The West Mesa murders have yet to be solved. >> there used to be a motel here. >> honestly, i don't remember the last time i seen her. 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. The 58-year-old Joplin businessman and photographer informed the Globe last week that he has been cleared of. so i gave her the money. West Mesa Serial Killer--$100,000 Reward Criminal Investigations Division On Feb. 2, 2009, Christine Ross and her dog Ruca left their home on Albuquerque's west side to go for a walk. >> it's kind of eerie looking at those satellite photos. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Investigating a 10-year-old crime where the police think that the victim had it coming theres just no incentive for that.. He even beat his girlfriend, who said he threatened to kill me and bury me in lime. In 2006, Montoya met up with a dancer whom he strangled to death. >> if these women had been blond, white, and from the right part of town would you guys have sounded the alarm sooner? It is unknown, however, if she traveled on her own or was trafficked there. the killer, whoever he was, and police naturally assumed the killer was male, had a five-year head start. >> i see her pull up out front, and i go out and stand on the sidewalk. had been booked. h b u te then a third one comes in. Ominously, Montoya was holding a flashlight when he died while his victim was wrapped in a blanket near his SUV. and all had worked as prostitutes on the mean streets of the city's war zone. Combing the undeveloped West Mesa near 118th Street SW, detectives spent weeks uncovering all 11 graves. Mesa and their son were shot outside their home, their son was only injured. >> a college campus gripped by fear. when they looked at old pictures of the mesa. even thinking about the aerial photos evidence gives me chills to this day. lengthy delays in reporting missing people as missing. because deep within your skin an overly sensitive immune system could be the cause. cinnamon elks, missing since august of 2004. but even if those rumors were true and human remains were cooling in the desert night on albuquerque's west mesa, the detective knew, it would take a miracle to find them. >> reporter: dan may have had. >> reporter: for the detectives who were trying to catch a serial killer those remains represented a wild card with staggering implications. >> so lorenzo was arrested for charges beyond just patronizing a prostitute. >> well, just a few minutes ago albuquerque police left the dig site after they say they'd met all of the goals that they set. FULL EPISODE: Somebody's Daughter - NBC News >> don't know. The West Mesa killings occurred from 2001 - 2005, and the serial killer responsible has never been caught. >> investigators are looking for connections. 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. February 2, 2019 / 12:05 PM t and so that gave me an empathy for them on that part, and i thought, wow, this has got to be powerful. it was a fetus. >> reporter: by the end of that year ida's list had grown to more than a dozen women. sad but common, especially for these dark streets where drug addiction and prostitution literally go hand in hand. but by 2004 camille, the tag-along little sister, had had enough.on when michelle asked dan if she could move back home for a while, camille put her foot down. After two trials, killer of Colorado mom of three with secret life appeals conviction Lester Jones was found guilty of kidnapping and murder in December 2016. 2023 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. >> but while police try to prove it, another attack. >> i thought maybe she'd turn up a few days later, a few weeks, or we'd -- you know, she'd call us. American convicted of murder on death row, Dr. Phil: Was She an Accomplice to Murder? tired of seeing him hurt. Due to a planned power outage on Friday, 1/14, between 8am-1pm PST, some services may be impacted. >> yes, he was. Albuquerque Police makes new plea for help solving West Mesa murders - KRQE "Here is that mark of 10 years. i didn't choose their lifestyle. Paige Birgfeld: Missing Mother Living a Double Life Was Kidnapped & Murdered. Where to Watch Episode 2 >> the response was amazing. she said, michelle. -take a selfie of you? paws down. >> then in february 2009 came unsettling news. but guess what? lending tree made lenders compete for my business and i ended up with a loan that saved me over $9000 and no more credit card debt. -[ scoffs ] if you say so. and now on the cusp of young adulthood michelle looked gaunt. An arrest was made in April 2020, but more people were likely involved. >> she was last seen in denver. a detective named ida lopez. so that was represented in the sketch. Call the 118th Street Task Force at 1-877-765-8273 or (505) 768-2450. Daniel Wozniak, Rachel Buffet: 'Dateline' NBC Follows Plot Twists Of Where were the males that make up their community? >> you're asked to call 1-877- -- >> though the police tip line with hundreds of calls from a trail mix of nuts, kooks and the merely misguided -- >> detective babcock. >> reporter: investigators had plenty of leads but none that had gotten them closer to answering two questions -- who was he? >> i got to know a lot of them. but on the periphery in offhand moments dan's camera also caught something else.me the look and the unspoken despair that signaled the death. activia. ), First published on February 2, 2019 / 12:05 PM. 