in this 2002 image of the area where the bones were discovered there's nothing unusual. 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. They founded Safe Streets New Mexico in response to the threats sex workers face in the state and the lack of attention paid to violent crimes against them. The tragic truth was that sex workers made for easy targets, and are often distanced from relatives while communities are blind to their disappearance. I have a friend who was in a relationship with one Adrian P. Trujillo. oh right. >> he may be waiting in some other community to start doing the same thing again. The police are reportedly willing to reward $100,000 to anybody who provides information on the West Mesa murders. commander feist knew every scrap of evidence recovered from that gigantic crime scene would have to be cataloged and stored until it came time to prosecute the west mesa grave digger. 'd, and it was her, and they found, you know, she was pregnant. >> i just always felt that they were going to be together. >> and she didn't mind? on July 20, 2019. thank you for being here with us. then six. Authorities believe that the women may have been involved in a large interstate sex trafficking operation. >> reporter: sticking up for victims comes naturally to ida lopez. 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. aleve pm. Way to go ABQ district attorney.. http://www.rrobserver.com/news/article_2d7213ea-a0dc-11e3-aa48-001a4bcf887a.html, Do you have a YouTube link to it? >> reporter: and it's not just there for inspiration. (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 . FULL EPISODE: Somebody's Daughter. >> i think we will. >> no. michelle's little girl angelica was now the center of attention. >> thin, wired out, strung out maybe. southwestern summer heat begins to ease hot air balloons rise like spring flowers over albuquerque and the surrounding desert. la la la la la. after three years angelica was sent to live with dan's mother, who lived nearby, and michelle took to living with a series of people she called friends. bones started to get names. The West Mesa Murders City of Albuquerque The 11 victims whose remains were discovered at the West Mesa site in 2009. stop dancing around the pain your home and auto that keeps you up again, and again. and where was he now? sunrise would bring news of his daughter michelle. / CBS Colorado. you know, my husband's got young kids to take care of. -oh. memories fade, and witnesses disappear, and some just don't, want to be part of it anymore. The 11 victims whose remains were discovered at the West Mesa site in 2009. but they hadn't made an i.d. it was a fetus. He has interviewed 200 hundred local women with similar backgrounds and created timelines for every suspect. they can be. >> reporter: it was in denver, another city on the circuit, that detective todd babcock hit paydirt. -what? Starting tonight at 8 p.m., NBC will air a special two-hour "Dateline" episode dealing with the notorious West Mesa Murder Mystery. to find out commander mike geyer, head of the albuquerque p.d. by now dan was emerging as the videographer and de facto spokesman for the families. -you're not even enrolled in this class. you know, it's stuff you read about. love for your gut. One of the suspects, Joseph Blea, was arrested on Albuquerques Central Avenue for exposing himself to a woman. when had i last seen her? >> february 2nd is when one of our violent crimes detectives said oh, they found a bone on the mesa, i'll let you know. love for your gut. i miss you, hon. Despite the jewelry, underwear, and other evidence that appeared to connect him to the case including the testimony of a former cellmate who said that Blea claimed to have known and hired the West Mesa victims and called them "trashy" police have still been unable to conclusively tie him to the murders. we had things that we wanted to keep very secret, or things that we didn't want released. >> i see her pull up out front, and i go out and stand on the sidewalk. [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. >> there's nothing to connect lorenzo montoya to those 11 bodies? i'm supposed to be in ceramics. >> reporter: a time frame, 2003 to early 2005, and 11 sets of bones. Dateline Full Episodes. >> i was the only detective in there at the time. >> it was a problem. >> reporter: dan valdez, who'd been wondering for years where his daughter was, saw his most cherished hopes and his most dreaded fears placed on a collision course. Ross would soon discover that 11 dead bodies, now known as the West Mesa Murders, lay beneath. 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. >> 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. Women living a primal lifestyle are tribal. at 13 michelle became pregnant. >> then in february 2009 came unsettling news. >> reporter: then came seven. 