She was from Lawton, Oklahoma, and was reportedly last seen in Denver, police said. and nights and weekends playing steel guitar with his country band, cimarron. >> yes. >> since her skull was pretty much intact, one of our senior investigators who is able to do forensic sketching started doing a profile for her. "They all had families that care for them.". >> you're up half a mile to 3/4 of a mile from any populated area back in the time frame. >> i told michelle she couldn't come over. On December 9, 2010, Albuquerque police released six photos of seven other unidentified women who may also be linked to West Mesa. Handout from Costa Mesa Police Department -- Anyone who knew Julie Kibuishi described the 23-year-old dancer and college student from Southern California as kind and full of life. >> reporter: and for albuquerque's homicide detectives there was the most pressing question of all. eight. Police had also received a report of domestic violence from Montoya's girlfriend, who claimed he beat her and did "gross things" to her that she didn't want to elaborate on in the report. It's awful what happened to them," Myra Salazar, the mother of 27-year-old victim Evelyn Salazar, said in a statement. Joseph Blea (left) and Lorenzo Montoya (right). site flooded the new neighborhoods that surrounded it. how do you keep feeling your best all summer long? so help heal your skin from within, with dupixent. Who are the dominate males, and lesbians in their Tribe? >> reporter: before long michelle valdez stopped showing up in her father's videos. Due to a planned power outage on Friday, 1/14, between 8am-1pm PST, some services may be impacted. there weren't just two women that were missing. >> there's nothing to connect lorenzo montoya to those 11 bodies? The mysteries surrounding the West Mesa Murders, an unsolved case of 11 female bodies discovered in a desert graveyard near Albuquerque in 2009. let's get to be each other's support system. and it was here while posing as a decoy during prostitution sting operations that she learned the raw power of their addictions. not a lot to go on. >> you're a prisoner in this apartment now. >> so this guy takes photographs of the part of town that you're sort of looking at. this photo, taken the following year, shows even more bare spots. it's unlikely that any of the balloonists who float out over the west mesa area spend much time studying the details of the sandy desert floor below. >> reporter: but as erratic as michelle had become in recent years, she'd somehow always managed to show up. >> reporter: they strolled out of her new subdivision, one of many that had recently sprouted up in the desert west of albuquerque, and then over to an abandon construction site, where christine let ruca off the leash to run. "You can't have a colder cold case," Gibson said. i said, "detective lopez just told us that your mother has been positively i.d. and a few hold hazy satellite images of tire tracks on the desert sand. southwestern summer heat begins to ease hot air balloons rise like spring flowers over albuquerque and the surrounding desert. serious allergic reactions can occur, including anaphylaxis, a severe reaction. it led them to a dead end. Perhaps precisely because of this, the FBIs $100,000 reward for information has gone uncollected for over a decade. until late in the afternoon on february 2nd, 2009. >> fbi agents also searched this home. What appeared to be a human bone was just the beginning. at night dan drove through the war zone. >> and that's more than just a few guys. could be others. Blea has been dubbed the "Mid-School Rapist" for his activities in the 1980s; police say he would often break into the homes of 13- to 15-year-old girls who lived near McKinley Middle School in Albuquerque and rape them. squeeze me tight. right. Valdez was pregnant at the time of her death and her . apoquel is for the control of itch associated with allergic dermatitis and the control of atopic dermatitis in dogs. >> reporter: after college ida graduated from the police academy and joined the force as a uniformed officer.ol >> most of my areas that i ce worked, especially patrol, i was assigned working the prostitutes in the area. they had literally spent weeks in the trenches looking for bones at that abandoned construction site. women very often involved in prostitution, it's not uncommon for them to go missing for weeks or months at a time. i wasn't done. Paige Birgfeld: Missing Mother Living a Double Life Was Kidnapped & Murdered. >> reporter: syllania edwards was released from that denver-area jail in july 2004, the same year almost all the other west mesa women had gone missing. let's exchange phone numbers. [12] Michelle Valdez was four months pregnant at the time of her death.[13]. and for them. >> reporter: but some do. you know, it's not what you see in vegas. every time he saw her he marked the date down. >> how many other detectives ins missing persons? ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) The notes are written on paper tags, tributes to the nine women, two teenage girls and unborn child found buried 10 years ago atop a New Mexico mesa. Thats why the West Mesa killer was able to do it, she said Christine Barber, the head of Safe Streets New Mexico, a non-profit that helps get women off the streets. and detective ida lopez, who'd had their names on her list of missing women. grasping at smoke. He had actually had over 100 encounters with police in the two decades preceding the discovery of the West Mesa murder victims. >> reporter: the conclusion was inescapable. the killer, whoever he was, and police naturally assumed the killer was male, had a five-year head start. apoquel goes right to the source of itch to provide relief in as little as four hours! she said, michelle. According to police reports, she might have gone by Mimi or Chocolate while staying at the Ranger Motel. >> reporter: for detectives like todd babcock it all seemed to add up. -i know. i'm just a normal person. the position was there. and i thought, well, i need to make further plans. The case remains unsolved till date, with eight girls still missing. >> reporter: over the years ida's list of the lost had grown to include close to two dozen women who fit the same basic profile -- young drug-addicted hispanic women who were known to wander the gritty streets of albuquerque's war zone. -or maybe he didn't know. >> i have to keep believing that we'll find an answer soon. >> and what information do you have? >> reporter: nine months after the discovery of the first bone on the west mesa the detectives were back to square one. the first words out of this girl's mouth was that he was trying to kill her. YouTube/KOATA makeshift memorial for the victims. and ida lopez couldn't help but wonder if these dry bones were the women she'd been looking for. i know and i'm comfortable with the fact that they identified her as my daughter. he has pics of you on his phone. i couldn't handle it. their lifestyle has been with drugs. all the bones. >> no. One bears a. see a vehicle pick this girl up. and every time the phone rang his heart stopped. >> i'm freeding. >> reporter: that was true then, and it's true today. One of the suspects, Joseph Blea, was arrested on Albuquerques Central Avenue for exposing himself to a woman. >> reporter: though the detectives spent months combing through all the evidence taken from the photographer's office and home, nothing definitive was found. >> you can't. she was at -- you know, at a hurting spot. mind. "They did an excellent job with our West Mesa murders," said Sgt. Murder. shadows prostitutes. out in the war zone there's a new crop of ragged women on the streets, willing to sell themselves in return for a puff of smoke from a glass pipe. A North Miami woman bent on revenge was convicted Wednesday of gunning down the ex-business partner she blamed for the murder of her alleged drug-dealer husband. >> i got to know a lot of them. so he's going to have close contact with these people. and what we hope to happen is that someone that's had an encounter with this killer will. Google MapsWest Mesa Murders satellite photos show the undeveloped land where the victims were discovered. Wozniak then staged the crime scene to make it appear as though Kibuishi had been sexually assaulted, suggesting that Herr had committed her assault and subsequent murder and then gone on the run. Between 2002 and 2005, a serial killer who became known as the West Mesa Bone Collector murdered and buried 11 women in the outskirts of Albuquerque, New Mexico. According to the Albuquerque Police Department, something didn't sit right with Christine Ross when her dog Ruca found a bone on their walk in the West Mesa. Her daughter had found womens clothing and jewelry in their home, with some families later revealing that the victims jewelry was missing. the fall of 2005 was one of those times. drive to a remote location. >> she was a college student found on a lonely road in texas. it was my gateway to making contact with her and seeing her in person. The West Mesa Bone Collector 11.63 MBDanelle Hallan Download Mp3 The West Mesa Bone Collector 16.3 MBThat Chapter. They gathered information from grieving families and locals, which helped clear up when the victims were last seen but not how they died. her nose and her eyes were very important. >> yes, he was. now that two women from ida's list had been identified, jolene had an idea. i enjoyed it. for police that seemed like a good place to start their search for the killer. >> but it might not have been a nice thing? Prosecutors said Carballo killed him out of revenge for the murder of her husband, Orlando Mesa. it's a quote familiar to detectives everywhere. i got scared. Known as the West Mesa killings, the victims' deaths have resulted in no arrests, despite the massive homicide investigation police launched after discovering the makeshift graves. In addition, a tree tag from a nursery was found in the area where the West Mesa victims' bodies were buried; it was tracked to a nursery Blea once frequented. had spots on her face. there's a better choice. She had also grown close to the families of the victims by that time. Detective Ida Lopez's dedication to finding these missing women is admirable. In 1999, a sex worker named Cynthia Vigil Jaramillo was kidnapped and imprisoned in a city south of Albuquerque by a man named David Parker Ray, aka the "Toy-Box Killer." The only emerging pattern was that 10 of the victims were sex workers or victims of sex trafficking. >> reporter: they call it tough love. >> reporter: this michelle according to her sister camille was an all-american girl with a future as bright as the new mexico sun. Uploaded by a detective named ida lopez. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. >> i saw it on tv on february 2nd, when christina ross and her dog ruca was reported on the. >> reporter: caught between the pressure to keep the public informed and the need to prevent key details from leaking out to cranks and copycats who routinely clogged tip lines, commander feist found himself scheduling sensitive excavation, work in the off hours, when he knew cameras would not be looking over his shoulder. When her boyfriend arrived, he shot and killed Montoya. Starting tonight at 8 p.m., NBC will air a special two-hour "Dateline" episode dealing with the notorious West Mesa Murder Mystery. young hispanic women with arrest records for drugs or prostitution. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. >> so many young women missing. Jun 09, 2022. dateline west mesa murders >> somebody was trying to send a message at some point. within days evidence of one body, had become evidence of two. >> when they told us that they had a young black girl, i thought, i didn't have a young black girl on my list. -what teach here isn't telling you is that snapshot rewards safe drivers with discounts on car insurance. >> missing persons is kind of a backwater in a lot of departments. tell your doctor if you have new or worsening eye problems, including eye pain or changes in vision. but for ida lopez the discovery and identification of seven women from her list meant that years of careful detective work were finally paying off. To this day, law enforcement officials have been unable to discover the true identity of the murderer, despite the fact that they have a list of potential suspects, two of whom are. you know, my husband's got young kids to take care of. and was he still at work? Street Safe was founded in 2009, aiming to ensure volunteers kept a steady presence in an area along Historic Route 66 while handing out clothing and other products each Friday. >> yeah, that did cross my mind numerous times. i think he's been preying on his victims, has a particular victim in mind. for ida walking through this bone yard felt as if she were watching a horror movie unfold in real time. by then dan and michelle's mother were divorced, and dan was raising michelle and camilln alone while working days at the juvenile detention center. The west mesa murders are the killings of eleven women whose remains were found buried in 2009 in the desert on the west mesa of albuquerque, new mexico, united states.several suspects have been named, but none were arrested or charged. but what can you do?te you can't be with them 24/7. >> and that's still a lot of people. but ever since her early days in uniformed patrol, ida lopez has called them her girls. >> it's -- i know she had been to albuquerque at least one prior time. >> and whatever you tell us, it's no judgment at all. Then, Ruca found a bone resembling a femur. In addition to Barela, Edwards, Salazar, and Valdez, they are: Monica Candelaria, 22; Victoria Chaves, 26; Virginia Cloven, 24; Cinnamon Elks, 32; Doreen Marquez, 24; Julie Nieto, 24; Veronica Romero, 28. let's send to everyone! -it's kind of like driving with his dad. so come ask, shop, discover at your xfinity store today. >> reporter: by mid april, after 2 1/2 months of intensive searching, mapping, and aerial photography, commander feist finally felt confident that his team had found all the bones there were to find and began shutting down the west mesa crime scene. served. Lorenzo Montoya was killed in 2006 at his South Valley home less than two miles from the West Mesa burial site. looking for michelle. every morning the sunrises over the sandia mountains east of albuquerque and begins baking one of the most celebrated stretches of asphalt in the united states -- historic route 66, the highway famous for carrying dust bowl refugees and beat generation oddballs west to california. Daniel Patrick Wozniak (born March 23, 1984) is a former American community theatre actor who was convicted of two counts of murder in September 2016. nine. remember, 2004 is when almost all of the women found on the west mesa disappeared. it's the city's annual balloon fiesta. on the Internet. do not use in breeding, pregnant or lactating dogs. Several women had children now being raised by relatives. >> correct. >> reporter: by the end of that year ida's list had grown to more than a dozen women. Tonight's episode of Dateline: Unforgettable Season 2 will have Josh Mankiewicz narrate the story of the dedicated detective Ida Lopez, who is still working on these decade-old cases to help the victims and their families find some form of justice. jane doe number 8 had been four months pregnant at the time of her death. it's a mystery their families th still struggle to understand. i'll take aleve. >> i start going out there and talking to the girls. >> for a long time the news would be full of stories about girls who were missing and everybody's looking for them. 14th birthday michelle valdez gave birth to a baby girl she named angelica. >> your typical profile. Theres so little money, and there are so many crimes. so i gave her the money. For homicide investigators, the case posed challenges from the start, said Dirk Gibson, a communications and journalism professor at the University of New Mexico who has authored numerous books on serial killings. -what? >> they wouldn't even put her picture on the news or nothing. you're keeping that quiet because you don't want somebody to confess to this who didn't do it. [19][21], In August 2010, police searched several properties in Joplin, Missouri associated with local photographer and businessman Ron Erwin in connection with the West Mesa cases. i mean, that's not exactly, you know, the premier detective job. i took her to a friend's house and dropped her off there. Dateline: