Hey all... just saw that a new documentry titled "Nightmare at Las Cruces" just came to DVD. it will involve interviews and re-enactments. thought all my UM board buddies would be interested in checking it out. :-)

Sounds very interesting! This is such an intriguing (and tragic) case. A bit strange though releasing it on DVD? Is there really a market for that kind of documentaries? :confused:

I'm not a huge fan of Documentaries. but have watched a few. ("Food Inc.", "Bowling for Columbine" for college, etc.) there are people who live for Docus. so I'd say there is someone out there for every type of niche film market. :lol: I prefer Dramas, Comedies, Scary films, and Indies myself.

As for me I will eventually have this film sent to me in the mail via a Website which I'm not sure I can mention? :D

Thanks for the heads up.

I watched this documentary. A word of warning to anyone who might want to watch this film; the film shows the actually scene of the crime and the victims' dead bodies. IMO, the film makers went too far at times with the footage. The director doesn't have too much respect for the deceased. :mad:

The information about the suspects is quite intriguing. It's been suggested that the culprits were involved in drug dealing. Another interesting fact is that Las Cruces very close to Juarez, Mexico aka drug dealer's heaven...

The information about the suspects is quite intriguing. It's been suggested that the culprits were involved in drug dealing. Another interesting fact is that Las Cruces very close to Juarez, Mexico aka drug dealer's heaven...
Ehhh, no. THey aren't that close at all. Very long drive.

Whoooa! I had no idea they showed the dead bodies. :eek: but honestly what about shows like "Cold Case Files" and other shows? they also show footage of the dead bodies. I can understand if your offended though.with those other shows they tend to only show them face down, obscured, or blanked out. it sounds like the bodies are shown completely and graphically in this docu.

I haven't seen the documentery yet. but I'm considering not watching it. is it worth watching in your opinion? or is it junk.

Ehhh, no. THey aren't that close at all. Very long drive.From what I've checked, it's roughly an hour's drive from Las Cruces to Juarez. I consider that pretty darn close. Now if it were a ten hour drive, it would be a different story.


Orange_Sody_84: If you're really interested in the case, I'd say it's worth watching. The documentary does present theories as to why the two men were so brutal in their actions. The film makers also theorize on the identity of the killers. On the other hand, it can be hard to watch how the victims' families are coping with loss, as well as some of the footage of the crime scene. The mother who lost her two young daughters is a good example of this.

Overall, it's an average documentary but the viewer does get more information than more the UM segment.

I found this documentary to be pretty good, but extremely morbid. Obviously I knew the subject matter going in, but something about the crime scene footage disturbed me. It's worth listening to the director's commentary because he gives some more insight into some of the interviews. There is a shot of the bowling alley owner watching the UM shoot.

Obviously it's a cold case, so there is no resolution at the end. Life has not been good for the survivors.

Either way, it was such a vicious crime, most involved felt it had to be retribution for something. Despite looking like a robbery, they didn't take even close to all the money and the fire they set destroyed a lot of the evidence. Robbers don't generally shoot a 2 1/2 yr old in the head.

It's available from netflix, definitely worth a rent.

From what I've checked, it's roughly an hour's drive from Las Cruces to Juarez. I consider that pretty darn close. Now if it were a ten hour drive, it would be a different story.
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Not my idea of close but ok, you are correct.

I just watched it, and the crime scene photos weren't too disturbing for me. I mean, it was awful that they kept showing the little girls over and over again, but it's not worse then what you would catch on most crime scene shows.

By the way, the movie was very good. I still don't think Ron Senac had anything to do with the murders, but he and his son are definitely odd.

Thanks for all the feedback guys. I'll have to check it out. for some reason it has a looong wait on it in my Que.

I just watched this documentary on Super Channel in Canada and thought that it was great and seemed to be quite thorough. I suspect that this was not a random attack and that either the man who owned the bowling alley or his son who later died from a drug overdose were targeted but it still seems very strange to me that they chose to shoot children and alley employees who weren't related to the boss or his son. That does seem very un-moblike.

