Neither woman was. and for them. for the detective who'd long maintained that everybody counts, the existence of that kind of reward was a sign of progress. Today, two suspects remain only of whom is still alive. >> it was a problem. activia. >> i needed to know where they were all the time. by now dan was emerging as the videographer and de facto spokesman for the families. >> we went back starting in 2002, and we got the records from our local jail. Ross walked her dog, Ruca, along along a dried-out wash in Albuquerque, New Mexico. >> reporter: then came the teen years.me when life started coming at michelle valdez fast and furious. Euphoria Star Sydney Sweeneys White Hot Bikini Is Out of Control, Sydney Sweeney, Algee Smith, Euphoria, image: courtesy of HBO, 2012-2023, 2paragraphs Productions, LLC. only activia has billions of our live and active probiotics. 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. >> and this is "dateline." Police say a woman walking her dog reported finding what appeared to be a femur on the mesa. those two files would mark the beginning of the biggest case in her career and would turn into pabarmis.markintos most heinouy crime stories. >> and you thought, this is it. tired of seeing him hurt. He has interviewed 200 hundred local women with similar backgrounds and created timelines for every suspect. >> what about those last seven girls? >> 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. One bears a. KTVB's Morgan Romero is joined by Keith Morrison on Channel 7 ahead of Friday's two-hour Dateline special on the Idaho student murders at 8 p.m. MT. you know, i was always the tag-along with her and her friends. (NBC) "Dateline NBC" will air a two-hour special Friday on the latest in the investigation into the murders of the University of Idaho students Ethan . >> so you told michelle she couldn't come over? they had literally spent weeks in the trenches looking for bones at that abandoned construction site. Decades later, the case still remains unsolved. >> reporter: based on photographs of the skull and a partial hair weave that was recovered from her grave, the sketch artist imagined that jane doe number 7 must have looked something like this. not a lot to go on. >> when they told us that they had a young black girl, i thought, i didn't have a black girl on my list. Produced, reported and maintained by Journal staff member. >> and if he is, it may only be a matter of time. and last longer with fewer pills. 14th birthday michelle valdez gave birth to a baby girl she named angelica. December 2006. Starting tonight at 8 p.m., NBC will air a special two-hour "Dateline" episode dealing with the notorious West Mesa Murder Mystery. for ida lopez there was the fear that her nightmare prediction was coming true. but michelle eventually dropped out of school.mi for a while she tried to support herself and angelica with a series of minimum wage jobs but couldn't make ends meet. then four. >> lives alone or is away from home for extended periods of time. a data plan for everyone. 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. >> investigators are extremely tight-lipped at this point, but we do know that this is in connection to the west mesa murders in albuquerque, new mexico. 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. Many had gone into sex work or had run away from home years before they died. proven better on pain. >> you're finding this, and you're just going, i wonder if it's going to be the rest of the girls. >> reporter: it was intended to be a low-key search of the man's home and offices. the first words out of this girl's mouth was that he was trying to kill her. -take a selfie of you? (danny) every day you're nearly fried to a crisp, professionally! do not use if you are allergic to dupixent. it's a quote familiar to detectives everywhere. who got an awful skin condition. >> the only body that has been identified so far, victoria chavez. >> could never trace it back. than tylenol extra strength. i was so tired of it. their lifestyle has been with drugs. Since 2009, families of some victims have stressed publicly that the women and girls were loved. >> 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. that christmas angelica opened her presents alone, with no sign of her mother michelle. drive to a remote location. >> because this guy had complete, freedom or he thought nobody's going to come out here? Her husband, Orlando Mesa, and 18-month-old son were shot just moments after the pair were captured on haunting surveillance camera enjoying the spring evening. in the grave of jane doe number 8 investigators found a tiny second set of bones. When the police confronted the boy, they were told by the boy that Wozniak had asked him to withdraw the money for him. Confirmed to be the work of a serial killer that was active between 2001-2005. >> -- your daughter's a prostitute. Only one signficant discovery was made along the way, which is that they were all murdered. When her boyfriend arrived, he shot and killed Montoya. 11. it turned out all were women. Show Transcript. 'd, and it was her, and they found, you know, she was pregnant. She compiled a list of the missing not all of whom have been found, raising concern there might be more victims. [1] Police have also suspected the involvement of a sex trafficking ring operating through neighboring Texas that targets sex workers during events throughout the Southwest, Southern, and Western United States, especially regularly scheduled events, such as the New Mexico state fair in this case, to take advantage of reliably heavier traffic. >> 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. 