{"id":45988,"date":"2021-07-01T18:43:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-02T00:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/two-found-dead-on-u-s-highway-160-on-mancos-hill\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:28:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:28:40","slug":"two-found-dead-on-u-s-highway-160-on-mancos-hill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/two-found-dead-on-u-s-highway-160-on-mancos-hill\/","title":{"rendered":"Two found dead on U.S. Highway 160 on Mancos Hill"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Blotter
Blotter lights<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A married couple was found dead Wednesday in a vehicle parked on U.S. Highway 160 atop Mancos Hill, said Montezuma County Sheriff Steve Nowlin.<\/p>\n

The driver, identified as Eric Richard Allen, 56, died from a gunshot wound to the head.<\/p>\n

His wife, Yong C. Allen, 56, also was found dead, although the cause of death was unknown, Nowlin said. She had no obvious trauma.<\/p>\n

\n

To get help<\/h4>\n

Help for people having suicidal thoughts or for those who fear a person is considering suicide:<\/p>\n

Axis Care Hotline<\/strong>:24\/7 local response to your crisis & behavioral health needs: (970) 247-5245.<\/p>\n

NATIONAL SUICIDE PREVENTION HOTLINE<\/strong>:(800) 273-TALK (8255) or text \u201cTALK\u201d to 741741.<\/p>\n

RED NACIONAL DE PREVENCI\u00d3N DEL SUICIDIO<\/strong>:(888) 628-9454.<\/p>\n

FORT LEWIS COLLEGE COUNSELING CENTER<\/strong>:247-7212.<\/p>\n

BOYS TOWN HOTLINE<\/strong>:(800) 448-3000.<\/p>\n

SAFE2TELL COLORADO<\/strong>:(877) 542-7233 or safe2tell.org<\/p>\n

COLORADO CRISIS SUPPORT LINE<\/strong>:(844) 493-8255 or text \u201cTALK\u201d to 38255 or online at coloradocrisisservices.org to access a live chat available in 17 languages. The line has mental-health professionals available to talk to adults or youths 24 hours a day.<\/p>\n

AMERICAN FOUNDATION FOR SUICIDE PREVENTION<\/strong>:Colorado chapter information available at afsp.org\/chapter\/afsp-colorado\/<\/p>\n

FOR MEN<\/strong>:A website for adult men contemplating suicide is available at mantherapy.org<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Next of kin have been notified. The two were from Roswell, New Mexico, Nowlin said.<\/p>\n

The couple were found in a blue and tan Ford Expedition with New Mexico plates facing east on the south shoulder of Highway 160 about 100 feet west of the La Plata County line.<\/p>\n

The vehicle had been parked there since Saturday, Nowlin said. It was not damaged and had not been in a crash.<\/p>\n

A local driver noticed the vehicle had been there for a while and contacted law enforcement at 5:15 p.m. Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Eric Allen\u2019s gunshot wound is suspected to be self-inflicted, Nowlin said. A handgun was recovered, and the vehicle was towed.<\/p>\n

The cause of death of Yong Allen and the couple\u2019s time of death remained under investigation.<\/p>\n

Autopsies will be performed for both victims this week and will include toxicology analysis, Nowlin said.<\/p>\n

Luggage was found in the vehicle, suggesting the couple had been on an extended trip.<\/p>\n

The case remains under investigation, Nowlin said. He said law enforcement protocol is that the deaths will be treated as a homicide until proven otherwise.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will follow the evidence, and go from there,\u201d Nowlin said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Married couple from Roswell, New Mexico<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16302,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[255,28,52,83,60,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-45988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-death-and-dying","tag-headlines","tag-law-enforcement","tag-mancos","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45988"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86704,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45988\/revisions\/86704"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45988"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=45988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}