POI-001 | Historical Figure | Status: Missing

Sheriff Tomas Ortega served the Mesilla region during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and remains one of the most frequently referenced individuals within The Mesilla Files archive. Known for his calm demeanor, sharp instincts, and deep knowledge of the desert, Ortega investigated everything from outlaw activity and missing persons to unexplained reports that others dismissed as rumor and superstition.

In 1936, Ortega vanished under circumstances that remain unexplained. No confirmed trace of him was ever found.

Notable Associations: Billy the Kid, Captain Voss, The Mesilla Veil, Symbols in the Sand, The Other Mesilla

Known Quote:

"Some stories are only stories because nobody believes the truth."

POI-002 | Explorer | Researcher | Status: Unknown

Captain Voss is one of the most important and mysterious figures within The Mesilla Files archive. Although references to him appear throughout numerous reports, journals, maps, and witness statements, very little verified information about his life has ever been confirmed.

Unlike many researchers of his era, Voss maintained detailed field notes and maps, many of which remain scattered throughout the archive. These documents often contain observations that were ignored or dismissed by others at the time.

Notable Associations: Sheriff Tomas Ortega, TOX, The Red Tape Jar, The Mesilla Veil, The Lost Trains, Symbols in the Sand

Known Quote:

"The object itself is rarely the mystery. The mystery is always the people connected to it."

POI-007 | Priest | Historian | Status: Deceased

Father Miguel Serrano served the Mesilla region during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and was widely respected for his knowledge of local history, frontier settlements, and the cultural traditions of the Southwest. As pastor of a small church near Mesilla, he spent decades preserving journals, church records, personal letters, and historical accounts that might otherwise have been lost.

Unlike many of his contemporaries, Father Serrano believed that history and legend were often connected. He carefully documented stories others dismissed, believing that even the most unlikely accounts might contain fragments of truth.

Today, his journals remain among the most valuable historical resources within the archive.

Notable Associations: Sheriff Tomas Ortega, Captain Voss, The Mesilla Veil, Symbols in the Sand, The Other Mesilla, Church Archives

Known Quote:

"The desert remembers what men choose to forget."

POI-008 | Researcher | Surveyor | Status: Deceased

Howard H. Hunter was a researcher, field surveyor, and amateur historian whose name appears throughout numerous TMF reports dating from the 1940s through the 1960s. Known for his methodical approach and meticulous record-keeping, Hunter spent years documenting unusual locations, abandoned settlements, forgotten trails, and unexplained reports throughout southern New Mexico and the surrounding Old Desert.

Among his most significant contributions are a series of field notes connected to strange symbols, unexplained lights, and locations associated with the Mesilla Veil. 

Notable Associations: Captain Voss, Sheriff Tomas Ortega, TRC Research Center, The Mesilla Veil, Symbols in the Sand, Lost Trains of the Old Desert

Known Quote:

"The evidence does not care what we believe. Our job is to follow it wherever it leads."

POI-010 | Filmmaker | Publisher | Collector | Status: Deceased

L. Jackson was a filmmaker, publisher, and entrepreneur whose name appears throughout numerous entertainment properties connected to The Mesilla Files archive. Best known as the founder of L. Jackson Pictures and an early supporter of Desert Sun Comics, Jackson spent decades producing films, publishing stories, and collecting unusual historical records from across the American Southwest.

To the public, Jackson was viewed as a creative businessman with a fascination for western adventures, desert legends, and unexplained mysteries. However, documents discovered within the archive suggest his interests extended far beyond entertainment.

Whether these connections were intentional or coincidental remains unknown.

Today, many researchers believe Jackson used stories, films, and comic books to preserve information that might otherwise have been forgotten, disguising historical clues as entertainment.

Notable Associations: B. Jackson, Captain Voss, Desert Sun Comics, L. Jackson Pictures, The Lost Trains of the Old Desert, The Mesilla Veil

Known Quote:

"People will ignore a report. They'll remember a story."

POI-005 | Historian | Research Specialist | Status: Active

Elena Vargas is a researcher, historian, and document specialist whose work has become essential to many investigations within The Mesilla Files archive. Raised in southern New Mexico, Elena developed an early fascination with local history, forgotten settlements, and the stories hidden within old journals, government records, church archives, and family collections.

Unlike many researchers, Elena believes that legends often contain fragments of truth hidden beneath generations of retelling. This philosophy has led her to pursue leads that others dismissed, resulting in several important discoveries.

Today, Elena continues to assist ongoing investigations while searching for records that may explain some of the archive's oldest mysteries.

Notable Associations: Captain Voss, Sheriff Tomas Ortega, TOX, The Mesilla Veil, The Red Tape Jar, TRC Research Center

Known Quote:

"History rarely disappears. It simply waits for someone willing to look a little deeper."

