On the evening of Friday, August 11, 1961, Mattie Catherine Restine and Patty Sue Pritz disappeared while walking home from "The Beach" in Carlsbad, New Mexico. 36 hours later, two rabbit hunters reported finding their bodies in the area of Sitting Bull Falls off Highway 137, fifteen miles west of town. The two had been sexually assaulted and shot in the head. A full scale investigation by the Eddy County Sheriff's Office (ECSO), the Carlsbad Police Department, the New Mexico State Police, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation was launched. But no arrests were made and the case went cold. In January 2003, Investigator Jim Estrada of ECSO reopened the case citing advancements in DNA extraction, processing and analysis. By October of that year, there were statewide announcements by various New Mexico media outlets, that the 42 year old case was going to be solved. But by 2005, Estrada had retired and strangely & suspiciously, the Mattie & Patty double murder case went cold for a second time. Anne Restine Self of Stigler, Oklahoma was 10 years at the time of her sister's homicide. Almost single-handedly, she has kept the case alive in the Carlsbad and New Mexico public mind. Anne has pressured the ECSO to continue to investigate the principal suspects and resolved this double murder. This is probably the most troubling unsolved case in New Mexico History.
WHY THIS DOUBLE MURDER NEEDS TO BE SOLVED
FURTHER LINKS TO THE MURDER
CARLSBAD NEWPAPER DISCUSSION THREAD
WEBSLEUTH DISCUSSION ON MURDER
