Police in New Mexico thinks that a judge’s husband committed a murder-suicide by shooting her dead along with many of her pets.
In their home on Ranchitos Road in Los Ranchos De Albuquerque, police discovered the bodies of Diane Albert, 65, and Eric Pinkerton, 63, along with “several dead animals” on Friday after a friend of the couple received “a troubling message from Eric Pinkerton,” the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office tweeted.
The sheriff’s office stated that Pinkerton is believed to have shot Albert and the animals before turning the gun on himself.
KOAT-TV of Albuquerque reported that a dispatch from a sheriff’s deputy said: “He left a voicemail to his friend stating that he murdered his wife and his dogs and his cat. And he is about to murder himself.”
The dispatch was confirmed by the sheriff’s spokesperson, Jayme Fuller, to NBC News.
In the Los Ranchos Municipal Court, Albert served as a judge. According to the Albuquerque Journal, she was a practising patent lawyer who had previously held office as the president of the Bike Coalition of New Mexico, a planning and zoning commissioner for the North Valley region, and a commissioner for the county of Los Alamos.
She had recently re-enrolled at the University of New Mexico to study French, a friend of Albert’s revealed to the newspaper. An inquiry for comment was not immediately answered by a university spokesman.
Albert’s passing was lamented by the community. In a memorial posted on Facebook, state auditor Brian Colón stated: “Diane always entered our home with a smile and usually wearing her bicycle helmet. What a loss. Rest in peace and know you spread goodness near and far.”
According to Ann Simon, the village administrator of Los Ranchos, “We are heartsick hearing the news of this senseless tragedy.”
Albert was described by Simon as “a brilliant mind, and a friend.”
Simon continued, “We can’t ignore that this happened on the International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women,” a yearly commemoration that the United Nations instituted in 2008.
The killings were the third instance of fatal domestic violence over the Thanksgiving holiday in the Albuquerque region, according to the Journal.
Call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) for assistance if you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence or the threat of domestic violence, or visit www.thehotline.org for anonymous, private online chats that are available in both English and Spanish. There are frequently separate domestic abuse hotlines for each state.
The National Domestic Abuse Hotline’s advocates answer calls from both victims of domestic violence and people who are worried that they might be abusing their spouses.