Husband buries wife in desert, camps there to keep grave hidden, NM officials say

A husband shot his wife and buried her in a shallow grave in the New Mexico desert, then he set up camp there to keep people from finding her body, prosecutors said.

A jury convicted 57-year-old Shaun Castain LeFleur of first-degree murder and tampering with evidence, then a judge sentenced him to life in prison, according to a news release from the District Attorney for the 12th Judicial District of New Mexico.

LeFleur’s attorney information was not immediately available.

Prosecutors described LeFleur, of Louisiana, as a “career criminal” who they say forced his wife, Nancy LeFleur, to go on the run with him.

Investigators said the couple came to Otero County in late 2023, and not long after, LeFleur was accused of beating his wife.

The couple began staying at a dispersed campsite outside Oliver Lee Memorial State Park, but LeFleur decided to move their camp to a more remote area of the desert, according to prosecutors.

He started looking online for where he could buy a gun and places he could flee to in Mexico, investigators said.

Then one night in February 2024, “he forced his wife Nancy out of their tent and onto her knees,” prosecutors said.

Investigators said they learned LeFleur fatally shot her “execution style,” wrapped her body in a tarp and buried her body in a shallow grave.

He fled to Texas, but a month later he came back to the scene in the desert and set up a camp feet away from the grave “to discourage people from stumbling upon the body,” prosecutors said.

About a month after that, a tipster came forward to say LeFleur had killed his wife and buried her in the desert, leading to the discovery of her body about a mile north of the state park in the Dog Canyon area, prosecutors said.

In April 2024, New Mexico State Police found LeFleur parked on the side of a highway and arrested him, prosecutors said.

He had already faced prosecution in the battery case against his wife, but by the time he was convicted, Nancy LeFleur was already dead, according to prosecutors.

The presiding judge said LeFleur “showed no remorse for the murder of his wife” and no one “believed his testimony,” according to the district attorney.

Otero County lies on the border with Mexico.

This story was originally published May 26, 2025 at 1:19 PM with the headline "Husband buries wife in desert, camps there to keep grave hidden, NM officials say."