POI-009 | Investigator | Analyst | Research Writer | Status: Active

T. J. Clayton is an investigator, researcher, and field analyst whose reports have become an important part of modern TMF investigations. Known for his methodical approach and attention to detail, Clayton specializes in connecting seemingly unrelated documents, witness statements, historical records, and field observations into coherent investigative theories.

Unlike some researchers who focus on legends or folklore, Clayton is primarily interested in facts, timelines, and verifiable connections. Yet even he has encountered mysteries that resist conventional explanation.

Today, Clayton continues to assist ongoing investigations while searching for new evidence hidden within the expanding TMF archive.

Notable Associations: Dylan Carrillo, Spencer Clifton, Elena Vargas, TRC Research Center, The Mesilla Veil, Captain Voss Archive

Known Quote:

"Facts don't solve mysteries. People do."

Dr. Thadius T. Malone

Occupation: Professor of Psychology, University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP)

Education: B.A., M.A., Ph.D. in Psychology – Harvard University

Dr. Thadius T. Malone is regarded by some as one of the most brilliant minds ever to investigate the mysteries surrounding Mesilla. His academic career began at Harvard University, where his groundbreaking work on perception and consciousness earned widespread respect. That respect faded when he proposed a controversial theory: that the region surrounding present-day Mesilla, New Mexico, may have been humanity's original center of awareness long before recorded history.

Ridiculed by many colleagues and feeling increasingly isolated within academia, Malone accepted a position at UTEP, placing himself within the heart of the Chihuahuan Desert, where he could pursue his own research free from academic constraints.

Dr. Malone believes the Mesilla Veil is real.

He argues it is neither a myth nor a supernatural legend, but a natural phenomenon created by an event that occurred millions of years before humans existed.

Status: Active Researcher

Born: 1945
Education: New Mexico State University (Business Administration)
Occupation: Business Executive (Retired), Independent Researcher, Archivist

Few individuals have devoted more time to understanding the mysteries surrounding Mesilla than Theodore Ray Mercer—known simply throughout the archive as TRM.

While spending evenings in the historic bars of Mesilla, Mercer began hearing stories unlike anything he had encountered before. Ranchers, deputies, prospectors, scientists, Border Patrol agents, and longtime residents all seemed to have their own accounts of strange happenings in the surrounding desert. Some stories conflicted. Others overlapped in remarkable ways.

One name surfaced again and again.

Captain Elias Voss.

For more than sixty years, Mercer quietly gathered maps, photographs, journals, newspaper clippings, handwritten letters, witness statements, audio recordings, and rumors connected to what would eventually become known as The Mesilla Files. 

TRC Assessment: Theodore Ray Mercer has spent more than six decades preserving information that many others ignored. Whether every conclusion he reaches proves correct remains to be seen, but without his dedication, much of the early history of The Mesilla Files might have been lost forever.

Digital Media & Archive Specialist — TRC Research Center

Danny Ruiz, 36, was born in Albuquerque and later lived in Las Cruces. His professional background is in communications, digital media, and the restoration and preservation of older audio, film, video, and photographic materials.

Before joining TRC, Danny worked with CTA, where he helped digitize interviews, recordings, photographs, and other archival material. Following the disruption at CTA, Dylan Carrillo brought Danny and Mara Vega onto the TRC team to help examine its growing collection.

Danny's primary responsibility is the technical side of the archives—particularly old film, audio recordings, videotapes, photographs, and other media. He understands how age, duplication, damage, processing, and technical artifacts can create misleading images or sounds.

His work has already become important in the renewed examination of the TOX archives and Maggie Jackson's boxes, including the discovery and analysis of the mysterious 16mm film marked VOSS / WESTERN EDGE / ENCLOSURE.

Danny is naturally curious and more willing than Mara to speculate—but usually only after the conventional technical explanations have been exhausted.

For Danny, the question isn't simply “What are we seeing?”

It's also:

“Is it really on the original?”

Mara Vega, 41, was born in El Paso and grew up in the El Paso–Las Cruces area. Her professional background combines history, library and information science, archival preservation, and Southwestern records research. Much of her career has involved organizing and evaluating private collections, historical photographs, correspondence, and materials whose origins are not always immediately clear.

Before joining the TRC Research Center, Mara worked with CTA, where Amy Wright brought her in to help organize and examine its growing archive. When Amy disappeared from active participation and CTA operations began to deteriorate, Mara remained as long as she could. Eventually, she contacted Dylan Carrillo and was offered a position with TRC.

Her working philosophy is simple:

“Before we decide what something means, let's make sure we know what it is.”

