heart that day when she wasn't there. i'll take aleve. so why am i still thinking about this? >> reporter: the target of the search warrant was a local joplin, missouri photographer who had allegedly been in albuquerque to take pictures during the city's 2004 balloon fiesta. dr. scholl's. >> and that's still a lot of people. The case reportedly began in 2005 when Lopez was handed files of a few missing women, one of whom was a 25-year-old prostitute named Michelle Valdez from New Mexico's largest city, Alberquerque. >> the numbers grew. 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. i find her months later. they deal with all kinds. After neighbors complained of flooding at the platted site (due to the burial of the natural arroyo), the developer built a retaining wall to channel storm water to a retention pond built in the approximate area of the burial site, inadvertently exposing bones to the surface. apoquel goes right to the source of itch to provide relief in as little as four hours! but if one of them had during the 2003 or 2004 festivals, they might have actually seen evidence of a murderer moonlighting as a grave digger. daughter's comings and goings for years. With her call to the Albuquerque Police Department, Ross had begun to expose horrors the city had never seen. the killer, whoever he was, and police naturally assumed the killer was male, had a five-year head start. so i would tell her, you know, mean things. i'm craig melvin. Dirk Gibson, a communications and journalism professor at the University of New Mexico (Det. and the newly organized families, which included everyone with a daughter on ida's list, began holding monthly vigils to keep public attention focused on finding all of the missing women. >> i think they're trick candles. >> reporter: in addition to victoria chavez and michelle valdez, the others from ida's list were cinnamon elks, julie nieto, veronica romero, monica candelaria, and doreen marquez. also, again, it goes back to the lifestyle. >> investigators are looking for connections. 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. this bone belonged to someone who had died in the not too distant past. http://www.rrobserver.com/news/article_2d7213ea-a0dc-11e3-aa48-001a4bcf887a.html. >> reporter: mostly she just watched it grow. pi fr no, i can't believe how easy it was to save hundreds of dollars on my car insurance with geico. [20], Lorenzo Montoya lived less than three miles from the burial site. Over time, a number of men have attracted police attention, though not named as full suspects, in connection with the murders. According to New Mexico State University, the FBI has investigated long-haul truck drivers as suspects in murders of sex workers along major highways, and authorities have reason to believe that Edwards was one such victim. but her presence in the west mesa bone yard raised a troubling prospect. They had picked him up in 1998 when he offered an undercover cop $40 for sex. >> there used to be a motel here. with the investigation now focused on finding a serial killer, ida thought back to her late-night chats with the women of the war zone. thank you. >> your typical profile. >> and i said, "angelica." that's why we're staying with homicidal violence. >> reporter: so detectives started checking with police departments and jails throughout the southwest on the hunch that syllania, as young as she was, might have been entangled in a. prostitution circuit that shuttles women from city to city. 's criminal investigations unit, says the department chased leads all over the country, from texas, where a woman with profile similar to those of the west mesa women-v also gone missing. glad i could help. it recommends our best custom fit orthotic to relieve foot, knee, or lower back pain. 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. if you are taking asthma medicines, do not change or stop your asthma medicine without talking to your doctor. Who are the dominate males, and lesbians in their Tribe? Part 2 of The Biggest Unsolved Mysteries in New Mexico The El Paso Crime Stoppers office received an anonymous tip in 2010 that a suspect whose last name was Cota had killed a girl nicknamed "Mimi" and "Chocolate," both of which were names Edwards was known to go by. She took a picture and messaged her sister, a registered nurse who confirmed that it was. looking for michelle. [11], On September 12, 2018, Buffett was convicted on two of those counts with a maximum possible sentence of 44 months and, on November 8, 2018, was sentenced to 32 months minus time served and good behavior. The toddler peddled a small trike across the couple's driveway and out of view of the camera as Mesaa . Photos, information and videos from Dateline here. The mysteries surrounding the West Mesa Murders, an unsolved case of 11 female bodies discovered in a desert graveyard near Albuquerque in 2009. In the preceding decades he had tortured and killed around 40 other women, and Jaramillo knows her fate would have been the same had she not escaped. Uploaded by doesn't just deal with missing. >> reporter: homicidal violence. 