Hard to believe, but the stories on this website dedicated to the Girly Chew Hossencofft kidnapping and murder investigation date back more than 15-years now.
The first story appeared in early October, 1999, about three weeks after Girly went missing.
Up until that time, I’d been reporting on this story for KRQE-TV, but had become increasingly aware that there was more to this case than the time allotted for television news usually affords.
In my opinion, this story is a domestic violence case at its core.
But there are so many layers wrapped around that core, much like the tightly-encased rubber bands hidden inside a golf ball.
Once revealed, many of the layers inside this story are flat-out sensational.
Because I felt compelled to tell–and seek–more of this story, I taught myself how to make website, and increasingly spent hours investigating this case on my own time.
Just weeks after going online, the website resulted in my first major exclusive interview for this story: Girly’s brother, Andrew Chew, reached-out to me via e-mail from Malaysia.
Andrew wrote that, on behalf of his parents and brother, he wanted to express his family’s gratitude for this website, calling it their sole conduit for information about their beloved Girly’s case.
Yes, that touched me. And it strengthened my resolve to pursue this story.
On November 12, 1999, Andrew stepped-off of a plane in Albuquerque. After taking a few steps, he shook my hand and gave me the the agreed-upon exclusive on-camera interview for that evening’s 10 o’clock newscast.
The first edition of this website was built using a very simple piece of free software called HotDog Express, downloaded via AOL.
A bit later, I stepped-up my game and built the site on slightly more sophisticated software: Adobe’s PageMill 3.0.
In time, I wrote more than a hundred stories about the case here.
In more than one way, this website helped me land a book deal.
Tens of thousands of television viewers visited this site during Court TV’s (now TruTV) week-long coverage of Linda Henning’s trial.
And until late November of 2014, this site long-rested on those old Web pages that had been built using PageMill 3.0.
This website is now built with WordPress.
I’ve been self-hosting another WordPress blog for a few years now, and have long-since realized that this Hossencofft case website would be much more user-friendly if I moved it into WordPress.
Fact is, I first started moving this site into WordPress in 2011. But my hosting company at that time was hacked and lost everything. I had not backed-up that work I’d been doing in WordPress. So, I lost everything, too. And I never started-over with the WordPress rebuild.
Until now.
The November 2014 release of the September Sacrifice eBook inspired me to undertake the move to WordPress, once again.
As of this writing, the text from all of the original stories now appears here. The headlines and dates for each story remain consistent with the old version of this site.
This new version of the site is also greatly enhanced with improved images.
I am currently in the process of adding the photos and other media.
Previously, most of the photos on this site were relatively small and not optimized for the web.
Now, you will often see larger and better versions of the photos.
This site is optimized for search, too; both here within the site, and for search engines (even the photos are rich in metadata).
The domain here is new, too.
For many years, this site was at markhorner.com/Hoss (you had to make sure to capitalize that “H”, too).
Now it’s simply septembersacrifice.com, neatly streamlining with the title of the book I’ve written about this case.
I hope you find this website useful. Rest assured, I do back-up this content regularly now.
Over the years, many visitors have expressed appreciation for several types of information found within these stories.
For example, the Hossencofft case is one of most forensic-intensive investigations in New Mexico’s history. It might even be at the top of that list.
As I’ve worked on re-building this website, especially editing the old photos, a great many memories have come rushing back. And they haven’t all been of the cold, dark ilk that penetrates so much of this story.
Rather, I’ve found it enjoyable to recall the many warm memories of my associations—lengthy or ever so brief—with the many good people with whom I had the opportunity to cross paths with during the years that unfolded over this period of my life.
If you are one of those people, thank you for that privilege.
If the Girly Chew Hossencofft case is new to you, thank you for taking a moment to check-out the story here.
And if, by chance, you know something more about what happened to Girly—no matter how seemingly small—I urge you to contact the Albuquerque Police Department.
Diazien Hossencofft long-ago vowed that Girly would be killed, and that no one would ever find her body.
She still hasn’t been found.
She’s still out there.
Someone knows something.
If that someone is you, please do the right thing.
It’s time.
Sincerely,
Mark Horner
December 6, 2014