By Wheeler Cowperthwaite

Special to the SUN

A person walking their dog on Caja del Rio Road in Santa Fe found the remains of a Coyote man missing since last year.

The Office of the Medical Investigator and New Mexico State Police identified the remains, found on April 12, as that of Joel “Deano” Valdez, a Marine Corps veteran, reported missing by his family on Sept. 21, after he didn’t return home from working in Silver City.

How he died and whether his death was accidental, natural, or something else, has yet to be determined, State Police Spokeswoman Amanda Richards wrote in a press release.

“The remains will undergo further anthropological examination by OMI,” she wrote.

State Police investigators “conducted an extensive investigation, which remains active and ongoing,” she wrote.

Caja del Rio Road runs from State Road 599, north of the Santa Fe airport, to Las Campanas Drive. It is about a 5-mile drive from the Allsups gas station on Cerrillos Road where he was last seen alive.

The last time anyone heard from Valdez, 36, was the day he went missing, when he texted his wife, Vikki Valdez, at 2:30 p.m. Sept. 18, that he was headed home and excited to see her and their three children. He told his friends he was going home for the weekend, as he needed to start splitting wood and otherwise preparing for the coming winter.

His debit card was used twice on Sept. 18, once to get cash at an ATM on Cerrillos Road and once to get gas at an Allsups, also on Cerrillos Road. The person using the card at the gas station was confirmed to be Joel Valdez, his wife said at the time of his disappearance.

State Police investigators are asking for anyone with information to call them at 505-841-9256.