Police certain knife left at scene

Clovis Police Chief Steve Sanders said investigators are certain the knife used to kill Ariel Ulibarri was left at the scene of the crime on Nov. 9 and was not placed there later.

He based his statement on conversations with suspected killer Matthew Jennings.

Matthew Jennings

Sanders, in an interview with the Clovis News Journal on Thursday, said Jennings described how he discarded the knife before crossing over a fence and leaving the Goodwin Lake walking trails early that Sunday morning.

Jennings is charged with murder in the stabbing death of the 23-year-old mother of two.

Ulibarri’s family found the knife while visiting the scene of Ulibarri’s death on the morning of Nov. 10 and reported it to police. Police have said lab tests showed evidence of DNA from both Ulibarri and Jennings on the knife, which led to Jennings’ arrest on Tuesday.

Sanders said dogs used at the crime scene on Nov. 9 were instructed to follow the scent from a cell phone, which led investigators away from the knife.

Sanders said members of the police department were assembling to return to the park and search for more evidence on the morning of Nov. 10 when they received the phone call from the family that a knife had been located near the scene of the attack.

Also in Thursday’s interview, Sanders said the two people taken into custody on Nov. 21 as “persons of interest” in the case provided information that cleared them as suspects. Sanders said authorities now believe there “is absolutely no connection” between Ulibarri’s death and Lloyd Bagwell or Shannon Buckmaster.

Sanders said detectives in the Ninth Judicial District’s Major Crimes Unit worked “well over thousands” of hours to identify and ultimately arrest Jennings, who police said has confessed to the slaying.

Law officers received “well over 100” tips from the community after the homicide, Sanders said. None of them produced information that qualified for a $15,000 reward offered for information that led to the killer’s arrest.

Officials said earlier this week they received information from the state crime lab about DNA evidence linking Jennings to the crime. When they began searching for him, they found him already in jail on unrelated charges alleging a parole violation.

Sanders said when Jennings began talking to detectives he “started off trying to construct a story” about being hired to kill Ulibarri, but later in the conversation, Sanders said, Jennings told investigators the stabbing was done in rage.

Officials are continuing to search for a motive in the case.