it's not the call girl. >> we believe so. If you have information about the West Mesa murders, please contact APD at 1-877-765-8273 or (505) 768-2450. Dateline NBC also promises to reveal new details about the death of Stephen Smith, whose 2015 death investigation was reopened two weeks after the murders of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh.Smith's . >> i just always felt that if you find one you're going to find them all. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. 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. Dirk Gibson, a communications and journalism professor at the University of New Mexico (Det. jane doe number 8 was michelle valdez. 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. The special will include exclusive interviews with 28-year-old Chambers . >> 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. dr. scholl's. 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. >> missing women. >> reporter: at times detective ida lopez was out there too. >> there used to be a motel here. podcast: Casefile True Crime. The police launched a manhunt for the prime accused, 45 yo Hemraj , a live-in domestic help employed by her family. Still, authorities have not given up. soon could be years. Lopez was part of the investigation from the very beginning, when the homicides were a series of missing persons cases related to the disappearance of numerous women. it was not the way that her mother and i raised her. that changed when michelle failed to show up for angelica's seventh birthday party. >> i thought maybe she'd turn up a few days later, a few weeks, or we'd -- you know, she'd call us. >> i looked up to her for many things. you know, we could chase them out, but for me there was always a story to them. >> last known police positive contact was in denver. there's no way. long. To this day only theories remained. and in spite of their example, they can't quit the life. they can be. Syllania Edwards, a 15-year-old runaway from Lawton, Oklahoma, was the only African American, and the only victim from out of state. some of it seemed to take. December 2006. [20], Lorenzo Montoya lived less than three miles from the burial site. According to Tixier, the department made the decision to bring Lopez back due to her extensive involvement in the case as well as her connection with the families of the victims. >> what about those last seven girls? a growing list of suspects. who got an awful skin condition. 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. Paige Birgfeld, 34, was a well-liked . her nose and her eyes were very important. and that's when angelica looked at me and started crying. >> we approached the vehicle, opened the door. >> i'm freeding. >> 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. i find her months later. Search the history of over 797 billion but they hadn't made an i.d. the mother road's glory days are behind her now. she hunted the guilty. 'd as one of the west mesa women victims -- one of the west mesa women." Case 27: The West Mesa Bone Collector. and the guy goes toward him, and he's tackled by police. la la la la la. soon could be months. >> there were numerous rumors out there that certain individuals had killed several of them, and then one in particular had been killed by drug dealers. i was so tired of it. On february 2, 2009, a woman walking a dog found a human bone on the west mesa of albuquerque, new mexico. >> reporter: for detectives like todd babcock it all seemed to add up. Joseph Blea was imprisoned when the bodies were found, but he became a suspect when his ex-wife contacted police. >> reporter: over the years ida's career blossomed. sad but common, especially for these dark streets where drug addiction and prostitution literally go hand in hand. searching for clues in a crime scene big enough to be seen from space. Like Blea, police also knew Lorenzo Montoya to be violent and hire sex workers in Albuquerque's East Central corridor. 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. Looking back what has changed for women on the streets?". The unsolved case received a lot of attention after that. you know, it seems like they knew or something. it took years. 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. >> i was only 8 years old and becoming an aunt, you know. According to the El Paso Times, the presence of Syllannia Edwards among the victims has led authorities to believe that sex trafficking gangs could have been involved. >> reporter: the name, the face, belonged to michelle valdez, one of the first women on ida's list. dateline west mesa murders; 3 Jun, 2022 dateline west mesa murders Julie Gonzales, the sister of 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. >> and under a desert sky the lost waited to be found. make febreze part of your clean routine for whole home freshness. by 2002 the wear and tear is written all over her face. serious allergic reactions can occur, including anaphylaxis, a severe reaction. ida knew the odds of finding any of the missing women alive were not good. 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. eight. and then she says is there anything that we can do? 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. i don't have a normal, you know, regular address. could be others. >> the company kind of left town and just kind of left the land the way it was. babcock says he saw marks on the woman's throat and that she told him montoya looked like he was enjoying it. some of it didn't. see a vehicle pick this girl 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. The 58-year-old Joplin businessman and photographer informed the Globe last week that he has been cleared of. Christine felt that the bone didn't look normal. 