Dateline Full Episodes. >> well, they were shocked. >> 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. >> there's a dad who had a calendar. Starting tonight at 8 p.m., NBC will air a special two-hour "Dateline" episode dealing with the notorious West Mesa Murder Mystery. Police say a woman walking her dog reported finding what appeared to be a femur on the mesa. help heal your skin from within. by 2002 the wear and tear is written all over her face. and it was here while posing as a decoy during prostitution sting operations that she learned the raw power of their addictions. activia. >> possibly the killer? activia. >> reporter: it had to be someone local, investigators assumed. The investigators were concentrating, apparently, on the females on the street. Ross walked her dog, Ruca, along along a dried-out wash in Albuquerque, New Mexico. could be others. Jamie Barela, 15 - Jamie was not involved with drugs or sex work like the other ten victims. do not use apoquel in dogs less than 12 months old or those with serious infections. >> but it might not have been a nice thing? Four crime scenes, thirty-two gunshot wounds, eight members of the Rhoden family left dead in their homes. southwestern summer heat begins to ease hot air balloons rise like spring flowers over albuquerque and the surrounding desert. In February 2009, her body was identified. >> i thought maybe she'd turn up a few days later, a few weeks, or we'd -- you know, she'd call us. but we don't know if it's him or not. Due to a planned power outage on Friday, 1/14, between 8am-1pm PST, some services may be impacted. Albuquerque detective Ida Lopez took it upon herself to uncover the story behind the remains of 11 women and an unborn fetus, which were discovered over 13 years ago, buried in shallow graves in a West Mesa desert. Perhaps precisely because of this, the FBIs $100,000 reward for information has gone uncollected for over a decade. She had also grown close to the families of the victims by that time. her future seemed assured. mind. After learning about the West Mesa murders, read about the gruesome cult sacrifice of Mark Kilroy. click, call, or visit a store today. She took a picture and messaged her sister, a registered nurse who confirmed that it was. and by the summer of 2009 the fbi and the city of albuquerque were offering $100,000 to anyone who could help them catch and convict the man responsible for killing the west mesa women. before discovering nexium 24hr to treat her frequent heartburn, marie could only imagine enjoying freshly squeezed orange juice. -oh, what am i into? >> i would tell them we're one day closer to finding your daughter. >> reporter: many who lost friends and relatives to the west mesa grave digger are convinced there could still be someone somewhere who knows something. >> reporter: this is what albuquerque police chief ray schultz says investigators saw. that. >> she came over to the house one day, and i'd given her a few dollars, and she stood up. 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. It is unknown, however, if she traveled on her own or was trafficked there. West Mesa murders subject of two-hour Dateline tonight - Blogger (vo) you earned it, we're here to make sure you get it. Daniel Wozniak was found guilty of the murders of Sam Herr and Julie Kibuishi. >> investigators are looking for connections. >> okay. and they'd go through the alley, do their tricks in the alley. then four. >> was the man whose house you served a search warrant on, is he a suspect? but one name stood out. >> no.n' not at all. and you never know how your skin will look. >> i would tell them every single day we're one day closer to finding your daughter. and last longer with fewer pills. Ruca found a large bone protruding from the earthen trail. for the moments that mattered most to her daughter, angelica. [19] He had twice been arrested for violent attacks on sex workers and had threatened to kill his girlfriend and bury her in lime. The mysteries surrounding the West Mesa Murders, an unsolved case of 11 female bodies discovered in a desert graveyard near Albuquerque in 2009. In 1999, a sex worker named Cynthia Vigil Jaramillo was kidnapped and imprisoned in a city south of Albuquerque by a man named David Parker Ray, aka the "Toy-Box Killer." when had i last seen her? It's no secret. >> these are hurting women. >> we're not the only family that got a call saying that their, you know, sister, daughter was murdered and buried out there. >> then about a month and a half after i was diagnosed, then i had my kidney removed. The 11 victims whose remains were discovered at the West Mesa site in 2009. Where do those women congregate. so i gave her the money. so help heal your skin from within, with dupixent. she said, michelle. Police had also received a report of domestic violence from Montoya's girlfriend, who claimed he beat her and did "gross things" to her that she didn't want to elaborate on in the report. >> reporter: finding a bone, even a human bone, is not unusual out here on albuquerque's west mesa. >> homicidal violence. >> definitely. Lopez was part of the investigation from the very beginning, when the homicides were a series of missing persons cases related to the disappearance of numerous women. He said. According to Dateline NBC's website, the episode entitled "Plot Twist," will include new details in the high profile murder case. and there's so much work that's always done behind the scenes to get them identified. i mean, you'll see some out here that they need that fix. [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. >> there are other girls from out of state in the same -- you know, are we going to find another repeat? 