doing, and they
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see Steve leave, he does not lock the door, and they say,
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shoot, let's go now. It's way less difficult when the public's not there.
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We're going to go before they open. Now. The reality is is
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if that was the case, if they were waiting till nine nine to fifteen,
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nine thirty, when the front door should have been unlocked to the public,
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it's very possible that when ten, fifteen, twenty people are setting up
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to bowl, that they got executed first, and then they forced employees into
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the office and killed all of them as well. And so it's scary to
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think had those doors not been unlocked, would they have been just as comfortable
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killing thirty people forty people. These are the kind of men that I would
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say absolutely they wouldn't have cared how many people were in the bowling alley at
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the time. If you're willing to kill tiny children, a two year old
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baby, then I just don't think that the sheer number of people is going
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to be something that's going to deter or you in any way, shape or
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form. Like you can argue that those actions are psychopathic to be able to
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kill the most innocent. It's like people that kill animals or torture animals or
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torture children, kill children. These people, and I mean, I don't
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know if one was the dominant and one was the submissive, if one was
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kind of leading them and not forcing the other one's hand, but motivating them
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to do what needed to be done. They may have had different profiles like
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personality wise, but either way, it's absolutely egregious to be annihilating children.
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So I agree with you Ash. I think there was no way that even
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if there was thirty or forty people, if they thought that they could get
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away with it, I think they would have gone through with it. And
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you got to think too, that two year old that they executed, that's
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a baby that's still being carried by their parents, that likely still wearing a
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diaper. I mean, this is a tiny child. And they looked at
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that baby's face, that baby was looking at them, and they shot her
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in the forehead. That is it's just insanity. It is pure, pure
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darkness. Now, one aspect to this story, which rarely gets mentioned,
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is that another similar crime took place in Las Crusis less than one month earlier.
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On the morning of January fourteenth, nineteen ninety, thirty two year old
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Salvador Lozano showed up for his job as an attendant at raised Shell service station
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and open for business at eight am, but around two hours later, customers
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walked inside to discover Salvator's body on the floor. Someone had bound his hands
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behind his back and fired a bullet into the back of his head before stealing
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five hundred dollars from the station. Sadly, Salvador's wife gave birth to a
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baby girl only two days after he was murdered. This case has not gotten
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nearly as much attention as the Bowling Alley massacre, but it also remains unsolved
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to this day. At the time, investigators did not believe that there was
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any connection between the two crimes, but it's hard to overlook the similarities.
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Both of them took place in the early morning hours, around the time the
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business opened, and in each case, robbery was involved and the victim was
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shot in the head while they were lying on the floor. Several months later,
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a man named Robert McDaniel was arrested on forgery charges and claimed that he'd
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been present when Salvador Alazana was killed, and then he also knew the identities
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of the people who committed the Bowling Alley massacre, but much of the information
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McDaniel provided turned out to be false, And as far as I can tell,
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if this lead never went anywhere, these sound very similar. You have
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somebody who waited for a business to open. They went in and ordered the
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owner to get on the floor, They got money from the cash register or
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the back office, and then they shoot the individuals that are on the floor
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in the head and walk out. And it's only a month later. The
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Bowling Alley is much more escalated. Had you committed a crime in the same
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town, of the same magnitude, where you kill the person and there's kind
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of no heat coming in your direction, you would be even more inclined and
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more brazen to say, we've gotten away with it. Let's go. I
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don't care if there's seven people there. I don't care if there's forty people
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there. Let's do this. I bet there's more money at the Bowling Alley
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than there was at the gas station, and I think it is. I
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mean, if you're responsible not to say could these two be linked? It
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frustrates me to no end when you have people like Robert McDaniel, who say,
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oh, I was present and I know who did the Bowling Alley murder,
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and he feeds police false information because he stole time and resources that those
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officers could have been following the lead that actually could go somewhere. Oh yes,
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it seems very obvious that McDaniel was just saying that to maybe help beat
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his own forgery charges. It's very common for sometimes arrested criminals to make out
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false leads about other unsolved crimes in order to help themselves, so I wouldn't
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put much stock into what he says, but I do agree that I don't
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think Salvatory A. Lozzano's murder got much attention in the local press at all,
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So if this was committed by the same person, I could see them
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feeling empowered and thinking, we can do this again, and let's do it
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at a bowling alley. But I'm sure that because the Bowling Alley massacre had
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a total of seven victims, some of them being children, and got so
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much mainstream news, I'm sure they realized that if we do this again,
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we can't do it in Las Crusis because it's just going to bring us a
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tiny heat doesn't it seem like an odd time, Like, don't you both
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think for somebody to decide to rob a place, you're robbing an establishment,
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be it the shelf, service station or the bowling alley in the morning hours,
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how do you know that they haven't deposited the money from the day before.