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 know in my heart i didn't do the right thing, but i knew that the common sense of my brain said that i had to. but one name stood out. >> reporter: whether in costume for a school play, dressed up for her first communion, or showing a budding interest in boys. there could be very realistically a lot of bodies. 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. >> hi. >> reporter: the total body count stayed at 11 sets of adult remains and one fetus. because deep within your skin an overly sensitive immune system could be the cause. >> you don't remember the last, thing you said to her? soon could be months. >> all six sets of remains were found within 20 yards of each other. and then as the months go by, wi search more and find that there are, you know, maybe another one here, then another one there, and that sort of thing. 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These unsolved murders remain one of the biggest homidice cases in the Albuquerque Police Department's history. >> sometimes ida lopez simply can't wait for sunday. >> a third one. Women living a primal lifestyle are tribal. >> i was the only detective in there at the time. There is a $100,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible. >> yeah. Authorities believe that the women may have been involved in a large interstate sex trafficking operation. The guy is a total dirt bag and the subject of a criminal case for drugging and raping a teenage girl while still walking the streets. According to the Albuquerque Journal, Blea was no stranger to the parts of the city where sex work is known to take place. oh right. >> 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. Joseph Blea was imprisoned when the bodies were found, but he became a suspect when his ex-wife contacted police. sometimes in the middle of her work week the albuquerque detective feels a pressing need, for spiritual solace and divine guidance. Trish Hoffman, spokeswoman for the Albuquerque Police Department. that was not the track michelle valdez was on.ra though dan continued to tape all the usual family functions. tell your doctor if you have new or worsening eye problems, including eye pain or changes in vision. >> no. it was comforting that it didn't just happen to me. >> 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. "Dateline" aired a two-hour show on the murders a gruesome case where the remains of 11 women and an unborn fetus were found buried in the desert near New Mexico's largest city in December. but since he bought his house are you going 45? Who do they party with? >> another one here, then another one there. All of the women, except 15-year-old Jamie Barela, had one thing in common: They were all involved in drugs and sex work. >> reporter: working alone, the detective distributed flyers with the women's pictures at truck stops, convenience stores, even the new mexico state fair. >> reporter: and so she learned, about the lives of the women on the street. i find her months later. 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. -oh, a plaque. Dirk Gibson, a communications and journalism professor at the University of New Mexico (Det. Lopezs alma mater) who has written several books on serial killings, said: You cant have a colder cold case, Gibson said. this date's lame. Paleontologists In China Just Discovered A Prehistoric Egg Fossil From A Nearly Human-Sized Turtle With A Baby Inside, How A 200 Pound Order Of Meat And A Nosy Upstate Cop Nearly Vanquished The American Mob, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch. >> reporter: at 14 most kids rightfully think their best years are ahead of them. and we know a few that have a, history of murdering the girls who frequent the truck stops. Lorenzo Montoya was killed in 2006 at his South Valley home less than two miles from the West Mesa burial site. but i get to say this is where she's at. Dateline is anchored by Lester Holt and features correspondents Andrea Canning, Josh Mankiewicz,. who got an awful skin condition. >> probably because he felt safe out here. women very often involved in prostitution, it's not uncommon for them to go missing for weeks or months at a time. 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. if you find one, you're going to find them all. so you get a lot of that. [9], The remains discovered in 2009 were identified as those of the following women and girls, all of whom disappeared between 2001 and 2005:[10][11]. >> all the stars aligned. 2023 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. i think because for the first time we had started to put faces on these women and we had explained to the citizens of albuquerque that there weren't just two women that were missing. >> i thought this could be it, yeah. he's just an individual that came to our attention that we had to follow through. >> reporter: when christine ross decided to take her dog ruca for a walk. 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. >> she was last seen in denver. >> reporter: sticking up for victims comes naturally to ida lopez. i got scared. >> reporter: some of the women had been missing for so long that ida started comparing notes with a detective in the department's cold case unit. and looked bad. Mesa and their son were shot outside their home, their son was only injured. and the guy goes toward him, and he's tackled by police. >> reporter: as you will soon see, timing, both perfect and not so perfect, will play a critical part in the story we're about to show you. searching for clues in a crime scene big enough to be seen from space. to discuss leads on missing persons, on cold cases, on sexual predators, and on unidentified remains. Theories? hoping that hers had not. shadows prostitutes. >> these are hurting women. and then she left it. >> i thought ida being a police officer was awfully small. and sure enough, they too were names on ida lopez's list of missing women. Her family maintains a Facebook group to solicit tips from the public, and the cold case was featured on Dateline NBC. and detective ida lopez, who'd had their names on her list of missing women. you know, maybe we ought to run that list. >> reporter: michelle valdez. >> they wouldn't even put her picture on the news or nothing. lengthy delays in reporting missing people as missing. >> we approached the vehicle, opened the door. [23], In December 2010, convicted Colorado serial killer Scott Lee Kimball stated that he was being investigated for the West Mesa murders, but he denied killing the women.