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. soon could be months. >> reporter: no. a thigh bone had been found out on albuquerque's west mesa. she says, "i have some bad news for you." In 2007, before the harrowing discovery, the detective reportedly claimed that she had a file of more than 17 women, whom she referred to as "her girls," with similar backgrounds of addiction or prostitution who went missing between 2001 and 2006 from the Albuquerque streets. Google MapsWest Mesa Murders satellite photos show the undeveloped land where the victims were discovered. >> honestly, i don't remember the last time i seen her. there were whole bunches of them. Fortunately, the detective came back on a contractual basis to investigate the West Mesa murders. >> reporter: they call it tough love. and then three. so that was represented in the sketch. New Mexico 'serial killer' murdered 11 women in unsolved case, 8 The Albuquerque officers did not say that Erwin was a suspect. Lopezs alma mater) who has written several books on serial killings, said: You cant have a colder cold case, Gibson said. babcock says he saw marks on the woman's throat and that she told him montoya looked like he was enjoying it. West Mesa murder victims Evelyn Salazar, left, and Cinnamon Elks. / CBS Colorado. These are the eleven victims identified in as being found in the dumping ground in the West Mesa. Last edited on 19 February 2023, at 14:32, List of fugitives from justice who disappeared, List of serial killers in the United States, "The West Mesa Murders: A Central American Connection? >> the company kind of left town and just kind of left the land the way it was. missing persons, you know, was busy. Dateline - NBC.com >> so many young women missing. It would appear the killings stopped after his death. >> he was going to let her stay with us. To this day, the case remains unsolved. then five. >> when they found the second, third, and fourth sets i said to myself i have to realistically look at this, that michelle i'm sure probably is out there. New Mexico Authorities Offer $100,000 Reward for Help Solving West Mesa Murders of 11 Women and Unborn Child . to states as far away as pennsylvania and florida, where the backgrounds and travel patterns of certain types of men seem to warrant close attention. i love you, hon. >> it's a lot of people. was it all hot air, or did someone with knowledge of the murders mix a kernel of truth into those rumors? 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. Ruca found a large bone protruding from the earthen trail. As a result of the subsequent police investigation, authorities discovered the remains of 11 women and girls[8] and a fetus buried in the area. The acting lieutenant of the Albuquerque Police Department's Violent Crime Division, Holly Anderson, told KOAT Action News in February 2021 that police are still working the case, despite not having any new evidence to go on in recent years. Going to listen. An unsolved murder case has haunted the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico for more than a decade. 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. everything was in a pretty contained area. The Disturbing Story Of The West Mesa Murders And The Serial Killer Who Remains Uncaught. by now dan was emerging as the videographer and de facto spokesman for the families. and one of the locations that was searched was right next door to a newspaper. the hard part was that many of them had already been missing for more than a year before ida even had a chance to start looking. >> possibly the killer? >> reporter: -- no one who seemed to know something about the five-year missing persons cases was dialing the phone. but police think it wasn't just the balloons he was, photographing. 'Dateline' To Air Story on West Mesa Deaths - Albuquerque Journal Theories? >> at one point syllania had been arrested up in the denver area for prostitution, going by a different name at the time. she hunted the guilty. happy birthday that september angelica celebrated her sixth birthday. Apparently he had made numerous comments about abducting prostitutes from the New Mexico state fair and taking them to his mother's property on the outskirts of ABQ. >> sit. >> my personal opinion, i believe that that person is still out there. what if the west mesa grave digger was a prolific transient? >> we believe so. Skip to main content Due to a planned power outage on Friday, 1/14, between 8am-1pm PST, some services may be impacted. >> did you know who cinnamon was? >> i started looking into the missing and exploited children's website and was able to search through as many african-american females that matched the possible stature, where they might have been when they went missing. to discuss leads on missing persons, on cold cases, on sexual predators, and on unidentified remains. >> she's like a lot of other cases that we had skeletal remains that come in. >> reporter: that was true then, and it's true today. 