Mara Vega doesn't have to believe the story.

She has to determine whether the evidence does.

POI-003 | Source | Archivist | Status: Unknown

Few individuals are more important—or more mysterious—than the person known only as TOX.

Over many years, TOX assembled an extraordinary collection of documents, photographs, maps, reports, journals, recordings, artifacts, and unexplained items that would eventually become known as The Mesilla Files Archive. The true identity of TOX remains unknown. 

Before disappearing from public view, TOX left behind thousands of pages of material along with a simple instruction:

"Follow the evidence."

Classification: Primary Source

Known Associations: Captain Voss, Sheriff Ortega, TRC Research Center, The Red Tape Jar, The Mesilla Veil, The Old Desert Archive

Known Quote:

"The truth is rarely hidden. Most people simply stop looking."

Status: Deceased

For more than three decades, Rafael "Rafe" Montoya stood behind the bar at El Patio in Mesilla, serving drinks, listening to stories, and quietly gathering information.

Rafe never claimed to be a researcher.

Despite his skepticism, Rafe privately admitted that many of the strange events connected to Mesilla were real. What frightened him was not whether they happened—but why.

Among all the names connected to The Mesilla Files, Rafe expressed the greatest concern about Captain Elias Voss, once describing him as:

"The only man I've ever met who knows more than he's willing to say."

Bartender, El Patio Bar, Mesilla

Known Associations: Theodore Ray Mercer, Captain Elias Voss, Sheriff Ortega, Father Serrano, The Jackson Family, El Patio Bar

Quotes: 

"The stories are free. The truth costs extra."

"If you're looking for answers, you're probably asking the wrong questions."

"People talk when they're drinking. The trick is remembering what they said after 

POI-006 | Informant | Keeper of Ancient Knowledge | Status: Unknown

Seraphina is one of the most enigmatic figures associated with The Mesilla Files archive. Little is known about her origins, though multiple communications place her on the Greek island of Hydra, where she reportedly maintains access to a private collection of ancient manuscripts, maps, journals, and historical records.

Her extensive knowledge of ancient civilizations, forgotten languages, and obscure historical traditions has led some to believe she possesses access to sources unavailable to modern scholars. Others suspect she may be connected to a network of researchers operating across multiple countries.

Whether historian, collector, researcher, or something else entirely, Seraphina continues to be one of the archive's most trusted—and mysterious—sources.

Notable Associations: Captain Voss, TOX, Elena Vargas, The Mesilla Veil, Ancient Manuscripts, Hydra, Greece

Known Quote:

"The past is not gone. It is simply waiting for those who can still listen."

POI-011 | Publisher | Editor | Archivist | Status: Deceased

B. Jackson was a publisher, editor, and collector whose work helped preserve many of the stories, legends, and historical records that would later become part of The Mesilla Files archive. Working closely with L. Jackson, he played a significant role in the development of Desert Sun Comics, numerous historical publications, and a variety of projects focused on the mysteries of the American Southwest.

Archive records suggest that B. Jackson believed stories served a greater purpose than entertainment. He often argued that legends, comic books, films, and adventure tales could preserve important information long after official records had disappeared.

Many researchers believe that clues hidden throughout Desert Sun Comics and other Jackson publications may have been intentionally placed there to preserve knowledge that was considered too unusual, controversial, or easily forgotten.

Today, B. Jackson's collected records continue to provide valuable leads for ongoing investigations throughout the TMF archive.

Notable Associations: L. Jackson, Desert Sun Comics, Captain Voss, Howard H. Hunter, The Lost Trains of the Old Desert, The Mesilla Veil

Known Quote:

"A report may gather dust on a shelf. A good story can survive for generations."

Status: Active

For decades, Jeb has wandered the deserts of southern New Mexico, western Texas, Arizona, and northern Mexico, avoiding towns whenever possible and maintaining only limited contact with the outside world.

Numerous reports suggest that Captain Elias Voss has repeatedly provided Crow with maps, journals, photographs, field sketches, and other materials allegedly connected to the Old Desert and what some documents describe as the "Other World." Why Voss trusts Crow remains unknown.

Over the years, Jeb has occasionally sold unusual documents to collectors and researchers. Other materials have mysteriously appeared in abandoned buildings, mine shafts, campsites, and remote desert locations where they were later discovered and added to the archive.

When asked about Captain Voss, Crow reportedly replied:

"People think Voss gives me things. That's not exactly true. Sometimes I just wake up and they're there."

Notable Associations: Captain Elias Voss, The Old Desert, The Enclosure, The Mesilla Files Archive

Quote:

"The desert keeps secrets. Voss just knows where they're buried."