Crash turns to missing person's case

BELEN, N.M. (KRQE) - A weekend car crash in Valencia County has turned into a missing person's investigation.

Deputies responded to a single-car collision on Highway 47 near Belen, but the driver was nowhere to be found.

Brandon Young, 29, was seen driving the white Dodge pickup truck before the crash Sunday night. His family and friends said they haven't heard from him since.

Young's girlfriend, Jessica Martinez, said he was angry when he left his Los Lunas hotel and that he had been drinking.

Investigators believe Young crossed oncoming traffic, crashed into a power pole, then through a barbed wire fence.

Power was knocked out for hours, according to neighbors in the area. Deputies said Young was gone, leaving only a few footprints leading to the highway.

"He thinks he's scared maybe he's in trouble. He's not in trouble at all," said Martinez.

Martinez said it's very unlikely for Young to fall off the grid for two days. Young, who is from Maine, has been in New Mexico for 10 months, working as a traveling wind turbine technician.

"We don't know where he's at. hurt, or if he's laying in a ditch somewhere," said Martinez. "We don't know anything. We just want him found."

Friends have filed a missing person's report and have posted flyers around Valencia County, hoping someone has seen him.