Murder victim's kin takes polygraph

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - The daughter of an Albuquerque couple killed in their home in 2005 took a polygraph test last month, prosecutors revealed in court Tuesday.

Renee Ohlemacher was in her home in 2005 the morning her dad John and mother Bernadette were shot to death.

The couple's former loan processor, Ronald Santiago, is charged with the murder, but Bernadette Ohlemacher's family has always suspected Renee had something to do with it.

The daughter told investigators she hid in a closet during the killings at the family's home in northwest Albuquerque.

Santiago is scheduled to go on trial for the murders in May. He is suspected of swindling the Ohlemachers while refinancing their home and has pleaded guilty to defrauding another couple in an unrelated case.

On Tuesday the state asked District Judge Kenneth Martinez to allow statements Santiago made during the TV crime show "48 Hours Mystery" about the case into his trial.

"In the '48 Hours Mystery' he tells (reporter) Ms. Moriarty, 'I don't remember anything I told police. I don't remember anything. Oh, wait a minute, I do remember I was telling the truth but I don't remember anything,'" prosecutor Sue Calloway said. "So what I'm saying, judge, is there are multiple statements by defendant. They are contradictory. I think the jury is entitled to hear that this is a homicide case."

Joseph Riggs, Santiago's attorney, dismissed the statements in the broadcast as doing nothing to implicate his client.

"It also involves the case involving the fraud-forgery case, which is a separate issue," Riggs said during the hearing. "It also involves the Ohlemachers.

"As the prosecutor states, virtually all of it is exculpatory , so therefore it is not and admission of guilt."

Martinez decided the state needs to be more specific in its request, and he will rehear the motion in 30 days.