20 years later, NMSU police still seek clues in disappearance of mom, son

LAS CRUCES -- The little boy's floppy bangs would be gone now, his smile lines deeper, a few crows' feet around the squint of his eyes.

Maybe. That's just the best guess of the age-progression experts at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Two decades ago Wednesday, on Feb. 23, 1991, the boy -- Nicholas Smith, 11, and his mother, Edyth Ann Dewees Warner, 35, disappeared from New Mexico State University student housing. As part of its ongoing effort to find the two and put the mystery to rest, the center this week is asking for the public's help solving the case.

Edyth's husband, Henry Warner -- with whom Edyth had another, younger, son, now grown -- didn't report the disappearance to police for a week, and told authorities the two had left the house on foot, leaving behind Edyth's car and taking almost $1,000 in cash and $10,000 in gold coins. He didn't tell his wife's parents about the disappearance until March, when they became concerned that their daughter wasn't returning calls.

A woman in student housing said she'd seen Edyth, an art student, "leave her house with a number of cardboard boxes in her station wagon a week before she disappeared," the Los Angeles Times wrote about the case in October, 1991.

Police did not suspect foul play, but do now, said NMSU Deputy Police Chief Stephen Lopez.

"I can't tell you the thoughts of the people back then, but there's a strong possibility of foul play," he said Friday, though he declined to name

Warner as a suspect. "It continues to be as actively investigated as we can, based on the information we have. Right now, the biggest challenge we have is the fact that a lot of time has passed since then, but we are still confident there is somebody out there that has information -- that saw something, heard something, that may be able to assist to bringing it to closure."

Since the disappearance, former neighbors have been tracked down and given the police good information, Lopez said. On his own, Randle Dewees, Edyth's father, has spent tens of thousands of dollars on lawyers and private investigators -- even two psychics, who both directed them to the desert 12 miles north of town -- he told the Sun-News in 2005.

"I'm not holding out hope of finding them alive," he said at the time. "I've thought since 1993 they were dead."

It's Dewees who Lopez said he'd like to help now.

"We'd really like to help the Dewees family find closure on this," he said. "It's one of those cases that's really nagging."

Indeed, the case remains the only missing person investigation at NMSU. The most recent activity in the case was in 2008, when the Do-a Ana Sheriff's Office's Cold Case Unit assisted NMSU police in digging up the family's former home at 714 Standley Drive.

"We basically tore it apart," said Lt. Michael Kinney, who took part in the weeklong search. "We pulled up the floor. We used forensic lights and chemicals to see if we could find any evidence of foul play -- blood, tissue. We didn't find anything in the house. And we actually ended up digging the backyard and went searching in a couple areas NMSU investigators pointed out, suspected (they) might have been buried there."

A backhoe dug the home's backyard down to six feet, Kinney recalled. While sifting the dirt, they found something. Bones. Fortunately -- or unfortunately -- they turned out to be the remnant of some long-ago pig or goat roast.

"We didn't find any evidence ... nothing to support foul play," Kinney said. "There had been so much time that had passed. We were there for ... gosh, for a long time."

But it's certainly not hopeless, say investigators. The remains of Joanne Dodge, an NMSU student who went missing in 1981, were found in June 2005. Somewhere, someone knows what happened to Nicholas Smith and Edyth Warner.

"Law enforcement, particularly investigations, is always changing," Kinney said. "The methods and science is always evolving. At the time of the disappearance, there may have been testing methods or investigating techniques not known or not available. Plus, when you add on the time, you have different investigators look on with a fresh set of eyes and sometimes help break cases."

In the '80s and '90s, for instance, investigators could collect blood and saliva samples, hoping that one day they'd be able to find out who the samples belonged to -- as is common now.

"We don't give up," Kinney said. "(Cold cases) just may not have the front-page coverage on (them), but ... they're always being worked. Sometimes, we just have to wait until technology catches up. Or somebody comes forward."

Anyone with any information on the disappearance of or current whereabouts of Smith or Warner is urged to contact NCMEC at (800) THE-LOST (843-5678) or NMSU police at (575) 646-7000. Calls are kept confidential and may be made anonymously.

Ashley Meeks can be reached at (575) 541-5462.

The missing

Nicholas Smith, a white male with brown hair and hazel eyes, was last seen when he was 11. He was 5-feet 1-inch tall at the time and weighed 115 pounds.

Edyth Warner, a white woman with brown hair and blue eyes, was last seen when she was 35. She was 5-feet tall and weighed 145 pounds.