Ghost town to reopen, murder unsolved

From KRQE-TV.com - by RUSSELL CONTRERAS - STEINS, N.M. (AP) - Seven months after 68-year-old Larry Link was gunned down in the dusty expanse of the ghost town he owned and where he once hosted tourists, his murder remains unsolved. Speculation about the killing — Link was shot five times, his scalp was lacerated and his chest and stomach were bruised — from neighbors and family members ranges from Mexican drug cartels to a random stranger, who might have happened across the collection of dilapidated clapboard, rock and log buildings that is Steins from nearby Interstate 10. The investigation has stalled, with New Mexico State Police asking the public for help. Authorities believe Link's death might have been a robbery gone wrong. A semi-trailer used for storage on the property appeared to have been broken into, with items from inside strewn on the ground. Meanwhile, family members have announced that they will reopen the Steins Railroad Ghost Town for tours in May. The curious will be able to experience what was once a bustling mining and railroad town, which survived on water freighted in by the Southern Pacific, had competing bordellos and, most recently, a very modern episode of Old West violence. Steins is located in far southwest New Mexico, atop the state's Bootheel, where nearby residents have long worried about drug trafficking and its related violence. Read more

Ghost town to reopen, murder unsolved