Warrant provides details on murder-suicide

A search warrant made public Tuesday ( July 30) offers new details about the July 11 murder-suicide of a well-known local singer and her husband.

The bodies of Ernestine and Jessie Saucedo were found around 12:40 p.m. inside their white BMW SUV, parked outside the state Public Education Department headquarters at 300 Don Gaspar Avenue, in Santa Fe, where Ernestine had worked.

Police said Jessie Saucedo was found in the driver’s seat, with a handgun between his right leg and the center console, and his wife was in the passenger seat. A Sig Sauer 9 mm handgun was in the vehicle, according to the warrant. There were also cartridge cases, “projectile fragments” and a magazine with 12 live rounds, the warrant says.

Video from a surveillance camera at a neighboring building showed the SUV, registered to both Saucedos, had arrived at the Jerry Apodaca Education Building around 8:15 a.m., the warrant says.

The couple was still married, the document says, but they were “separated due to an ongoing marital dispute.” Police said the Saucedos had not been living together for several weeks.

Jessie Saucedo’s father told police his son had left home that morning, saying he was going to get an attorney, the warrant says, and Ernestine had told a coworker she was going to meet with her husband. Shortly after, according to police, a Public Education Department employee found the couple dead inside the vehicle and called 911.

Ernestine Saucedo, a popular Tejano singer-songwriter who performed under her maiden name, Romero, had turned 32 the day before her death. A large public memorial of candles and flowers still stands outside the Jerry Apodaca Education Building.

This story first published in the Santa Fe New Mexican, a sibling publication of the Taos News.