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You would think at the end of the evening, when they're closing,
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before they've gone and done a bank deposit, would be the best time to
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strike, would it not? Exactly? Yeah, from my experience work in
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retail, it was common practice for the manager to drop off the knight's deposit
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at the bank at closing so that there wouldn't be all that much money in
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the store when they opened the following morning. And I recently did a Trail
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Went Cold episode about this about the Lane Bryant shooting, which was another mass
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murder which took place at a Lane Bryant clothing store in Illinois in two thousand
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and eight, And it was the same type of thing where the perpetrator came
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in in the early morning hours, right after the opened, and there just
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wasn't that much money on the premises, so they killed all these people for
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a very small take. So it always is weird to me when people decide
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to perform robberies that early in the morning. So, on one hand,
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I could see how the same person or persons who shot Salvador A Lozzano might
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be responsible for what happened at Las Crus's Bowl. It's possible that the perpetrators
17:49
were planning a robbery and only expected one or two employees to be on the
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premises. According to the surviving victims, the gunman seemed flustered by the fact
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that so many people were there, and I'm sure they must have really been
18:02
taken by surprise when Stephen Turan and his two girls came walking in. But
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even though they took between four thousand and five thousand dollars from the safe,
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the fact that they still left some money behind makes me think that robbery was
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not the primary motive for this crime. The two men looked through some cabinets
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before they even opened the safe. They gave off the impression that they were
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searching for something else and became frustrated when they could not find it. I
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know there's been speculation that the perpetrators were searching for a stash of drugs,
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which I'm sure was fueled by the rumors the Bowling Alley's bartender, RJ Senak
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was heavily involved in drugs and performed drug transactions on the premises. Unfortunately,
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there was virtually no information out there about RJ other than what was presented in
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The Nightmare and Los Cruse's documentary. The police thought he seemed very distant when
18:53
questioned about the murders, but they couldn't find any evidence to implicate him,
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and he died of an apparent drug over seven years later. If RJ was
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involved with drugs, I guess it's possible that the two men were expecting him
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to be at the Bowling Alley that morning and became frustrated when they discovered he
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wasn't. But if they originally went there searching for something like a secret stash
19:15
of drugs, it's surprising that they wouldn't even attempt to ask Stephanie or anyone
19:19
else where. It was that was gonna be my question for you, Robin.
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Do we know if what conversation was had or was the only communication basically,
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get in the office, get on the floor, keep your mouth shut,
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and that's about all they dialogue about. Because if not, were their
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questions like or were their statements when the father walks in with these two kids,
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like oh you know, oh crap, Well we're doing it still.
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I mean, were there any kind of comments that alluded to the mindset of
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these people or what their intent was, or was it very formulaic and calculated
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in what they said to these people? Yeah, that's what I From what
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I can tell from the surviving victims, the dialogue was very limited and it
20:03
was nothing more than just simple orders like get on the floor, open the
20:06
safe, get in the office. And they didn't ask any questions, so
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if they were searching for something, they didn't try to acquire for Stephanie and
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say stuff like where's the rest of the money or where's the drugs? So
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that's what makes it all the more bizarre. Was this bar and restaurant or
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was it just like a bar with alcohol? I think it was just a
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bar with alcohol, because I know they had a snack bar there where Ida
20:30
worked as the cook. So I have a feeling that it was probably just
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a snack bar which serves some food and the bar was completely separate. So
20:37
if that is the case, I think it would be strange to assume that
20:41
prior to nine am that RJ would be there, because if it's a bar
20:48
that just serves alcohol. I don't know what the liquor laws are in New
20:52
Mexico, but I would think at nine AM, you're likely not allowed to
20:56
serve liquor, and if you wanted to have a non alcoholic beverage, you'd
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likely go to the snack bar. Correct. Yeah, that sounds like a
21:03
good point. I can't see a bowling alley serving alcohol that early in the
21:07
morning. And of course I have a feeling that if they were specifically looking
21:11
for RJ, they would have asked Stephanie or the other employees, where's RJ.
