dateline west mesa murders

>> reporter: it was in denver, another city on the circuit, that detective todd babcock hit paydirt. and ida lopez couldn't help but wonder if these dry bones were the women she'd been looking for. >> the reality, it was kind of, like this is not happening. the families hurt. so she did what every good detective does. and because her wisdom teeth had not fully developed, wendy knew this jane doe was probably only 14 or 15 years old when she, died. >> reporter: before long michelle valdez stopped showing up in her father's videos. >> 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. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. >> we're not the only family that got a call saying that their, you know, sister, daughter was murdered and buried out there. >> yeah. let's send to everyone! they can be. that the chin was specific for me. she says, "i have some bad news for you." Edwards was classified as an endangered runaway from Lawton, Oklahoma in 2003 and was last seen with three sex workers in Aurora, Colorado in May 2004. and detective ida lopez, who'd had their names on her list of missing women. She was convinced he was the West Mesa killer. >> reporter: those were long nights, filled with bittersweet memories of michelle the way she used to be, before the drugs took over. 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 may be waiting to start doing the same thing again. >> 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. This blog features observations from Randy Turner, a former teacher, newspaper reporter and editor. >> that's a possibility. >> it's like a little dark evil city out here. According to Dateline, because of what they did and how they lived their stories might not have been told.. i enjoyed it. >> 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. Two years later a local family of four, the Wagners, are arrested and charged with the crimes. web pages >> i think it's somebody who's very organized. Not the clients. >> 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. Last edited on 19 February 2023, at 14:32, List of fugitives from justice who disappeared, List of serial killers in the United States, "The West Mesa Murders: A Central American Connection? because, they suppose, all those earlier rumors about the women being abducted, killed, and dumped in the desert had to have started somewhere. >> mommy's not a grownup anymore -- i mean, a teenager anymore. Dateline is the long-running, award-winning news magazine bringing viewers stories ranging from compelling mysteries to powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. With a similar history as Blea, Lorenzo Montoya was known to pick up prostitutes and assault them. >> and under a desert sky the lost waited to be found. cinnamon elks, missing since august of 2004. but even if those rumors were true and human remains were cooling in the desert night on albuquerque's west mesa, the detective knew, it would take a miracle to find them. so you feel refreshed. >> and i can understand it. jane doe. and i carried this little flyer in my pocket and in my car, you know, for the last, you know, four years. 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. everyone? see a vehicle pick this girl up. 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. and i get to call the dad and say, we found her. local station as finding a femur bone. Annette Gutirrez-Millspaugh shared with us that nobody had ever solved the 1982 murder of Father Reynaldo Rivera. With Safe Streets New Mexico, Jaramillo and Barber aim to give women from this vulnerable sector the protection society fails to provide them. >> so we were able to, communicate with each other anything that came up. febreze finds odors trapped in fabrics (bubbles popping) and cleans them away as it dries. >> reporter: and within weeks ida's early work of collecting dental records of the missing women and dna samples from their families began to pay off. believe it! >> it's more than just a few. >> and sometimes they make the i wrong turn or a mistake.ke >> reporter: shortly after her . http://www.rrobserver.com/news/article_2d7213ea-a0dc-11e3-aa48-001a4bcf887a.html. Where to Watch Episode 2 Despite the tip, however, the West Mesa Murder case remains unsolved. 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. >> 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. do not use apoquel in dogs less than 12 months old or those with serious infections. probably had some brush with law enforcement. the money. drive to a remote location. but police think it wasn't just the balloons he was, photographing. Christine felt that the bone didn't look normal. so he's going to have close contact with these people. After more than five years of court proceedings, Wozniak went to trial and was convicted on two counts of first-degree murder. ida knew the odds of finding any of the missing women alive were not good. >> what did doctors tell you? and she said -- she went up to put her arms around me, and i hugged her. "They all had families that care for them.". what if the west mesa grave digger was a prolific transient? West Mesa murder case reaches ten year anniversary. >> it was breaking angelica's. >> 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. >> suggesting possibly that the killer met her in denver, brought her here? you know, it's stuff you read about. i'm craig melvin. they deal with all kinds. To this day, the case remains unsolved. It's no secret. -good luck, everybody. We'll do better next time, I promise! what had i been doing? every life is a mystery. >> that really sends a chill up and down your spine. Ominously, Montoya was holding a flashlight when he died while his victim was wrapped in a blanket near his SUV. >> 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. Albuquerque police released photos of unidentified women who may also be linked to the West Mesa murders. no dna. 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. A sinister force seemed to be snatching women off the streets of Albuquerque. 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. 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. so i took a picture of the bone. -yeah, she's my ride. help heal your skin from within. >> on the way back from arizona to here she promised, i'm not going to hang out with the same people, i'm going to do things different and you're going to be proud of me again, and then she bails two hours after she's home. >> fbi's behavioral sciences agents came in, took a look at our crime scene, took a look at what evidence we had. >> not for you. Many persons of interest have been eliminated by means of that timeline, he said. >> no.n' not at all. >> she was a college student found on a lonely road in texas. the development at first, the housing downturn, after that the fact the company leaves, a big rainstorm comes, unearths certain things, and now we locate these victims. searching for clues in a crime scene big enough to be seen from space. >> if those houses had been built, they would have been built right on top of that graveyard. michelle's -- michelle and cinnamon were stabbed and buried on the west mesa. then august 2008 we have -- we had a really bad rainstorm. so you can move more. 