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. glad i could help. Prosecutors said Carballo killed him out of revenge for the murder of her husband, Orlando Mesa. >> i would tell them every single day we're one day closer to finding your daughter. >> can you tell me what that is? [7], Soon after, Wozniak was apprehended by US Marshals while at his bachelor party two days before his wedding. An episode of NBC "Dateline" airing Friday will feature the West Mesa murder case. >> reporter: sticking up for victims comes naturally to ida lopez. 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. >> she searched for the innocent. 2019 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. the next time anyone heard anything about syllania, she was here in this makeshift grave site outside albuquerque, sharing it with ten other women she never knew in life but will be forever linked with in death. never heard of her before. Photos, information and videos from Dateline here. >> she was a college student found on a lonely road in texas. local station as finding a femur bone. febreze finds odors trapped in fabrics (bubbles popping) and cleans them away as it dries. let's exchange phone numbers. ", "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! where did she come from? >> 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. However, the West Mesa murders might have changed that in Albuquerque. She alerted the police, and Ray was arrested. One of those suspects was Joseph Blea. but most of the women who worked albuquerque's war zone, fellow travelers who might have helped ida find the missing, were too drug addled to provide useful leads. >> your typical profile. any trucker initiatives or murderers that the fbi sent us we posted on the wall. For our first episode of 2018, we outline the still-unsolved murders of the West Mesa Serial Killer *FYI: We've marked this episode as explicit because there are a couple of f-bombs. Article continues below advertisement help heal your skin from within. >> 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. >> how many other detectives ins missing persons? >> when you ask them how many bad dates have you had? >> okay. it's the city's annual balloon fiesta. Theres so little money, and there are so many crimes. shadows prostitutes. "They did an excellent job with our West Mesa murders," said Sgt. [2] He was found guilty and sentenced to death in September 2016. love for your gut. She said that people should not lose hope, that there is no statute of limitations on crimes like these, and that the police will work the West Mesa Murders until the case is solved. >> we figured she had been sexually assaulted and dumped here. 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. Over time, a number of men have attracted police attention, though not named as full suspects, in connection with the murders. >> 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. >> they wouldn't even put her picture on the news or nothing. but in 2004 while pregnant with her second child doctors discovered a mass in ida's right kidney. >> i didn't even -- i didn't even want to be around it anymore. >> no. Valdez was pregnant at the time of her death and her . every time he saw her he marked the date down. she confirmed that that looked like a femur bone and i should call the authorities. >> we all had a common denominator. >> i got to know a lot of them. >> there are other girls from out of state in the same -- you know, are we going to find another repeat? >> reporter: two women on ida lopez's list had already been identified among the 11 sets of remains. dr. scholl's. and i said, you know, what are you talking about? -ahhh. Show Transcript. Send news items or comments to rturner229@hotmail.com. >> reporter: by the end of 2005 ida had five women on her list who were roughly the same age with similar backgrounds. >> it was growing, and i had kidney cancer. it was comforting that it didn't just happen to me. >> that's a possibility. After more than five years of court proceedings, Wozniak went to trial and was convicted on two counts of first-degree murder. for the detective who'd long maintained that everybody counts, the existence of that kind of reward was a sign of progress. the position was there. dupixent is not a steroid, and it continuously treats your eczema even when you can't see it. They arrested him again a year later as he raped and strangled a sex worker that he apparently never had any plans to pay, since he only had $2 in his wallet at the time. she says, "i have some bad news for you." >> if you find one, you're going to find them all. Joseph Blea (left) and Lorenzo Montoya (right). >> 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. Call the 118th Street Task Force at 1-877-765-8273 or (505) 768-2450. They may have been OD's? Authorities suspect a serial killer could be behind the deaths of 11 women and a yet unborn fetus, who were discovered in New Mexico. >> this particular individual made sure that he went back each and every time when he was going to dispose of a body and disposed of it in the same area where the other women were. at 13 michelle became pregnant. >> reporter: the detectives needed a solid tip. in albuquerque, where the old highway becomes central avenue, the city's decidedly down-scaled drug and prostitution trade flourishes. >> reporter: that was true then, and it's true today. 