In October 2024, a teenage girl sat safe inside a National Guard Youth Challenge Academy in Roswell, New Mexico. She was supposed to be there to build her future. Instead, she finally found the courage to tell staff about her home life. She told them her father had been assaulting her since she was around 12.
She told them about two relatives from Las Vegas who had done the same. She revealed two pregnancies from these attacks. And she explained how her father had forced terminations at home and hidden the remains. She was describing a 35-acre property just outside Deming, a small desert town less than fifteen thousand people call home.
On that property sat a sprawling garbage dump, a series of hand-dug caves, and dilapidated trailers. Police immediately became involved. When officers arrived on October 23rd, they found a landscape of chaos. Trash covered the ground.
Buckets of human waste sat scattered everywhere. The dogs on the property looked terrified. As they approached cautiously, one officer spoke what everyone was thinking. “Oh my god.
”
They had come looking for Melvin Cordell, the girl’s 50-year-old father, and her mother, 41-year-old Valerie. They knew from the girl’s account that the family lived in a dirty, cramped space underground. “This looks like a bunker,” one officer said. There was no response to their calls.
Then they saw the horse. Its hooves were badly overgrown. Its pen was filthy. No one had cleaned it in what looked like a long time.
“This ain’t right, dude,” an officer said. Its condition wasn’t their main job that day, but it was another sign that the people who lived here didn’t care for the living things they were responsible for. The officers checked an open trailer, noting a strong smell coming from inside. They walked the property and noticed a well, portable bathrooms, trampolines, and animal bones scattered in the dirt.
Their biggest concern was the children’s safety. There were no barriers anywhere. A small child could easily fall into one of the large, exposed holes in the ground. The people they were looking for weren’t there that day.
So they noted everything they saw and returned on October 24th. This time, Melvin and Valerie met them at the property entrance. They acted as if they’d been expecting the visit. “I was told I would be meeting the officer on his way,” Melvin said calmly.
He mentioned his wife needed a chair and some water. The troopers suggested the couple wait in the air-conditioned car. As they waited, they made small talk. The officers asked about the land.
Melvin explained his mother had bought ten acres years ago, and they’d gradually taken over payments on an additional twenty-five. He spoke about self-sufficiency. They preferred their own vegetable garden to store-bought produce. He mentioned watermelons, cucumbers, and tomatoes.
Then he brought up his animals. “We had a lot of horses,” he said. “But every time we came back, one of our horses was dead. ” He claimed someone had threatened his children, that his dogs were taken, and that after the dogs disappeared, the livestock started dying again.
The troopers listened. The couple appeared cooperative. Nearly two months passed before officers returned with a search warrant. On December 17th, they announced their presence loudly.
“State police, search warrant! If you can hear me, make yourself known. ”
Thermal imaging equipment scanned for heat signatures. They moved through multiple trailers.
One officer noted that despite first appearances, there were “a bunch of random areas where they stay. ” What looked like abandoned spots turned out to be regular sleeping places. The only people on the property should have been adults. Where the children were, no one knew.
Eventually, they made contact with Melvin and Valerie again. Melvin apologized for the mess. He explained that after they parked their van, it got overrun with mice. He assured them they kept things clean, that they had fans running.
The evidence told a different story. That unnamed sixteen-year-old girl had told investigators about her brothers and sisters, six of them, ranging in age from six months to sixteen years. She described a decade of darkness. From 2014 to 2024, the children had been forced to live in underground caves connected by hand-dug tunnels, many of them four to five feet deep.
They endured scorching summers and freezing winters without proper shelter. They slept outside on mattresses laid directly in the dirt. Sometimes they found shelter inside abandoned vehicles, including a van that no longer worked. There was no running water for hygiene.
There were no regular showers. The area was contaminated with the buckets of human waste police had found scattered around. The girl said her parents starved them as punishment. She said her parents forced the children to perform inappropriate acts with each other while adults watched.
She said outsiders came to the home to take part in the abuse. These adults took images of the children. Her parents allowed it. She described the pattern of violence against her siblings and herself.
Her own life had been a nightmare since she was twelve or thirteen. At some point, one of her siblings had called 911. According to the girl, officials from New Mexico CYFD visited the property. Nothing came of it.
The abuse continued. Police arrested Melvin and Valerie Cordell on February 21st, 2025. They were booked into the Luna County Detention Center without bond. Melvin faced 24 felony counts, including assault of a minor, conspiracy, aggravated battery, and evidence tampering for allegedly disposing of fetal remains.
Valerie faced 18 similar charges. Neither was charged with animal cruelty for the condition of the horse. In March, Valerie was formally detained. Melvin waived his hearing, ensuring both remained in jail pending trial.
On April 28th, 2025, the couple pleaded not guilty to all charges. They remain presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. As of June 2025, the children remain in state care. A CYFD spokesperson explained that when abuse allegations are confirmed, the department typically moves to permanently revoke parental rights.
Neighbors expressed shock. One called the Cordells a tight-knit family. Another said they’d seen children sleeping in an unheated outbuilding during winter. Police say the abuse lasted a full decade.
The question hangs over this case. The girl’s family was terrorizing her and her siblings in plain sight. A phone call to 911 was made. CYFD visited.
No action was taken. No one stopped it. An investigation into the family’s property went further. Reports indicated that the teen claimed the parents had three additional pregnancies, two involving her, and a third involving another family member.
The abuse was calculated. It was systematic. And it lasted ten years. If no one at the academy had listened that day, the children might still be living in those caves.
The girl found an escape through a state program designed to build discipline and character. She used it to finally speak the truth. The Chadwell parents await their trial. Their children wait in state custody, carrying with them the weight of everything that happened on that property.
What is certain is that the girl who spoke up changed everything. But the full justice for these children depends on what happens next.
