The Sandoval County Sheriff’s Office announced that they have found and identified the remains of Ann Lombard Taylor, who had gone missing in 1996, after 30 years.
For 30 years, no one knew what really happened to Taylor, who was last seen at her home on Perdiz Canyon Road. The evidence about her whereabouts was little to nothing, which eventually turned into a cold case.
In a press briefing at the Sandoval County Commission Chambers, SCSO Detective Don Chewning said Taylor’s husband, James Anthony Taylor, reported that the couple had an argument and fled the house, leaving their four small children behind.
Now, the detective says it was false, Taylor’s son, Tyler Anderson, says he knew all along.
To Anderson, it is highly unlikely that her mom would cause her disappearance and never hear from her again.
For the past three decades, Anderson has developed various theories about how his mom disappeared.
Finding Lombard Taylor’s Remains This May Reopen The Case
Officials say the remains of Taylor were discovered in May this year at 15 Perdiz Canyon Road, Placitas, 27 feet from her home. The residents excavated the place for renovations.
Former SCSO detective Adam Crosby couldn’t believe they finally found her.
According to him, as the backhoe operator dug, he pulled up Taylor’s remains, which a blanket and blue tarp wrapped, and which someone had buried only about two and a half feet down.
The Office of Medical Investigator (OMI) received the bone remains, and investigators performed family genealogy using the DNA of Lombard Taylor’s eldest son, Tyler Anderson.
Then, the testing came this July and confirmed the remains belonged to Taylor.
Detectives and Lombard Taylor’s Son: It Was Her Family Member Who Did It
For years, detectives and Anderson believed Lombard Taylor’s husband was behind it all.
Anderson said that, after a decade of her husband continuously raping, beating, brutalizing, and terrorizing her, he believed her husband killed her long before her heart stopped beating.
However, the detective has only a little he has of the case against him until he remarries.
It All Points To James Anthony Taylor
When Taylor got remarried, according to him, in 2010, he reported that he threatened to kill his second wife, and no one would find her body.
The circumstances surrounding Lombard Taylor’s death are consistent with her having died during a domestic violence assault with her husband, James Taylor, and he was the sole suspect in Lombard Taylor’s disappearance.
But even with that, without Lombard Taylor’s remains, lawyers said it wasn’t enough to pursue charges. And in 2019, Taylor died from a cardiovascular event.
When Anderson heard this, he had to do his best to make peace with it. He won’t get the answer, so he has to move on.
Case Solved: Ann Lombard Taylor’s Son Found Some Peace
With the case closed, he said that at the very least, finding his mom gives him some space.
Once he complete the cremation, he plans on going down there and picking up his mother’s remains and putting a funeral together. He will do his best to honor his mother and put her where she wants to be, and not where that man put her.
Anderson still hopes that now that he and his sibling know what really happened, he hopes it will bring them closer to each other.
Chewning says this case acts as a sad reminder of the devastating impact of domestic violence on victims, children, and entire families.
Meanwhile, the sheriff’s office says Anderson’s determination to solve the case helped motivate detectives, particularly because he would come to them with any new details he found out.
