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[Music] the eastern side of the City of Albuquerque New Mexico is closed in by Mountains on the city's west side a Mesa
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rises out of the Rio Grande Valley in 2005 subdivisions and new housing were being built along the West Mesa the
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construction pressed up against the vast desert that stretches beyond where you will find tumbleweeds high tension wires
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and trash it is a desolate isolated spot in 2008 the economy crashed and the new
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home stopped being built it was on a 92 acre lot of land on the West Mesa one year later 2009 where subdivision
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work had started but construction had never gone ahead where a serial killers burial ground was found
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[Music] detective Ida Lopez from the Albuquerque Police Department was assigned to the
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missing persons unit in 2005 she was the only detective assigned there there was
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low priority work detective Lopez was the first officer to sense something wasn't right in the Albuquerque to
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missing persons reports came across a desk both women fit a similar profile they
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were known sex workers who also used drugs and they vanished without a trace not letting friends or family know of
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their whereabouts it's common in these types of cases for family members to hear well that's just part of the
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lifestyle they live sometimes people don't want to be found they don't have to keep contact with you or tell you
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where they are it doesn't mean they're missing and that's exactly what many families of the victims in this case
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heard but detective Lopez couldn't ignore the similarities in these two missing girls appearance or the
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circumstances in which they vanished she started looking into other cases involving women who had disappeared from
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Albuquerque that matched the same profile she discovered more and more cases that all bought eerie similarities
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the list of missing women eventually grew to 24 some were crossed off that list as time went on eventually turning
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up either back in the upper querque or in other parts of the country but it was clear something wasn't right the common
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thing the missing girl shared was that they were involved in sex work and many battled drug addiction the area of the
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Albuquerque all of the victims were known to work is referred to by some as the warzone in recent years the area was
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rebranded as the International District there is an area there on Central Avenue
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that is something of a red-light district it's a place where the most vulnerable the most desperate show up
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looking for money looking for drugs it's also where people prey on those who have
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no place else to turn detective Lopez hit the streets to try and find out as much information as she could
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questioning anyone who would speak to her about the missing girls trying to find out about their last
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movements if they knew each other trying to find that common thread it wasn't long before detective Lopez started to
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hear about the rumors circulating the streets at the time there were whispers Oriente on that Albuquerque had its own
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version of Jack the Ripper a psycho preying on vulnerable victims who he felt society wasn't going to miss the
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rumors even mentioned specifically the missing girls were dead and were buried on the West Mesa as that information was
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just rumor at the time there was no evidence to go on no specific spot to start the West Mesa was too vast of an
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area to start searching for victims who might be buried there that's their desert
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where would the police even begin they needed something more and so detective Lopez kept working kept pounding the
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pavement asking questions trying to find out what happened part of the investigation process carried out by
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detective Lopez was asking for dental records and taking DNA samples from family members of the missing girls this
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work would prove vital later on as the years passed though nothing much came of the investigation there was very
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little media coverage of the missing girls not many people seem to care it was never really in the public's minds
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there are varying reports depending on where and who you are getting on from about just how hard the police were
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actually looking most of the local media didn't even bat an eyelid at the story even turning some of the victims
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families away refusing to give it any airtime if there was any truth to that rumor about Albuquerque having its own
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Jack the Ripper it looked like he was proven right Society didn't seem to care the story didn't really fade from the
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public's mind because it was never really there in the first place nobody other than the families of the missing
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girls and detective Lopez seemed to care it was the second of February 2009 five
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years after Detective Lopez had made up a list and Christine Ross who lived in one of the new housing subdivisions on
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the West Mesa was taking her dog for a walk her dog started playing with a bone sticking out of the ground on an
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abandoned construction site that was supposed to have had new homes built on it by now Christine felt uneasy about
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the bone it didn't look like any of the usual animal bones she had found in the area before she took a picture of it and