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. it was so much going through my. and that was the last time i seen cinnamon. >> she was last seen in denver. Tonight's Dateline http://datl.in/fSpdzC, Anyone with information on the West Mesa murders is urged to contact (505)-768-2450 or. [3][4][5][6] This small fragment of a human trafficking ring involves numerous population centers, including Las Vegas in Nevada, El Paso and Killeen in Texas, and Denver in Colorado.[2]. >> and i said, well, let's gather these families together and let's get to know them. >> i love you, michelle. i'll take aleve. >> reporter: and as it turns out, jolene gutierrez krueger, a columnist for the "albuquerque journal," had gotten a copy of that list a few years earlier, when she worked the police beat. short lady. She compiled a list of the missing not all of whom have been found, raising concern there might be more victims. The Untold Truth Of The West Mesa Murders. In May 2010, Wozniak killed his neighbor and friend, Private First Class Samuel Eliezer "Sam" Herr, and Herr's friend, Juri "Julie" Kibuishi, as part of a plan to frame Herr for Kibuishi's murder and steal his combat pay. but she was unable to find the aunt or to pin down the source of the rumor. >> did you ask her where she heard that? Awesome. s >> father all over again. >> don't know. >> a college campus gripped by fear. Looking back what has changed for women on the streets?". if she comes and stays, i'm going to leave. The same evening, Wozniak went on to perform in his local theatre production of the musical Nine. >> what'd the police tell you? out in the war zone there's a new crop of ragged women on the streets, willing to sell themselves in return for a puff of smoke from a glass pipe. there were whole bunches of them. >> did you notice when the girls were going missing? >> and sometimes they make a a mistake. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. but knew it was reality. >> reporter: -- no one who seemed to know something about the five-year missing persons cases was dialing the phone. all of them about the same age,m with a similar look.he all were known to hang out in a section of albuquerque so o notorious that cops call it the war zone. in a blanket, and was preparing to dump her in the trunk of his car when the woman's boyfriend showed up. but other than that it seemed that, you know, that she was on the up and up and that she was doing -- doing what she could, in her power, and the time that she had to go out and -- out to the streets. [9] In 2010, a reward of up to $100,000 was being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible.[11]. until late in the afternoon on february 2nd, 2009. >> and that's still a lot of people. and was he still at work? >> reporter: when christine ross decided to take her dog ruca for a walk. >> reporter: in addition to victoria chavez and michelle valdez, the others from ida's list were cinnamon elks, julie nieto, veronica romero, monica candelaria, and doreen marquez. [citation needed], In November 2012, Wozniak's then-fiance, Rachel Mae Buffett, was arrested[10] and charged with three felony counts of accessory-after-the-fact based on allegations that she had lied multiple times to police investigators. their lifestyle has been with drugs. Blea has been dubbed the "Mid-School Rapist" for his activities in the 1980s; police say he would often break into the homes of 13- to 15-year-old girls who lived near McKinley Middle School in Albuquerque and rape them. The process repeated itself in more or less the same way about five years later. [1] Police have also suspected the involvement of a sex trafficking ring operating through neighboring Texas that targets sex workers during events throughout the Southwest, Southern, and Western United States, especially regularly scheduled events, such as the New Mexico state fair in this case, to take advantage of reliably heavier traffic. >> i think it's somebody who's very organized. >> reporter: this killer had seemingly left nothing behind but a pile of dry bones. >> reporter: by the end of that year ida's list had grown to more than a dozen women. Women living a primal lifestyle are tribal. Theories? >> reporter: oddly enough, the west mesa investigators' good fortune began thousands of miles to the east, in the fall of 2008. that's when crumbling financial markets on wall street caused home construction on the west mesa to grind to a halt. serial killer to catch but also because one set of remains was about to upset everything. 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. i miss you, hon. everyone. >> we figured she had been sexually assaulted and dumped here. She said the organization also will highlight the continued struggles of women living on the margins. she was at -- you know, at a hurting spot. [20], Lorenzo Montoya lived less than three miles from the burial site. at first some of them were hesitant. Jun 09, 2022. dateline west mesa murders >> reporter: that was true then, and it's true today. 