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. can you imagine 24 hours without heartburn? The Albuquerque officers did not say that Erwin was a suspect. but the mesa, a vast expanse of desert west of town where people frequently dump things they no longer have any use for, was simply too big an area to launch, a search based on just a rumor. >> i looked up to her for many things. they were able to get me a booking photograph of what syllania looked like around the time that she died, we believe. we had things that we wanted to keep very secret, or things that we didn't want released. Uploaded by after months of digging for bones in the desert west of albuquerque, detectives desperately wanted to get on with the work of catching a killer. This material may be protected by copyright law (Title 17 U.S. Code). In 2005, she was handed two missing persons files including missing 25-year-old Michelle Valdez, who worked as a prostitute on the streets of New Mexicos largest city. >> reporter: and for albuquerque's homicide detectives there was the most pressing question of all. An episode of NBC "Dateline" airing Friday will feature the West Mesa murder case. Anyone with information on the West Mesa murders is urged to contact (505)-768-2450 or @CrimeStoppersNM You can also contact Investigator Ida Lopez at ILopez@cabq.gov. >> reporter: then came the teen years.me when life started coming at michelle valdez fast and furious. how'd he get out?! Somebody's Daughter: With Lester Holt, Ida Lopez, Josh Mankiewicz. but in 2004 while pregnant with her second child doctors discovered a mass in ida's right kidney. it recommends our best custom fit orthotic to relieve foot, knee, or lower back pain. but one name stood out. that changed when michelle failed to show up for angelica's seventh birthday party. >> it's -- i know she had been to albuquerque at least one prior time. Darlene Trujillo, who was last seen July 5, 2001, and included Sonia Lente, who disappeared on Oct. 3, 2002. The fact that all but one of the victims had links to sex work initially helped guide the police investigation for the serial killer they dubbed the West Mesa Bone Collector. But not even FBI profilers were able to find the killer. Dateline: Unforgettable airs every Tuesday on Oxygen at 8:00 PM ET. >> somebody was trying to send a message at some point. 13th anniversary of New Mexico's West Mesa Murders - KOAT for ida walking through this bone yard felt as if she were watching a horror movie unfold in real time. everything was in a pretty contained area. i just want to know when was the last time you saw her? In 2014, a breakthrough on a decades-old case caused Albuquerque police to become interested in Joseph Blea as a suspect for the murders. >> i was about 9 years old. spots that weren't there before. [6], An extensive manhunt for Herr was launched by authorities who at that point still believed Herr was responsible for Kibuishi's murder and was on the run. 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. the odds were good that syllania edwards, like the others, had simply strolled out into the war zone and climbed into the wrong car. they came up with their profile of who they thought we were looking for, including that profile was a white male. that was not the track michelle valdez was on.ra though dan continued to tape all the usual family functions. local station as finding a femur bone. but he saw his daughter. Police have offered a $100,000 reward for anyone offering evidence leading to the discovery of the person the media came to call the West Mesa Bone Collector. The victims' names will be read Saturday at a brief memorial service organized by Street Safe New Mexico next to a place where city officials in June broke ground on a memorial park. >> he may be waiting in some other community to start doing the same thing again. i got scared. they had ties to albuquerque. Janepsy Carballo, Orlando Mesa: Dateline NBC's 'Miami Heat' Episode >> where was i the night before? The police launched a manhunt for the prime accused, 45 yo Hemraj , a live-in domestic help employed by her family. fabric refresher even works for clothes you want to wear another day. Joplin man says he has been cleared of suspicion in serial murders >> reporter: it was intended to be a low-key search of the man's home and offices. and she said -- she went up to put her arms around me, and i hugged her. but is it true? this photo, taken the following year, shows even more bare spots. Annette Gutirrez-Millspaugh shared with us that nobody had ever solved the 1982 murder of Father Reynaldo Rivera. right. 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. >> possibly the killer? Lorenzo Montoya was killed in 2006 at his South Valley home less than two miles from the West Mesa burial site. >> the reality, it was kind of, like this is not happening. how can i help? she says, "i have some bad news for you." 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. >> yes. >> probably because he felt safe out here. The bodies were discovered a decade ago this weekend, kicking off an investigation into the largest crime scene in Albuquerque's history. Where do those women congregate. >> when you see those satellite photos and you see the scarring on the desert floor, knowing what we know now, it's very obvious that those look like graves. If you have information about the West Mesa murders, please contact APD at 1-877-765-8273 or (505) 768-2450. 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." i know and i'm comfortable with the fact that they identified her as my daughter. Dateline NBC - Google Podcasts West Mesa murder victims Evelyn Salazar, left, and Cinnamon Elks. >> not for you. it's been nine years since that summer night when ida lopez first took to the streets of albuquerque's war zone alone, searching for a couple of missing women. it led them to a dead end. >> hi. West Mesa Serial Killer Satellite Image | Peatix [18][19], No official suspects have ever been named in connection with the murders. >> i would tell them every single day we're one day closer to finding your daughter. >> reporter: a time frame, 2003 to early 2005, and 11 sets of bones. >> reporter: for detectives like todd babcock it all seemed to add up. >> what'd the police tell you? so i took a picture of the bone. >> fbi's behavioral sciences agents came in, took a look at our crime scene, took a look at what evidence we had. and one of the locations that was searched was right next door to a newspaper. though she's not on the street as much these days, she is still busy working missing persons cases. I think there's a Disappeared episode relating to it as well. The graves held the remains of two teens and nine adults, one of whom, 22-year-old Gina Michelle Valdez, was four months pregnant when she died. it was a bit of frontier justice for montoya, who was about to literally get away with murder. 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.