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. is that what we're looking at here, is you're interested in seeing what photos this man took and whether he found anything in them? Murder. >> yes. 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. Police on Long Island, New York, have released the name of a previously unidentified victim linked to the notorious Gilgo Beach murders. ask your eczema specialist about dupixent. after years of having only her rap sheet and her father's bittersweet memories to go on, ida lopez was now sure she knew where michelle valdez was. for ida lopez that's a mission statement. -i know. but since he bought his house are you going 45? >> yeah. and i don't have phone records. Mesa and their son were shot outside their home, their son was only injured. Barela is the only victim who police say wasn't known to have been subjected to sex trafficking. >> i just always felt that if you find one you're going to find them all. every chance that i had i had the videotape there. except their families. shocking talk on the streets. A chilling lead came from satellite photos of the West Mesa Murders burial site. and she wanted to be able to provide them with some answers. when he was active here and, most importantly, when he quit. and then she says is there anything that we can do? 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. >> 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. "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. >> february 2nd is when one of our violent crimes detectives said oh, they found a bone on the mesa, i'll let you know. activia. Being a registered nurse, she was able to tell Christine that the bone looked like a human femur, so Christine contacted the police. i mean he's a wreck without me. for police that seemed like a good place to start their search for the killer. >> and that's more than just a few guys. Detective Ida Lopez's dedication to finding these missing women is admirable. >> when you ask them how many bad dates have you had? Who are the dominate males, and lesbians in their Tribe? >> he's in the area where the prostitutes frequent. >> reporter: mostly she just watched it grow. Albuquerque murder mystery: Who is the West Mesa killer? No one noticed they were gone.. did you know her? >> 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. By (61264) First Published: 1:46 PM PST, February 4, 2022 Photos, information and videos from Dateline here. A staff writer for All Thats Interesting, Marco Margaritoff has also published work at outlets including People, VICE, and Complex, covering everything from film to finance to technology. Wikimedia CommonsDowntown Albuquerque as seen from the West Mesa. even thinking about the aerial photos evidence gives me chills to this day. >> and i had to tell dan. and thoughts of rare moments together before she went missing. they use stamps.com all the services of the post office only cheaper get a 4-week trial plus postage and a digital scale go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again. 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. than tylenol extra strength. 'd, and it was her, and they found, you know, she was pregnant. Police say Wozniak killed combat vet Samuel Eliezer . Case 27: The West Mesa Bone Collector. she said, "no, don't tell me that. detective ida lopez, who would later make it her mission to find michelle and the other missing women, was on medical leave at the time. An arrest was made in April 2020, but more people were likely involved. >> reporter: two women on ida lopez's list had already been identified among the 11 sets of remains. bill's back needed a afvacation from his vacation. Wozniak was deeply in debt and wanted money to finance his upcoming wedding and honeymoon. i know and i'm comfortable with the fact that they identified her as my daughter. While the killings were initially believed to be the work of a serial killer, the involvement of a sex trafficking ring has been suspected. >> sit. >> reporter: for detectives like todd babcock it all seemed to add up. >> i don't believe so. >> and you thought, this is it. / CBS Colorado. [1] Wozniak and his then-fiance, Rachel Mae Buffett, lived in the same apartment complex as Herr in Costa Mesa, California. >> and what information do you have? They think theyre just a bunch of hookers and drug addicts, he said. >> you're finding this, and you're just going, i wonder if it's going to be the rest of the girls. and there were certain processes that it did pose a concern. One of those suspects was Joseph Blea. but you know what? glad i could help. Authorities believe that the women may have been involved in a large interstate sex trafficking operation. definitely. However, the West Mesa murders might have changed that in Albuquerque. 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. Wozniak then staged the crime scene to make it appear as though Kibuishi had been sexually assaulted, suggesting that Herr had committed her assault and subsequent murder and then gone on the run. Paige Birgfeld, 34, was a well-liked . long. >> we figured she had been sexually assaulted and dumped here. [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. She also told them that he threatened "to kill me and bury me in lime.". but the detectives knew simply finding the bones in the first place had been an incredibly lucky break. Genres use febreze every time you tidy up to keep your whole house smelling fresh air clean. what's going on out here? Another expresses hope that authorities will find the killer. >> the tv show "america's most wanted" was also at the crime scene today filming for next weekend's episode on the west mesa mystery. >> 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. They found rope and electrical tape during the search. >> it was real hard because you know, i'd be circling the block. >> correct. and it's almost frustrating because you look at this picture, and you see the disturbed earth which later we learned are grave sites, and you see the tire tracks. Joseph Blea was imprisoned when the bodies were found, but he became a suspect when his ex-wife contacted police. According to A&E, Jaramillo and a woman named Christine Barber founded an organization to protect sex workers in New Mexico after the discovery of the West Mesa victims in 2009. 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. stop dancing around the pain your home and auto that keeps you up again, and again. you don't have a school schedule or work schedule, that sort of thing. The cases remain unsolved with no arrests. 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. >> the numbers grew. and i thought, well, i need to make further plans. The tragic truth was that sex workers made for easy targets, and are often distanced from relatives while communities are blind to their disappearance. digging, scraping, sifting. and i'm in the porch area. >> 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.

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