Deadly Domestic Dispute

First boyfriend, then attacker. Dona Ana County Sheriff’s Investigators responded to a domestic disturbance Thursday night at an apartment complex on the 19000 block of South Highway 28. A 45 year old woman, whose name has not been released, is recovering at home after investigators say, her 26 year old boyfriend slashed her face with a knife and then hanged himself. Neighbors say, in such a small town, the news is something they never would have expected. “I couldn’t believe it,” Ruben Borunda said. “I just couldn’t believe it, I mean what really happened between them, only themselves know.” But what happened behind small window shades, the victim told investigators was even more shocking for her. The couple had been drinking inside their apartment, when she says they got into a nasty argument talking about past military experience. The victim told deputies her boyfriend stepped outside for a few minutes and returned with a knife. Without saying a word, she says, he struck her across the mouth. Investigators say the girlfriend thinks he was trying to kill her, so she escaped to a neighbor’s house for help. When deputies arrived, they found the boyfriend’s body – dead – hanging in the backyard. “It could have been worse,” Bo Nevarez, DASO Investigator, said. “Due to the fact that when I spoke with the victim, she stated that when she was cut in the face she believed her attacker – her boyfriend at the time – was going for her throat and not just her face.” Investigators who spoke with the victim at the hospital say, she had no animosity toward her boyfriend, but admitted they shared a volatile relationship. And according to the victim, investigators learned her boyfriend spoke about committing suicide on a daily basis, but she never thought he would actually do it. Investigators say, nearly 1/3 of all domestic violence cases are homicide – suicide related.