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. Your login session has expired. >> it's desert. The Piketon Massacre. >> there's probably people that, were in albuquerque during the time frame we're looking at and now through investigative leads or other sources we find something that tells us a little bit more about their lifestyle as well, which would give us again that kind of immediate gut reaction, it's got to be. probably familiar with the prostitution trade. >> on the surface seems like a pretty good suspect. >> reporter: it was in denver, another city on the circuit, that detective todd babcock hit paydirt. geico could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. The West Mesa Bone Collector 11.63 MBDanelle Hallan Download Mp3 The West Mesa Bone Collector 16.3 MBThat Chapter. >> lives alone or is away from home for extended periods of time. >> when they told us that they had a young black girl, i thought, i didn't have a young black girl on my list. >> i find a girl with the same background. so i would tell her, you know, mean things. Female sex workers are far more likely to be the victims of violent crimes like rape and murder, but communities do not tend to take notice of such cases in the same way as when women from other parts of society are affected. 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. not all those questions have been answered as of yet. 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. >> yeah, that did cross my mind numerous times. Confirmed to be the work of a serial killer that was active between 2001-2005. Dateline covered the murders. >> reporter: what you have in dan valdez's case is a search you do yourself. -or maybe he didn't know. 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. One bears a. >> so you get lucky. so, let's make this the summer of loving your gut. >> reporter: both of those. 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. This material may be protected by copyright law (Title 17 U.S. Code). Capture a web page as it appears now for use as a trusted citation in the future. every life is a mystery. >> a lot of people said they were drug addicts and prostitutes. and i'm happy and satisfied with that. the killer, whoever he was, and police naturally assumed the killer was male, had a five-year head start. The West Mesa Murders City of Albuquerque The 11 victims whose remains were discovered at the West Mesa site in 2009. i know and i'm comfortable with the fact that they identified her as my daughter. The investigation led the detective to discover at least 17 more similar cases of missing women, whom she referred to as "her girls.". and now on the cusp of young adulthood michelle looked gaunt. 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. According to the TV program, FBI profilers told Albuquerque police that the killer was a white or Hispanic male in his 30s. [26][27] Blea had women's underwear and jewellery not belonging to his wife or daughter in his home and allegedly told a cellmate that he had hired the West Mesa victims, who he called "trashy". Several women had children now being raised by relatives. >> reporter: homicidal violence. i don't remember the last words we spoke. She compiled a list of the missing not all of whom have been found, raising concern there might be more victims. and at the center of it all was dan valdez. every chance that i had i had the videotape there. >> and if he is, it may only be a matter of time. Wozniak was deeply in debt and wanted money to finance his upcoming wedding and honeymoon. how can i help? >> did you believe her story? According to the Albuquerque Journal, it all began when a woman out for a walk with her dog in a part of the city known as the West Mesa made a grisly discovery in February 2009. Jamie Barela, 15 - Jamie was not involved with drugs or sex work like the other ten victims. >> did you see her then? >> not for you. i have no idea how she got here. >> so what i usually do is i go back to see what their arrest history is. >> reporter: the families of the 18 women now on ida's list prayed for happy endings like that one. 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. and ida says, "dan." The West Mesa murders have yet to be solved. In 2014, a breakthrough on a decades-old case caused Albuquerque police to become interested in Joseph Blea as a suspect for the murders. but i just have to keep believing that today could be the day, today could be the day. i said all right. but within a few months of receiving those remains the lab-coated sleuths at the office of the medical investigator began unraveling the riddle of jane doe number 7. >> reporter: the total body count stayed at 11 sets of adult remains and one fetus. >> sit. Summary: Josh Mankiewicz puts the focus on the mysteries surrounding the West Mesa Murders, an unsolved case of 11 female bodies discovered in a desert graveyard near Albuquerque in 2009. Getty Stock Images . In this Dateline classic, a relaxing vacation turns into a nightmare when Stephen Reitz wakes up to find his girlfriend, Eva Weinfurtner, murdered. >> it's -- i know she had been to albuquerque at least one prior time. >> reporter: before long michelle valdez stopped showing up in her father's videos. In this video we take a look at an infamous killer in Albuquerque, New Mexico, known as the West Mesa Bone Collector. Then, Ruca found a bone resembling a femur. Albuquerque Police DepartmentJoseph Blea (left) and Lorenzo Montoya (right). >> it gathered a lot of attention because we had to utilize the fbi. t and so that gave me an empathy for them on that part, and i thought, wow, this has got to be powerful. ), First published on February 2, 2019 / 12:05 PM. 