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sent it to her sister who was a registered nurse her sister got back to her almost immediately it looked like a
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human femur Christine contacted the Albuquerque Police Department they arrived and were
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able to quickly determine that it was most definitely a human bone a crime scene was established that would
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become the largest crime scene in the Albuquerque history human bones were found scattered in one section of a 92
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acre piece of land owned by a home developer KB home it was the work that KB home had already
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completed on the site that made the huge task more complicated the builders had done extensive grading and digging and a
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lot of heavy machinery had been used in order to get the land ready to build on that work had totally changed the
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landscape and shattered many of the bones in the process scattering their location the police had to call in
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state-of-the-art equipment to help process the crime scene ground-penetrating radar
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lasers aerial photography and digital mapping were all used in total police dug through 40,000 cubic yards of dirt
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digging down as far as 15 feet in some places it took them two and a half months of processing the crime scene
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before they were satisfied that they had recovered all of the victims buried at the soil in total there were 11 female
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victims the youngest was 15 the oldest was 32 one of the victims was also four months pregnant reconstructing the
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skeletons was a long and difficult process it was like putting together a giant puzzle and a lot of the puzzle
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pieces were broken it would take one year before all of the victims were positively identified the work of
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detective Lopez in compiling the list of missing girls from Albuquerque and obtaining dental records and getting
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their DNA on file was a huge help to the investigation in total seven of the 11 victim was found buried at the West Mesa
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already appeared on that missing list compiled by detective Lopez some of the victims have more information released
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about them than others but those seven were [Music] mónica Candelaria who was 21 years old
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money care enjoyed laughing joking looking after babies and spending time with her family she was a loving mother
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to her son she was last seen in southwest Albuquerque on the 11th of May 2003 Monica was reported missing soon
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after her disappearance her report was treated primarily as a missing persons case but it was noted that fair play
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could be involved incredibly detectives working the case heard a rumor that she had been killed
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and buried on the Mesa that rumor would be proven right many years later but nothing ever came of it at the time the
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fall was turned over to the cold-case unit after a few months that's where detective Lopez discovered that the
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circumstances matched other missing girls in the area and she added Monica to her list
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Doreen Marquez who was 27 years old she loved jewelry and fashionable clothes always had her hair done and nails
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painted she was a loving mother who was known to throw extravagant birthday parties for her children in the year
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2000 Doreen's live started to unravel she went through a difficult breakup and turned to heroin to numb the pain by
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2003 Doreen's behavior had gotten very erratic she would disappear for months at a time leaving her children with
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their father or with family members her sister says she didn't leave that lifestyle until the last few years of
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her life that's when things started to unravel for Doreen and her addiction got the better of her there are conflicting
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reports of when she was last seen the police say it was October 2003 although a friend he's adamant that she saw her
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after that whichever it was she was reported missing in 2004 Victoria Chavez who was
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26 years old she was reported missing by her mother in March 2005 by that stage she hadn't been seen or heard from in
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over a year Veronica Romero was 27 years old she had four children and was reported missing
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in February 2004 not long after she was last seen cinnamon Elks was 32 years old she was
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friends with three of the other victims Victoria Chavez Julie Nieto and Michelle
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Valdez who you'll hear about next when cinnamons mother didn't hear from her for her birthday in August 2004 she
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knew something was wrong straightaway she reported her missing although it took a few calls before that report was
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taken she was told initially the cinnamon was an adult and she had the right to cut contact with her Julie
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Nieto was 23 years old enjoyed sewing cooking and music a beautiful and devoted daughter a loving
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mother and a beloved friend Julie was a sweet girl who unfortunately fell to a drug addiction at age 19 her mother
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tried to get a treatment but it didn't work Julie had a son who she doted over she
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was a loving mother her family knew something was very wrong when she stopped sending birthday Christmas and
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Easter presents to her young son she was last seen in August 2004 Michelle Valdes
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was 22 years old she had one daughter who she was devoted to a good client hearted person who would give you the