21:15
But I see no indication that they did that. There's always been suspicion
21:19
that the crime is somehow related to RJ's father, Ron Senak, who owned
21:23
Los Cruse's Bowl and was aware in Arizona when this took place. Now,
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before I talk any more about Ron, I should preface this by stating he
21:33
was thoroughly investigated by law enforcement, and one investigator even stated that he was
21:37
quote put under a microscope and they couldn't find anything to suggest that he was
21:42
involved in the murders or any illegal activities. But if you watch Ron's interviews
21:48
in a Nightmare and Loss Crusis, it's easy to believe that there's still something
21:52
off about this guy. He surprised a lot of people by deciding to reopen
21:56
the alley for business only one week after the crime, but the way he
22:00
tells it, there was a big demand for it. Ron claims that a
22:04
church league bowling tournament had been scheduled for Los Cruse's Bowl two days after the
22:10
shootings, and the people involved became quite upset when they discovered that the place
22:14
was closed. I mean, it would be one thing if Ron was just
22:18
some greedy business owner who didn't want to lose money over a crime taking place
22:22
at his establishment. But his own daughter and granddaughter were shot, and as
22:26
you know, Stephanie Seenak died in nineteen ninety nine due to complications from her
22:30
injuries, and by all accounts, she lived the rest of her life in
22:34
constant fear and rarely left her home because the men who shot her were still
22:40
out there somewhere. During the documentary, some people stated that one of the
22:45
hardest things for Stephanie was that the rest of her family just seemed to have
22:48
a get over it and move on attitude and did not fully grasp the trauma
22:52
that she was experiencing. So maybe the Scenacs were just a very unemotional family
22:57
in general, which might explain why Ron comes across as rather cold during his
23:03
interviews. But I think one of the most troubling things about Ron is that
23:07
he makes a couple statements in the documentary which are directly contradicted by investigators.
23:14
For example, Ron claims that the police told him that the shooting was a
23:18
random crime, but then cut to one of the detectives who denies ever,
23:22
telling Ron that since the police had no idea if it was random or not.
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Ron also says that in the week following the massacre, he visited the
23:30
police department every day to check on the progress of the investigation, but they
23:34
claimed that this isn't true and that they always had to contact Ron themselves whenever
23:40
they wanted to speak with him. Perhaps Ron is just remembering things incorrectly,
23:44
but I can see why people would get the impression that he might be hiding
23:48
something. It seems like either he just lacks some common sense or maybe apathy,
23:53
or that he just doesn't make good decisions. Because think about Ron and
23:59
his poor family right, like his son struggles with drugs and Dad's like,
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you know what, son, you have an addiction problem. I'm gonna have
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you run the bar at my bowling alley. Like not a smart decision.
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Ron wants to open up for the church tournament. A lot of people would
24:14
say, like, oh, that's not the best emotional decision. But again,
24:18
we've talked about how grief might have played a role there. We're saying
24:21
I will open this establishment. It is a loving family place, and that's
24:25
what it's going to continue to be represented as. But I doubt the church
24:29
goers were like, listen, you don't open those doors. After this baby
24:33
was murdered in this place, I'm gonna be so mad at you. I
24:36
think people would understand, especially when they're also preparing funerals for these people.
24:41
But it does just seem like Ron also might just be off, doesn't manage
24:45
money well, makes bad decisions, might not be monitoring problems with his own
24:49
family and business the way he should be. So could it be sinister,
24:53
sure? Could it also just be someone who lacks some of the common sense
24:59
you would expect it so you see that come through on a documentary. I
25:00
think that's possible. Too. That's what I think as well, and it
25:04
makes me feel just so horrible for Stephanie because when you see Ron interviewed,
25:07
you think this is not the guy I would want to be my father in
25:11
trying to take care of me while I'm recovering from a debilitating shooting that has
25:17
essentially turned me into an agoraphobic. And like everyone said, that was one
25:21
of the worst things with her to deal with the trauma is that it does
25:22
not sound like she got a lot of support from her family, who probably
25:26
just wanted her to get back to work at the bowling alley or something and
25:30
just did not realize that she is just incapable of doing that because of all
25:33
the trauma. Now here's a weird coincidence. At around six am on March
25:38
fourth, nineteen ninety one, a fifty five year old custodian named James Chapman
25:44
was cleaning the Ideal Lane's Bowling Alley in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, when
25:48
he was fatally shot in the head during an attempt at burglary. Police did
25:52
not believe the crime was connected to the Los Cruses massacre, and a career
25:56
criminal named Carl Percy Libernois was eventually charged convicted of first degree murder and aggravated
26:02
burglary. Well, it turned out that before he built Los Cruse's Bowl,
26:07
Ron Senak had also owned Ideal Lanes, as the business license was listed under
26:11
his name until nineteen eighty five, before its ownership was transferred to a financial
26:15
institution by a federal bankruptcy court. Again, the two separate shootings are nothing
26:21
more than a coincidence, but it's interesting how Ron ran into financial problems with
26:26
two separate bowling alleys. And here's one more interesting anecdote. In July of
26:30
nineteen ninety two, after Los Cruse's Bull was bought out and renamed Sun Lanes,
26:37
a forty four year old civilian Otero County Sheriff's employee named Roy Nichols fatally
26:41
shot his twenty four year old ex girlfriend, Vicky Dean to death in the
26:45
Bowling Alley parking lot before turning the gun on himself in a murder suicide.
