In August of 1999, Lisa Guerrero, 30, and her brother Eddie Guerrero, 20, were shot in their car parked on Sunny Slope Rd. in Albuquerque, New Mexico’s South Valley. Both died that day.
Now considered a cold case, 18 years later the Guerrero case is once again being brought to the attention of New Mexicans.
In mid-January, Albuquerque citizens began seeing billboards with the Guerrero siblings faces. The copy declared, “You Know Who Killed Us!”
The billboard offered a reward and a tip line, 843-STOP.
Lamar Advertising, a national outdoor advertising company, donated 20 billboards to the Bernalillo County Sheriff Department.
“The Guerrero case was one of the two cases chosen to be placed on the billboards due to the solvability aspect of the case,” said Detective Kathleen Esparsen, who serves on the Cold Case Division of the BSCO.
Along with the Guerrero case, a similar billboard will highlight another cold case, that of Alicia Acosta, 46, who was killed in 2009 in her smoke shop. According to the police report, two young males entered her shop and shot Acosta in the chest.
“With the generosity of Lamar Advertising we hope to continue our partnership with them and evaluate the remaining cases and hopefully continue using the billboards to assist in producing investigative leads in other cases,” Detective Esparsen said.
The BSCO claims to have chosen to advertise these two cases because these cases prove to have more leads than other cold cases.
“We have received helpful information from the public, which just helps with our continuing investigation in this case,” Esparsen said.
Sgt. John Allen, supervisor of the Cold Case Unit Detectives at BCSO, held a press conference rolling out the billboard campaign.
“I want to follow up on the leads as much as possible and bring justice to the families involved,” Allen said.
Sgt. Allen said he hopes the information from the original case file can be augmented by new information from the Albuquerque community.
With the participation of the community, Sgt. Allen says he hopes investigators can crack the case and give the victims’ families the closure they deserve.
Allen says many cold cases involve a lack of scientific evidence. In the case of the Guerrero siblings, there was little to no scientific evidence that could be pulled from forensic analysis at that time. However he says, as time passes and technology progresses — such as DNA extraction, ballistic testing, fiber carbon data analysis — the evidence can be retested and reevaluated to create more leads.
The Guerrero siblings case, taken on by the BCSO Cold Case Unit, is one of 70 cold cases they have.
“I have said in the past, no tip is too small or insignificant and I encourage anyone with information to come forward,” Esparsen said.
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