1996 Placitas disappearance heats up

PLACITAS, N.M. (KRQE) - Sandoval County investigators Tuesday revealed they are taking a fresh look at a missing-person case and considering the possibility Placitas resident Ann Lombard was murdered.

They also have named a person of interest in the case they reopened a few months ago.

Investigators said they're looking into whether James Taylor, 42, was involved in Lombard's disappearance in 1996. She was his girlfriend at the time.

Taylor had told investigators Lombard walked out on him.

It's remained a missing-person case since, but Undersheriff Tim Lucero said they're starting to look at it as a homicide.

Lucero said they reopened the case several months ago because Lombard's family urged them to take a second look.

Just a few years after Lombard and Taylor met in Nebraska the couple began to leave a trail of police reports.

In 1990 Lombard accused Taylor of holding her down and burning her back on a stove. Then in 1994, Lombard's son claimed he watched Taylor "spray chemicals" in his mother's face and then rape her, according to detective's records.

Still, a couple years later, Lombard agreed to move to New Mexico with Taylor.

Taylor admitted to authorities they fought the day she disappeared. He said then that she had walked out, and investigators said they believed him.

Lombard had only been in Placitas for three weeks when she vanished.

John Roth lived next door to the couple.

"We'd like to get it solved," Roth told News 13. "A bunch of police showed up here a few weeks ago. Well, I already knew."

Detectives searched the couple's old home after they learned another neighbor saw Taylor dig a large, deep hole next to his septic tank in his front yard the day Lombard vanished.

Investigators said Taylor had asked the neighbor for a Bobcat excavator to repair a leaky septic tank.

Despite the fact that the recent search turned up nothing detectives remain highly suspicious of Taylor. They said he never reported Lombard missing.

Even more suspicious, Lucero said, is that Taylor's current wife once told police he choked her, "told her he was going to kill her like he did Ann" and that he'd gotten rid of her body.
Taylor now lives in Des Moines, Iowa.

He didn't live in New Mexico for long, but certainly left a lasting impression despite his efforts not to.

"Yeah, I'd say he kept to himself," said Roth. "We just didn't connect."

Investigators said they need more information to make an arrest in the case. If you know anything about Lombard's disappearance, call the Sandoval County Sheriff's at 505-867-7526.

Investigators said they will also talk to America's Most Wanted in hopes the TV crime show will run a segment on the case.