Stephen Haar
My son, Stephen Haar, 41, was murdered in
APD spokesman Tony Herrera released a statement to the media that Stephen
was found dead in the street at Erbbe and Constitution, shot in the chest or
back, with a shotgun lying beside him, giving the impression that he was killed
during a street fight. That was an out and out lie. Stephen wasn't killed in
any street fight, he was found dead inside a residence at 1325
Stephen had been estranged from our family for years because of his drug
use, but in the month before he was killed he tried to make amends. He'd come
over to the house and tell his brother to be glad of his normal lifestyle,
because he didn't have to distrust everyone and be afraid all the time. During
that month Stephen told me twice, "Mom, they're going to kill me." I
said, "Stephen, who is going to kill you?" He said, "If I told
you, you wouldn't believe me. It's best that you don't know." He told the
same thing to friends.
A man named Travis Dally has admitted to shooting Stephen and was arrested
but not charged, because he claims self-defense. How can it be self-defense
when Stephen was shot in the back? Our family has strong reason to believe that
Travis was hired to kill Stephen. After Stephen's death I found a note
in his jeans pocket warning him about a contract and naming the same informant
for APD in whose home Stephen was shot. I believe Stephen was killed for the
same reason Peter Klunck was -- he knew too much about dirty cops who were
involved in the
I met with people from the Office of the Medical Examiner and they seemed
surprised at the self-defense statements. They said one of the wounds indicated
that Stephen was shot by somebody standing over him when he was already down. I
took that information to APD homicide detective Damon Fay and asked him,
"If Travis shot Stephen once, and if he was down, why did Travis shoot him
again?" His response was, "Well, Travis had to get out the
door." Stephen was lying there, bleeding to death, and Travis had to get
out the door? Stephen was in the way, so it's okay to shoot him twice? That's
not self-defense!
I've talked to a few people who know what happened,
but they will not come forward because they're too scared. They tell me there
was more than one shooter and that part of the payment Travis received came
from a police officer. They say the cops had the place staked out for several
hours prior to Stephen's murder and that they purposefully let him bleed to
death.
Our private investigator interviewed Travis at the state penitentiary in
Police told reporters that, since Travis claimed self-defense, they would
not charge him with killing Stephen and instead were forwarding the case to the
District Attorney's office. Months went by, and nothing more happened, so in
Sept., 2000, I contacted the D.A.'s office to ask why charges hadn't yet been
filed against Travis. "Julie" in Case Management, told me that the
D.A's office had no file on the Stephen Haar homicide. Detective Fay did not
submit a report to the D.A.'s office. Julie said that, based on my information,
a file would now be started. In March, 2001, our private investigator rechecked
court records. Travis had still not been charged with Stephen's murder.
Carmen Haar
Update,
July 2004:
The Haar family has long believed that Stephen was murdered by a hired killer because he "knew too much" about drug activities involving people in influential positions.
It now appears their suspicions might be justified. In May 2004, Chief Judge John Brennan of
In June 2004, KRQE TV aired information from a confidential narcotics report
about drug activities involving, not only Judge Brennan, but numerous other
prominent NM judges, attorneys and members of the state legislature dating back
many years. "It draws on a variety
of sources and reads like a Who's Who of the
The Haars and other NM families who believe their loved ones were killed because
they "knew too much," (Kaitlyn Arquette, Ramona Duran, Peter Klunck,
etc.), are eager to learn the identities of the VIP drug traders whose names
are contained in that report. But they
have been told that those names cannot be released, because the VIPs have not
been arrested.
On July 2, 2009, Travis Dally was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of another victim, Henry George, whom he killed in 2002. Dally killed George after George sought protection from police because of a threat to his life. Stephen's mother testified at the trial in the George case that Dally had also murdered Stephen. Det. Fay testified under oath that he had never met Dally, despite information from the Assistant United States Attorney, Randy Castellanos, that Fay interviewed Dally at a prison facility in Grants, NM, after Stephen's death.