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Saturday, June 13, 2009
West Mesa Victims Buried Naked
By Jeff Proctor
Copyright © 2009 Albuquerque Journal
Journal Staff Writer
Medical investigators have determined that the 11 victims found in shallow graves on the West Mesa were buried naked.
"Why were they buried without clothing?" APD Chief Ray Schultz asked in a Journal interview on Friday. "It's a fact that really intrigues our investigators and the FBI profilers who are assisting us in this case. It's very unique to find this number of remains all unclothed."
No clothing was found at the site.
Speaking anecdotally, the chief has a theory of his own.
"Usually when you have remains found unclothed, there has been a sex crime associated with the homicide," Schultz said. "There is no specific evidence to suggest that here, other than the lifestyle" shared by the victims who have been identified so far.
That lifestyle, which investigators have linked to the seven identified women, includes prostitution and struggles with substance abuse. Authorities suspect the four unidentified women may also have led similar lives.
Officials are hoping to use clay facial reconstruction models to identify the other four.
On Thursday, the Office of the Medical Investigator released autopsy reports for Gina Michelle Valdez and Cinnamon Elks. The reports listed the causes of death as undetermined and the manners of death as homicide.
Detectives say they were not surprised by the results, but Schultz said the autopsies are another step toward solving the mystery.
"We believe now that we are without question looking for a single individual who is responsible for these killings," the chief said, adding that the list of potential suspects contains fewer than 10 names, some of whom are now dead.
Authorities also have narrowed the time frame during which they believe the women were buried near 118th and Dennis Chavez SW to a 14-month period between late 2003 and early 2005.
There are cases involving dead and missing prostitutes in several other states that local detectives have looked at for similarities.
"We continue to follow up leads in several jurisdictions and locally," said APD spokeswoman Nadine Hamby. "We continue to put people on the streets to talk to prostitutes. It's a very transient population, and the ones working the streets today may be different than the ones who were here last week.
"We are working with literally thousands of clues in our database, and we are still looking for that one big break, that one clue that ties everything together and leads us to the offender."
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