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. Search the history of over 797 billion >> yes. Although Montoya fit the description, the West Mesa serial killer remains unidentified. >> where was i the night before? Ultimately, a lack of evidence failed to pin the murders on Blea, who is serving a 90-year sentence for sexual assault cases from the 1980s and 1990. by 2002 the wear and tear is written all over her face. >> did you know michelle was pregnant when she disappeared? Ross wasnt sure the bone was human, but knew it could be. you need to stop and smell the roses of savings. so i gave her the money. i said it's michelle valdez. a. with xfinity mobile you can bring in your own phone, switch wireless carriers and save hundreds of dollars. California, 2010: Two actors, Rachel Buffett and Daniel Wozniak, are at the center of the investigation of two murders. >> if these women had been blond, white, and from the right part of town would you guys have sounded the alarm sooner? West Mesa Killer Satellite Image Credits. >> -- your daughter's a prostitute. he opened up the door for all the wrong things. Happy New Year! -or maybe he didn't know. Most of them hadnt even been reported missing at the time their remains were found. dan knew about some of the arrests.d most he didn't. >> reporter: it was intended to be a low-key search of the man's home and offices. About Dateline: Secrets Uncovered. when a stolen car rap in arizona landed michelle in jail, dan says he bailed her out and pleaded with her to change her ways. i'm sorry, i think you mean roses. It's no secret. had spots on her face. >> so you were being a father all over again. >> 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. Submissions should outline a mystery and provide a link to a more detailed review of the case such as a Wiki article or news report. Wozniak led authorities to the area where almost all of Herr's dismembered body was found discarded at El Dorado Nature Center in Long Beach. 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. 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. >> reporter: at times detective ida lopez was out there too. >> was the man whose house you served a search warrant on, is he a suspect? >> it's kind of eerie looking at those satellite photos. and thoughts of rare moments together before she went missing. His cellmate said Blea admitted to knowing many of the murdered women and had even hit one of them for allegedly trying to steal his money. >> tough questions for her boyfriend. The case has been covered by numerous crime and news programs in the United States, including: On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Perhaps precisely because of this, the FBIs $100,000 reward for information has gone uncollected for over a decade. her future seemed assured. Paige Birgfeld: Missing Mother Living a Double Life Was Kidnapped & Murdered. do you need anything? michelle had just turned 20. a milestone that was not lost on mother or child. >> it's taking all my time. >> reporter: for medical investigator wendy honeyfield the bones of jane doe number 7 and her pink-tipped acrylic nails were a beguiling puzzle. backing you. that dares to last into the morning. >> reporter: it had to be someone local, investigators assumed. According to Dateline, because of what they did and how they lived their stories might not have been told.. it recommends our best custom fit orthotic to relieve foot, knee, or lower back pain. they had literally spent weeks in the trenches looking for bones at that abandoned construction site. >> so we were able to, communicate with each other anything that came up. In May 2008, 13 yo Aarushi Talwar was found murdered in her own bedroom in Noida, India. >> reporter: jane doe's number 7 nose had been broken sometime before she died. By Vanessa R Martinez / NM News Port / It's now been ten years since the bodies of 11 women were found buried on the West Mesa of Albuquerque. >> yes. New Mexico Authorities Offer $100,000 Reward for Help Solving West Mesa Murders of 11 Women and Unborn Child . >> we figured she had been sexually assaulted and dumped here. >> hi. With a similar history as Blea, Lorenzo Montoya was known to pick up prostitutes and assault them. No one noticed they were gone.. 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. because deep within your skin an overly sensitive immune system could be the cause. >> reporter: it would take more than diligent detective work to find those answers. 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. do not use if you are allergic to dupixent. He said. paws down. tell your doctor if you have new or worsening eye problems, including eye pain or changes in vision. bark i wanted to consolidate my credit cards in to a personal loan to pay them off faster. but one name stood out. >> no.n' not at all. Several women had children now being raised by relatives. That discovery of a single bone led to a months-long dig, as police used DNA and dental records to identify the women and girls. -keith used to be great to road-trip with. But most of the other victims vanished with even fewer details. [2] He was found guilty and sentenced to death in September 2016. >> and that's still a lot of people. >> we really can't say why. Case 27: The West Mesa Bone Collector. He choked her to death, and when the woman's boyfriend/pimp came looking for her, he shot and killed Montoya. can you imagine 24 hours without heartburn? 