Friday, May 16, 2014

Chiracahua National Monument employee recalls near-deadly attack

A park employee left for dead at the Chiracahua National Monument nine months ago, speaks out about her attack. Karen Gonzales, 60, was viciously beaten in broad daylight in one of the park restrooms. She suffered a brain injury and is now walking with a limp. She tells News 4 Crime Trackers, "I will never forget his face coming at me." Gonzales was cleaning the women's restroom at the Faraway Ranch Campground when she heard a noise, looked up, and saw her attacker come at her with a rock. The DNA evidence left behind tied 33-year-old Gilbert Gaxiola as her attacker. The Cochise Country Sheriff's department confirms Gaxiola is an undocumented immigrant. According to Cochise Co. Sheriff's investigators, Gaxiola hit her so hard, it broke the rock. The Sergeant told her, he not only hit her with a rock but he slammed her up against the metal door. Evidence of the dent remains on the door. Gonzales says her hands are still recovering from the injuries. "Maybe some of it was fending off the blows, I don't know. But I know I hit him." She says she also chased after Gaxiola. Detectives say Gaxiola dragged her back into the restroom, and then stole her truck. He was seen in surveillance video going through the drive-thru of two fast food restaurants, and a going to WalMart. "He stole my truck to get back to Douglas and he was caught the very next day with a drug load." Detectives say he abandoned the truck in Douglas. Border Patrol agents arrested him for drug smuggling the next day. Besides the scenic rock formations of the Chiricahua National Monument the hiking trails are also used by drug smugglers. In the peaks, drug cartels place lookouts to warn of Border Patrol activity. "I had a gut feeling when I was up at the bone yard that someone was watching me, and he was."...more

Little Tommy You-Dull tells us this would never happen in his national monument.  No drug smugglers allowed. 

 Besides the scenic rock formations of the Chiricahua National Monument the hiking trails are also used by drug smugglers. In the peaks, drug cartels place lookouts to warn of Border Patrol activity.

It happens throughout the National Monuments & Wilderness areas in Arizona, but it will not happen if we impose the same designations on federal land in New Mexico.  Why won't it happen here?  Cuz Little Tommy You-Dull says it won't.  I would agree with him...but then we'd both be wrong.

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