I found this documentary to be pretty good, but extremely morbid. Obviously I knew the subject matter going in, but something about the crime scene footage disturbed me. It's worth listening to the director's commentary because he gives some more insight into some of the interviews. There is a shot of the bowling alley owner watching the UM shoot.

Obviously it's a cold case, so there is no resolution at the end. Life has not been good for the survivors.

Either way, it was such a vicious crime, most involved felt it had to be retribution for something. Despite looking like a robbery, they didn't take even close to all the money and the fire they set destroyed a lot of the evidence. Robbers don't generally shoot a 2 1/2 yr old in the head.

It's available from netflix, definitely worth a rent.
I didn't see it on netflix when I just checked. hmmm.

Wouldn't be surprised if they took it off the site. they've done that to quite a few titles. anyway I never got around to watching it. talk about the dead bodies kinda turned me off from watching it.

I watched a documentary called "There's Something Wrong with Aunt Diane." about Diane Schuler. I was shocked they showed a shot of her dead body after the crash. I felt it was in bad taste. it was an interesting Docu. though.

I don't see the need to show the deceased victims, it's in poor taste and quite disturbing.

check netflix again. It's there.

I watched this documentary. A word of warning to anyone who might want to watch this film; the film shows the actually scene of the crime and the victims' dead bodies. IMO, the film makers went too far at times with the footage. The director doesn't have too much respect for the deceased. :mad:

That sounds awful. :(

The information about the suspects is quite intriguing. It's been suggested that the culprits were involved in drug dealing. Another interesting fact is that Las Cruces very close to Juarez, Mexico aka drug dealer's heaven...

Las Cruces is relatively close to the Mexican border itself. If the culprits were involved in drug dealing and operated primarily out of Mexico, it wouldn't necessarily follow that they came through El Paso/Juarez. There are plenty of places to cross.

playing the "evil and scary" music behind the Bowling Alley owners' interview was really unethical. I understand the amateurish attempt to sway the viewer's mind into thinking that this guy had something to do with the shooting, but if your goal is to really get this case solved, why not just lay the facts out as they are instead of selectively playing spooky music behind someone's words.

I saw this movie in the theater and the director was there to answer questions. He said the movie was meant to evoke emotion. He wasn't kidding!

I don't want to spoil it for anyone so I'll just say that at one point, a few people got up, left, and didn't come back! :eek:

I'm going to bump this because I just watched this, and I wanted to see what some of you thought:

First, a few notes about the film:


The film is tough to watch at times due to its use of actual crime photos/footage (there’s even news footage of Audire Teran receiving the news that her husband and daughters were dead) and the way the film opens with the actual 911 telephone call. Just absolutely chilling stuff.

The film then spends the next 30 minutes or so intersplicing reenacted footage with interviews of the survivors along with interviews of the first responders, widows of the victims, and other detectives who recall the events of that morning. This portion of the film is, once again, extremely hard to watch especially the moments where Melissa Repass recalls the events, her 911 call, and the things she heard as the killers were shooting people.

Now, one complaint I have is that the reenactment is, to me, unnecessarily cruel and exploitative in the way they show one of the killers putting a gun to the 2 year-old’s head and the way they use the baby’s screams throughout the execution scene. It seemed the filmmakers were going to unnecessary lengths (and coming off extremely amateurish in the process) to get their point


Now, about the case:

I'm more and more convinced that this wasn't just some random act. The owner of the bowling alley, Ron Senac, is believed to be involved in drugs by most residents of Las Cruces. That could all be rumors, sure, but it Teran's brother claimed that Senac, while he lived in the bowling alley, always had weird people visiting him.

Also, if it were a robbery, why leave over 5,000 dollars in the safe? (I also found it interesting that they set a fire on the desk in the office...)

The crime analyst states his personal opinion that it was not random – apparently the killers cased the bowling alley the prior night and one of the men even hit on Stephanie – and that it has all the makings of an execution, especially considering the brutality of the crime.

I don't know if Senac is directly involved or not, but there is certainly a cloud of suspicion surrounding him.


