Las Cruces bowling alley massacre

On the morning of February 10, 1990, two men entered the Las Cruces Bowling Alley at 1201 East Amador Avenue in Las Cruces, New Mexico, through an unlocked door as staff prepared to open for the day. One gunman confronted the alley's cook, Ida Holguin, in the kitchen and forced her at gunpoint into the office of manager Stephanie C. Senac, where Senac's 12-year-old daughter, Melissia Repass, and Melissia's 13-year-old friend, Amy Houser, were already being held by the second gunman.

The gunmen ordered the women and children to lie on the floor while they removed approximately $4,000 to $5,000 from the bowling alley's safe. During the robbery, the alley's 26-year-old pin mechanic, Steve Teran, arrived to drop off his two young daughters, two-year-old Valerie Teran and six-year-old Paula Holguin, at the alley's day care because he had been unable to find a babysitter. Teran walked into the office and discovered the scene. The gunmen then shot all seven people present multiple times at point-blank range before setting fire to papers on a desk and leaving the building.

The fire was reported at 8:33 a.m. Responding officers found that Amy Houser, Paula Holguin, and Steven Teran had died at the scene. Valerie Teran was taken to a hospital but was declared dead on arrival. Melissia Repass, though shot five times, was able to call 9-1-1 from the office phone, an act credited with enabling the rapid emergency response that saved her own life along with those of her mother and Ida Holguin. Stephanie Senac survived the initial attack but died in August 1999 due to complications from her injuries.

Within an hour of the shooting, police established ten roadblocks around Las Cruces and screened people leaving the city. The U.S. Customs Service, the Army, and the Border Patrol assisted with aerial searches using planes and helicopters, but no arrests were made.

As of 2015, the case remained under active investigation by the Las Cruces Police Department. In a 2016 Las Cruces Sun-News feature marking 26 years since the shooting, Anthony Teran, brother of victim Steven Teran, said the crime should not remain unsolved and urged anyone with information to come forward. Authorities have since sought to build a DNA profile from evidence recovered at the scene. The case has also been the subject of a documentary film and multiple television features aimed at generating new leads, though it remains unsolved.