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shirt off her back if he needed it fun-loving always had a smile on her face and could brighten up the room with
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her personality unfortunately she fell into drugs and started disappearing for days at a time in weeks then months she
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would return to visit her father and he would give her small sums of money knowing that was likely going to be
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spent on drugs but he gave it anyway in the hope she would keep coming back one day she never returned she was reported
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missing in February 2005 Michelle was four months pregnant at the time of her death
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the other four victims found buried on the West Mesa that were not on detective Lopez's list work Jaime Barela who is 15
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and Evelyn Salazar who was 27 they were cousins and were both last seen together
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at a family gathering in 2004 they left the family gathering and they were never
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seen again Jaime was any outgoing 15 year old school student who loved her sing and
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dance read and play sport her smile was so bright it was enough to lift up anyone no matter how down they
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were her older cousin Evelyn liked camping and outdoor activities and she was a good cook and Jamie and Evelyn
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were treated as Runaways by police their family members saying little was done in
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the way of an investigation in fact after the initial report their family says they hardly heard from the police
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again salanio Edwards was 15 years old she stands apart from the other victims she was the only one with no known
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friends or family in Albuquerque salanio never knew her father and last saw her mother when she was fought she ran away
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from foster care in Oklahoma in 2003 which is when she was reported missing she was last seen in the Denver area in
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May 2004 police believe salanio may have been traveling along the i-40 interstate
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highway which is how she ended up in Albuquerque Virginia cloven who was 23 years old
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Virginia was a funny humorous girl who took everything in her stride the type of person that if she told you a lot two
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minutes later she would admit it until the truth because she felt bad when Virginia was 17 and still in high school
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her brother was shot dead absolutely devastated and struggling to cope Virginia ran away from home she lived
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with her grandfather in Albuquerque for a little while before moving out with a boyfriend
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tragically her boyfriend got hit by a car and went into a coma Virginia lost the place they were living
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in and were soon homeless living on the streets of Albuquerque her parents last heard from her in June 2004 she called
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them to say she had a new boyfriend who had just gotten out of prison and she was going to marry him
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Virginia was never heard from again her parents reported her missing in October 2004 10 of the 11 victims were known sex
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workers the one who wasn't was 15 year old Jamie Burrell Jamie who disappeared with her cousin
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Evelyn Salazar Evelyn did have one prior for sex work so that common thread did still appear in their disappearance a
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huge task force comprising of over 40 police was assembled to investigate the serial killings
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it was called the 118 street task force although Albuquerque Police seemed too reluctant in the early stages to refer
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to the case as a serial killing their common line being it is still too early to say what we are dealing with and that
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all possibilities were being considered some of the early considerations were gang activity the idea being that they
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had been executed by gang members after running drugs another one was that a local pimp was responsible another being
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someone that had something against sex workers and who thought they were doing the Lord's work as part of putting
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together a list of possible suspects police looked for men with a history of violence against sex workers who lived
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in the area unfortunately that list wasn't short the list of potential suspects was large an interesting part
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of the investigation was a timeline police created using satellite photos all of the victims found at the West
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Mesa disappeared between 2003 and 2005 so they were able to access satellite photos of the area taken in 2002 there
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was nothing unusual the satellite photos of the area taken in 2004 were a totally
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different story they showed tire marks leading to bare spots which police determined to be
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graves in 2005 the photo showed the tire tracks again and even more bare spots the satellite photos provided police
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with an evolving snapshot of the killer's work it was in 2005 that the landscape of that area changed for good
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that's when the housing boom was in full swing and large chunks of the area was subdivided and your states were put up
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lots of digging and leveling of the land occurred it was still on the outskirts of Albuquerque still vast desert west of
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the homes but all that activity is what police believe forced the killer to stop
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using that particular spot as a burial ground there was just too good a chance he would be seen coming and going from
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the area if not caught red-handed in 2008 the economy crashed the home developer KB
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Home packed up and left the Mesa but not before preparing the area where the victims were buried to have new homes
