TAOS, New Mexico (Tribune News Service) — The Taos County Sheriff’s Office is looking into the disappearance of 25-year-old Army veteran Matthew McLaughlin, who was last seen on July 25 leaving his home in Tres Piedras, 32 miles northwest of Taos.

“He left his dog, his cat and apparently all of his belongings,” said Kayla McLaughlin, the missing man’s sister-in-law. “To us — to his family — that does not sound like Matthew. He never left behind his animals or his stuff at all, so that kind of threw up a red flag for us.”

This month, she and McLaughlin’s mother, Rebecca McLaughlin, traveled to New Mexico to meet with investigators and post a missing persons notice throughout Taos County.

The notice doesn’t provide a clothing description, but describes McLaughlin as 6 feet, 2 inches tall, weighing 195 pounds, with blue eyes, brown hair, a beard and mustache. It says he was last seen walking on the south side of Tres Piedras toward U.S. 64, an east-west highway that runs through this small unincorporated community on the edge of Carson National Forest.

Deputy Kevin McCarty, the lead investigator assigned to the case, said his office filed a missing persons report after receiving a phone call July 31 from a coworker and fellow veteran who became close with McLaughlin at the Chili Line Depot, a restaurant in Tres Piedras.

“She said she hadn’t seen (McLaughlin) in six days and was worried because that was out of character for him,” McCarty said.

After he was honorably discharged from the Army, Rebecca McLaughlin said her son moved to New Mexico from Virginia with his puppy and two military friends, seeking a fresh start. She said she last spoke to her son just days before his disappearance.

The 25-year-old was living with one of his veteran friends in Tres Piedras at the time he went missing, but he didn’t know other tenants at the property, some of whom told the family McLaughlin was asked to leave the rental over illicit drug use. The roommates also said McLaughlin left behind his phone and animals at the residence.

“They confronted him, they argued, and my son just left,” Rebecca McLaughlin said. “But my son would not leave his animals. He would have contacted us, and Matthew, the only thing he’s done is mushrooms and pot. We do know that. He’s a country guy, and he’s got a country accent. He has the best manners out of anyone that you would meet. He’s always, ‘Yes, sir, and yes, ma’am.’”

She said another deputy planned to interview McLaughlin’s roommates later this week, but McCarty emphasized that law enforcement can only act upon the evidence currently at hand.

“The family has wanted us to get some cellphone tower information from him, but with no other facts to go off of, right now there’s just not enough probable cause on our end to justify an intrusion on Matthew like that,” he said. “We’ve been keeping our eye out for him in town, but we haven’t specifically designated a search to go look for him.”

McCarty said investigators must be judicious about activating search and rescue operations and need probable cause that a crime has been committed to obtain a search warrant.

Parts of Tres Piedras and other nearby desert communities northwest of Taos are also known to be home to a transient population, though he said there was no evidence McLaughlin had been on the move following his relocation to Taos County.

“People do have the right to be left alone,” he said, “so just because someone is saying they haven’t seen them, us violating the Fourth Amendment by doing search warrants on their phones to find them — that’s not justified.”

Meanwhile, McLaughlin’s family insists something serious is amiss and is considering hiring a private company to come look for the missing veteran.

Information regarding McLaughlin’s whereabouts can be provided to the Sheriff’s Office at 575-737-6480 or to his family at 540-664-7313.

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