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. By Marlene Lenthang, MaryEllen Resendez, Jennifer Pirone, and Amanda Karrh May 21, 2021, 9:22 AM 6:56 Single mom Paige Birgfield goes missing in a small Colorado town: Part 1 It was the most disturbing murder case Albuquerque police had ever seen and it remains unsolved to this day. la la la la la. and i said, look, i'm not running you. Ross wasn't sure the bone was human, but knew it could be. >> i think we will. that was not the track michelle valdez was on.ra though dan continued to tape all the usual family functions. maybe it was me not letting her come back to the house. >> reporter: it was that kind of gut reaction that led detectives to joplin, missouri in august of 2010. One day later, Hemraj's partially decomposed body was found in the terrace of the same home. but they hadn't made an i.d. >> a suspect caught in the act. One of the victims, 22-year-old Michelle Valdez, had been pregnant when she was killed, and the bones of her unborn child were also found among the victims. tell your doctor if you have new or worsening eye problems, including eye pain or changes in vision. [12] Michelle Valdez was four months pregnant at the time of her death.[13]. that's all we really wanted, just to flash her picture real quick. tw >> reporter: the toll of michelle's addiction on her t younger sister camille is also evident in dan's videos.il as camille becomes a teenager, she no longer seems to want to acknowledge michelle or even have her around. all of her other victims were local. terry, can you take a selfie of me? in late january 2010, nearly a year after the first bones were discovered on albuquerque's west mesa, the last set of remains was matched to another name on ida's list. >> yes. Edwards was classified as an endangered runaway from Lawton, Oklahoma in 2003 and was last seen with three sex workers in Aurora, Colorado in May 2004. bark i wanted to consolidate my credit cards in to a personal loan to pay them off faster. young hispanic women with arrest records for drugs or prostitution. >> reporter: from a pool of hundreds wendy first narrowed the field to 30, then to 10, and then to 1. one girl whose face, age, and biography seemed to match what she saw in the sketch. start with supporting your gut health. >> on the way back from arizona to here she promised, i'm not going to hang out with the same people, i'm going to do things different and you're going to be proud of me again, and then she bails two hours after she's home. That threat and the circumstances of his death led police to suspect that Montoya had been the West Mesa Bone Collector. eventually, ida and the cold case detective were able to persuade the department to let them form an unofficial task force, where once a month they met with other agencies, including the fbi. and because her wisdom teeth had not fully developed, wendy knew this jane doe was probably only 14 or 15 years old when she, died. >> reporter: commander feist, who tried to keep the local press at arm's length during the excavation, finally allowed them to cross under the yellow tape and onto crime scene, along with crews from "america's most wanted." >> yes. The Bone Collector- 11 bodies were found in the dessert of New - reddit she said, well, dad, i'm going to run. The West Mesa Serial Killer Satellite Photos - Transborder Media her nose and her eyes were very important. >> it is a lot of shovel and pick work. >> so what i usually do is i go back to see what their arrest history is. The Untold Truth Of The West Mesa Murders. 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. i mean, that's not exactly, you know, the premier detective job. >> thin, wired out, strung out maybe. The Untold Truth Of The West Mesa Murders - Grunge.com except for one tantalizing tidbit. >> reporter: suddenly families who'd once felt isolated in their agony now felt a communal bond. what can you tell me? A two-hour NBC Dateline special about the 2014 Fayetteville murder of James Allan Chambers II will air Friday at 9 p.m. . >> reporter: the resulting column, which for the first time publicly connected the missing women on ida's list with the west mesa bone field, hit the front page one month after the first bone was found. >> no. ROBERT BROWMAN. [9][14] Police would not say how or where they had obtained the photos. a meticulous man whose grim will had brought him back to the mesa again and again to bury his victims. -[ scoffs ] if you say so. but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. and i don't have phone records. it's got to be that person. s >> father all over again. who got an awful skin condition. >> yeah, because based on our experience with crimes of this nature, homicide crimes, when you have multiple offenders, more than one of them, someone's going to talk. that nobody really ever sees. and the guy goes toward him, and he's tackled by police. We'll do better next time, I promise! shadows prostitutes. The process repeated itself in more or less the same way about five years later. By the next day, he had still not returned, so his colleagues reported him as missing. >> reporter: then came seven. After learning about the West Mesa murders, read about the gruesome cult sacrifice of Mark Kilroy. Be the first one to comment on this story. 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. apoquel has helped over 6 million itchy dogs get the relief they deserve. at night dan drove through the war zone.