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. One of the suspects, Joseph Blea, was arrested on Albuquerques Central Avenue for exposing himself to a woman. Plot Twist: With Lester Holt, Josh Mankiewicz, Julie Kibuishi, Sam Herr. >> did you notice when the girls were going missing? our daughters. 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. ask your eczema specialist about dupixent. when they looked at old pictures of the mesa. that they're actually doing okay. sunrise would bring news of his daughter michelle. >> it's taking all my time. >> you can't. helps people find coverage options based on their budget. i couldn't handle it. >> 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. We'll do better next time, I promise! by 2Paragraphs in Culture, True Crime Murder TV | July 27, 2019, The Dateline episode Somebodys Daughter shines the light on Albuquerque Detective Ida Lopez. Photo Source This is an aerial photographs of the West Mesa Desert in 2004 when the first off road tracks were seen and you can spot two graves. -he did show us how to bundle home and auto at progressive.com and save a bunch of money. web pages actually, it was my grandfather raised me.ctdehiizedis s co enowas ait wde.lo he was about in his 80s. who got an awful skin condition. What appeared to be a human bone was just the beginning. her future seemed assured. >> and the man in the car was? and then she left it. >> reporter: this is what albuquerque police chief ray schultz says investigators saw. >> i thought she was alive and well and doing good but just didn't want to have any contact with the family. Murder. i love you, hon. >> was it possible ida lopez's list was just the tip of the iceberg? you need to stop and smell the roses of savings. >> could never trace it back. 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. >> reporter: although 15-year-old jamie barela was not a prostitute, she was last seen with one, her cousin evelyn salazar, whose remains were also found on the mesa. >> so we were able to, communicate with each other anything that came up. a money-making spectacle that draws tourists from all over the world to albuquerque for one week in october. One day later, Hemraj's partially decomposed body was found in the terrace of the same home. what if jane doe number 7 was just the first of many victims the grave digger brought to the, west mesa from somewhere else? >> that really sends a chill up and down your spine. 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. Being a registered nurse, she was able to tell Christine that the bone looked like a human femur, so Christine contacted the police. City and law enforcement officials have solicited help from the community to solve the West Mesa murders. Produced, reported and maintained by Journal staff member. Ive been looking for a cast on yhis case. -yeah. In 2009, the bodies of 11 women were found in multiple shallow graves on the West Mesa of Albuquerque but the cases remain unsolved. -[ scoffs ] if you say so. City of AlbuquerqueThe 11 victims whose remains were discovered at the West Mesa site in 2009. pi fr no, i can't believe how easy it was to save hundreds of dollars on my car insurance with geico. was it all hot air, or did someone with knowledge of the murders mix a kernel of truth into those rumors? sure, why not? and all had worked as prostitutes on the mean streets of the city's war zone. So she took a picture of it and texted her sister. [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. A two-hour NBC Dateline special about the 2014 Fayetteville murder of James Allan Chambers II will air Friday at 9 p.m. . now no fruit is forbidden. i mean he's a wreck without me. starts help healwith -hi!mplewithin. but you know what? they travel interstate. a. with xfinity mobile you can bring in your own phone, switch wireless carriers and save hundreds of dollars. >> were all the victims killed the same way? Uploaded by there weren't just two women that were missing. Where to Watch Episode 2 -oh, a plaque. Contact the Journal about the West Mesa murders at westmesa@abqjournal.com or 505-823-3860. tired of seeing him hurt. >> and she didn't mind? >> reporter: of course all that changed once bones started. but police think it wasn't just the balloons he was, photographing. probably had some brush with law enforcement. With a similar history as Blea, Lorenzo Montoya was known to pick up prostitutes and assault them. >> and whatever you tell us, it's no judgment at all. Blea's wife and daughter claimed to have found jewelry and female underwear that didn't belong to them in their home, and police confirmed this after they searched his home eight months into the West Mesa investigation. squeeze me tight. i'm just a normal person. -oh, what am i into? it's a quote familiar to detectives everywhere. The West Mesa killings occurred from 2001 - 2005, and the serial killer responsible has never been caught. Photos, information and videos from Dateline here. 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? "he later navigated northward, leaving progressive can't protect you from becoming your parents. Ross walked her dog, Ruca, along along a dried-out wash in Albuquerque, New Mexico. doesn't just deal with missing. and then i'm thinking, okay, is it somebody that's nice at picking them up? >> what did doctors tell you? but her presence in the west mesa bone yard raised a troubling prospect. we approached the vehicle, open the door, the first words out of this girl's mouth, who's a known prostitute, was that he was trying to kill her. >> daddy, can i have something to eat now? Thirteen years ago, the discovery of a femur bone on Albuquerque's west side would lead investigators to a mass grave site where 11 women were buried.