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Friday, June 19, 2009
Dental Records Identify '04 Body
By Jeff Proctor
Journal Staff Writer
A letter sent out to all of New Mexico's dentists in the wake of the West Mesa investigation has netted results, officials said.
Authorities earlier this week were able to identify Sonia Bernadette Lente as the woman whose remains were found in a shallow grave on the Isleta Pueblo in February 2004.
Detectives are looking into a possible connection between Lente's death and the deaths of the 11 women whose remains were found earlier this year near 118th and Dennis Chavez SW. But it's too early to say how strong the connection might be.
The Office of the Medical Investigator used dental records to identify her, FBI spokesman Darrin Jones told the Journal.
Lente was reported missing in October 2002, when she was 45. She was last seen on a Friday near the Downtown area. Witnesses say she was possibly going to get a bus ticket.
Investigators at the time suspected that foul play was involved. Lente's death is now being investigated as a homicide.
Her name had been on a list of women who had struggled with substance abuse and prostitution and who had disappeared in Albuquerque between 2001 and 2006. Seven of the women on that list — which contains about 20 names — have been found buried in shallow graves on the West Mesa.
Lente has no criminal history of prostitution, but she was twice convicted of DWI and once convicted of shoplifting.
As APD officials sought to identify the mesa victims, they reached out to the state's dentists for records they might be able to compare to the skulls found in the dirt. That's how Lente was identified, Jones said.
APD Cmdr. Mike Geier said the possible connection between Lente and the West Mesa victims is preliminary.
"There are enough similarities that we can't rule it out," he said.
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