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. Sadly, the rumor was true. All they ever found, however, were the bones and DNA of 11 people. i couldn't handle it. only activia has billions of our live and active probiotics. she said, "no, don't tell me that. >> fbi's behavioral sciences agents came in, took a look at our crime scene, took a look at what evidence we had. definitely. 'Dateline' To Air Story on West Mesa Deaths - Albuquerque Journal don't lie to me." Dateline NBC | Real Life Monsters -yeah, she's my ride. >> this is michelle. every chance that i had i had the videotape there. Dateline: Albuquerque Prostitute Killings "You Can't - 2paragraphs There hasnt been the degree of public fear and alarm that you might expect. Satellite imagery taken between 2003 and 2005 shows tire marks and patches of disturbed soils in the area where the remains were recovered. >> reporter: dan may have had. >> are truckers a particular problem? "Here is that mark of 10 years. 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. there was no shortage of names on the police list of potential suspects who were capable of that. The authors, advocates say, are women who spend their days in the district with a history of drugs and sex trafficking that many of the victims were known to frequent. at xfinity, we're here to make life simple. it was my gateway to making contact with her and seeing her in person. >> reporter: though both dan and camille valdez believe michelle's killer is still alive, dan prefers these days to dwell on the things he knows for sure. to her ending up out here. Ida Lopez previously appeared on Dateline in an episode on the West Mesa tragedy which aired in December, 2010. with uncontrolled moderate-to-severe eczema, or atopic dermatitis, you feel like you're itching all the time. >> and what information do you have? >> she was on your list. for ida lopez there was the fear that her nightmare prediction was coming true. They had picked him up in 1998 when he offered an undercover cop $40 for sex. after three years angelica was sent to live with dan's mother, who lived nearby, and michelle took to living with a series of people she called friends. >> kind of weird to be able to, you know, call a family and say great news -- >> oh, yeah. tired of seeing him hurt. but most of the women who worked albuquerque's war zone, fellow travelers who might have helped ida find the missing, were too drug addled to provide useful leads. Janepsy Carballo, Orlando Mesa: Dateline NBC's 'Miami Heat' Episode >> and she didn't mind? every life is a mystery. maybe it was me not letting her come back to the house. Josh Mankiewicz reports from New Mexico. >> i told michelle she couldn't come over. Her skeletal remains were found at a construction site in the West Mesa area of Albuquerque in February, along with the bodies of many other victims. Detective Ida Lopez's dedication to finding these missing women is admirable. Reporter Josh Mankiewicz reports from Albuquerque on the story that made national headlinesthe discovery of 11 female bodies buried on the city's West Mesa. they were able to get me a booking photograph of what syllania looked like around the time that she died, we believe. that way, again, so if i were doing a different process or if i was looking at something specific, i needed to know that i didn't have the eyes of america in that hole with me. he wouldn't say what the plans were because the only, you know, close person i knew had cancer and died. commander feist knew every scrap of evidence recovered from that gigantic crime scene would have to be cataloged and stored until it came time to prosecute the west mesa grave digger. According to the Albuquerque Journal, it all began when a woman out for a walk with her dog in a part of the city known as the West Mesa made a grisly discovery in February 2009. >> no. a thigh bone had been found out on albuquerque's west mesa. the bone could easily have belonged to one of them. >> reporter: investigators had plenty of leads but none that had gotten them closer to answering two questions -- who was he? [5], In an effort to misdirect police and cast blame upon Herr, Wozniak then used Herr's cell phone to text Juri "Julie" Kibuishi, a 23-year-old college student who had been tutoring Herr at Orange Coast College. February 2, 2019 / 12:05 PM >> she says i have some bad news for you. Flickr/Ken LundOne of the suspects, Joseph Blea, was arrested on Albuquerques Central Avenue for exposing himself to a woman. >> and nobody would be the wiser. If you have any information about the West Mesa murders, or about other missing women related to this case, Albuquerque Police have a dedicated hotline. and it was i thought perfect timing. 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. Albuquerque police spokesperson Tanner Tixier stated that she returned in 2015 to continue working on the unsolved case. >> you can't say gun, knife, strangulation. Police say Wozniak killed combat vet Samuel Eliezer . forgotten by almost everyone but her. >> reporter: it would take more than diligent detective work to find those answers. [9][14] Police would not say how or where they had obtained the photos. One of the victims, 22-year-old Michelle Valdez, had been pregnant when she was killed, and the bones of her unborn child were also found among the victims. According to the Albuquerque Police Department, something didn't sit right with Christine Ross when her dog Ruca found a bone on their walk in the West Mesa. Between 2002 and 2005, a serial killer who became known as