Residents expressed shock after police said a complaint about dripping water escalated into a fatal attack outside a leasing office.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Residents of a northeast Albuquerque apartment complex are mourning 22-year-old Esmerelda Romero after police said a disagreement with a downstairs neighbor over dripping patio water ended in a fatal attack.
Romero was killed Monday, July 20, after she and 39-year-old Michael Cain separately took complaints about the dispute to the apartment’s leasing office, according to court documents cited by KOB-TV. Police charged Cain with murder, and prosecutors asked a judge to keep him jailed while the case proceeds.
Neighbor River Redman said he had met Romero several times and remembered her as a kind, intelligent young woman. He said her death left him feeling sick and wishing there had been something he could have done to help her.
The reaction reflected the shock among residents after police described how a routine apartment complaint allegedly escalated. Court documents say Cain visited the leasing office twice to complain that water from Romero’s upstairs patio was dripping onto his patio below.
Romero later reported to the office that Cain had come to her apartment, struck her door and harassed her about the water, according to the documents. As she left the office, an employee told police, Cain ran from the parking lot, forced her down and stabbed her repeatedly.
Police said Cain then left the scene, called 911 and surrendered. Authorities have not publicly described the contents of that call or released a detailed timeline of the response. Investigators also had not disclosed whether other residents witnessed the entire confrontation.
Another neighbor, Stephen Hutchcraft, said he was surprised by the allegations because Cain had previously seemed friendly. His account offered a sharply different impression of Cain from the conduct described in the court documents. Investigators said they were continuing to review Cain’s history and the events before the attack.
Albuquerque Police Department Cmdr. Ray del Greco said the early review had not uncovered an obvious warning sign that would have indicated Cain should previously have been incarcerated. Del Greco said the investigation was preliminary, leaving open the possibility that detectives could uncover more information.
Police said intoxication did not appear to be a factor. Cain appeared in court Tuesday with a heavily bandaged hand, which investigators believed was injured during the stabbing. The publicly available reporting did not include a plea or a response to the allegations from Cain or an attorney representing him.
Cain remained in the Bernalillo County jail while awaiting a pretrial detention hearing. The available reports did not provide a hearing date. Romero’s neighbors, meanwhile, were left remembering a young woman whose death followed a dispute that began with water passing from one apartment patio to another.
Author note: Last updated July 23, 2026.