DA: Parents Abused Children While Living in Filthy Underground Caves

A New Mexico mother was arraigned this week on child abuse charges and accusations that she and her husband sexually assaulted their 16-year-old daughter and her siblings while “living outside, year-round” on a 35-acre slab of land with “underground caves” and “filthy conditions,” according to prosecutors.

Court records show that Valerie Cordell, 41, of Deming, pleaded not guilty at her hearing in Luna County on Monday. She has been charged with 16 counts of child abuse, 1 count of criminal sexual penetration, and 1 count of planning to abuse a child. She was caught in February.

Prosecutors say Valerie Cordell and her 50-year-old husband Melvin Cordell abused their daughter together and made her do sexual things with her brothers in front of other adults.

The 6th Judicial District Attorney’s Office said in a press release that the family of nine was living on a 35-acre site in a semirural part of Luna County, near Deming. This was found out during a 4-month probe.

The DA’s office said, “Investigating officers described it as an inhumane and squalid scene.” “An old trailer, several camping trailers that couldn’t be lived in, broken-down cars, boxes of food that was going bad, bags of trash, and buckets all over the property that were full of human feces.”

Experts say that the police found out about what was going on in October 2024 after being told by the New Mexico State Police that sexual crimes were happening at 225 Opatah Road in Luna County, where the family lived. The couple has seven kids, ages 6 months to 16 years old. The DA’s office says that the kids are now in state protective care.

“Authorities were first told about a child whose father sexually abused her from the time she was 13 years old for 4 years,” the office said. “The children were found living in filthy conditions. They slept on a mattress in a partially underground cave with tunnels that were 4 to 6 feet long or took shelter in the broken-down vehicles.”

KRQE, a local CBS and Fox affiliate, reports that the 16-year-old victim told cops she had been pregnant at least twice before. According to court records seen by KRQE, she got pregnant twice, once when she was 14 and again when she was 16.

Lawyers for the accused have said that the Cordell property looks like a “city trash landfill,” with trash and rotting food piled up everywhere and “underground caves” with tunnels. It was also said that the desert was full of broken-down camps and cars.