the West Mesa Bone Collector murdered and buried 11 women in the outskirts of Albuquerque, New Mexico. at 16 weeks, nearly four times more patients taking dupixent saw clear or almost clear skin compared to those not taking it, and patients saw a significant reduction in itch. Both had disappeared after walking to a local park in 2004. Globe staff photographer Ron Erwin would like to shed the suspected serial killer tag. >> so many young women missing. babcock says he saw marks on the woman's throat and that she told him montoya looked like he was enjoying it. >> i started looking into the missing and exploited children's website and was able to search through as many african-american females that matched the possible stature, where they might have been when they went missing. then five. Thirteen years ago, the discovery of a femur bone on Albuquerque's west side would lead investigators to a mass grave site where 11 women were buried. and then i'm thinking, okay, is it somebody that's nice at picking them up? [25] In 2015, Blea was also suspected by police of killing a sex worker; his DNA sample was located on the inner waistband and belt of a sex worker found dead on Central Ave, a notorious street for sex work in the eastern part of the city. Albuquerque police released photos of unidentified women who may also be linked to the West Mesa murders. now that two women from ida's list had been identified, jolene had an idea. it led them to a dead end. He even beat his girlfriend, who said he threatened to kill me and bury me in lime. In 2006, Montoya met up with a dancer whom he strangled to death. except for one tantalizing tidbit. whenever a lost soul was found. >> reporter: six weeks after the digging began out on the west mesa, even more sets of remains were identified. the only one to combine a safe sleep aid and the 12-hour pain-relieving strength of aleve. 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. >> reporter: a few days later lab work confirmed ida's hunch. >> the numbers grew. that once she was lost and that now she's found. and you never know how your skin will look. we had them in the air. gave her 20 bucks. hopefully they've been in a commune in some mountainous town or in a rehab center or a jail or with friends that they're actually doing okay. >> reporter: soon there were five missing women with eerily similar profiles on ida's list. She was released from jail sometime in 2019.[12][13]. Her daughter had found womens clothing and jewelry in their home, with some families later revealing that the victims jewelry was missing. in this 2002 image of the area where the bones were discovered there's nothing unusual. memorial came to life alongside the wall that bordered the desert crime scene. i never wanna hear you say no, kevin no, kevin! >> it was breaking angelica's. "In this case, there was almost nothing but bones.". it's the city's annual balloon fiesta. because deep within your skin an overly sensitive immune system could be the cause. "It's really a sad and horrible anniversary," said Christine Barber, executive director of Street Safe New Mexico, a nonprofit that seeks to boost safety for women who live and work on Albuquerque streets. Still, authorities have not given up. some of it didn't. With a similar history as Blea, Lorenzo Montoya was known to pick up prostitutes and assault them. Getty Stock Images . How a California Community Theater Actor Tried to Frame a War Veteran apoquel is for the control of itch associated with allergic dermatitis and the control of atopic dermatitis in dogs. it was when the company returned to the site to fix the runoff problem that they inadvertently brought some bones to the surface, where five months later those bones were discovered by christine ross and her dog ruca. Wozniak came under suspicion after he instructed a sixteen-year-old, Wesley Freilich, to withdraw money from Herr's accounts. yet. bill's back needed a afvacation from his vacation. >> they wouldn't even put her picture on the news or nothing. we had to utilize the joplin police department. podcast: Casefile True Crime. so you can move more. pe reporter: the michelle valdez that appears in these home videos with her little sisters is a far cry from the thin, drug-wasted young woman police would later come to know and fingerprint. how do you keep feeling your best all summer long? There is a reward of up. drive to a remote location. 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. >> university of north texas identified jamie barela through dna. ida went by the book. >> that's correct. >> a lot of people said they were drug addicts and prostitutes. make that phone call to us and we can link that individual to these crimes that have occurred here in albuquerque. >> when you see those satellite photos and you see the scarring on the desert floor, knowing what we know now, it's very obvious that those look like graves. found her and she's not alive. Years had passed from the time the women and girls disappeared, likely limiting available evidence. it's been nine years since that summer night when ida lopez first took to the streets of albuquerque's war zone alone, searching for a couple of missing women. except for one thing. Investigators have said that nearly all the West Mesa victims, who were between the ages of 15 and 32, worked as prostitutes . [11], On September 12, 2018, Buffett was convicted on two of those counts with a maximum