26:51
So it's pretty crazy that so many shootings seem to take place at bowling alleys
26:56
in New Mexico. Oh, it's tragic, and it's very busy are but
27:00
is I find it really interesting that Ron had filed for bankruptcy before or was
27:07
actually taken to court because he's not paying the bills and the least and the
27:11
things that he needs to pay for Bowling Alley number one, And then you
27:15
see the same thing happen where he falls into financial trouble and he loses the
27:21
Bowling Alley. What a month after these murders take place. It does make
27:26
you just question what kind of poor decisions could he have made, What kind
27:30
of business enemies could he have made, What kind of promises could he have
27:33
made to people that might have gotten him surrounded by individuals capable of such brutality.
27:41
It's not a random crime. We know that there was planning, There
27:45
was confidence by these men who went in. Now, is it planning and
27:49
confidence because they've pulled it off before, like with the gas station attendant or
27:52
the owner of the little quick mart. Possibly, but it also feels very
28:00
much like they knew a lot about that Bowling Alley and they had something specific
28:03
that they wanted to accomplish that day. Yeah, we talked about this how
28:07
Rod may not have been knowingly involved in anything legal, but he does come
28:11
across as someone who does not have a lot of common sense and good decision
28:15
making skills when it comes to running a business. So it is quite interesting
28:18
to learn that he had another bowling alley go bankrupt only five years earlier,
28:23
and we even speculated that this may have been one of the reasons that he
28:26
reopened Sunlight Las Cruce's Bowl so soon after the massacre, because he needed the
28:32
money badly and needed the income to come in. So it could be a
28:36
thing where he may not have technically done anything wrong, but his bad decision
28:41
making could have done something to anger the wrong people. And I don't think
28:45
it's outside the realm of possibility to believe that he could be hiding something,
28:49
just based on the fact that he seems to fabricate certain details. Like Ashley
28:55
had said after we'd mentioned about the church group not being able to do their
29:00
tournament, and he said that they were upset. I don't believe, for
29:03
any like, by any stretch of the imagination, that any church group is
29:07
going to push ahead to want to have a bowling tournament at this place where
29:11
a massacre just took place, and then secondly that if they can't have this
29:15
tournament, that they're going to be very upset. Two days after this happened,
29:19
knowing that the owner's daughter and granddaughter were shot. That just doesn't compute
29:26
for me. I think it's a full on fabrication in my opinion. Allegedly,
29:30
and then the situation where he's saying that he contacted the police NonStop every
29:34
day to see what was going on. We learned that that's not the case.
29:38
And then the fact that he said that the police officer had said that
29:44
they had to contact him. So it's it just feels like he's not giving
29:48
us an accurate rendition of the way that events are playing out, and he's
29:53
overstating his involvement. So for us to then believe that there's a p that
30:00
he's holding on to some information or he's hiding something, Not that it would
30:04
necessarily incriminate him, but potentially he may have done some things, angered some
30:10
people, made some poor decisions and that might have been responsible for what happened.
