NM NM - Kaitlyn Arquette, 18, murdered, Albuquerque, 16 Jul 1989

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Who Killed Kait Arquette? Does the Albuquerque teen's 1989 slaying remain unsolved due to police cover-up?

Kaitlyn Arquette, 18, daughter of acclaimed mystery writer Lois Duncan, was murdered in Albuquerque, New Mexico on July 16, 1989. Albuquerque police dubbed the shooting a "random drive-by" and refused to investigate any other possibility. The case has never been solved.

Kait.senior.pic.jpg


This for me is one of those Unsolved Mysteries classic unsolved murders that has haunted me over so many years. I'm surprised that there doesn't seem to be a thread on this case, so I thought I'd throw it on here to create discussion and awareness. There's talk of police corruption, Asian gangs, witness intimidation, and drug smuggling. This segment originally aired on the January 27, 1993 episode of Unsolved Mysteries. I wasn't able to find the actual segment on Unsolved Mysteries, but I do have a YouTube link of a local news report on the Kait Arquette murder..

[video=youtube;bUWL9JZMqqI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUWL9JZMqqI[/video]

The family of Arquette has a website dedicated to her murder. If this interests you, I would highly recommend visiting the website. Lots of pictures and detailed information.

http://kaitarquette.arquettes.com/index.htm
 
Who Killed Kait Arquette?

http://kaitarquette.arquettes.com/

She was gunned down while driving home from a friend's house. The police declared it a random act of violence, a "random drive-by shooting".

Kait's family believe that she was killed because she was preparing to blow the whistle on a local organized crime ring.

What can we sleuth up?

Kait.senior.pic.jpg
 
With all the problems with Albuquerque PD it's hard to believe much that they have said. They could have killed her for all I know. They may have been shooting people and getting away with it for years. They recently killed a woman. I have been thinking back to Kait's murder and wondered after all the news about Alb. PD. It really makes you think.


http://www.abqjournal.com/387519/news/police-shoot-woman-in-foot-chase.html

http://krqe.com/2014/05/09/cop-who-fatally-shot-woman-has-history-of-use-of-force/
 
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2645754/Who-killed-Lois-Duncans-daughter-How-author-I-Know-What-You-Did-Last-Summer-spent-25-years-trying-unravel-twisted-tale-police-cover-ups-organized-crime-life-tragically-imitated-art.html

Capable student Kaitlyn was seeing Dung Nguyen, a Vietnamese immigrant at the time of her murder. Ten years her elder, Nguyen was one of his nation's boat people - who fled the war torn nation after the United States pulled out in 1975. He was dismissed as a suspect in the killing because his fingers tested negative for any gun residue...

But, five days later, Nguyen was discovered to have stabbed himself in the stomach in the middle of the night, in what he claimed was a suicide attempt. This raised the suspicions of Duncan, who wondered why anyone would try and kill themselves so painfully by stabbing themselves in the midriff?

Digging deeper, Duncan found that Nguyen was part of a multi-million dollar insurance fraud in Southern California. The scam was to stage a car accidents with both parties involved to claim fraudulent insurance money. This was a burgeoning business among Vietnamese immigrants in Southern California and Nguyen would sometimes take Kaitlyn along with him when he carried out the fraud...

Duncan told Buzzfeed's Tim Stelloh that while heavily sedated, Nguyen told her that he didn't kill Kaitlyn, but he was 'deciding' whether he loved he enough to tell police who did.
Click to expand...
 
Also from Okiegranny's link:


Duncan now feels that the police were inept and willfully incompetent in the case and missed a key detail discovered by private investigator, Pat Caristro years later.


On the night of Kaitlyn's murder, the first detective to respond to the scene found a man called Paul Apodaca standing by the car, who claimed to be just walking by.


According to Caristo, 'standard procedure would have required police to run Apodaca's name,' which they did not.


If they had they would have discovered that Apodaca had been charged with 'committing multiple violent attacks against women, including robbery and beating a young girl with a baseball bat.'


His car matched the make and model, although not the color, of what eye-witnesses said was a car which dashed away from the scene.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...fe-tragically-imitated-art.html#ixzz33UeyKOna
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
 
I don't mean to sound cryptic, it's just that I have researched this case for years. One glaring omission in the article is the name Matt Griffen. He's the infamous "Ninja Bandit" that was also a police officer. He killed at least two people that I know about, and there are probably a lot more. Trust me, he's as dirty as they come.
 
http://www.kob.com/article/stories/s3507143.shtml#.U8hzMygqWAA

This is the 25th anniversary of the murder of a young Albuquerque woman, a murder that thousands of New Mexicans cannot forget. July 16, 1989, 18-year-old Kaitlyn Arquette is shot in the head near Lomas and Arno NE while driving home from a girlfriend’s house.

Police investigated and ultimately concluded that it’s a random drive-by shooting. Kait’s family and friends have never bought that, and a quarter-century hasn’t changed their point of view or their grief...
Click to expand...
 
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts...nse-novels-defined-the-genre/article30532086/

Lois Duncan was perhaps best-known for her pioneering suspense novels that captivated more than one generation of young readers, including I Know What You Did Last Summer, which became a movie with a sequel.

But the prolific writer of nearly 50 titles also chronicled her deeply personal, decades-long inquiry into the unsolved killing of her daughter in 1989, an experience that led her to counsel other parents whose children’s homicides went unsolved.

Ms. Duncan died Wednesday in Bradenton, Fla., said her husband, Don Arquette. She was 82.
Click to expand...
 
