On the evening of August 7, 1982, a call was placed to the rectory of the St. Francis Cathedral in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The caller needed someone to administer last rites. Father Patrick Gerard was unable to leave the rectory and asked the caller to telephone again in fifteen minutes. Exactly fifteen minutes later, the telephone rang again. This time, Father Renaldo Rivera took the call. The caller was insistent—he wanted a priest to come immediately to administer the last rites. The man said his name was Michael Carmello. According to Lieutenant Gilbert Ulibarri of the Santa Fe Police Department, Carmello was calling from a rest stop near Waldo, New Mexico:
“Father Rivera left that evening to meet someone at the rest stop in Santa Fe. This was on a Thursday evening. He was reported missing Thursday night. Didn’t show up Friday. There was a broadcast made that Father Rivera was missing. Obviously, we had a location. At least we knew it was Waldo, somewhere in that area, because the priest remembered Waldo, New Mexico.”
A car driving up to a rest area atop a hill late at night
Rivera met the caller at a remote rest area
Three days after he vanished, Father Rivera’s body was found on a deserted road three miles from the rest stop. At Father Rivera’s funeral, the entire city mourned. Ordained Catholic priests vow to become servants of God and servants of their community. Their door is always open. But, as was the case in New Mexico, that very openness can also be exploited—especially by someone with diabolical intentions.
The night of the murder, the man calling himself Carmello was waiting for Father Rivera at the rest stop in a blue pick up truck. Lieutenant Ulibarri has developed a theory of what happened next:
“The killers were probably waiting there for him. When he arrived at the rest area, they singled him out. There’s no way one individual could handle Fr. Rivera or he would’ve give them a hard time. So there had to be at least two people involved. And we know they had guns, obviously because he was shot, so I’m sure they controlled him with that weapon. But there had to be two people involved to subdue him because he was a very strong individual.”
A man holding a revolver up to Rivera outside his car
Police believe Rivera was taken at gun point
Lieutenant Ulibarri believed the killers took Father Rivera to a remote desert area:
“He was not killed where he was found. They drove to a location, threw him on the ground and left. They could’ve hid him anywhere in that Waldo area and there are several places in Waldo where you can kind of hide a body and you’d never find it. So obviously, they wanted him to be found.”
According to Lieutenant Ulibarri, the killers returned to the rest stop after the crime to remove Father Rivera’s car:
“His vehicle was found at a rest area just east of Grants, New Mexico, which is about two hours from Santa Fe. There was no physical evidence found in the vehicle. We didn’t find any fingerprints. There were no bloodstains, nothing to indicate that someone had even driven the car. It had been wiped clean.”
Lieutenant Ulibarri had few clues and after a nationwide check, he found no suspects named Michael Carmello:
“As far as motive, Father Rivera was not the target. A Catholic priest was a target, for whatever reason. Robbery was not a motive because there was nothing taken from the priest, other than his last rites kit. And that’s a possibility for a souvenir. Apparently the killer would like to relive the experience, every time he looks at it, he remembers killing a priest.”