Photo by Mark HolmTribune

Tribune

Travis Rowley, a suspect in the killings of two prominent members of Albuquerque's Korean community, waits in a squad car outside Albuquerque Police Department headquarters early this morning before being taken to the Metropolitan Detention Center. He and Michael Lee, both of whom are traveling salesmen, are charged with the slayings of Tak and Pung Yi.

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A tip from an alert Rio Rancho resident led to the arrests of two men suspected in the slaying of a Northeast Heights couple.

The tip came Thursday, and by Friday afternoon, police had charged traveling magazine salesmen Travis Rowley, 23, and Michael J. Lee, 21, with murder. Both men are being held in the Metropolitan Detention Center in lieu of $2 million bond.

Rowley and Lee, members of a sales team, were set to leave the Albuquerque area today, police said.

The cascade of events began when a resident at one of the homes where Rowley stopped in the Enchanted Hills area of Rio Rancho called Rio Rancho police with a tip Thursday afternoon, about 48 hours after the bodies of Tak Yi, 79, and his wife, Pung Yi, 69, were were discovered.

Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schultz said when Rio Rancho police arrived in the area they found a man walking down the street, confronted him, then decided he so closely matched an artist's sketch of a "person of interest" developed earlier that they took him into custody.

The man, Rowley, was held overnight at Sandoval County Jail and was turned over to Albuquerque police Friday.

An interview Friday tied Rowley to the home where the Yis were killed. Detectives say Rowley also told them of an accomplice.

Lee was then picked up on the West Side, doing what he was doing when police say he and Rowley killed the Yis: selling magazine subscriptions.

Homicide Sgt. Carlos Argueta said the motive in the killings isn't clear, and police have yet to say how the Yis were killed. Schultz said he expects more details about the deaths to be available Monday or Tuesday.

But what was made clear at a news conference announcing Rowley and Lee's arrest Friday evening was that the young men are not from Albuquerque and were selling magazine subscriptions door-to-door in the city and in Rio Rancho.

A man matching Rowley's description was seen Tuesday about a block from the Yis' house on the 6900 block of Avenida la Costa Northeast.

Witnesses said the man appeared to be in his teens and that he said he was telling residents he needed money for a school project. A sketch of the man developed from the witnesses' statements eventually led to Rowley's arrest.

Tak and Pung Yi were found late Tuesday afternoon when one of their sons checked in on them. Both suffered severe head trauma, though police have not said whether they were beaten, shot or stabbed.

Police said the home had not been ransacked and officers didn't find a gun or other obvious weapon. Schultz said trace evidence in the case, which might be tracked through DNA testing, is extremely important.

He has also said keeping key details confidential is important to the "sanctity of this case."

Photo by Craig FritzTribune

Tribune

Bernalillo County District Attorney Kari Brandenburg and Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schultz talk to reporters about the arrests in a double homicide in the Northeast Heights. At the news conference Friday at Police Department headquarters Downtown, Schultz credited the sketch behind them with leading to the arrests of Travis Rowley, 23, and Michael Lee, 21. Both men are being held on open counts of murder.

Detectives hoped to find where the two men were staying and to conduct interviews with about 20 people, including some of the men's magazine sales team members.

The men worked for a company called Integrity PGM, a Las Vegas, Nev., company featured in several news reports and numerous blogs as a scam company exploiting dangerous and wayward youths by forcing them to peddle subscriptions in city after city while withholding money and decent living condition.

No phone contact is available for Integrity PGM, but pictures of salespeople and a company description are available on their Web site (integritypgm.com).

Detectives on Friday night had not figured out where Rowley or Lee are from originally or whether either has a criminal record.

Argueta said detectives learned that the team canvassing Albuquerque and Rio Rancho in the past week had been planning to leave the area today, and that without the tips from the public the two suspects might not have been located.

"They'd been out in the public since Tuesday," Argueta said. "And they were headed West."

His team of about 25 detectives plan on searching nationally for related crimes.

Lee and Rowley are charged with an open count of murder, conspiracy and tampering with evidence.