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built this is where the landscape was changed by the heavy machinery totally disrupting the crime scene but on the
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flip side if the crime scene was never disturbed like this the victims may never ever been found
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imagine if the economy never crashed new homes would be on top of the burial ground and we probably wouldn't even be
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aware of this case FBI profilers were called upon to assist they believe the offender to be male working alone aged
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35 to 50 here they lived alone or was away from home for extended periods he probably had previous run-ins with the
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law for minor offenses and he liked to hire sex workers and was familiar with that world that profile is pretty
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generic and could fit a large amount of people and just like any other case where a profile is made police can't
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rule out somebody just because they don't fit that profile it's not an exact science the FBI in the Albuquerque
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Police Department offered a $100,000 reward which is still current to anyone who assists in the arrest and conviction
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of the killer this reward initially led the police to be flooded with crank calls false confessions and calls from
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people trying to be helpful but who were misguided police have remained tight-lipped about the cause of death
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it's something that they have kept very close to their chest all they will officially say is homicidal violence
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this is an example of a piece of information that would deliberately hold back to help sift through the crank
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calls and false confessions easily able to dismiss them if their accounts don't match with the evidence they have there
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are two main suspects who are most talked about with this case the first is Lorenzo Montoya
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a short powerfully-built man who was in his 30s at the time the West Mesa killings occurred
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Montoya had multiple arrests for solicitation including one involving violence in 1999 in that particular
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incident the 23 year old female victim was being watched by the voice unit they observed her get into Montoya's vehicle
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which they followed to an isolated spot Montoya sexually assaulted her and started choking her the victim believed
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she was going to die and suffered bruising around her throat she said it looked like Montoya was enjoying what he
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was doing the Vice police approached the car and arrested Montoya however the case never proceeded as the victim
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declined to testify but it's what happened in December 2006 that lead many to believe Lorenzo Montoya is the West
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Mesa killer about 2:00 a.m. on Sunday the 17th of December 2006 Montoya started a conversation in a chat room
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with a 19 year-old sharika hill after that conversation they agreed to meet in person Hill agreeing to go to Montoya's
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mobile home in the 4000 block of Blake Road Albuquerque she agreed to perform a dance for him on her way there she
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picked up her 18 year old boyfriend Fredrik Williams they parked a short distance away from Montoya's home and
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Hill went inside what occurred inside was a brutal orchestrated and very violent attack Hill was strangled to
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death and bound with duct tape on Montoya after about an hour Williams got concerned and went to check on Hill and
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it's here that he got involved with a confrontation with Montoya who is dragging Hill was body to ease car
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Montoya produced the gun but Williams shot him first Montoya didn't make it doing at the
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scene police feel that the probability was higher that this wasn't the first time Montoya had committed a crime like
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this it was too brutal and too planned to be his first one as one officer said this isn't the type
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of crime where you wake up one morning and just decide that you're going to brutally murder someone they felt he had
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done it before unfortunately though there is not a shred of physical evidence that links Montoya
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to any of the victims or to the crime scene detectives have stated they would have loved the chance to interrogate him
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about the West Mesa case but now they'll never have that chance he remains a person of interest the other suspect
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talked about in this case is Joseph Blair seven days after the discovery of the first bone on the West Mesa a female
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called police and said they should look into her ex-husband Joseph Blair police knew him quite well already
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between 1990 and 2009 Bleyer had over 130 different contacts with police many of those run-ins with police wearing
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areas frequented by the victims on one such occasion he was found with rope and electrical tape in his car before that
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in 1985 his DNA was found on the body of a dead girl found in the Albuquerque he
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was never charged with that crime in fact somebody else was sent to prison for her murder and was acquitted once
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that DNA result came back matching Blaire many years later in the weeks after the victims were found on the West
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Mesa Blaire was actually under police surveillance and he appeared to be stalking sex workers on Central Avenue
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in Albuquerque he didn't approach any but he was closely watching them continually circling the block and
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sitting in his car at a distance just staring one sex worker informed police and Bleyer had tried the tire up on one
