Joseph Blea was imprisoned when the bodies were found, but he became a suspect when his ex-wife contacted police. though she's not on the street as much these days, she is still busy working missing persons cases. Fifteen-year-old Syllania Edwards was identified as the only Black victim at the site, as well as the only one from out of state. dateline west mesa murders. It was the most disturbing murder case Albuquerque police had ever seen and it remains unsolved to this day. In this video we take a look at an infamous killer in Albuquerque, New Mexico, known as the West Mesa Bone Collector. Dirk Gibson, a communications and journalism professor at the University of New Mexico (Det. >> did you know who cinnamon was? okay? 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. Starting tonight at 8 p.m., NBC will air a special two-hour "Dateline" episode dealing with the notorious West Mesa Murder Mystery. 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. >> reporter: those were long nights, filled with bittersweet memories of michelle the way she used to be, before the drugs took over. the hardest part of this whole thing is having to go to somebody's house and say we. but years later his death would be just as tough a break for detectives investigating the bodies found on the west mesa. >> reporter: and so she learned, about the lives of the women on the street. It is unknown, however, if she traveled on her own or was trafficked there. he opened up the door for all the wrong things. According to police reports, she might have gone by Mimi or Chocolate while staying at the Ranger Motel. >> you're asked to call 1-877- -- >> though the police tip line with hundreds of calls from a trail mix of nuts, kooks and the merely misguided -- >> detective babcock. >> reporter: and as it turns out, jolene gutierrez krueger, a columnist for the "albuquerque journal," had gotten a copy of that list a few years earlier, when she worked the police beat. we had to utilize the joplin police department. what's going on out here? memorial came to life alongside the wall that bordered the desert crime scene. and nights and weekends playing steel guitar with his country band, cimarron. she said, "no, don't tell me that. -oh, a plaque. 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. If you have any information about the West Mesa murders, or about other missing women related to this case, Albuquerque Police have a dedicated hotline. >> it was growing, and i had kidney cancer. >> and i said, well, let's gather these families together and let's get to know them. [9] In 2010, a reward of up to $100,000 was being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible.[11]. that christmas angelica opened her presents alone, with no sign of her mother michelle. -or maybe he didn't know. >> possibly the killer? >> 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. help heal your skin from within. >> all of the victims buried out on the west mesa were buried naked, with no clothing on. clustered within 20 yards of each other. 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. that dares to last into the morning. West Mesa Murders satellite photos show the undeveloped land where the victims were discovered. -what a sign, huh? shocking talk on the streets. >> reporter: dan may have had. because deep within your skin an overly sensitive immune system could be the cause. 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. so it's a matter of time before they go back out. at xfinity, we're here to make life simple. 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. Who are the dominate males, and lesbians in their Tribe? i wouldn't say he's a suspect. but i get to say this is where she's at. 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. 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. Although the murders stopped after that, police have unfortunately not been able to say without a doubt that Montoya was the serial killer known as the West Mesa Bone Collector. Wozniak was deeply in debt and wanted money to finance his upcoming wedding and honeymoon. >> where was i the night before? While the killings were initially believed to be the work of a serial killer, the involvement of a sex trafficking ring has been suspected. and she wanted to be able to provide them with some answers. [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. Google MapsWest Mesa Murders satellite photos show the undeveloped land where the victims were discovered. a growing list of suspects. the mother road's glory days are behind her now. Fortunately, the detective came back on a contractual basis to investigate the West Mesa murders. 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. Theres so little money, and there are so many crimes. the patience of job. how did she get to albuquerque? >> tough questions for her boyfriend. possibly two prior times. the first words out of this girl's mouth was that he was trying to kill her. >> i saw it on tv on february 2nd, when christina ross and her dog ruca was reported on the. 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. >> how'd she look? missing persons were attractive women in their 20s, with arrest records for drugs and prostitution.r both had seemingly vanished without a word to friends or relatives. >> reporter: michelle valdez. 