The family of Mitchell Hanrahan has been through this before.

Twelve years after the 44-year-old state employee was found shot to death in his southwest Santa Fe home in what police have indicated might have been a murder-for-hire plot initiated by his estranged wife, "new information" has come forward that investigators believe finally gives them what they need to secure a conviction.

A Santa Fe grand jury has returned first-degree murder, conspiracy and tampering with evidence indictments against four men — Frankie King, 31; Andrew Roessler, 32; Chris Garcia, 33; and Marcos Montoya, 31.

While King and Montoya are already in a Santa Rosa prison on unrelated charges, police are still searching for Garcia and Roessler to arrest them on the murder charge.

"We're very happy with the indictments," said Toni Scofield, Hanrahan's sister, who lives in another state. "I guess we are tempering ourselves a little bit, though. It's been over 12 years, a roller-coaster for us at times, thinking it was close to being solved and then wondering if it would ever get there.

"At different times, there has been a sense of frustration, but in the end, if the outcome is a positive one, it's worth it."

Scofield said she and her mother cried Thursday night when she relayed the news of the indictments.

"It's still very emotional for us because we all still miss Mitch," she said. "Mitch was a great man who didn't deserve this."

Santa Fe police Detective Robert Vasquez would not divulge what the recent evidence was that police obtained that led to the indictments.

"We have received some new information that corroborated evidence we already had in the case, and we feel confident about some things we've been pursuing for awhile now," Vasquez said.

Santa Fe police found Hanrahan shot to death in his apartment off South Meadows Drive on April 2, 1998, after his estranged wife, Gloria Chavez Hanrahan, had asked them to do a welfare check on him, because she hadn't heard from in several days.

Gloria Chavez Hanrahan stood to receive money from Mitchell Hanrahan's state retirement and life insurance policies so long as their divorce, which he filed for five months before his death, hadn't been finalized. The day after he was killed, the two were scheduled to have a court proceeding regarding the divorce.

Asked Friday night if Gloria Chavez Hanrahan was still considered a suspect, Vasquez indicated police are not currently pursuing that angle.

"All our focus is on these four men," Vasquez said. "These are the only guys we're worried about in this case right now."

Gloria Chavez Hanrahan's second husband, 39-year-old Arturo Placido Rodriguez, was found shot to death in December 2005 at the Española restaurant she owned (La Mexanita, which was on N.M. 30).

Española police Lt. Christian Lopez on Friday said his department continues to work closely with the Santa Fe Police Department to see if any recent developments help their case. While Gloria Chavez Hanrahan was in El Paso at the time of Rodriguez's death, Lopez told The New Mexican in 2008, "we've never ruled her out as a suspect."

He was less forthcoming Friday with details about the focus of the Española case and wouldn't say whether police continue to believe there might be any link between the two deaths.

Over the course of the past 12 years, it has been Garcia's and Montoya's names that have continually been thrown around as suspects. Garcia was even arrested and charged with the murder in June 2008, but the District Attorney's Office never ended up presenting the case to a grand jury, and eventually it was dismissed.

In July 2008, when a state district judge agreed to let Garcia out on a $70,000 property bond, a remarkably small amount for a murder suspect, then-District Attorney Henry Valdez said he wasn't protesting the bond amount.

"The case needs to be fully developed, and the reason anyone agreed to this (release) I can't publicly discuss without jeopardizing the integrity of the investigation," Valdez said.

Each of the men indicted Thursday has faced several other felony court cases through the years. Roessler spent two years in a juvenile facility for shooting a friend at a June 1995 party.

Mitchell Hanrahan, who was born and raised in Fort Dodge, Iowa, moved to Santa Fe in 1988 and was an eight-year employee of the state Environment Department's Solid Waste Bureau. He was also a volunteer wrestling coach at Santa Fe High and helped officiate wrestling tournaments in the area.

"He did not hurt anyone," Scofield said. "He was really a member of the Santa Fe community who loved Santa Fe and New Mexico and all the people there."

Police ask anyone with information on the whereabouts of Garcia, who Vasquez said is known to hang out in Rio Rancho, or Roessler, a Santa Fe resident, to call police at 428-3710.

Contact Geoff Grammer at 986-3076 or ggrammer@sfnewmexican.com.