Police identify body of man in homicide
There are no suspects; victim’s background unclear
Ten days. Three deaths. Less than 200 feet apart.
The body of 33-year-old Matthew Edward Corral of Santa Fe was discovered downtown early Sunday, not far from the site of a recent murder-suicide that took the life of a popular local singer and her husband.
Corral’s death is being investigated as a homicide, police said Monday. The man suffered blunt trauma to the chest, police said, which could have been from a gunshot.
Around 12:20 a.m. Sunday, Santa Fe police responded to a call from an Uber driver who had found the body of a man lying face down in the intersection of West De Vargas Street and Don Gaspar Avenue, shortly after picking up passengers from the nearby Del Charro bar and restaurant on West Alameda Street.
Police identified Corral on Monday but offered no other information about him, and possible friends and relatives could not be reached for comment.
After spotting Corral, the Uber driver stopped and two women passengers tried to revive Corral with CPR, police said.
Deputy Chief Ben Valdez said Monday the department was not yet certain whether Corral’s injury was related to a gunshot or “some other cutting material.” Detectives were awaiting results of a forensic autopsy to determine the cause of death, he said.
As of Monday evening, Valdez said, there were no suspects in the killing. “We are looking to develop suspects. … We are unsure if it was one person or more than one,” he said.
According to a Santa Fe Police Department news release, investigators believe
Corral had spent time in the downtown area before his body was found. However, Valdez said, it’s unknown whether his injury occurred in the spot where he was found, or if he was harmed elsewhere.
The intersection where Corral was found is just across the street from where police say state Public Education Department employee and Tejano singer-songwriter Ernestine Saucedo, 32, was fatally shot by her husband, 34-year-old Jessie Saucedo, who then took his own life July 11, leaving the state agency and the community shaken.
Valdez said “at this point, it appears to be a coincidence” that three people died within the same block in just a 10-day period.
But business owners and others in the area said they’re beginning to wonder about the safety of downtown Santa Fe, a busy summer destination for tourists and locals alike.
Alejandro Diaz, a supervisor at Del Charro, a bar attached to the Inn of the Governors, said it seems Santa Fe is becoming more dangerous.
He arrived at work at 5 a.m. Sunday morning — about 4½ hours after Corral’s body was found — to find police vehicles with emergency lights flickering around the restaurant and caution tape lining the area across the street, Diaz said.
Though he didn’t know what had happened at the time, he said, he was aware of the recent murder-suicide and was concerned.
“You hear all these things,” Diaz said. “It makes you think how fast Santa Fe is changing.”
Barbara Simpson, owner of Barbara Simpson Antiques in the nearby Design Center at 418 Cerrillos Road, said she wasn’t previously aware of Corral’s death, but called the news “disturbing.”
Still, Simpson said, “Relatively speaking, I think Santa Fe is pretty safe.”
In fact, she said, “in past years, there was probably more violence” than today.
Social media postings portray a different mindset.
“Wow. Santa Fe has had more shootings recently than I can remember in a really long time,” one woman commented in a Facebook message linked to a Santa Fe police announcement on Corral’s death.
“There must be a curse on Don Gaspar,” another Facebook commenter said.
Police were unable to provide information Monday evening on whether Corral was married or had children and said they weren’t yet sure if or where he was employed.
The department’s news release said detectives collected surveillance video from nearby businesses in attempt to identify potential suspects. Valdez said he could not specify which businesses provided video because of the ongoing investigation.
Police asked the public to contact Detective Jacob Parrish at 505-955-5203 with any information that might assist in the investigation.
“Whoever is responsible for this … that is a public safety concern,” Valdez said. “We will push that information out as soon as we’re able to.”