Josh

The local police force wasn't equipped to handle such an extreme crime scene.

And unfortunately, when the crime lab personnel arrived, it was clear the crime scene had been greatly contaminated by firefighters and emergency personnel, who understandably were prioritizing saving victims and putting out the fire over preserving the evidence of the crime scene.

Firefighters had used a water hose to douse the flames, which most likely destroyed and contaminated evidence.

Las Cruces police called in help from the New Mexico State Police, and unfortunately, investigators could not find enough evidence that the crime seemed to put together a DNA profile for either gunman.

They were able to recover fingerprints and shoe prints, but this didn't narrow it down much, since the bowling alley had many people come in and out of it on any given day.

The officers soon began canvassing around the bowling alley and rounding up witnesses, hoping that someone had caught a glimpse of the gunman.

One man, 22-year-old Albert Garcia, was across the street and heard at least a portion of the shooting.

He told police that he heard six or seven shots that sounded like caps.

He didn't think much of it until police and firefighters rushed to the bowling alley's parking lot.

Another witness was none other than Stephanie Senec's brother, Steve.

and Steve told officers he had worked the closing shift at the bowling alley the night before.

Early on the morning of the 10th, before Stephanie and the girls arrived, Steve had entered the building to retrieve a backpack he had forgotten from the prior evening.

And after hearing about the crime, Steve told police that he had seen two men approach the bowling alley that morning as he was leaving.

He watched as one man, who was noticeably older, hand a small case to another man.

He then squatted down and made eye contact with Steve.

His description of the men would later be used to create composite sketches of two Hispanic men who were thought to be the perpetrators, and these sketches were immediately released to the public.

Later that day, police would take Steve Sanak to one of the 10 highway roadblocks they set up around town to potentially identify the suspects from some of the men that they had stopped at those roadblocks.

Once the roadblocks were up, law enforcement attempted to screen all drivers coming in and out of the Las Cruces area.

At the time of the shooting, some eyewitnesses had seen two men driving a van or utility vehicle, possibly the colors tan or green.

Steve was unable to definitively say that the men were the same as the ones he had seen earlier that morning, and the police had no choice but to let the suspicious strangers go.