McKinley County deputies seek woman in child sexual abuse case
Deputies were looking for Maria Betty Holbert in a child sexual abuse case and asked residents to call 505-863-1410 with tips. She also had extraditable warrants in Arizona and Michigan.
McKinley County deputies were asking the public to help locate Maria Betty Holbert, a woman authorities wanted to question in an ongoing child sexual abuse case. The sheriff’s office said anyone with information should contact a local agency or the McKinley County Sheriff’s Office Investigations Division at 505-863-1410, and residents were urged not to confront her.
Deputies said Holbert was believed to be in Thoreau and also in the Gallup and Grants areas, putting the search across a wide stretch of northwestern New Mexico and the Interstate 40 corridor. The sheriff’s office said Holbert had extraditable warrants from Arizona and Michigan, giving the case a regional reach beyond McKinley County.
The sheriff’s office described Holbert as born March 19, 1978. It said she was about 5 feet 5 inches tall and weighed about 135 pounds.
The request carried added urgency because of the nature of the case. New Mexico guidance says reports of child abuse or neglect in schools, facilities and child care homes or centers are investigated by local law enforcement, and the state’s child-advocacy network says child-abuse interviews are conducted to improve investigations while minimizing trauma to children and families. Those procedures make sheriff’s offices central to cases where a suspect or person of interest may need to be found quickly.
McKinley County’s geography helps explain why deputies often lean on the public for tips. The 2020 Census counted 72,902 residents in the county, and Gallup is the county seat. With communities spread across a large rural area, people can move from one town to another quickly, making timely public reporting important when deputies are trying to locate someone tied to a child-safety investigation.
Holbert’s name also appeared in a New Mexico Court of Appeals case, State of New Mexico v. Maria Holbert, issued July 30, 2024. County records pages list 505-863-1410 for the sheriff’s office records division, matching the number deputies provided for tips in the search.
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