Man leaves ‘blood trail’ trying to put dead man in car, New Mexico officials say

A 48-year-old man was arrested after being accused of killing a man in 2020, New Mexico officials said.

Albuquerque police officers found Carlos Morris “covered in blood” while trying to put the dead body of Teryn Kurtz in the passenger side of a dark blue sedan, according to a Feb. 15 news release by the police department.

While shining their flashlights, police saw Kurtz’s “motionless body” underneath Morris, according to a July 2020 news release by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Mexico.

Federal officials were working with state and local law enforcement at the time to “prosecute gun and dangerous crimes” in Albuquerque, prosecutors said.

Officials didn’t say what led to the shooting or if Morris and Kurtz knew each other.

Officers found a bottle of Clorox bleach behind Morris, and after he was handcuffed, they found a handgun in his pocket, police said.

Then, officers followed a “blood trail” that led them to “pools of blood,” police said. They were eventually led to an apartment rented by Morris, police said.

An officer said he could “smell a strong odor of bleach” in the apartment’s walkway, according to the probable cause statement.

Morris told investigators he didn’t shoot Kurtz, police said, but instead tried to give him CPR.

After the autopsy was conducted, detectives determined there weren’t any “signs of chest compressions” that would be consistent with CPR, police said.

Morris was arrested on Feb. 13 and charged with murder and tampering with evidence, police said.

There currently is no lawyer listed for Morris.

This story was originally published February 16, 2024 at 12:33 PM with the headline "Man leaves ‘blood trail’ trying to put dead man in car, New Mexico officials say."