Albuquerque Journal Special Report

West Mesa Murders

In 2009, eleven women and an unborn child were found buried on Albuquerque’s West Mesa. The case remains unsolved.

Timeline
Overview
The victims
Possible suspects
Crime Scene
Archive

Timeline

Case Overview

On Feb. 2, 2009, a woman walking her dog stumbled across a human bone — the first of many in what would become one of the largest crime scenes in American history.

Then-APD Deputy Chief Paul Feist looks at memorials for the 11 women and one unborn child on April 6, 2009.

At first, the pace was frantic. There were human remains to identify and a serial killer to catch.

It took investigators a year to identify all 11 women they had unearthed.

They built detailed timelines of the women’s last known whereabouts, interviewed 200 women who were working the streets the same years that the victims were, and compiled suspect timelines.

They executed a slew of search warrants within the investigation’s first year, and focused on a few possible suspects. But none of them have ever been officially accused of the crime.

Police say they continue to follow up on leads to this day.

But seven years in, the case seems to have slowed. It remains unsolved.

The Victims

In mid-2005, Albuquerque police detective Ida Lopez noticed that women with ties to drugs and prostitution had been vanishing from Albuquerque.

She started a list.

Ten of the missing women — Monica Candelaria, Cinnamon Elks, Veronica Romero, Victoria Chavez, Michelle Valdez, Virginia Cloven, Julie Nieto, Evelyn Salazar, Jamie Barela and Doreen Marquez — were found buried on the mesa in 2009, along with Syllannia Edwards, who hadn’t been reported missing in Albuquerque.

It would take police nearly a year to identify all the remains. As they did so, they dug into the victims’ pasts in the hopes they could find the killer.

Families of the missing women in Albuquerque seemed to already know their daughters, mothers, sisters were buried and began leaving memorials before all the women were even identified.

Their families remember the happier sides of them — many knew each other, had big personalities and were loving mothers.

And while many of them struggled with drugs, their family members never imagined they would turn up dead.

Crime Scene

Map of the site where 11 women and an unborn child were found buried in shallow graves on Albuqueque's West Mesa in 2009.

On Feb 2, 2009, a woman walking her dog found a human femur in a 100-acre lot near 118th Street and Amole Mesa Ave. SW. Nine days after the discovery, when this photograph was taken, police had unearthed the remains of three women found in the lot. (Pat Vasquez-Cunningham/Journal)

A crime scene investigator sniffs an item he dug up at the crime scene on Feb. 18, 2009. (Pat Vasquez-Cunningham/Journal)

A make-shift memorial for Victoria Chavez rests against the wall outside of the crime scene on Feb. 23, 2009. Chavez was the first victim identified. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis/Journal)

An investigator holds what appears to be a human bone as the dig for remains continues on Feb. 24, 2009. (Pat Vasquez-Cunningham/Journal)

Investigators use heavy equipment as they continue digging on Feb. 25, 2009. (Pat Vasquez-Cunningham/Journal)

Two investigators stand on a massive pile of earth excavated in the search for human remains at the West Mesa murders crime scene on Feb. 25, 2009. (Pat Vasquez-Cunningham/Journal)

Jesse Purcella comforts his girlfriend Camille Valdez, who is holding the couple's 16-month-old daughter Joslyn Purcella, while Dan Valdez grieves at a memorial for his daughter Michelle Valdez outside the crime scene on Feb. 26, 2009. Michelle Valdez was the second victim to be identified. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis/Journal)

Investigators sift bags of dirt for evidence at the crime scene on Feb. 27, 2009. (Jim Thompson/Journal)

Then Deputy Chief Kevin McCabe, APD Commander Paul Feist and APD Police Chief Ray Schultz look on as investigators unearth two bodies at the West Mesa crime scene on Feb. 27, 2009. (Jim Thompson/Journal)

An investigator rakes through hills of dirt while searching for remains at the West Mesa crime scene on March 4, 2009. (Dean Hanson/Journal)