30:15
Anything is possible. And also his son RJ, who died of a
30:18
drug over those years later, Like maybe he knew information about something RJE was
30:22
involved in, but he wanted to protect his son and was not forthcoming about
30:26
it, or maybe he was just in denial that his son had some addiction
30:30
issues. The possibilities are just pretty endless here. I know the police never
30:36
found any evidence to incriminate Ron Senak, and it's possible that he legitimately doesn't
30:41
know anything, But I still wonder if the crime was a result of something
30:45
he was connected with. The two gunmen who entered Los Cruse's bull may have
30:49
been expecting Rond to be there and were unaware that he left on a weekend
30:53
trip to Arizona. There's been speculation that the crime was some sort of professional
30:57
hit intended to send a message to the Senac family, which is why Stephanie
31:03
and Melissa were shot. This theory is supported by the fact that some witnesses,
31:07
including Idaho Gien, believe they saw these two men frequenting the alley on
31:11
a prior occasion, and they did not appear to be doing anything but sitting
31:15
there and staring at everybody, as if they were casing the place. The
31:21
perpetrators also set fire to the desk in the office in an apparent attempt to
31:25
destroy evidence, which is not the sort of thing that you'll usually find if
31:29
the motive for the crime was simply robbery, if Melissa had not been able
31:33
to make her phone call the nine one one. It's possible the fire would
31:37
have completely engulfed the office and killed everyone there, and without the accounts of
31:41
the survivors, people might look at this case in a much different light.
31:45
For sure. I also think you have to again pay attention to the ages
31:51
of the perpetrators. These were older men. These were people that were described
31:55
in their thirties and forties, maybe forties to fifties. These were not young
31:57
teenagers doing some chaotic robbery that they kind of got overwhelmed and killed people.
32:04
They knew what they were doing. They had clear instruction of what they needed
32:07
people to do. Get in the office, open the safe, lie on
32:12
the floor, and when they got what they wanted, they executed these people
32:15
by shooting them in the head and even shooting a child who was looking at
32:19
them. And so for me, it makes sense that these are careered criminals.
32:23
These are people who understand that one they're capable of it, that they
32:29
can get away with it, that they're entitled to do what they want and
32:31
can take a life with the drop of a of a bullet in their head.
32:37
I mean, it's insane to me so to think could they have been
32:40
professional hitmen or people hired to kill these individuals. I think that's very possible.
32:46
I think that it is very possible. They wanted revenge, They wanted
32:51
to make a point, They wanted to send a message either Ron or his
32:54
son. Nothing in the women's background has this idea that they associated with ced
33:00
people. But dad and son have a different background. They seem to have
33:05
a questionable behavior, and so the fact that these men were seen prior to
33:08
the crime casing the place and sitting back awkwardly watching family's bowl, watching employees'
33:15
behavior, it definitely signals something of a planned attack that was meant to say
33:21
something and to leave no survivors that could identify who they were. However,
33:27
if the crime was a professional hit designed to send some sort of message to
33:30
Ron Scenac, it was a very sloppy one. Even though they fired around
33:36
twenty five shots to the victims, the perpetrators did not check to make sure
33:39
everyone was dead, and three of the victims wound up surviving. Also,
33:44
if this was some sort of hit against the Senac family, it's surprising they
33:47
would have let Steve Senak leave before they went inside. As murdering the owner's
33:52
son definitely fits a revenge scheme. While I believe that godmen were always planning
33:57
to murder everyone no matter what, I think, the sloppiness of this crime
34:01
is due largely to the fact that they had to deal with a lot more
34:05
people than they expected and were caught completely off guard when Stephen Turan and his
34:09
two daughters came walking into the office. Whatever the case, I still believe
34:15
the main reason for committing this crime is because they wanted something else from that
34:19
bowling alley besides the money inside the safe. Otherwise, I see no reason
34:23
why they would have left some of that money behind. Otherwise, I see
34:27
no reason why they would have left some of that money behind. I think
34:30
there is still definitely a big piece of the puzzle missing here. I think
34:35
there could be. Is it possible too that the twenty five shots? Wow,
34:39
you're right. If they're professional hitmen, you almost think they would know
34:42
how to shoot and kill with a single bullet or two. But is it
34:45
possible that twenty five shots is all they had to fire off? That is
34:51
true. Yeah, we don't have no how many bullets they had in their
34:52
guns, but it could be a thing. Is that they just fired everything
34:55
they had, and even though some of the victims were not dead yet,
35:00
they figured, well, we can don't have anything else to shoot them with,
35:02
Let's just start a fire and hopefully they'll be engulfed when the fire completely
35:07
destroys the office. But they may not have expected that Melissa would have enough
35:12
wherewithal to get back up and call nine one one. I think if you
35:15
shot them in the head, your idea would be there at least incapacitated enough
35:20
not to be able to get away from smoke, inhalation and all the things
35:23
that would come from a fire in golfing that office. Maybe that was a
