FARMINGTON, N.M. (KRQE) – A Farmington woman and McCormick Elementary third-grade teacher, 51-year-old Heather Fernandez-Hoefer, has been arrested in connection to the 2020 murder of her husband, Robert Hoefer, 49. She is facing charges of second-degree murder and tampering with evidence.
Robert Hoefer was found dead with stab wounds in the couple’s South Ivie Avenue residence on the morning of November 29, 2020, after Fernandez-Hoefer called his death into 911. The affidavit details Fernandez-Hoefer’s various versions of what happened, and it eventually concludes that her “inconsistent and unlikely statements are signs of deception.”
Fernandez-Hoefer’s statements vary greatly in both the timeline and manner of death, but, throughout the affidavit, she says that Hoefer stabbed himself in the computer room of their home while she was out of the room; when she found out about the injuries, she helped him clean up his chest; they went to bed separately, and she later found him face-down on the floor of their bedroom…