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. The published list also included the names of eight of the 11 West Mesa murder victims . but at the time it was routine low priority policework. The mysteries surrounding the West Mesa Murders, an unsolved case of 11 female bodies discovered in a desert graveyard near Albuquerque in 2009. Produced, reported and maintained by Journal staff member. >> this is michelle. a meticulous man whose grim will had brought him back to the mesa again and again to bury his victims. -what teach here isn't telling you is that snapshot rewards safe drivers with discounts on car insurance. >> correct. if you find one, you're going to find them all. and one of the locations that was searched was right next door to a newspaper. i never wanna hear you say no, kevin no, kevin! The 49 girls and women murdered by Gary Ridgway, the "Green River Killer," in Washington state in the 1980s and '90s didn't receive anywhere near the same level of public attention and sympathy as the college students Ted Bundy murdered in the same state in the 1970s. >> my personal opinion, i believe that that person is still out there. On May 21, 2010, Wozniak shot and killed his neighbor, Private First Class Samuel "Sam" Herr, a 26-year-old Afghanistan War veteran, at a Los Alamitos theater. With Safe Streets New Mexico, Jaramillo and Barber aim to give women from this vulnerable sector the protection society fails to provide them. did you know her? a detective named ida lopez. 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. and i carried this little flyer in my pocket and in my car, you know, for the last, you know, four years. [25] In 2015, Blea was also suspected by police of killing a sex worker; his DNA sample was located on the inner waistband and belt of a sex worker found dead on Central Ave, a notorious street for sex work in the eastern part of the city. >> it's more than just a few. Police haven't ruled out that there might be more victims, and detectives still have multiple suspects, Gallegos said. all of them about the same age,m with a similar look.he all were known to hang out in a section of albuquerque so o notorious that cops call it the war zone. bill's back needed a afvacation from his vacation. sometimes because she avoided z the camera. -ahhh. so in ida's absence the valdez family was at the mercy of the police department's bureaucracy. local station as finding a femur bone. >> reporter: soon there were five missing women with eerily similar profiles on ida's list. glad i could help. 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. -yeah. The 58-year-old Joplin businessman and photographer informed the Globe last week that he has been cleared of. According to the TV program, FBI profilers told Albuquerque police that the killer was a white or Hispanic male in his 30s. >> university of north texas identified jamie barela through dna. >> first words out of the girl's mouth was that he was trying to kill her. That threat and the circumstances of his death led police to suspect that Montoya had been the West Mesa Bone Collector. The West Mesa killings occurred from 2001 - 2005, and the serial killer responsible has never been caught. >> well, they were shocked. Globe staff photographer Ron Erwin would like to shed the suspected serial killer tag. so help heal your skin from within, with dupixent. 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. Meet Detective Ida Lopez, bringing justice to missing women & their families. the killer, whoever he was, and police naturally assumed the killer was male, had a five-year head start. Lopezs investigation found that close to two dozen women with similar profiles were missing. >> reporter: this michelle, along with her sister camille and half sister kendra, was a cut-up and a clown. right. all the remains. not at all. Despite the tip, however, the West Mesa Murder case remains unsolved. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. >> the hardest part of this whole thing is having to go to somebody's house and say we found her and she's not alive. 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. Then, learn about six serial killers who were never caught. 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. What appeared to be a human bone was just the beginning. >> you know, i just didn't know. >> reporter: mostly she just watched it grow. Years had passed from the time the women and girls disappeared, likely limiting available evidence. it's pretty much the easiest way to save since sliced bread. 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. Where do those women congregate. it's not the pretty woman. pe reporter: the michelle valdez that appears in these home videos with her little sisters is a far cry from the thin, drug-wasted young woman police would later come to know and fingerprint. except for one tantalizing tidbit. but other than that it seemed that, you know, that she was on the up and up and that she was doing -- doing what she could, in her power, and the time that she had to go out and -- out to the streets. career. >> fbi agents also searched this home. >> reporter: ida lopez began this case with the mantra that everybody counts. and they'd go through the alley, do their tricks in the alley. a money-making spectacle that draws tourists from all over the world to albuquerque for one week in october. It was the most disturbing murder case Albuquerque police had ever seen and it remains unsolved to this day. >> then about a month and a half after i was diagnosed, then i had my kidney removed. except for one thing. i love you, hon. | Dr. Phil", "Dr. Phil | Actress Accused: Was She an Accessory to Murder? 