Secrets Uncovered Snapped Murdered by Morning An Unexpected Killer Snapped: Killer Couples Final Moments Living with a Serial Killer Buried in the Backyard Killer Relationship with. Search the history of over 797 billion but she was unable to find the aunt or to pin down the source of the rumor. when they looked at old pictures of the mesa. Decades later, the case still remains unsolved. but because doctors caught the cancer early, ida required neither chemo nor radiation therapy. >> -- your daughter's a prostitute. i don't remember the last words we spoke. Only one signficant discovery was made along the way, which is that they were all murdered. she's been arrested. >> we had gotten a call from a family friend of ours that i grew up with, and you know, i pick up the phone and she's like, oh, my gosh, i'm sorry about your sister. >> who was she? According to A&E, Jaramillo and a woman named Christine Barber founded an organization to protect sex workers in New Mexico after the discovery of the West Mesa victims in 2009. >> yes. now between the bulldozers and ida's prayers the department was moving heaven and earth to find out if there were more women from ida's list out there. but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. Police suspect that the bodies were all buried by the same person or persons, and may be the work of a serial killer, who has since come to be referred to as the West Mesa Bone Collector. He holds dual bachelor's degrees from Pace University and a master's degree from New York University. bill's back needed a afvacation from his vacation. Dubbed the West Mesa Murders, they sparked a frenzy of investigations, interrogations, and media attention, but despite the best efforts of police to bring whoever was responsible to justice, the crimes remain unsolved to this day. not just because of what happens but because of what might have been prevented, missed, or altogether avoided. i have no idea how she got here. The case has had special interest to the Joplin area since Albuquerque police, FBI, and Joplin police conducted searches on properties owned by Joplin businessman Ron Erwin in August. >> reporter: finding a bone, even a human bone, is not unusual out here on albuquerque's west mesa. so, let's make this the summer of loving your gut. the killer, whoever he was, and police naturally assumed the killer was male, had a five-year head start. Satellite imagery taken between 2003 and 2005 shows tire marks and patches of disturbed soils in the area where the remains were recovered. Gilbert Gallegos, an Albuquerque police spokesman, said detectives receive hundreds of tips in the case each year, and continue to follow different leads while retesting evidence as DNA and other investigative technology advances. the gruesome cult sacrifice of Mark Kilroy. >> 35 to 50? but once -- once, you know, we had that bond, me and angelica,e it was nice. >> then in february 2009 came unsettling news. ida went by the book. Meet Detective Ida Lopez, bringing justice to missing women & their families. Skip to main content Due to a planned power outage on Friday, 1/14, between 8am-1pm PST, some services may be impacted. soon could be years. The police launched a manhunt for the prime accused, 45 yo Hemraj , a live-in domestic help employed by her family. on July 20, 2019. thank you for being here with us. Joseph Blea was imprisoned when the bodies were found, but he became a suspect when his ex-wife contacted police. her aunt ran the streets, knew michelle, knew certain people, and they had heard it from her aunt. apoquel has helped over 6 million itchy dogs get the relief they deserve. (vo) automatically sort your expenses and save over 40 hours a month. The police are asking for the public's help to identify the women. Thoughts? She also told them that he threatened "to kill me and bury me in lime.". >> what did doctors tell you? In 2005, she was handed two missing persons files including missing 25-year-old Michelle Valdez,. digging, scraping, sifting. [20], Lorenzo Montoya lived less than three miles from the burial site. and i remember telling him no. he opened up the door for all the wrong things. The most notorious mass murder in Ohio's history happened on the night of April 21, 2016 in rural Pike County. >> we believe so. YouTube/KOATThe West Mesa murders have yet to be solved. >> it was in september of 2004. The names of the 11 victims of the West Mesa Murders are: Monica Candelaria, 22 - Her friends told police in 2003 that they heard Monica had been murdered and buried in West Mesa. soon could be months. Dateline Mystery is a series that is currently running and has 1 seasons (7 episodes). Does anyone have any theories or info on this one? Combing the undeveloped West Mesa near 118th Street SW, detectives spent weeks uncovering all 11 graves. >> reporter: the detectives needed a solid tip. i'm guessing you noticed before anybody else. >> right. >> he was able to define out her ears. it's got to be that person. apoquel. [citation needed], In November 2012, Wozniak's then-fiance, Rachel Mae Buffett, was arrested[10] and charged with three felony counts of accessory-after-the-fact based on allegations that she had lied multiple times to police investigators. you know, it's stuff you read about. >> it's kind of eerie looking at those satellite photos. Albuquerque detective Ida Lopez took it upon herself to uncover the story behind the remains of 11 women and an unborn fetus, which were discovered over 13 years ago, buried in shallow graves