Brenda Tafoya sues Bernalillo police over daughter’s death investigation failure
Brenda Tafoya filed a lawsuit against the Town of Bernalillo and two police officers over her daughter’s death investigation. The civil filing seeks accountability for how local police handled the death of a Pueblo woman found in a ravine.
The victim was Lynelle Tafoya. She disappeared from her home on the Jemez Pueblo. Her family sought answers for nearly three years.
Her body was found half naked in the Ranchitos ditch near Interstate 40. That ditch is in the Town of Bernalillo. Tafoya said she does not believe her daughter died in an unattended death.
The lawsuit names the Town of Bernalillo and its police department. It also names former officer Jeramie Nevarez and officer Timothy Tyler.
Attorney David Adams of Parnall & Adams Law filed the case. He explained the primary focus of the legal action.
“The focus of this area of the case is really their failure to investigate this case as a homicide from the get-go,” explained David Adams, the family’s attorney.
The lawsuit claims police violated the civil rights of Tafoya. It states officers failed to secure the crime scene. Officers also failed to conduct forensic analysis of her cellphone.
The lawsuit states officers failed to suspect foul play given the location of the body. Her fingers were missing. She was found mostly naked.
Nevarez wrote in his report that no signs of foul play were observed or reported. The police department filed the case as an unattended death.
Adams said the civil rights lawsuit seeks broader reforms across the community. He noted equal protection matters for all victims.
“The biggest goal is to, number one, hold them accountable,” Adams told KRQE. “But I think that any time you have any type of civil rights case, we’re looking for systemic changes to take place within our community when it comes to law enforcement responses to violent crime.”
The case involved items found on the Santa Ana Pueblo. Adams called the incident a jurisdictional nightmare. He claims officers failed to follow departmental policies and procedures.
Adams said this case should bring attention to missing and murdered Indigenous women. Tafoya said justice would look like change. She wants to ensure no other family goes through this experience.
Civil lawsuits allow citizens to seek damages for constitutional rights violations. Municipalities and individual officers can face liability when established standards are ignored.
The family asked federal agents to open a homicide investigation into the death. Federal agents will not say who they are investigating in the case.
