1980s Franciscan priest murders

Between 1982 and 1984, two Catholic priests connected to New Mexico were killed or disappeared in circumstances that investigators have long debated whether to treat as linked. On the evening of August 5, 1982, Father Reynaldo Rivera, a Franciscan priest at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi in Santa Fe, New Mexico, received a call at the rectory from a man asking him to administer last rites to a dying relative near a rest stop in Waldo, New Mexico. Rivera agreed to meet the caller and was never seen alive again. His body was found several days later in a muddy field near the Waldo exit on Interstate 25; he had been shot once in the stomach and strangled with wire, possibly a coat hanger. His car was later found abandoned at a rest stop on Interstate 40 near Grants, with an empty gas tank. The FBI produced a psychological profile suggesting the motive was revenge, and a parolee initially considered a suspect was ruled out through alibi and fingerprint evidence.

Nearly two years later, on July 20, 1984, Father John Kerrigan, a diocesan priest recently assigned to Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Ronan, Montana, disappeared after leaving a bakery in town. He failed to appear for morning mass the next day, and a missing person report was filed on July 23. On July 29, bloodied clothing and a bloodied coat hanger were found along Montana Highway 35 near Flathead Lake, and the following day his car — like Rivera's, a brown Chevrolet Malibu — was found abandoned with his wallet, containing $1,200, a bloodstained shovel, and a pillowcase in the trunk. Kerrigan's remains have never been recovered.

Investigators noted several parallels between the two cases: both men drove the same model of car, both cars were driven away from the scene, evidence at both scenes involved wire coat hangers, and both men were around 58 years old at the time. Kerrigan had also spent time in 1983 at a New Mexico retreat for clergy with personal difficulties prior to his Montana assignment, though no evidence surfaced that he and Rivera had known each other. A Santa Fe police lieutenant said in 1984 that he believed the cases were connected, though a New Mexico State Police detective disputed any connection in 1992; the same lieutenant said in 2022 he no longer believed the cases were linked.

Other Montana disappearances around the same period, including a schoolteacher and an Episcopal priest who had previously worked with Kerrigan, have been raised as possibly related, though no evidence has confirmed any connection. In 2015, the Diocese of Helena included Kerrigan on a published list of clergy implicated in the sexual abuse of minors. In 2020, an author who reviewed detective notes on the Kerrigan case proposed an alternative theory that Kerrigan may have staged his own disappearance. The cases were profiled together on Unsolved Mysteries in 1988 and remain unsolved. <parameter name="timeline">[{"date":"1982-08-05","event":"Fr. Reynaldo Rivera receives a call requesting last rites and disappears from Santa Fe, New Mexico."},{"date":"1982-08-08","event":"Rivera's body is found in a muddy field near the Waldo exit on Interstate 25."},{"date":"1984-07-18","event":"Fr. John Kerrigan is transferred to Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Ronan, Montana."},{"date":"1984-07-20","event":"Kerrigan disappears after leaving a bakery in Ronan, Montana."},{"date":"1984-07-23","event":"A missing person report is filed for Kerrigan."},{"date":"1984-07-29","event":"Bloodied clothing and a bloodied coat hanger belonging to Kerrigan are found along Montana Highway 35."},{"date":"1984-07-30","event":"Kerrigan's car is found abandoned with his wallet, a bloodstained shovel, and a pillowcase in the trunk."},{"date":"1988","event":"The Rivera and Kerrigan cases are profiled together on NBC's Unsolved Mysteries."},{"date":"1992","event":"A New Mexico State Police detective states there is no connection between the two cases."},{"date":"2015","event":"The Diocese of Helena publishes a list of clergy implicated in sexual abuse of minors that includes Kerrigan."},{"date":"2020","event":"Author Brian D'Ambrosio proposes an alternative theory that Kerrigan may have staged his own disappearance, based on detective notes."},{"date":"2022-08","event":"Lieutenant Gilbert Ulibarri states he no longer believes the Rivera and Kerrigan cases are connected."}]