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. they had ties to albuquerque. Search the history of over 797 billion In this Dateline classic, a relaxing vacation turns into a nightmare when Stephen Reitz wakes up to find his girlfriend, Eva Weinfurtner, murdered. probably had some brush with law enforcement. so they'll move from albuquerque to phoenix to las vegas to los angeles and maybe not return on that circuit for several years. The last segment of last night's two-hour exploration of the West Mesa serial murders on NBC's Dateline reviewed the search warrants executed by the Albuquerque and Joplin police departments and the FBI of properties owned by Joplin businessman Ron Erwin. i'm sorry, i think you mean roses. >> -- your daughter's a prostitute. >> and nobody would be the wiser. >> she's like a lot of other cases that we had skeletal remains that come in. local station as finding a femur bone. there could be very realistically a lot of bodies. so you get a lot of that. West Mesa Serial Killer Photos. so she did what every good detective does. It's awful what happened to them," Myra Salazar, the mother of 27-year-old victim Evelyn Salazar, said in a statement. The police are reportedly willing to reward $100,000 to anybody who provides information on the West Mesa murders. served. s >> father all over again. and she said -- she went up to put her arms around me, and i hugged her. Genre (s): Talk & Interview, Business, News, Documentary, Events & Specials Season 19 Episodes tbd S19:E72. but because doctors caught the cancer early, ida required neither chemo nor radiation therapy. valdez had been virtually invisible to everyone in albuquerque. and you never know how your skin will look. >> reporter: then came the teen years.me when life started coming at michelle valdez fast and furious. dr. scholl's. i am comfortable with the fact that we gave her a proper burial as a human being should be buried. >> reporter: -- no one who seemed to know something about the five-year missing persons cases was dialing the phone. >> yeah. >> reporter: in that time the case has gone from a nightmare for a few flawed souls to a nationwide search for a serial killer, an unidentified man who police believe may not have succeeded in killing every woman he coaxed into his car. >> was the man whose house you served a search warrant on, is he a suspect? >> and if he is, it may only be a matter of time. so i keep them, do my full boheh background on them. One bears a stick-figure angel and a message from a woman who says the victims watch over her. and most of these boxes were returned. >> it's a lot of people. than tylenol extra strength. activia. it was my gateway to making contact with her and seeing her in person. her nose and her eyes were very important. >> reporter: by now the street alongside the desert crime scene was a media encampment, where reporters were predictably live at 5:00, 6:00, and 10:00. sometimes reporting details that crime scene commander paul feist preferred to keep secret. la la la la la. [17] In June 2018, more bones were found near the site of the burials, but these were later determined to be ancient and not related to the West Mesa murders. 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. >> that's correct. i miss you, hon. [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. >> we really can't say why. all they knew was that he'd killed at least 11 women and that the 2005 housing boom that brought suburban sprawl to the west mesa probably forced him to abandon this burial ground and find another one where there would be no neighbors around to watch him work. Sorry! so he's going to have close contact with these people. >> reporter: no witnesses. However, the West Mesa murders might have changed that in Albuquerque. West Mesa Killer Satellite Image Credits. The special will include exclusive interviews with 28-year-old Chambers . YouTube/KOATThe West Mesa murders have yet to be solved. all you can do is bring them up, nurture them, show them love, attention, appreciation. -i know. These unsolved murders remain one of the biggest homidice cases in the Albuquerque Police Department's history. >> can you tell me what that is? that they're actually doing okay. >> yeah. -ahhh. and ida says, "dan." The bodies were discovered a decade ago this weekend, kicking off an investigation into the largest crime scene in Albuquerque's history. The names of the 11 victims of the West Mesa Murders are: Monica Candelaria, 22 - Her friends told police in 2003 that they heard Monica had been murdered and buried in West Mesa. However, the Albuquerque Police Department refuses to lose all hope and continues working on it with whatever leads they have. 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. One of the suspects, Joseph Blea, was arrested on Albuquerques Central Avenue for exposing himself to a woman. However, two names have been widely. but knew it was reality. Lopezs investigation found that close to two dozen women with similar profiles were missing. it was so much going through my. the money. 12-year-old daughter, angelica. by 2Paragraphs in Culture, True Crime Murder TV | July 27, 2019, The Dateline episode Somebodys Daughter shines the light on Albuquerque Detective Ida Lopez. >> reporter: that was true then, and it's true today. >> and this is "dateline." they said it wasn't common in women and it wasn't common in women my age. i didn't choose their lifestyle. i'm guessing you noticed before anybody else. Due to the 2008 housing bubble collapse, development on the West Side halted before housing could be built at the burial site. A 2004 image showed a set of tire tracks leading directly to the area. febreze finds odors trapped in fabrics (bubbles popping) and cleans them away as it dries. >> several of these victims were missing for months before anyone reported them missing. The Discovery On February 2, 2009, a woman walking her dog along the West Mesa came across what appeared. born to move. Two years later a local family of four, the Wagners, are arrested and charged with the crimes. it's been nine years since that summer night when ida lopez first took to the streets of albuquerque's war zone alone, searching for a couple of missing women. so, let's make this the summer of loving your gut. With her call to the Albuquerque Police Department, Ross had begun to expose horrors the city had never seen. Between 2001 and 2005, 11 women were buried by an unknown assailant in an arroyo bank on Albuquerque's West Mesa, in an undeveloped area within city limits. Crime. but