possible sentence of 44 months and, on November 8, 2018, was sentenced to 32 months minus time served and good behavior. However, the Albuquerque Police Department refuses to lose all hope and continues working on it with whatever leads they have. In 2005, she was handed two missing persons files including missing 25-year-old Michelle Valdez, who worked as a prostitute on the streets of New Mexicos largest city. heart that day when she wasn't there. let's exchange phone numbers. i said, "detective lopez just told us that your mother has been positively i.d. An episode of NBC "Dateline" airing Friday will feature the West Mesa murder case. an amusement park so he stepped on the dr. scholl's kiosk. but the mesa, a vast expanse of desert west of town where people frequently dump things they no longer have any use for, was simply too big an area to launch, a search based on just a rumor. 'Dateline' reveals new details in mysterious murder of successful her nose and her eyes were very important. how did she get to albuquerque? >> reporter: jane doe's number 7 nose had been broken sometime before she died. i think because for the first time we had started to put faces on these women and we had explained to the citizens of albuquerque that there weren't just two women that were missing. dan valdez, her father, had reported michelle missing six months before ida got the case.c he was the guy who kept the calendar. and the newly organized families, which included everyone with a daughter on ida's list, began holding monthly vigils to keep public attention focused on finding all of the missing women. Trish Hoffman, spokeswoman for the Albuquerque Police Department. The victims' names will be read Saturday at a brief memorial service organized by Street Safe New Mexico next to a place where city officials in June broke ground on a memorial park. Lopezs alma mater) who has written several books on serial killings, said: You cant have a colder cold case, Gibson said. Her organization recently gathered the notes from the women it meets with weekly. and all but one, a juvenile, had lengthy arrest records for drugs or prostitution. n.d then there was the service part, the helping people part of police work. >> we don't know if it's somebody that lives here or somebody that would just come back and frequent albuquerque on a regular basis. activia. but what can you do?te you can't be with them 24/7. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. Despite the tip, however, the West Mesa Murder case remains unsolved. >> there used to be a motel here. >> reporter: one of those women, safira mora, was found alive and well a few weeks after this story first aired in december 2010. right now the killer, if he's still alive, has plenty of it. So she took a picture of it and texted her sister. >> i was only 8 years old and becoming an aunt, you know. she struggled to hold it all together. >> not for you. The case remains unsolved till date, with eight girls still missing. Send news items or comments to rturner229@hotmail.com. we don't know. Does anyone have any theories or info on this one? awesome. ten. West Mesa Serial Killer Satellite Image - lasopahc Detectives were left with the fact that serial killers move with ease, often vanishing long before their victims are ever found. there's a better choice. [3] He was incarcerated at California's San Quentin State Prison until July 2021, when he was moved to Salinas Valley State Prison as part of the Condemned Inmate Transfer Pilot Program. >> reporter: suddenly families who'd once felt isolated in their agony now felt a communal bond. A subreddit dedicated to the unresolved mysteries of the world. The last segment of last night's two-hour exploration of the West Mesa serial murders on NBC's Dateline reviewed the search warrants executed by the Albuquerque and Joplin police departments and the FBI of properties owned by Joplin businessman Ron Erwin. start with supporting your gut health. >> reporter: those were long nights, filled with bittersweet memories of michelle the way she used to be, before the drugs took over. On february 2, 2009, a woman walking a dog found a human bone on the west mesa of albuquerque, new mexico. Neither woman was. this date's lame. what if the west mesa grave digger was a prolific transient? i think he's been preying on his victims, has a particular victim in mind. Promising leads became dead ends with every cleared suspect. do not use in breeding, pregnant or lactating dogs. There has been very little publicity. >> i find a girl with the same background. A life long resident of Albuq., NM. t and so that gave me an empathy for them on that part, and i thought, wow, this has got to be powerful. and if they weren't on the mesa, where were they? so i would tell her, you know, mean things. Her family maintains a Facebook group to solicit tips from the public, and the cold case was featured on Dateline NBC. it recommends our best custom fit orthotic to relieve foot, knee, or lower back pain. There's no question Stephen did it: But was he. >> the company kind of left town and just kind of left the land the way it was. >> reporter: nine months after the discovery of the first bone on the west mesa the detectives were back to square one. >> they would say we found a skull that had a lot of hair and she's pregnant. women very often involved in prostitution, it's not uncommon for them to go missing for weeks or months at a time.