in a West Mesa desert. Ida Lopez, a missing persons detective from the Alberquerque Police Department, became increasingly attached to the unsolved homicide of 11 women and an unborn fetus, whose remains were discovered in one of the city's deserts back in 2009. i am comfortable with the fact that we gave her a proper burial as a human being should be buried. With her call to the Albuquerque Police Department, Ross had begun to expose horrors the city had never seen. dan tried to keep a watchful eye on his girls and even took them to work with him at the juvenile detention center to show them on where careless mistakes can lead. >> suggesting possibly that the killer met her in denver, brought her here? Evelyn Salazar disappeared in the spring of 2004 with her 15-year-old cousin Jamie Barela after police said they went to a park together. >> it's like a little dark evil city out here. >> reporter: though police say they have a half dozen suspects on their radar at any given time, so far they haven't been able to eliminate or arrest any of them. -uh, yes. happy birthday that september angelica celebrated her sixth birthday. every fall as the. Lopez spent years investigating the case and soon became a significant figure in the West Mesa murders. If you have information about the West Mesa murders, please contact APD at 1-877-765-8273 or (505) 768-2450. >> yeah, i think there's no doubt that you're dealing with one guy. jane doe number 8 was michelle valdez. >> all six sets of remains were found within 20 yards of each other. All of the women, except 15-year-old Jamie Barela, had one thing in common: They were all involved in drugs and sex work. davy. it was a bit of frontier justice for montoya, who was about to literally get away with murder. >> a college campus gripped by fear. now, more than five years after the discovery of bones on the west mesa, albuquerque police are certain of only one thing. what had i been doing? Police haven't ruled out that there might be more victims, and detectives still have multiple suspects, Gallegos said. i wouldn't say he's a suspect. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline." Barela is the only victim who police say wasn't known to have been subjected to sex trafficking. >> if you find one, you're going to find them all. Still, authorities have not given up. i'm supposed to be in ceramics. they came up with their profile of who they thought we were looking for, including that profile was a white male. and now on the cusp of young adulthood michelle looked gaunt. at 13 michelle became pregnant. An unsolved murder case has haunted the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico for more than a decade. because, they suppose, all those earlier rumors about the women being abducted, killed, and dumped in the desert had to have started somewhere. protection. ten. >> did you know who cinnamon was? "Dateline NBC" is the longest-running series in NBC primetime history and is in its 31st season. >> was it possible ida lopez's list was just the tip of the iceberg? and then i'm thinking, okay, is it somebody that's nice at picking them up? at xfinity, we're here to make life simple. a money-making spectacle that draws tourists from all over the world to albuquerque for one week in october. Many of the victims' families reported them missing years earlier. >> yes. MESA, Ariz. - Thirteen days after the shooting death of a 24-year-old Mesa woman, the man suspected of killing her was arrested in Texas, said the Mesa Police Department in a news release on. >> fbi's behavioral sciences agents came in, took a look at our crime scene, took a look at what evidence we had. it was not the way that her mother and i raised her. what's going on out here? i've been -- you know, i've been raped a number of times. >> reporter: for medical investigator wendy honeyfield the bones of jane doe number 7 and her pink-tipped acrylic nails were a beguiling puzzle. i didn't choose their lifestyle. but at the time it was routine low priority policework. >> the majority of our girls were street-level prostitutes. a growing list of suspects. >> you think she came here on her own? Years had passed from the time the women and girls disappeared, likely limiting available evidence. Photo Source when had i last seen her? and i thought, well, i'll write it and we'll see what happens. don't wait. She compiled a list of the missing not all of whom have been found, raising concern there might be more victims. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. yet. our girls we posted on the wall. Albuquerque Police DepartmentJoseph Blea (left) and Lorenzo Montoya (right). According to the Albuquerque Journal, Blea was no stranger to the parts of the city where sex work is known to take place. but can't get your hands on anything else. easy. she says, "i have some bad news for you." for ida lopez that's a mission statement. missing persons, you know, was busy. >> reporter: in that time the case has gone from a nightmare for a few flawed souls to a nationwide search for a serial killer, an unidentified man who police believe may not have succeeded in killing every woman he coaxed into his car. >> and i had to tell dan. they said it wasn't common in women and it wasn't common in women my age. serial killer to catch but also because one set of remains was about to upset everything. now that's simple, easy, awesome. Victims' families weren't involved in planning the event, but relatives who attend will be asked to speak if they wish, said Barber.