ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) –They were tourists on a driving tour of the west. They stopped in Albuquerque, then disappeared and were never seen again. Even though the kidnapping and ruthless murder of two middle-aged couples ranks among New Mexico’s most infamous unsolved crimes, today, hardly anyone has heard of the case. But go back 90 years to 1935 and you would be hard pressed to find anyone who didn’t know the gut-wrenching details of four innocent tourists who ventured into the Land of Enchantment and vanished.
“It’s our number one unsolved mystery in New Mexico. Four people just vanished from the face of the earth and never again be found without a trace,” said Albuquerque author and historian Don Bullis. “There has never been anything like it before. I don’t think there’s been anything like it since. So it was really a big deal.”
They were George Lorius, his wife Laura, Albert Heberer, and his wife Tillie. George owned a coal company in East St. Louis, Illinois. Albert was a barber in Duquoin, Illinois. Early on a Sunday in May, 90 years ago, the two couples packed up George’s ’29 Nash and set out on a leisurely road trip along Route 66 to California.
On May 21, 1935, the couples checked into the Vaughn Hotel, signing their names on the hotel register…