ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – The murder of Kaitlyn Arquette has been one of Albuquerque’s most notorious unsolved cases. It was featured on national television. Arquette’s mother even published two books vowing to find the killer. Her mother has been mentioning Paul Apodaca as a suspect since the early 1990s.
Eighteen-year-old Kaitlyn Arquette was pretty, popular and had dreams of becoming a doctor; Her murder rocked the city. Her mother was relentless, spending her life trying everything to solve the case and it looks like she was close.
On July 16, 1989, her daughter Katilyn had just had dinner at a friend’s home. The recent Highland High graduate was driving east on Lomas near Broadway when someone chased her, shot her and left her for dead. Duncan wrote two books, ‘Who Killed My Daughter?’ in 1992 and ‘One of the Wolves’ in 2013. She hired private investigators and blogged every detail he gathered in the case.
Lois Duncan who died in 2016, had many theories including it was Katilyn’s older boyfriend who was tied to criminal activity. She discussed those theories when the case was featured on Unsolved Mysteries back in 1993 and Duncan started mentioning Paul Apodaca around that time.
Story continues below
- Sports: NMSU Football locked in for 18th Annual Isleta New Mexico Bowl
- Crime: Security footage shows suspects breaking into Albuquerque business, stealing vehicle
- Albuquerque: Criminal Minds actor visits Albuquerque to collect money for children with special needs
- New Mexico: Lobos and Aggies faceoff in Rio Grande Rivalry in first game since deadly shooting last year
On an old blog, Duncan lists him as a possible suspect, she states Apodaca was the first person at the crime scene. She also writes he was driving a Volkswagen but, the same kind of car witnesses saw fleeing after the shooting. She claims officers never questioned him and let him go.
It would take Apodaca confessing to solve the crime 32 years late. KRQE News 13 asked the Albuquerque Police Department if Apodaca was questioned back then. “I can’t begin to answer for detectives 33 years ago…but I hope that we keep in mind that 33 years ago…technology was a whole lot different than it was today,” said APD Chief Harold Medina.
At one point, police arrested a suspect and held him in custody for 15 months but eventually let him go for lack of evidence. APD says they have reached out to the Arquette family but they still can’t release a lot of details, even to the family, as they continue to verify Apodaca’s confession.
