Owner of New Mexico Ghost Town Found Shot To Death
Heartbroken, family members of a 68-year-old man are searching for answers tonight as to who shot and killed him.
New Mexico State Police say Larry Link, the owner of a ghost town in Steins, was found dead on his ten acre property early Tuesday, located about 100 miles from the Mexican border.
Larry purchased the ghost town 23 years ago. Family members say Larry invested all his time and money into fixing it up for tourists. But his daughter, Pamela Link, says that all changed three years ago, when Larry was forced to install a fence around his property because of an increase in thefts and vandalism. Pamela says, however, her father never gave anyone a reason to hurt him.
“He would have never, never hurt another individual,” Pamela said.
Pamela says Larry devoted all his time to visitors. He would give up to 90,000 tours a year of his ghost town, that sits right off Interstate-10 at the Arizona, New Mexico border.
“And five minutes after you were here he’d say, ‘Now you’re family;’ that was just the way he was,” Pamela said.
And the way he was will now forever be a memory, captured in a picture of Larry wearing a cowboy hat and a blue plaid button-down shirt. Pamela says it is the last image she has of her father to hold onto.
“It didn’t matter if you had money, who you were, you were always family to him,” Melissa Lamoree, Larry’s eldest granddaughter, said.
Pamela says Larry can easily be described in three words, with the utmost love.
“My father was a brave man, a loyal man, a respectable man,” Pamela said.
NM State Police say his body was found on his property with multiple gunshot wounds, but say there are no suspects at this time.
Jim Stack of the National Border Patrol Council says there is no evidence that illegal immigrants were involved in the killing and no extra sets of footprints at the scene.
“My daddy might physically not be here today but he will be with me for the rest of my life, and no person can take that away,” Pamela said.
NM State Police are calling this a homicide investigation, and not releasing many details at this time.
Look for the latest updates on-air and online at www.kvia.com as more information becomes available.
Link:Steins Ghost Town