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encounter she had with him but she was able to get away Malaya is currently serving a 90 year prison sentence for
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for sexual assaults on minors not related to the West Mesa case he was only recently convicted of these crimes
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which occurred in the late 80s and early 90s the recent convictions coming about
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by way of DNA evidence he has openly talked about the West Mesa case before claiming to have paid to be with several
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of the victims in the past one of the few pieces of physical evidence located at the crime scene was a plant tag
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located next to Virginia clove ins remains the plant tag was traced to a nursery in California and that nursery
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since plans to Albuquerque police conducted a search warrant on Blair's house on the 11th of June 2009
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they seized business records showing Bleyer purchased plants from nurseries that sold the California plants that
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matched the plant tag found at the crime scene circumstantial at best but still interesting
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Blaz ex-wife said she found jewelry in their house that didn't belong to her or her daughter women's underwear not
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belonging to her was also found some of the victims families have reported that jewelry was missing from them on the
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12th of October 2009 police conducted another search warrant on Blair's house where they seized some of that jewelry
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and women's underwear as it's an active investigation police won't comment if any of the jewelry or underwear matches
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the victims or if there is any DNA evidence on them but considering the case remains unsolved you would assume
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there are no matches but we don't know for sure there is nothing conclusive to type
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blyer to the crime and he strongly denies any involvement I mentioned before that the list compiled by
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Detective Lopez of missing women from the Albuquerque area at one point reached 24 there are currently six that
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are still missing and a vigil aged 20 years old she was last seen in Albuquerque on the 21st of January 2005
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she was reported missing a few days later and has not been seen or heard of again Felipe Gonzalez aged 22 last seen
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on the 27th of April of 2005 in Albuquerque Nina Heron 21 years old she was last seen about 5 p.m. on the 14th
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of May 2005 at her home residence in Albuquerque she has not been seen or heard of again since that sighting at
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home Chantel weights age 29 she was last seen in Albuquerque on the 15th of March 2006
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Leah Peebles age 23 last seen on the 22nd of May 2006 leah had only been living in Albuquerque
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for two weeks she was temporarily staying with friends at the time of her disappearance she left the house on the
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second of May after telling her friends she was going on a date with a man she had met at a local cafe where she was
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actually due to start work the following week Leah never returned and has not been seen or heard from again
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Vanessa Reid age 24 last seen on the 13th of June 2006 walking away from the motel she lived at in Albuquerque after
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having a fight with her sister all of these missing women match a similar background to the victims found at the
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West Mesa the interesting thing about the timeline of they still active missing person cases is that Anna vigil
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was the first to go missing of these group of six last seen on the 21st of January 2005 this is after Michelle
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Valdez who is the last of the West Mesa victims to have gone missing all day Michelle wasn't reported missing
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until February 2005 she hadn't been seen for months before that so if Michelle is
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the last of the West Mesa victims to go missing and Donna went missing after that followed by five other girls who
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match a similar profile and background is it possible that one or more of them are also victims of the West Mesa serial
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killer but for reasons already mentioned the killer was forced to change his burial site another interesting note on
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the timeline that you may have already picked up the last victim to go missing of these six still currently active
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missing person cases was a Vanessa Reed last seen in June 2006 Lorenzo Montoya was shot dead six months
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later there is vast desert everywhere police concede it is a very possible that there are other victims buried out
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there somewhere although they are satisfied that the 11 West Mesa victims were all buried within a contained area
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and no others were buried in that specific location as the killer being stopped by another method maybe he is
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dead or in prison for other crimes or is he still out there maybe he has moved to
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another place he uses as his hunting ground it's possible that there are people out there who know something who
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were maybe too afraid to come forward before the room is that Albuquerque had its own Jack the Ripper and the missing
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girls have been killed and buried on the Mesa had to have come from somewhere detective Lopez was told this before the
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victims have been found there are people that obviously know something but a major problem with cold cases is the
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memories fade and witnesses disappear [Music] hopefully there is someone out there who
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know something with the courage to come forward [Music] you