2017 disappearance shifts to homicide investigation

2017 disappearance shifts to homicide investigation

From the Las Vegas Optic

The white SUV was hundreds of feet off the road, obscured by brush. Police speculated that 30-year-old Henry T. Duran had been behind the wheel of the abandoned vehicle found on March 19, 2017, two weeks after he’d been reported missing. However, a search of the area turned up no sign of him.

For nearly two years, Duran’s disappearance remained a mystery, until December 2018 when New Mexico State Police investigators got a break that led them to Duran’s remains. Police now consider Duran’s death a homicide and have arrested 32-year-old Sharise L. Herrera in connection with his death, charging her with tampering with evidence and conspiracy.

For the first two weeks Duran was missing, police sought him purely as a suspect in the theft of the SUV, which was reported stolen Feb. 19, 2017. The vehicle’s owner told police Duran had been visiting her daughter at their Camp Luna home the day before. Duran was waiting for someone to pick him up, and around 3:30 that afternoon, he asked if he could go sit in the SUV while he waited for his ride, according to a criminal complaint filed in Magistrate Court.

The owner of the SUV gave him permission, but about 20 minutes later, she noticed Duran and the SUV were gone. She hoped he would return with it soon, but when she hadn’t heard from Duran by the next day, she called police and reported the SUV stolen.

Days later, on March 3, 2017, Duran’s family reported him missing, and while State Police still sought him as a suspect in the vehicle theft, investigators also sought information on him as a missing person. Locating the SUV in the brush a couple weeks later would be the last big break investigators had until Dec. 16, 2018, when Las Vegas Police arrested Herrera’s brother Jeffrey Lucero.

Lucero’s arrest was not connected to Duran’s disappearance, but while in police custody, Lucero said he knew something about Duran, according to an affidavit filed in Magistrate Court. Duran wasn’t missing, he told police. He was dead, and Lucero said he knew who’d killed him.

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Days after Duran vanished, Lucero went to the home of Bernardino “Bernie” Baca on North Road, Lucero told police. He’d gone there to get a tire for a car, but during his visit, he smelled a fetid odor, something he described as “burning skin,” according to an arrest affidavit.

About a week later, Lucero visited Baca’s home again. During that visit, Baca told him he’d killed Duran. He bragged about it and even laughed that another man who was there at the time had vomited during the killing, according to the affidavit.

Lucero told police that a few months later — sometime in the summer of 2018 — Herrera asked him to help her get a truck running. She said she needed it to haul some ashes to an area near the San Geronimo Cemetery.

That information allowed State Police to get a warrant to search land next to the cemetery. There, investigators located black trash bags filled with ashes and human bones, according to State Police.

The Office of the Medical Investigator attempted to use DNA to match the remains to Duran, but because the bones had been burned, a DNA match could not be made.

It would take until February 2019, but OMI eventually determined the remains belonged to Duran by matching dental records to a tooth found in a jawbone inside one of the trash bags.

Herrera was questioned by police on July 15, 2019, with her attorney present. Herrera told police that her boyfriend, Bernardino Baca, had shot Duran outside Baca’s home on North Road, and that he later sold the gun to someone. She said Baca and a friend named “Tone” burned Duran’s body in a trash pit, a process that took weeks, according to State Police.

Baca later asked her to help him remove the ashes from the fire pit. She and Baca loaded the trash bags into the truck, then drove to the San Geronimo Cemetery, according to an affidavit, where they disposed of the bags and tossed the larger, more conspicuous pieces of bone into the Gallinas River.

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In August 2017, five months after Duran was reported missing, Herrera and Baca were stopped by a security guard at the Las Vegas Walmart.

Still photos from a surveillance system showed the couple loading a cart with household goods and clothing valued at nearly $700, then leave the store without paying, according to an affidavit filed in Magistrate Court. They fled the area when the security guard stopped them.

Three months later, Baca was arrested by State Police, charged with shooting a man in the leg.

The victim’s girlfriend told police she was waiting for her boyfriend outside Baca’s home on North Road when Herrera approached her and demanded her cellphone, according to an affidavit filed in Magistrate Court. Moments later, her wounded boyfriend ran from the home, shouting for her to start the car.

The couple fled the area, and Baca and Herrera gave chase, according to the affidavit. During the investigation, police recovered two fired .45-caliber casings from Baca’s home, and a witness said Herrera had threatened to kill the man and woman if they called police.

Baca was charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and possession of a firearm by a felon. Herrera was charged with bribery of a witness for making threats.

The case was transferred to District Court for trial, and by October 2018, prosecutors and Baca’s attorney had worked out a plea agreement. The plea deal would include a lengthy prison sentence, and Baca was granted a 30-day furlough from jail to take care of personal matters before sentencing.

Although released from jail, he was on house arrest and ordered to wear a GPS monitor. Records from the monitoring company showed he’d left his home a number of times, violating the terms of the furlough. Investigators arrested Baca at his home, and while searching him, they found a package containing 29 suboxone strips, a variety of pills, marijuana and tobacco. Baca later admitted the package was going to be delivered to someone inside the San Miguel County Detention Center.

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Herrera was convicted of felony shoplifting in November 2017. In March 2018, she pleaded guilty to bribery of a witness. In October 2018, she was convicted of child abuse for giving edible marijuana to Baca’s juvenile daughter.

On Dec. 3, 2018, two weeks before police located Duran’s remains, Baca was convicted of aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, possession of a firearm by a felon and conspiracy to commit felony shoplifting.

With previous convictions for drug trafficking and aggravated battery, Baca was sentenced as a habitual offender and received a 23-year sentence at the Penitentiary of New Mexico.

Following more than three years of investigating Duran’s disappearance, police arrested Herrera on June 17, 2020. She was booked into the San Miguel County Detention Center, charged with two felony counts of tampering with evidence, two felony counts of conspiracy to commit tampering with evidence and a felony count of aiding a felon.

During a June 18 hearing, Judge Melanie Rivera set bond for Herrera at $20,000 cash or surety, citing eight previous failure to appear warrants, and that she is currently on probation. Judge Rivera also stated that the court considers Herrera a flight risk, and a “danger to the community.” However, at a July 9 hearing, Herrera was released from custody on a $10,000 unsecured bond; she was released from SMCDC July 13, and placed on house arrest. She is only allowed to leave for medical or legal appointments, and can be tested for drug or alcohol use at any time. Herrera’s case was transferred to District Court last week, but a trial date has not been set.

Baca has not been charged in connection with Duran’s death, but NMSP spokesperson Ray Wilson said the investigation by the New Mexico State Police Cold Case Unit is still “active and ongoing,” and that charges will likely be filed against Baca in the future. Baca remains in custody at the Penitentiary of New Mexico in Santa Fe.