Brittni Montano hopes for a break in her son’s case every day. She has been since November of 2023. That’s when she learned her 24-year-old son John Gabaldon III, also known as Tre, was murdered. Detectives told her he was shot, beaten, and dumped on the Pajarito Mesa. Nearly a year and a half later and she still doesn’t have answers.

“There has to be DNA and other things that have to lead somewhere,” Montano said.

There is DNA in Tre’s case. Bernalillo County Detective Cameron Carroll submitted it to our state’s forensic laboratory in January 2024. Montano was hopeful. But that gave way to frustration. Carroll said he finally got the results last month, 13 months later. The case had been at a standstill.

“We had to wait for DNA to come back because we were getting to a point that I have worked most of the leads if not all of the leads that have come in and it just slows things down,” he said.

Carroll said before the pandemic, he would get DNA results back from the lab within six to eight months. Now he’s waiting 14 to 15 months in some cases. It’s hard for Montano to wrap her mind around.

“Here we are a year and four months later and there’s so much that can happen in that time with these people,” she said. “They can be gone, they can be hurting other people.”

It’s not only frustrating for her, but also for Carroll.

“The quicker we’re able to identify persons of interest, we’re able to identify suspects, the more evidence we can collect,” he said.

The spokesperson for the state’s forensic lab, Herman Lovato, said they’ve faced staffing challenges since 2020 when they lost eight DNA scientists in a two-year period. He said they’ve hired 10 DNA scientists since January of 2024 but with training it takes more than a year before they can work on their own.

More requests for specialized DNA analysis and applying new forensic technology is also contributing to the delays. Lovato said the lab prioritizes rush cases for the courts and he expects turnaround times to improve as early as 2026.