By October 24 the little party had hurried down the Santa Fe Trail's Cimarron cutoff and across Palo Blanco Creek some 10 miles east of the Point of Rocks landmark. They were less than 100 miles from the relative safety of Las Vegas when Lobo Blanco's Jicarillas sprang their ambush. The Indians later claimed that they had attempted to parley with White and were fired on, but the elaborate stone breastworks they had constructed beside the trail told a different story. It must have been over quickly. Calloway was shot through the chest and Lawberger through the neck. The two Mexicans fell nearby. White fought desperately in defense of his family, falling with several bullet and lance wounds. His loyal servant, Bushman, died not far from him.

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The gun smoke had hardly cleared when a party of New Mexican buffalo hunters happened on the scene. They proceeded to ransack the carriages for plunder when Lobo Blanco struck again. One hunter was killed and his young son terribly wounded as the others beat a hasty retreat.

The wounded boy played possum until the Jicarillas left, and then crawled to Point of Rocks, where he encountered the party of Hugh Smith, the New Mexico territorial delegate to Congress, on his way to Washington, D.C. The boy's tale horrified the men, who promptly returned to Las Vegas to alert the troops at Santa Fe and Taos.

Englishman Alexander Barclay, whose adobe fort was an important way station along Mora Creek, reached the murder scene on the evening of October 25. He and his companions did not linger, especially after finding White's body with its lower half completely devoured by wolves, pushing on quickly to camp at Point of Rocks before reaching Barclay's Fort the morning of the 27th. Smith was there with the wounded boy. The boy claimed that the Jicarillas had headed to the northwest after killing his father. Barclay, long the factor at Bent's Fort, knew the Apaches well, and surmised that they must have headed southeast toward the broken country along the Canadian River. Barclay's party had also encountered several Pueblo Indians who had seen Ann White and her daughter Virginia in the Apache camp. It was assumed that the Whites' black nurse was with them as well, but the Pueblos had not seen her.

Indian agent Calhoun, receiving word in Santa Fe on October 29, immediately hired Indian trader Encarnacion Garcia to ransom Mrs. White and her daughter from the Apaches. Calhoun gave Garcia $1,000 for the ransom, at the same time confessing to his superiors, "I am left to lament the impotency of my arm, and if the two captives are not to be liberated, it is to be hoped they are dead."

Aubry, upon reaching Santa Fe the next morning, was devastated by the news and promptly hired both Pueblo Indians and New Mexican friends to rescue the captives. He also offered $1,000 as reward or ransom.

At Las Vegas the wary Captain Judd ordered an escort of 20 men eastward under Sergeant Philip Swartwout to guard the mail wagon bound for "the states." Judd also sent an Indian hostage taken prisoner by Lieutenant Ambrose Burnside the previous August along with the sergeant in case they should encounter the Apaches. The hostage, Lobo Blanco's daughter, was to be traded for Mrs. White. The party camped a few miles east of Point of Rocks the first night out, not far from the White murder site. The Jicarilla woman was allowed to climb a nearby knoll, where she awakened the entire camp with her mournful wail. She cried all night. By dawn she appeared calm, sitting quietly next to the campfire when ordered into a wagon by one of the teamsters. In response she stabbed the man several times with a butcher knife before being knocked down by one of his companions. She then chased her assailant around the camp before, in frustration, stabbing several of the mules, killing one. Swartwout ordered her shot, which was promptly done, thus ending all hope of a hostage exchange.

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