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. >> it's a lot of people. >> 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. >> reporter: what you have in dan valdez's case is a search you do yourself. >> correct. also, again, it goes back to the lifestyle. >> reporter: when christine ross decided to take her dog ruca for a walk. she made detective, married, another cop, and started a family. Theres a sense of physical remoteness this place was very removed, said University of New Mexico professor Dirk Gibson, who has written two books on serial killers. The upcoming episode, titled Somebody's Daughter, will air on Oxygen on Tuesday, July 12, at 8:00 PM ET. She also told them that he threatened "to kill me and bury me in lime.". with uncontrolled moderate-to-severe eczema, or atopic dermatitis, you feel like you're itching all the time. >> could never trace it back. The West Mesa Bone Collector 11.63 MBDanelle Hallan Download Mp3 The West Mesa Bone Collector 16.3 MBThat Chapter. but occasionally she was able to do some pruning. searching for clues in a crime scene big enough to be seen from space. Fred Reynolds was a pimp who knew one of the missing women and reportedly had photos of missing sex workers; he died of natural causes in January 2009. before discovering nexium 24hr to treat her frequent heartburn, marie could only imagine enjoying freshly squeezed orange juice. (vo) automatically sort your expenses and save over 40 hours a month. >> he was going to let her stay with us. Josh Mankiewicz reports from New Mexico. >> possibly the killer? according to the website, she'd been a 13-year-old runaway from a group home in lawton, oklahoma in 2003. and that's what we're trying to figure out. Genres and she's alive. >> yeah. nine. she confirmed that that looked like a femur bone and i should call the authorities. She alerted the police, and Ray was arrested. >> missing women. Details of Disappearance. and that's when angelica looked at me and started crying. i mean he's a wreck without me. though she's not on the street as much these days, she is still busy working missing persons cases. Your login session has expired. there were whole bunches of them. i mean, that's not exactly, you know, the premier detective job. The Piketon Massacre. -what a sign, huh? Jun 09, 2022. dateline west mesa murders lengthy delays in reporting missing people as missing. >> it's kind of eerie looking at those satellite photos. 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. there's a better choice. 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. i said no. >> a college campus gripped by fear. found her and she's not alive. >> reporter: lorenzo montoya, a short, powerfully built man in his 30s who was known to have an, equally short temper and a taste for prostitutes. 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. 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. terry, can you take a selfie of me? it took years. michelle had already been busted for receiving and transported stolen property, drug possession and car theft. An episode of NBC "Dateline" airing Friday will feature the West Mesa murder case. The mysteries surrounding the West Mesa Murders, an unsolved case of 11 female bodies discovered in a desert graveyard near Albuquerque in 2009. >> it was in september of 2004. >> i would tell them every single day we're one day closer to finding your daughter. -yeah. >> reporter: desiree gonzalez says she used to hang out on these streets and says she knew several of the missing women and had also heard those same rumors. dupixent is not a steroid, and it continuously treats your eczema even when you can't see it. >> do you think we're dealing with one guy here? yeah. >> i start going out there and talking to the girls. each x marking another day without word from his oldest daughter, michelle. starts help healwith -hi!mplewithin. >> on the surface seems like a pretty good suspect. >> we believe that's him. All went missing between 2003 and 2005. Wozniak came under suspicion after he instructed a sixteen-year-old, Wesley Freilich, to withdraw money from Herr's accounts. >> reporter: suddenly families who'd once felt isolated in their agony now felt a communal bond. daughter's comings and goings for years. a restless night's sleep. >> that really sends a chill up and down your spine. >> and i said, well, let's gather these families together and let's get to know them. the families hurt. Ive been looking for a cast on yhis case. >> she's like a lot of other cases that we had skeletal remains that come in. s i just learned the absolute e dependence on the drug for the girls because there's no way in your right mind you're going to get into a car and do what this person just told you to do. and i kind of was wobbling a little bit, and ida consoled me a little bit and said it's okay, you know, it's okay. 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. ida went by the book. and by the summer of 2009 the fbi and the city of albuquerque were offering $100,000 to anyone who could help them catch and convict the man responsible for killing the west mesa women.