Crime Scene in Monument Valley in 1987

Crime Scene in Monument Valley in 1987

By Harrison Louie Jr. and Clarissa Deal

Being a Navajo Police officer is a dangerous job. The reason why is because you are isolated on the biggest Native American reservation in the U.S. It’s nearly the size of West Virginia. So if an officer is called to a location and things get from bad to worse, the officer can be in very big trouble. Asking for assistance can take up to an hour long. The Navajo country is a very beautiful place where tourists like to come every year. There are many mountains and lakes and heading toward Southeast Utah is Monument Valley.  Monument Valley is also a beautiful desert with mesas and buttes with lots of canyons. In December of 1987 two Navajo Police officers were killed around the Monument Valley area.

On the night of December 4, 1987 Officer Roy Lee Stanley arrived at a party near Gouldings, Utah at a place called Teardrop Path. A fight broke out between Officer Stanley and the other men that were at the party. Officer Stanley was over powered by the four men who attacked him and put him in handcuffs. With his hands cuffed, he was put in the police panel. Minutes later, another officer named Andy Begay arrived at the scene. A gun was pointed at his head and was also put in the patrol truck. The four men then drove the two officers to a remote area. With the police officers still in the patrol vehicle, the four assailants poured gasoline on the vehicle and set it ablaze. The next morning Officer Roy Lee Stanley and Andy Begay’s bodies were found in the truck.

Sueann Deal, a relative of Roy Lee Stanley, was in her twenties at the time. This is her side of the story of what happened that week when the two police officers were killed. She said when she remembers Stanley she remembers seeing him at the Oljato Chapter house for an election and Stanley walked up to being his usual self, talking about a lot of things. That was the only time she remembered talking to him. The party at Teardrop Path started on December 4, 1987. The people who weren’t at the party called the police station in Kayenta and reported that the people at the party were using drugs. Stanley answered the 911 call but before going in he radioed for backup. Stanley walked into the crowed alone and ran into Thomas, who was his friend. Thomas led Stanley back behind his police vehicle. No one knows exactly what happened behind it, but people heard two shots fired from a gun, and Thomas was the only one who came out from behind the vehicle. After that Andy Begay showed up at the scene and Mrs. Deal doesn’t know what happened then. All that night the four men drove around the Monument Valley area trying to dispose of the two bodies.

Apparently, the men had the idea of dumping the two police vehicle in Lake Powell. They drove toward Copper Canyon about 20 miles west of the Piute Farms Marina. My grandparents who lived on that road told Mrs. Deal that that night the dogs were barking so my grandpa walked outside to see what it was and saw some vehicle at the main road. At the time he thought nothing of it and went back inside. The next morning someone told them that Stanley was missing. Later that afternoon the rangers of Glen County got a call from the people who lived around the lake about smoke coming out of the canyon.

The police arrived at the scene first, then the FBI. Because of the treaty between the U.S. and the Navajo Nation signed on August 12, 1868 the federal government had jurisdiction on the case. The bodies were burned badly and examinations of the two bodies show that there was smoke in the lungs, showing that the two victims were still alive and burned to death. It didn’t take long to I.D. the bodies of Andy Begay and Roy Lee Stanley.

Deal was with her grandparents Sunday evening when they got the news of Stanley’s untimely death. She said that the whole room just went silent, as if honoring Stanley, but because of our culture, the next morning everything went back to normal. No one spoke about Roy again and no one mourned over him. But after that Tuesday the community would ever be the same again. Rumors stated to flow around saying that the two police were killed because of drug dealings in the area and that the people who were involved in the killings were on the mesas. Deal's mother got so sacred that she just let her herd of sheep go free for three days and Deal along with her siblings had to go and look for them. The whole community was on edge. “Before the year was out the FBI had arrested the four men responsible for the killings,” said Mrs. Deal

During the trial two of the men got life in prison without parole, but non-Navajo people who killed police would have the death penalty on the table. Because of the treaty the government couldn’t kill the four men and they got the next best thing. The treaty prevents anyone outside the reservation to kill a Navajo and for a Navajo to kill anyone off the reservation. If this happens the government steps in and takes over the case, but if the same U.S. government were to kill a Navajo then the treaty would have been broken between the Navajo Government and the U.S. Government.

Thomas Cly, Vinton Bedonie, Ben Atene, and Marques Atene were each indicted to two counts of first degree murder and two counts of charges for use of firearms. Stories like this are from mostly back in the 70’s and 80’s. Today the police are better trained and their jobs are a little easier with the evolving technology. Although the police are better trained, it is still very dangerous because you never know what lies ahead.