Staff Report
What at first appeared to be the suicide of a UNM student early in the morning on Valentine's Day may have actually been a hit-and-run accident, according to New Mexico State Police.
Lt. Pat Werick said State Police investigators originally believed 20-year-old UNM sophomore Serena Houser parked her car on the shoulder of the southbound lane of I-25 and walked into oncoming traffic near the Saint Francis exit in Santa Fe, where she was struck by two vehicles.
Werick said police arrived on the scene shortly after 6 a.m. and found what they believed was a suicide note in Houser's car. Emergency personnel pronounced her dead at the scene soon after.
The scene forced State Police to close down the interstate for more than five hours.
But now investigators are backing off their original claims, saying they believe Houser ran out of gas on her way to Albuquerque and was attempting to cross the highway when she was hit by what they now believe was four vehicles, Werick said.
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He said it is unclear whether the note found in Houser's car was intended to outline her intentions of taking her own life. It is also uncertain whether she wrote the note at all, Werick said.
The second car to strike Houser was a Santa Fe police vehicle, he said, which was one of two of the cars that stopped at the scene. The car's dashboard camera was on, catching the last two car's involvement on film, he said.
Police have since tracked one of the vehicles and its owner to Arizona but are still looking for the fourth.
"We need to have contact with all the parties involved to determine exactly what happened that day," Werick said.