for the most part the public didn't even know there was a list. daughter's comings and goings for years. >> no. Where were the males that make up their community? Then, learn about six serial killers who were never caught. The mysteries surrounding the West Mesa Murders, an unsolved case of 11 female bodies discovered in a desert graveyard near Albuquerque in 2009. Over time, a number of men have attracted police attention, though not named as full suspects, in connection with the murders. but it was what had happened next that really focused the detectives' attention. the crime lab had determined that one of the unidentified, sets of remains, jane doe number 7, was a young black female. >> reporter: and so in july 2005, after a few months of recuperation as a reserve officer, the department offered ida a 20-hour-a-week desk job working missing persons. >> so you were being a father all over again. so that was represented in the sketch. [20], Lorenzo Montoya lived less than three miles from the burial site. >> and you thought, this is it. Awesome. [4] In December 2006, Montoya strangled a teenage sex worker to death at his trailer and then was shot to death by the teen's boyfriend. every chance that i had i had the videotape there. where did she come from? paws down. >> honestly, i don't remember the last time i seen her. The police launched a manhunt for the prime accused, 45 yo Hemraj , a live-in domestic help employed by her family. >> reporter: in february, five months after michelle was last seen, dan went down to the albuquerque police station and formally reported his daughter missing. and i'm in the porch area. Both had disappeared after walking to a local park in 2004. She had also grown close to the families of the victims by that time. >> homicidal violence. can you imagine 24 hours without heartburn? There's no question Stephen did it: But was he. The Albuquerque officers did not say that Erwin was a suspect. >> reporter: cops call this section of central avenue the war zone. what one little chew can do. >> okay. >> that really sends a chill up and down your spine. 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. whatever else draws that connection to him. except their families. 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. they can be. did you know her? and it was i thought perfect timing. bark i wanted to consolidate my credit cards in to a personal loan to pay them off faster. 'd, and it was her, and they found, you know, she was pregnant. it's got to be that person. 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. While the FBI created suspect profiles, Albuquerque police knocked on doors. >> i know 100% that my daughter is not alive. Dateline covered the murders. >> reporter: this is what albuquerque police chief ray schultz says investigators saw. before discovering nexium 24hr to treat her frequent heartburn, marie could only imagine enjoying freshly squeezed orange juice. 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. >> no. her name was syllania edwards. 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. The police are asking for the public's help to identify the women. 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. but ever since her early days in uniformed patrol, ida lopez has called them her girls. >> reporter: what you have in dan valdez's case is a search you do yourself. 55 is a suggestion. >> 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. >> fbi's behavioral sciences agents came in, took a look at our crime scene, took a look at what evidence we had. We'll do better next time, I promise! All of the women were Latina and all were from New Mexico, except Syllannia Edwards, who was African American and from Oklahoma. 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. you know, it seems like they knew or something. 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. every fall as the. all of her other victims were local. and so this case was going nowhere. a.p. They found rope and electrical tape during the search. the drugs. for police that seemed like a good place to start their search for the killer. some of it didn't. -oh, what am i into? there were whole bunches of them. it's a lot of sifting and actually in the dirt. activia. and the women who work its. on the Internet. Being a registered nurse, she was able to tell Christine that the bone looked like a human femur, so Christine contacted the police. michelle had already been busted for receiving and transported stolen property, drug possession and car theft. Details of Disappearance. 'd as one of the west mesa women victims -- one of the west mesa women." -they're very tasteful. 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. Joseph Blea (left) and Lorenzo Montoya (right). squeeze me tight. FULL EPISODE: Somebody's Daughter. who was responsible for turning the west mesa into an unmarked cemetery? 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. it's fast itch relief. i said all right. never heard of her before. >> the company kind of left town and just kind of left the land the way it was. Police were at a loss. 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? >> yeah. 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. click, call, or visit a store today. dupixent is not a steroid, and it continuously treats your eczema even when you can't see it. >> a suspect caught in the act. YouTube/KOATA makeshift memorial for the victims. The investigation led the detective to discover at least 17 more similar cases of missing women, whom she referred to as "her girls.". >> it's like being in a race and somebody has a year ahead start. it's not the pretty woman. 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. at night dan drove through the war zone. 