35:27
thought, But then again, remember we all just talked about the fact that
35:30
they also could have planned to shoot when the bowling alley opened, which would
35:35
have meant they probably were prepared with more bullets, because what if there was
35:38
a family bullying? What if there were fifteen people that walked in when the
35:42
door's opened. There's been some confusion about whether the two gunmen brought vehicles to
35:49
the scene. Some early newspaper articles about this case say that the perpetrators may
35:54
be driving a four wheel drive vehicle, possibly a van, but this detail
36:00
is not mentioned in A Nightmare and Los Crusus, or most recent accounts of
36:04
the case, so I'm not sure how legitimate this information is. There are
36:08
apparently eyewitness accounts to the two men running across Amador Street, and as far
36:14
as I know, Steve Senak did not report seeing any additional vehicles parked near
36:19
the alley when he was there. I would be really curious to know if
36:22
the perpetrators had access to a vehicle that morning, which would have allowed them
36:27
to flee Lost Crusus. I know investigators spoke to a woman named Irma Tierna
36:31
who claimed that she harbored too men at her place following the shooting, and
36:36
they were right under the police's noses while they were searching for them. But
36:39
even though she passed a polygraph test, Tirina later recounted her story and died
36:45
of a drug overdose. And this lead hit a dead end, much like
36:49
the drug angle with RJ. Senak. The sole source of Irma Tirrena's story
36:52
is a Nightmare and Los Crusus, so we don't have any additional information about
36:58
her. Truthfully, unless they had no access to transportation, I would be
37:02
really surprised if the gunmen remained in Los cruises following the shooting. They had
37:07
to know the committee a crime in which they shot seven people, four of
37:12
them children, was going to bring a ton of heat the likes of which
37:15
the area had never seen before. I know the police set up roadblocks to
37:20
check everyone who was leaving town, but this did not take place until around
37:23
two thirty pm, so the perpetrators already had a six hour head start.
37:28
Los Crusis is only forty five miles from the Mexican border, so they would
37:32
have had more than enough time to flee the country before the manhunt started.
37:37
For all we know, both of these men may have spent the past three
37:39
decades living in Mexico and never returned to the US. This would explain why
37:45
law enforcement had no success in tracking them down or identifying them, even though
37:49
the composite sketches of their faces had been plastered everywhere. Oh, that's very
37:53
possible. I didn't realize the location of where this city was located. But
37:58
you're right. If they're only forty five miles from the Mexican border, that
38:01
can't take more than an hour an hour and fifteen minutes to get to the
38:05
Mexican border. They're Hispanic men, so it's possible that that's their hometown is
38:09
in Mexico, that they have family in Mexico, that they have a place
38:15
that's safe and can harbor them there where they can just disappear and come home
38:19
and no one knows what happened. And you know, that's over in the
38:22
United States, that's in New Mexico, and we're here in Mexico. Right,
38:25
it's just these two separate worlds, even though it's only forty five miles
38:29
apart. So for me, I would think that these two men had a
38:32
car, had a vehicle, but that it would have been parked a couple
38:37
blocks away or behind a few establishments away from the bowling Alley. They wouldn't
38:43
be as brazen. I don't think to pull up to the front of the
38:45
bowling alley, park their car and then go in. Remember they're scene running
38:50
across the street. I'm assuming they strategically placed their car and that's how they
38:57
eventually got away. The police doing a roadblock two thirty I just don't think
39:01
you had any hope of that being successful. It's too far gone. Even
39:05
if these men were on foot six hours later, they're sixty miles away,
39:08
you know, I mean they're jogging, running, doing something. Yea,
39:13
there at least they could have probably gone to the border by two thirty,
39:15
So I just I think they had to have a vehicle somewhere close. Yeah,
39:21
I do agree. It's fairly common practice sometimes for robbers to part their
39:23
cars away from the location where they're committing their crime, just in case any
39:28
witnesses come by and can't identify their vehicle. And back in nineteen ninety,
39:32
border security was a lot more lax, and two Hispanic looking men just driving
39:37
across the border into Mexico is not going to raise any red flags, particularly
39:43
since word about the shooting did not spread for several hours. So yeah,
39:46
they somehow managed to make it to the border before they started circulating their sketches,
39:51
and they remain managed to remain under the radar, Then you can understand
39:53
why they've never been caught. And here's a pretty horrifying thought. If these
40:00
men were capable of firing a bullet into the head of a two year old
40:02
girl, then they were certainly capable of committing other horrific crimes. So who
40:07
knows what else they may have done and gotten away with After all this time,
40:12
we can't even be one hundred percent certain that the perpetrators are still alive,
40:15
especially since one of them was described as being in his late forties or
40:20
early fifties. But the good news is that this story has continually remained in
40:23
the spotlight since nineteen ninety as it seems like everyone associated with this case has
40:29
been relentless in their attempts to get it solved and bring the perpetrators to justice.
