My name is Sally Sanchez, I am one of the three Co-founders of the New Mexico Crusaders for Justice and this is my story.


I am a mother to 3 beautiful children. I have two daughters who live in Albuquerque and my son Antonio who is my angel in heaven. My journey started on December 16, 2020, at 3:09 p.m. Antonio was living at a house on 8th Street with two other roommates. He had reconnected via Facebook with an old girlfriend and on December 13, 2020, she went to his home. In three days, she plotted with another person to have my son robbed and killed. During their plotting they brought in two other males and a female. On December 16th, she and them fought my son, tied him up, then executed him in his own home. Antonio was born on December 23, 1987, his murder was exactly one week to the day of his birthday, my son never made it to 33 years old. He will forever be 32.

When I found out that my son had been taken from us in such a heinous way, I was angry, I was in shock, I was in disbelief, but most of all my heart had been ripped out of my chest. Antonio was the youngest of my three children and my only son. What I came to realize is that I was lost in this new life that I had been given. I didn’t know of any resources; I didn’t know what the next step was. Yes, you plan a funeral service but then what. One day I was scrolling through Facebook and came across a video of a mother (Alicia Otero) whose son was just murdered. She was crying, she was angry, she felt lost, everything I had been going through, so I reached out to her as I felt her pain, I was her.

During our conversations we realized that in the State of New Mexico there are limited services for the families of the victims. Due to covid everything was closed, back logged, or out of service. We both were directed to NIA/NM for grief support. That is where we started our grief support, the only agency in New Mexico who could help me to understand what I was feeling and dealing with. I was then introduced to another mother (Josette Otero) who had her son murdered before mine. I invited her to NIA/NM to see if it would help her with her immense grief. You now can see how the three of us became to be the New Mexico Crusaders for Justice, the voice of our loved one who can no longer speak for themselves. To honor them till our last breath, to fight for justice, and to celebrate the life they lived.