Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
On this date …
1961: Police in Muleshoe and Clovis had a $20,000 mystery on their hands.
What they knew for sure was that a man named Carlos Fierro Jr. had died in the Muleshoe hospital following a one-car crash July 19 southeast of Muleshoe. The Clovis man driving the car had a criminal history and was arrested after the wreck, accused of driving while intoxicated.
As for the $20,000, Bailey County Sheriff Dee Clements said investigators believed Fierro had deposited the money in a New Mexico bank, then withdrew it the next day. But the money could not be located, according to a story in the Clovis News-Journal.
Clements said friends and relatives had reported Fierro had always worked construction or as a farm hand or manual laborer and never made more than $10 or $20 at a time.
The Muleshoe Journal reported “Rumors had run rampant” throughout Muleshoe that Fierro had the money with him when he died but authorities had been unable to locate it. Clements told reporters that “no trace” of the money had been found at the scene of the accident.
The El Paso Herald Post reported the man with Fierro at the time of the crash had served prison time for theft of clothing and other merchandise from a store in Kenna.
Texas Highway Patrolman John Bentley ultimately solved one mystery. His investigation revealed a deposit slip confirmed Fierro did make a $20,000 deposit in an Albuquerque bank and withdrew it the next day. But that happened more than six months before the fatal accident, and authorities had no reason to believe Fierro still had the cash when he died.
As for the source of that money and what Fierro did with it, the mystery remains.
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