40:34
I'm sure they will not give up, and hopefully we will see closures
40:37
someday. There was currently a thirty two thousand dollars reward for information, so
40:43
if you happen to know anything about the Los Cruses Bowling Alley massacre, please
40:46
contact crime Stoppers at one eight hundred two to two tips. That's one eight
40:52
hundred two to two eight four seven seven. Jules asked any final thoughts in
40:58
this case we see justice in the form of answers in the case. I
41:04
don't know that you're ever going to have these perpetrators brought to justice because,
41:07
like you said, these men were described as in their thirties to forties or
41:12
forties to fifties, which would make them at this time what eighty three years
41:16
old potentially or even older. So what might be a perk in that event
41:22
is that if one of these individuals passes away, that on their deathbed they
41:28
make a confession that they've confided in somebody, and once that person is deceased,
41:35
the person that they confided in or told or bragged about this crime to
41:38
says, listen, there's no more risk. I don't have to protect this
41:42
person. Yes, I loved them, but I want this case to have
41:45
answers, and it is possible that somebody would come forward and share that information
41:50
after the death of these two perpetrators. So my prayer is that the case
41:53
continues to remain in the spotlight, that there continues to be a remembrance of
42:00
these victims from the tiniest little two year old up to their father, and
42:04
that you have people that not only keep their memory alive, but continue to
42:09
fight for and raise awareness so that someone does come forward one day. It
42:14
is one of the most tragic and horrific cases I've heard of because of the
42:17
callousness of it, because of the lack of information, and that it seems
42:22
as if it's very difficult to look away from the reality these people have done
42:27
something like this before. To have that much confidence and that little care for
42:32
the people that they took that day. This case is such a tragedy,
42:37
just the outright evil to kill four people at the bowling alley and to shoot
42:44
small children, a two year old baby. I just think there's a very
42:47
few cases where we see such disregard for human life. Like Ashley had brought
42:53
up earlier in one of our episodes, what is the likelihood that a two
42:57
year old is going to be able to report any deep tales about those who
43:00
are the perpetrators, Like there's there's no chance they likely could not articulate anything,
43:07
and there's going to be so much trauma associated with this. I'm I'm
43:10
just in shock. I was familiar with this case before we covered it,
43:14
but I find it to be a case of contradictions in that it seems so
43:19
calculated and like it could be a deliberate hit. But then there's bits of
43:22
it where you have three surviving victims where you shot them all but you didn't
43:29
check to see if they were dead. You had two people who were perpetrators,
43:32
you would think that one of them would have been there checking to see
43:36
if these individuals were deceased. If you cared enough to point a gun and
43:39
shoot at them. You'd think that you would care enough to find out if
43:43
they were indeed deceased, and they didn't do that, which is so strange,
43:47
and it seems like it must have been aimed at rj or Ron Senac.
43:52
But then you have the other son, Steve Senak, who if it
43:58
was going to be some family vendetta, why didn't they go after him.
44:01
I'm really confounded by the fact that somebody hasn't come forward. I mean,
44:06
we had Tireena come forward. And although the logical part of my brain wants
44:09
to think that these guys left Las crusis if they had access to a vehicle,
44:15
which I think if you're going to commit a crime like this, you
44:17
would want to have a vehicle parked somewhere. But maybe they knew ti Arena
44:22
or they ran into her and thought this is a place to just hide out
44:24
the fact that she passed a polygraph whatever in regard you want to pay to
44:30
polygraphs. I mean, I think there is some validity to her story.
44:34
It's not just this fabricated story that she came up with. If she could
44:38
back it up, like her vital signs are changing, She's not sweating.