[24]. 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. i wouldn't say he's a suspect. woof because nothing should come between you and your furry friend especially not allergic itch! >> she didn't want to be found. it turns out that even though that evidence was long gone by the time those bones were discovered in 2009 a bird's eye view was precisely the perspective investigators needed. YouTube/KOATThe West Mesa murders have yet to be solved. so you can move more. i had to take that avenue. To this day, the case remains unsolved. heart that day when she wasn't there. Many persons of interest have been eliminated by means of that timeline, he said. 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. the odds were good that syllania edwards, like the others, had simply strolled out into the war zone and climbed into the wrong car. he wouldn't say what the plans were because the only, you know, close person i knew had cancer and died. served. so she did what every good detective does. it's pretty much the easiest way to save since sliced bread. >> there could be somebody up there right now. >> i came out here looking for my cousin, and i bumped into cinnamon, and she had told me that -- that the girls were getting their heads cut off and tooken to the mesa. There hasnt been the degree of public fear and alarm that you might expect. not all those questions have been answered as of yet. [12] Michelle Valdez was four months pregnant at the time of her death.[13]. >> somebody was trying to send a message at some point. The bodies were discovered a decade ago this weekend, kicking off an investigation into the largest crime scene in Albuquerque's history. in albuquerque, where the old highway becomes central avenue, the city's decidedly down-scaled drug and prostitution trade flourishes. The West Mesa Bone Collector 11.63 MBDanelle Hallan Download Mp3 The West Mesa Bone Collector 16.3 MBThat Chapter. with uncontrolled moderate-to-severe eczema, or atopic dermatitis, you feel like you're itching all the time. The Untold Truth Of The West Mesa Murders. Reporter Josh Mankiewicz reports from Albuquerque on the story that made national headlinesthe discovery of 11 female bodies buried on the city's West Mesa. >> correct. The serial murders of 11 women in the West Mesa area of Albuquerque will be featured in a two-hour edition of NBC's Dateline tonight. >> right. it was my gateway to making contact with her and seeing her in person. i've been beat. they deal with all kinds. All of the women were Latina and all were from New Mexico, except Syllannia Edwards, who was African American and from Oklahoma. [1][2], An anonymous tip to authorities at APD and FBI linked the murders to a suspect from Central America. We'll do better next time, I promise! 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. h b u te then a third one comes in. Crime. i just thought that was the coolest thing i'd ever seen.ce and so that curiosity. maybe it was me not letting her come back to the house. the killer, whoever he was, and police naturally assumed the killer was male, had a five-year head start. 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. >> we're not the only family that got a call saying that their, you know, sister, daughter was murdered and buried out there. ida knew the odds of finding any of the missing women alive were not good. If you have information about the West Mesa murders, please contact APD at 1-877-765-8273 or (505) 768-2450. so far all the remains identified had been names on ida lopez's list of missing women. >> she was on your list. at 16 weeks, nearly four times more patients taking dupixent saw clear or almost clear skin compared to those not taking it, and patients saw a significant reduction in itch. glad i could help. >> and she didn't mind? the only one to combine a safe sleep aid and the 12-hour pain-relieving strength of aleve. 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. Why was the vehicle that took the bodies, as it did not appear the victims were murdered, killed, or executed on site, to the Burial Grounds never noticed? >> 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. In May 2010, Wozniak killed his neighbor and friend, Private First Class Samuel Eliezer "Sam" Herr, and Herr's friend, Juri "Julie" Kibuishi, as part of a plan to frame Herr for Kibuishi's murder and steal his combat pay. With Safe Streets New Mexico, Jaramillo and Barber aim to give women from this vulnerable sector the protection society fails to provide them. An arrest was made in April 2020, but more people were likely involved. >> i got to know a lot of them. let's exchange phone numbers. "It's really a sad and horrible anniversary," said Christine Barber, executive director of Street Safe New Mexico, a nonprofit that seeks to boost safety for women who live and work on Albuquerque streets. a camera might figure it out. ", "Controversial Show Starring Accused Los Alamitos Killer to Air", "NBC Dateline | FULL EPISODE: Plot Twist", "Daniel Wozniak, Rachel Buffett: 'Dateline' NBC Follows Plot Twists Of Actor In Bizarre Costa Mesa, California Murder Case", "Dateline: Secrets Uncovered season 7 episode 10 ("Plot Twist")", "20/20: 'Mystery in Apartment 410' Watch Full Episode", "Daniel Wozniak