An investigator digs in search of human remains at the West Mesa murders crime scene on March 5, 2009. (Pat Vasquez-Cunningham/Journal)

Investigators look through an excavated area of the West Mesa murders crime scene on March 11, 2009. (Pat Vasquez-Cunningham/Journal)

Investigators comb through dirt while looking for human remains at the West Mesa murders crimes scene on March 17, 2009. (Pat Vasquez-Cunningham/Journal)

A memorial for victim Julie Nieto rests outside the walls of the West Mesa crime scene on March 17, 2009. (Pat Vasquez-Cunningham/Journal)

A large area of the 100-acre West Mesa crime scene had been excavated by March 17, 2009. (Pat Vasquez-Cunningham/Journal)

Desiree Whiting, 5, left, and her cousin Julie Gonzales remember Gonzales' sister Doreen Marquez who was a victim in the West Mesa murders on March 21, 2009. (Roberto E. Rosales/Journal)

Heavy equipment digs through the 100-acre West Mesa crime scene on March 31, 2009. (Pat Vasquez-Cunningham/Journal)

Then-APD Deputy Chief Paul Feist looks at memorials for the 11 women and one unborn child on April 6, 2009. (Adolphe Pierre-Louis/Journal)

Wooden stakes mark points of evidence at the West Mesa murders crime scene on April 16, 2009. (Pat Vasquez-Cunningham/Journal)

Police found a fingernail with the remains of the seventh victim and on Feb. 24, 2009, asked for the public's help in identifying her. She was later identified as Syllannia Edwards. (APD)

Memorials for the West Mesa victims still line the wall outside of the empty lot on Oct. 15, 2009 after the bodies of 11 women were found earlier that year. (Pat Vasquez-Cunningham/Journal)

Memorial items and messages remain at the West Mesa murder investigation site on July 8, 2010. (Dean Hanson/Journal)

A votive candle, an overturned vase and plastic flowers are all that remain of a memorial to the West Mesa victims at the burial site on Aug. 3, 2010. (Pat Vasquez-Cunningham/Journal)

When human remains were first discovered in an empty dirt lot in February 2009, police faced an enormous task. They had to unearth skeleton after skeleton from a mass burial site in a 100-acre barren patch of desert on Albuquerque’s far Southwest Mesa. And they had to do so with the utmost care — any piece of evidence uncovered with the bones could lead them to the killer.

The crime scene, which police called one of the largest in American history, required teams of investigators working around the clock to coordinate the dig.

They used heavy equipment to move massive piles of dirt, and hand-sifted certain areas in search of evidence. They worked at the site for at least two and a half months.

After the dig was over, the city and KB Home, the developer that owns the plot of land where the victims were found, said they would build a commemorative park for the victims. That still hasn’t happened seven years later. Both a city spokeswoman and a KB Home representative say they are still negotiating with each other about the specifics.

Possible Suspects

In the early days of the investigation, police threw out a number of suggestions for possible suspects in the West Mesa serial murder case.

Investigators wouldn’t give any names, only vague descriptions — someone in prison, a military man, a pimp.

In July 2009, five months after the first bones were found, then police Chief Ray Schultz announced that police had narrowed the suspect pool to five people.

Months later, he said only a “handful” of suspects remained.

But whoever those suspects were, police apparently could never gather enough evidence to charge any of them.

In 2014, KRQE-13 named Joseph Blea and Lorenzo Montoya as two men who haven’t been ruled out. Police confirmed that a year later.

Both men were suspects very early in the investigation — Montoya before any bones were even found.

It remains unclear who other suspects may be. And it’s possible the suspect list may have grown — in 2015, police spokesman Tanner Tixier said the list was as big as 20.

Albuquerque Journal Special Report

West Mesa Murders

Timeline

Case Overview

The Victims

Crime Scene

Possible Suspects

Archive

Journal Reports

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