44:42
It's not obvious that she's lying. It's just too bad that much like r
44:46
J. Senac who died of a drug overdose, we also have Tierna who's
44:51
dying of a drug overdose. It's really really heartbreaking. There's so many victims
44:55
in this case, even seeing Stephanie Senac die those years later after being rendered
45:01
essentially a goora phobic, so taking the joy out of her life. It's
45:06
nice that we see Melissa repass thrive, but there's just so many victims here,
45:10
and we've got a community that's victimized. And I think it's really interesting
45:15
the shell station, the raised shell station where the individual had their hands bound
45:22
behind their back and they were shot and there was five hundred dollars stolen.
45:25
It was also in the early morning hours. I think that the parallels there
45:29
are really interesting. And with the other Bowling Alley were until nineteen eighty five
45:34
we saw ron Cenac's name on the deed until he lost that government forfeiture or
45:38
bankruptcy or It's all very interesting. There seems to be these links that are
45:44
a little more than tenuous, but I can't quite put my finger on it,
45:47
and I'm just shocked that this hasn't been solved by somebody coming forward with
45:51
information. Yeah, I mentioned earlier that I still remember seeing this featured on
45:57
Unsolved Mysteries and America's Most Wanted back in now Seen ninety and I seem to
46:00
recall that their segments were produced very quickly after the crime took place because there
46:06
was an urgency involved, saying, this is one of the most horrific murders
46:09
to take place in the United States within the past few years, so we
46:13
really want to get the word out, show the composite sketches of these two
46:15
men, and hopefully it will be solved soon. And quite honestly, back
46:20
then, with so much attention being paid to this, I never thought that
46:22
we'd be here thirty four years later and we still wouldn't know the identities of
46:27
the people who did this, and that the crime would still be unsolved.
46:31
I mean, it's one of those ones because we have surviving victims, we
46:35
know exactly what happened, we know how the crime was carried out, but
46:38
the problem is that we just don't know the identities of the two men who
46:43
did this and what their motive was. I've always been inclined to believe that
46:46
it was something more to this than a robbery, that there was some sort
46:51
of personal grudge here, or perhaps they were looking for something else. But
46:54
the fact that they showed no qualms about shooting children and were playing to set
46:59
fire to the offs to destroy all the evidence, and that they had also
47:01
been allegedly casing the place beforehand, makes me think that there's just something more
47:07
to the story. That maybe something was going on in the senoc family which
47:12
investigators have just been unable to figure it out, which is why these two
47:15
men decided to target the bowling alley, and because their faces have been circulated
47:21
so much, I am inclined to believe that they probably made it over the
47:24
Mexican border a short time after this crime took place, before the major manhunt
47:30
started, and if they managed to stay off the radar, then that could
47:34
explain why they've never been identified or caught. I mean, I certainly hope
47:37
that's not what happened, because I don't want to rule out the possibility that
47:42
they will never be found or that there aren't people out there with information about
47:45
what happened. But because of all the publicity, I have to assume that
47:50
someone out there might have a pretty good idea who these guys are and maybe
47:53
has the necessary information to share with law enforcement which will help this case break
47:59
this case why open? I mean, we've seen these past several years that
48:01
a lot of cold cases that are decades old have wound up being solved,
48:06
and sometimes if they have the necessary physical evidence, they can still conclusively lake
48:10
a crime to a deceased suspect and close the case even though they can't technically
48:15
charge them. And maybe that will happen with this case as well, even
48:19
if the perpetrators are already deceased. But it has haunted me, but for
48:23
just so many decades, so many years, and there are just so many
48:28
victims in this case, a couple of survivors who are still dealing with trauma
48:30
to this day. So if I had to make a list of cases we've
48:34
covered on this podcast that I really want to see solved in my lifetime,
48:37
this would definitely be near right near the very top. Robin, do you
48:43
want to tell us a little bit about the Trailment Cold Patreon. Yes,
48:45
the Trail Cold Patreon has been around for three years now, and we offer
48:50
these standard bonus features like early ad free episodes, and I also send out
48:54
stickers and sign thank you cards to anyone who signs up with us on Patreon
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if you join our five dollars tier Tier two. We also offer monthly bonus
49:05
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49:08
Cold's original feed, so they're exclusive to Patreon and if you join our highest
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49:22
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49:28
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49:31
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49:37
And incidentally, the very first episode that I did a commentary track over was
49:40
the episode featuring this case. So if you want to download a commentary track
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Music by Paul Rich from the podcast Cold Callers Comedy