I just discovered this case and i got really intrigued by it. I've read about a note the boyfriend said she left and that it said something like hon, i will be back later (or something like that). But she told her mom she wouldnt return back to him. So it would be weird if she left a note like that after a fight.
 
jade32 said:
I just discovered this case and i got really intrigued by it. I've read about a note the boyfriend said she left and that it said something like hon, i will be back later (or something like that). But she told her mom she wouldnt return back to him. So it would be weird if she left a note like that after a fight.
Click to expand...
The note had mispellings which Kaitlyn, a straight A high school graduate would not have made. The handwriting was also nothing like Kait's.
 
tezi said:
Thank you for posting this, OkieGranny. I was coming here to post about Lois' passing. I hope she knows the answers now about what really happened to Kait.

RIP Lois. You will be missed!
Click to expand...
I run a Facebook group of Lois Duncan fans, we all miss her very much. Kait's siblings are continuing the search for justice.
 
"Kaitlyn Arquette, daughter of author Lois Duncan, was killed driving to a friend’s home by someone chasing her... The case has been dubbed a random drive-by shooting. Nancy Grace and her panel look at facts that make this case much more sinister.

Joining Nancy Grace at CRIMECON 2019: Kaitlyn’s sister Carrie Arquette, Detective Christine Mannina with the Indianapolis Police Department, Director of the Cold Case Investigative Research Institute Sheryl McCollum, Judge Ashley Wilcott and CrimeOnline Investigative Reporter, Ellen Killoran.

“Crime Stories with Nancy Grace” is also a national radio show heard on SiriusXM channel 111 airing for two hours daily starting at 12 p.m. ET and around the country on local radio stations. You can also subscribe and download the daily podcasts at Apple Podcasts and Google Play."
Wednesday CRIME Stories: ‘Hotel For Dogs’ creator’s daughter gunned down in unsolved mystery murder

Anybody listen to this? [it was on July 10]
 
No, thanks for posting. I know the case very well, it doesn't sound like there is new information but I will listena anyway.
PastTense said:
"Kaitlyn Arquette, daughter of author Lois Duncan, was killed driving to a friend’s home by someone chasing her... The case has been dubbed a random drive-by shooting. Nancy Grace and her panel look at facts that make this case much more sinister.

Joining Nancy Grace at CRIMECON 2019: Kaitlyn’s sister Carrie Arquette, Detective Christine Mannina with the Indianapolis Police Department, Director of the Cold Case Investigative Research Institute Sheryl McCollum, Judge Ashley Wilcott and CrimeOnline Investigative Reporter, Ellen Killoran.

“Crime Stories with Nancy Grace” is also a national radio show heard on SiriusXM channel 111 airing for two hours daily starting at 12 p.m. ET and around the country on local radio stations. You can also subscribe and download the daily podcasts at Apple Podcasts and Google Play."
Wednesday CRIME Stories: ‘Hotel For Dogs’ creator’s daughter gunned down in unsolved mystery murder

Anybody listen to this? [it was on July 10]
Click to expand...
PastTense said:
"Kaitlyn Arquette, daughter of author Lois Duncan, was killed driving to a friend’s home by someone chasing her... The case has been dubbed a random drive-by shooting. Nancy Grace and her panel look at facts that make this case much more sinister.

Joining Nancy Grace at CRIMECON 2019: Kaitlyn’s sister Carrie Arquette, Detective Christine Mannina with the Indianapolis Police Department, Director of the Cold Case Investigative Research Institute Sheryl McCollum, Judge Ashley Wilcott and CrimeOnline Investigative Reporter, Ellen Killoran.

“Crime Stories with Nancy Grace” is also a national radio show heard on SiriusXM channel 111 airing for two hours daily starting at 12 p.m. ET and around the country on local radio stations. You can also subscribe and download the daily podcasts at Apple Podcasts and Google Play."
Wednesday CRIME Stories: ‘Hotel For Dogs’ creator’s daughter gunned down in unsolved mystery murder

Anybody listen to this? [it was on July 10]
Click to expand...
 
I remember when this happened. I drive through Lomas and Arno frequently, and think about this case every time. Someone knows something. I'm sure the cops do too, but someone knows the missing piece.

That said, this is not the first time Albuquerque Police Dept. has royally screwed up an investigation. Here is a link to the latest horror APD can't figure out:
NM - Victoria Martens, 10, brutally murdered, Albuquerque, 23 Aug 2016 *Arrests* It might say *Arrests*, but they still don't have the killer, or even their identity. Its a good read...

The list of APD screw ups is long... "Ninja Bandit" Matt Griffin is a serial bank robber and convicted murder. He was also a COP that was involved with this case. Also the Peter Klunck case... We could create a whole thread dedicated to botched APD cases if we wanted to go down that rabbit hole.
 
Last edited:
Loudestbough said:
I remember when this happened. I drive through Lomas and Arno frequently, and think about this case every time. Someone knows something. I'm sure the cops do too, but someone knows the missing piece.

That said, this is not the first time Albuquerque Police Dept. has royally screwed up an investigation. Here is a link to the latest horror APD can't figure out:
NM - Victoria Martens, 10, brutally murdered, Albuquerque, 23 Aug 2016 *Arrests* It might say *Arrests*, but they still don't have the killer, or even their identity. Its a good read...

The list of APD screw ups is long... "Ninja Bandit" Matt Griffin is a serial bank robber and convicted murder. He was also a COP that was involved with this case. Also the Peter Klunck case... We could create a whole thread dedicated to botched APD cases if we wanted to go down that rabbit hole.
Click to expand...
Yes, I know there are sites dedicated to Albuquerque police, I don't have time for that rabbit hole but maybe someone will eventually.
 
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