A few UM notes about the movie:

It's only mentioned twice -- very briefly -- but there is one scene where they show Senac watching the taping of the UM episode. There's also another scene where a reporter asks the detective after the investigation kind of hit a snag how long it was going to take the Las Cruces police department to call Unsolved Mysteries. I thought that was kind of interesting.

Anyway, and interesting, but kind of long, documentary about as frustrating a case that has ever been profiled on UM.

Thanks for that detailed analysis. :-) Unfortunately you've confirmed my suspicions that the Docu. *is* exploitive. I thought showing the footage of the bodes/crime scene was bad enough. but there are gritty re-enactments of the murders as well? Well call me a wuss but this isn't my cup of Tea and I won't bother to watch it.

I own this but haven't had time to watch it all yet...I have seen the beginning. I've also seen the Diane Schuler docu... I don't find it exploitive that they show the crime scene/dead body photos. It adds reality to a documentary, and we are supposed to understand that it was a terrible crime. Painting it over with flowers and not showing everything dumbs down the documentary

Who said anything about photos? it shows footage of the *actual* bodies and the crime scene. it also shows footage of a family member's reaction having just learned a loved one was killed in the bowling alley. Now if that's not exploitive I don't know what is.

Also a docu. doesn't need to be shocking just for the sake of appearing "edgy or to get it's point across. anyone with even the smallest knowledge of this crime knows it was brutal. Doesn't mean we need it shoved down our throats.

Who said anything about photos? it shows footage of the *actual* bodies and the crime scene. it also shows footage of a family member's reaction having just learned a loved one was killed in the bowling alley. Now if that's not exploitive I don't know what is.

Also a docu. doesn't need to be shocking just for the sake of appearing "edgy or to get it's point across. anyone with even the smallest knowledge of this crime knows it was brutal. Doesn't mean we need it shoved down our throats.


This is so true. I'm all for documentaries being unflinching with the right intention. But when "A Nightmare in Las Cruces" was over, I never really got a good understanding WHY the director felt the need to make the documentary. The footage of that day is used in poor taste because we already have the survivors and widows talking about what they went through that day -- there's really no need to punctuate it with the footage. The reenactment just came off as such hack work, too.

It reminds me of docs like "Catfish" and "Dear Zachary" which are a hundred times more competent than this doc, but they are all equally off-putting in their exploitation of the material.

link to the doc online

http://www.twitvid.com/3Z9VX

bumping this....I have watched the documentary and it is eerie not easy to watch I'll admit I could not watch it all. it does go in a lot of different angles to me it looks like the detectives do not have a clue(neither does the crime analyst) and the film-maker casts a lot of doubt on the family/owner maybe without enough proof or evidence. I wonder what the family/victims thought of it if they watched it. at the end hearing one victim talk about not wanting it to be solved because then they have to revisit the pain all over again....that is so sad.

to reply to a point made before yes las cruces is very close to Juarez and el paso. I've driven that area many times an hour is nothing. the suspects really could have gone anywhere in just a few hours.

it is impossible to say someone was Mexican or Cuban etc by looking at them once. obviously they could have come from anywhere in central/south America/carribe. or they could be US nationals with Hispanic background. In addition to Mexico influence...New Mexico also has a lot more native American heritage compared to other southwest states, but getting the eye witness' account they did not seem to be locals... I said in another post and I can't find the main thread, but Roberto solis(who I still believe is still at large) and was featured on UM looks like both of the suspect sketches if you look at multiple photos of him.

Just saw the UM segment about this horrific LC bowling alley crime. This is definitely one of the more heinous crimes to be featured on this series. Sad that so many innocent people died/were injured. Too bad that they still haven't caught the perps.

Since I just heard about this, I haven't read up on the theories re: why this happened. But, it definitely seems like more than just a robbery gone bad, but something more personal - chilling.

Still haven't seen the documentary "Nightmare in Las Cruces", but plan to at some point.

I own the DVD and have watched it twice. To me, the most disturbing scene was the reenactment where the perpetrator held the gun to the crying child's head (I believe the child was a very young toddler....I haven't watched the doc in a few years).