Man vanishes, found dead
Body of missing San Mateo man, 88,
found in nearby arroyo

By Helen Davis
Cibola County Bureau

SAN MATEO — A Gallup search and rescue team, the San Mateo volunteer fire department, New Mexico State Police and civilian volunteers searched the rough country around San Mateo Wednesday night and Thursday morning for a missing village man who had set off for a walk Wednesday morning.

After over 12 hours of search efforts, the body of Fernandez Chavez, 88, was found in an arroyo on the northwest side of Mount Taylor near the San Mateo Mesa near Chavez’s home. Authorities found no signs to indicate trauma or foul play.

The elderly man was reported missing after he did not return home from the mesa near his family’s property. Lt. Rick Anglada, spokesman for the New Mexico State Police, said Chavez left for his walk around 9 a.m. Wednesday and was expected home around 2 p.m. Chavez was known to take walks in the area and to return home predictably.

Anglada said Chavez’s family started looking for the tardy man but when they failed to locate him by 7:30 p.m. called for help.

The New Mexico State Police joined the search approximately an hour later and called in the search and rescue team and a state police rescue helicopter to assist family, neighbors and volunteer fire fighters already looking for Chavez.

Searchers worked all night without results. Between 9 and 10 a.m. Thursday two searchers found Chavez’ body.
San Mateo resident Frank Trujillo said he had not heard about the missing man and was out raking in the morning when he saw volunteers and a search helicopter go by his home. He joined he search for his neighbor as soon as he heard the man was missing.

Trujillo said he walked out behind the village cemetery near the church and found Chavez lying in the arroyo at the foot of a cliff after about forty-five minutes of looking.

“It was sad we had to find him like that. When I was searching, I hoped to find him alive,” he said. Trujillo added, “I was kind of surprised he was just lying there.”

He said the helicopter kept flying over him when he located Chavez. “I just stood on the bank, and here comes search and rescue. It was a guy and a girl. They checked him out and said he was dead.”

Trujillo explained that he just stayed there and the search and rescue team called the state police.

The cause of Chavez’s death is uncertain, but state police are not calling for additional investigation, Anglada said. The family has not requested any, either. Anglada speculated that heat stroke, a heart attack or dehydration might have played a part in the death, but is satisfied that Chavez died of natural causes.

Trujillo said Chavez’s clothes were dry when he found him, but the arroyo floor was muddy and thinks maybe Chavez fell from the edge and hit his head.