Indictment details murder investigation

LOS LUNAS, N.M. (KRQE) - A trail of forensic evidence led to the indictment of Joe Easley, his daughter and her boyfriend in the murder of Sandra Sanchez, according to court documents obtained by KRQE News 13.

Sanchez, who died of a single gunshot wound to the head, has been identified as Easley's former girlfriend. A grand jury meeting in Los Lunas handed up the indictment Thursday accusing Easley of murder.

His daughter and her boyfriend were charged with tampering with evidence for allegedly disposing of Sanchez's car.

On April 3 security camera video showed Sanchez at a Los Lunas Walgreens shortly before she went to Easley's house there. Easley told investigators she left after a half hour, but police and a Valencia County grand jury didn't believe his story.

Forensics investigators reported finding her blood on Easley's jacket, his patio chair, a blue bottle cap possibly from a bleach container and on his license plate.

A month after she disappeared, Sanchez's car was found in a parking lot at an Albuquerque hotel. The indictment charges Easley's 17-year-old daughter, Jodi, ditched it there with the help of her boyfriend, Cody Morgan, 19.

Investigators traced calls from Jodi's cell phone through a tower across the street from the hotel the day after Sanchez disappeared, according to the indictment.

In early June hikers found Sanchez's body in Water Canyon in Socorro County. Police said a bloody towel found there matches a towel at Easley's house.

Sanchez's family had said Easley had often physically abused her. Easley's ex-wife told investigators he did that to her, too, and had broken her sternum.

Investigators also described Easley going to Texas after the murder and telling someone there that the family of his ex was blaming him for her disappearance. However it's not clear how he could have known the family blamed him because family members say they didn't contact Easley until some time after that.

Easley remains jailed without bond charged with murder. His daughter and Morgan are charged with tampering with evidence and remain free pending court proceedings.