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There was this other tip that came in and I was shocked at how it was handled. So, a couple of days
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>> [music] >> after Melissa disappeared, this tourist was near a church in Taos, New Mexico
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when she noticed a man on horseback who appeared to be praying. It was an interesting sight, so she decided to
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take a photo with him. But then she noticed that he seemed to be crying and apparently was
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intoxicated. So, she approached him and asked if he was okay and he told her that they had been searching for his
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missing cousin up in the mountains [music] and that he'd found her body decapitated. But later that night, she
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saw a missing person poster for Melissa and I guess she put two and two together, so she reported the encounter
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to police and gave them a copy of the photo that she had taken. Investigators showed them to Melissa's
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family and they weren't related to the man, but they did know him. Her brother recognized the guy as [music]
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64-year-old Rick Valerio, known as Wild. He works with horses near a local golf course.
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And guess what he drives? A blue Dodge truck. Egypt Mata went to speak with Rick on Monday, July 21st.
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>> When did they know about this tip? So, that part's unclear. The family seems to
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think that it was right away, but Mata insinuates that it was later, which is why they're not talking to him for like
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a month. But I don't want to get hung up on the police response time because I think the proper thing to get hung up on
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is the interview itself because according to police, once they talked to Rick, he admitted that he helped with
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search efforts, but he denied everything else. So, they just dismissed the lead.
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They think Rick concocted the story for attention. So, the Mondragons actually got the body
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cam footage of this interview that makes them like rule him out and be prepared to scream.