Husband Offers Personal Remembrance Of Slain Officer

LAS CRUCES — The husband of slain New Mexico State Police officer Susan Kuchma remembers his wife as a steadfast companion, excellent athlete and as he put it, “a hell of an officer.”

Pat Kuchma, a fellow officer of the state police department, offered a biographical sketch of his wife,who was shot on Thursday morning allegedly by her own son. Justin Quintana, 25, is being held in the Dona Ana County Detention Facility, charged with an open count of murder. Court documents show he admits the gun that killedhis motherwent off in his hand, but he said the shooting was an accident. Pat Kuchma is not the biological father of the accused.

Thewoman’s husband said was she born in Santa Fe on March 19, 1964. She was the youngest of four children, the only sister to three brothers. Her brothers treated her like she wasanother brother, Kuchma said.

Susan Kuchma was an animal lover. When she was a child,she wouldcoax stray dogs home with a rope around their neck and tell her family, “Look what followed me home,” her husband said.

Kuchma graduated from Santa Fe High School. The Kuchmas enjoyed dirt bike riding and riding their Harley Davidsons on the streets. When they married, on July 4, 2002, they jumped on one Harley and went to New Orleans for the ceremony.

In 2005, Susan Kuchma was on light duty, recovering from a dirt bike mishap, when she was tasked with putting the district’s youth academy together. Her husband reports she did an excellent job and wasgiven the department’s Meritorious Achievement award.

The couple shared many interests, and would travel together toattend musical concerts. They traveled at one point as far as Chicago. They also liked trying different foods, and had planned to travel overseas “to experience the world together,” Pat Kuchma said.

He said his wife was always willing to help other people. On one occasion she found five school-aged kids who were skipping class and hanging out at a local McDonald’s. Kuchma said she rounded the kids up, took them back to school, and corralledthem into the principal’s office. Kuchma was always very compassionate and caring to others, he said, and he often referred to his wife as “the Mother Theresa of police work.”

Kuchma will be laid to rest Tuesday in her hometown of Santa Fe.