De Baca County woman accused of killing grandfather on the run

FORT SUMNER, N.M. (KRQE) – A New Mexico woman is accused of killing her grandfather and then pretending for weeks that he was still alive.

A startling discovery has become the talk of a De Baca County town. A man’s body, including a skull with long hair, dentures, and black duct tape wrapped around his mouth was covered in blankets and found inside a toolbox. It was also dumped inside a pit behind Robyn Abeyta’s Fort Sumner home.

“We are all playing around. My kids are back there. To find out who that is, is more of a shocker,” said Abeyta.

It all started at the home of AJ Harden, where police say his granddaughter, 27-year-old Candy Jo Webb killed him. Abeyta says the two grew up together in Fort Sumner.

“We would have never expected it. Even before they identified the body, she was panicking and she called me, but I still wouldn’t have suspected it to be her,” said Abeyta.

Police say Webb drove to what is now Abeyta’s home where Webb herself used to live. That’s how she knew that the landlord lets people dump trash in the pit that is located in the backyard.

Abeyta says Webb in August came to the house to dump something in the pit. That’s when Abeyta thinks Webb got rid of the body.

Police asked Webb about her grandfather when the body was discovered last month. Webb first told police her grandfather was staying at a nursing home in Texas. Then she changed her story and gave them the name of a retirement home that police say doesn’t exist.

Webb also told other people he passed away in his sleep a month prior. Then, she confessed to her current boyfriend that she killed her grandfather by giving him Xanax and Ambien. Webb claimed her grandfather told her to do it.

An arrest warrant has been issued for Webb. According to the criminal complaint, Webb was receiving money from her grandfather and her boyfriend believed she killed him for his lake house. Police say she was spotted in McAllen, Texas last week.