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The death of a UNM foreign exchange student host parent initially believed to be a suicide is now being investigated as a homicide.
In July, Marc Herrera, 37, died at a foreign exchange student party held at his home in Northeast Albuquerque.
Witnesses said Herrera was “heavily intoxicated” and that he told the students to move into different rooms at gunpoint. Herrera’s wife, Amy, said Herrera then put her hand on the gun and forced her to shoot him as they both held the gun.
But according to report of the Office of the Medical Examiner, issued Aug. 30, Herrera died on July 1 from a “gunshot wound of the head” and was “shot by an assailant with (a) handgun.”
According to autopsy report, fractures found in Herrera’s mouth, combined with microscopic particles of soot found in Herrera’s mouth “suggested that the weapon was fired from just inside or just outside the oral cavity,” and that “the manner of death is homicide.”
The Albuquerque Police Department declined to comment about the ongoing investigation.
Check with DailyLobo.com for more on this story as it develops.