case: Full story of California double murder investigated on '20/20", "Community actor kills veteran, student for money to bankroll honeymoon", "The Perfect Murder | Watch Full Episodes & More! because deep within your skin an overly sensitive immune system could be the cause. podcast: Casefile True Crime. high school, college. Tonight's Dateline episode entitled Miami Heat will focus on the tragic events that led up to the fatal shooting of Orlando Mesa and 18-month old Noah 'Noa' Mesa, who survived the brutal attack. >> reporter: jane doe's number 7 nose had been broken sometime before she died. >> definitely. >> reporter: soon there were five missing women with eerily similar profiles on ida's list. for the moments that mattered most to her daughter, angelica. so, let's make this the summer of loving your gut. but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. babcock says he saw marks on the woman's throat and that she told him montoya looked like he was enjoying it. there's a better choice. aleve pm. >> reporter: by the end of that year ida's list had grown to more than a dozen women. [9][22] They confiscated "tens of thousands" of photos from the man, who reportedly used to visit the state fair in Albuquerque. >> i thought maybe she'd turn up a few days later, a few weeks, or we'd -- you know, she'd call us. 'd as one of the west mesa women victims -- one of the west mesa women." it was when the company returned to the site to fix the runoff problem that they inadvertently brought some bones to the surface, where five months later those bones were discovered by christine ross and her dog ruca. >> so many young women missing. One bears a stick-figure angel and a message from a woman who says the victims watch over her. i have no idea how she got here. >> she knew that there was events at the house because she'd call and ask if she could borrow $25, she was hungry or whatever. Ive been looking for a cast on yhis case. >> this is michelle. 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. sure, why not? Ominously, Montoya was holding a flashlight when he died while his victim was wrapped in a blanket near his SUV. He choked her to death, and when the woman's boyfriend/pimp came looking for her, he shot and killed Montoya. >> we figured she had been sexually assaulted and dumped here. also, again, it goes back to the lifestyle. >> no. i said all right. but you know, you have to have faith in your law enforcement. >> when was the last time you saw her? >> then about a month and a half after i was diagnosed, then i had my kidney removed. because deep within your skin an overly sensitive immune system could be the cause. apoquel may increase the chance of developing serious infections and may cause existing parasitic skin infestations or pre-existing cancers to worsen. it recommends our best custom fit orthotic to relieve foot, knee, or lower back pain. by 2Paragraphs in Culture, True Crime Murder TV | July 27, 2019, The Dateline episode Somebodys Daughter shines the light on Albuquerque Detective Ida Lopez. >> the response was amazing. so you have to recreate and you have to kind of go back in the time machine, so to speak, to that era or that time in these people's lives. because, they suppose, all those earlier rumors about the women being abducted, killed, and dumped in the desert had to have started somewhere. Dateline: Unforgettable airs every Tuesday on Oxygen at 8:00 PM ET. Daniel Wozniak, the California theater actor accused of beheading his neighbor, Army vet Sam Herr, and his friend Juri "Julie" Kibuish, in Costa Mesa six years ago, is the focus of Dateline NBC tonight. A life long resident of Albuq., NM. >> i have to keep believing that we'll find an answer soon. >> your typical profile. mind. that day it fell to 15-year-old camille to fill in for michelle and act as mom. The 11th, meanwhile, was 15-year-old Jamie Barela. what if the west mesa grave digger was a prolific transient? 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. 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. and the editor didn't say a whole lot. >> not for you. YouTube/KOATA makeshift memorial for the victims. There's no question Stephen did it: But was he. 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. >> reporter: the families of the 18 women now on ida's list prayed for happy endings like that one. According to Albuquerque's KQRE, Montoya hired a sex worker in December 2006 and took her to his home located less than two miles away from the site where the West Mesa victims were buried. dan valdez, her father, had reported michelle missing six months before ida got the case.c he was the guy who kept the calendar. 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. Send news items or comments to rturner229@hotmail.com. though she's not on the street as much these days, she is still busy working missing persons cases. >> i want to talk to you. The 11 victims whose remains were discovered at the West Mesa site in 2009. she gets out of her car and comes up to me. Perhaps precisely because of this, the FBIs $100,000 reward for information has gone uncollected for over a decade. The most notorious mass murder in Ohio's history happened on the night of April 21, 2016 in rural Pike County. >> whatever the killer's permanent address, those satellite photos were a huge break because they told police. digging, scraping, sifting. 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. can you make it look like i'm holding it? geico could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. >> how'd she look? >> i think it's somebody who's very organized. jane doe number 8 had been four months pregnant at the time of her death. >> in death as in life? >> reporter: six weeks after the digging began out on the west mesa, even more sets of remains were identified.