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. and then i'm thinking, okay, is it somebody that's nice at picking them up? While the killings were initially believed to be the work of a serial killer, the involvement of a sex trafficking ring has been suspected. >> reporter: dan continued to cruise the war zone, willing himself to believe that his daughter was still out there. >> a third one. bill's back needed a afvacation from his vacation. heart that day when she wasn't there. looking for michelle. use febreze every time you tidy up to keep your whole house smelling fresh air clean. love for your gut. Police on Long Island, New York, have released the name of a previously unidentified victim linked to the notorious Gilgo Beach murders. activia. it's a mystery their families th still struggle to understand. >> reporter: a few days later lab work confirmed ida's hunch. Afterwards, Wozniak dismembered Herrs body by removing his limbs and head. In 2006 there were reportedly dirt trails leading from his trailer park to the site. 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. by now dan was emerging as the videographer and de facto spokesman for the families. >> reporter: investigators had plenty of leads but none that had gotten them closer to answering two questions -- who was he? and where was he now? to start their search for a killer. some of it seemed to take. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. >> investigators are looking for connections. >> reporter: soon there were five missing women with eerily similar profiles on ida's list. >> the reality, it was kind of, like this is not happening. An arrest was made in April 2020, but more people were likely involved. and one of the things that those girls all had in common was that they were all attractive and blond and white and didn't have any criminal record. 2023 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. >> i did. and i said, look, i'm not running you. 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. tell your doctor if you have new or worsening eye problems, including eye pain or changes in vision. easy. 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. all i want to know is a timeline. >> sometimes ida lopez simply can't wait for sunday. >> 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. get $100 back when you bring in an eligible phone. The same evening, Wozniak went on to perform in his local theatre production of the musical Nine. but once -- once, you know, we had that bond, me and angelica,e it was nice. Within a year, they had identified all of the 11 victims, which ranged in age from 15 to 32. it's unlikely that any of the balloonists who float out over the west mesa area spend much time studying the details of the sandy desert floor below. the bone could easily have belonged to one of them. 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. >> if those houses had been built, they would have been built right on top of that graveyard. >> reporter: for medical investigator wendy honeyfield the bones of jane doe number 7 and her pink-tipped acrylic nails were a beguiling puzzle. >> somebody was trying to send a message at some point. . If you have information about the West Mesa murders, please contact APD at 1-877-765-8273 or (505) 768-2450. don't lie to me." >> yeah, that did cross my mind numerous times. Genres Photos, information and videos from Dateline here. but you know, you have to have faith in your law enforcement. >> i think it's somebody who's very organized. >> how many other detectives ins missing persons? >> reporter: six weeks after the digging began out on the west mesa, even more sets of remains were identified. everyone? but since he bought his house are you going 45? Years had passed from the time the women and girls disappeared, likely limiting available evidence. All they ever found, however, were the bones and DNA of 11 people. Where to Watch Episode 2 "Here is that mark of 10 years. ( Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. >> you think she came here on her own? apoquel has helped over 6 million itchy dogs get the relief they deserve. >> reporter: but what kind of man is capable of killing is disposing of 11 women without somebody noticing something. >> i don't believe so. >> reporter: oddly enough, the west mesa investigators' good fortune began thousands of miles to the east, in the fall of 2008. that's when crumbling financial markets on wall street caused home construction on the west mesa to grind to a halt. Or contact APD at 1-877-765-8273 or (505) 768-2450. read more the boyfriend shot and killed lorenzo montoya on the spot. and that didn't take that part away, that she was still somebody's little girl. bring in your own phone, switch to xfinity mobile and save hundreds of dollars a year. >> there's a dad who had a calendar. (danny) after a long day of hard work you have to do more work? Dateline: Unforgettable airs every Tuesday on Oxygen at 8:00 PM ET. oh, i've had 17. i've been choked. [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. 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. >> when you ask them how many bad dates have you had? she'd come over and steal my things or, you know, i would se' how upset it would make my dad. that's why we're staying with homicidal violence. 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. and this desert doesn't give up its secrets easily. 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. that way, again, so if i were doing a different process or if i was looking at something specific, i needed to know that i didn't have the eyes of america in that hole with me. In one case, there was a DNA sample but the rape test kit was not re-tested until 2010, eventually linking Blea to the rape. She was convinced he was the West Mesa killer. I have a friend who was in a relationship with one Adrian P. Trujillo. i got scared. detectives thought they knew about that killer. the first thing is they were human beings to begin with. pi fr no, i can't believe how easy it was to save hundreds of dollars on my car insurance with geico.