By Chris Bartholomew
On the mesa west of Albuquerque, what I'm looking at could easily be a scenic look-out along the route to a vacation spot. There is a long brick wall, red cinderblock actually, with what looks almost like a fireplace brick sitting in the middle. But there are a picture, flowers, messages to loved one's who are or might wind up being the victims of a maniac in Amole Mesa, Albuquerque.
Feb. 2, 2009, walking her dog, a woman calls the police and tells them that she believes she has found human remains, possibly a human leg bone, at the mesa west of Alamo canyon and Amole Mesa. The police started looking around and to date they have found the skeletal remains of 13 women and one fetus. A team of police officers, anthropologists and forensics experts have combed the area using hand tools, cadaver dogs and heavy machinery. They have been out on the 92-acre west mesa every day since the find of Feb. 2.
A company from Denver is using its latest product, Inspector 07, to help in the massive investigation. The device is similar to ground-penetrating radar already being used, but it's smaller and some say it's more efficient.
Police have pulled up satellite records from 2003 onward and have narrowed the search, for now, using old dirt trails that have long since been plowed over.
The area had been abandoned when homebuilder KB Home ended its operations in New Mexico, leaving a cinderblock wall surrounding mounds of dirt, a drainage pond and a few retaining walls. It remains unclear who owns the property where police are digging. The developer was identified by police as Longford Homes, though its company spokeswoman Susan Berger said Longford does not own that lot.
Before construction crews left the site in early 2008, many of the bones were damaged by earth-moving equipment that scattered the remains across 100 acres surrounding the concentrated burial site. They are digging for more human remains in a 100-acre area near 118th Street and Amole Mesa Avenue SW.
Police suspect one person is responsible for burying the bodies because of how close the bodies were found together in what was a remote area when the bodies were estimated to have been buried, between 2000 and 2005. Police said the bones Saturday were found nine feet below the surface, a sign they say of how much the earth on the West Mesa has been moved by construction crews. The remains have all been found within a few acres of one another. Once police clear an area, they expand farther out.
An FBI profiler will be looking at the case to try to give a profile, since the FBI certainly seems to believe that this is a serial killer. Someone from the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit in Quantico, Va. will either come to Albuquerque or they will send the details of the case and the files will be sent out to the profiler in Virginia.
“Our experts have the advantage of being able to study every serial killer in the country and find out the common themes that these guys have,” FBI Special Agent Steve Marshal said. “It's not an exact science. Occasionally they're completely off on what a profile is, but it gives us a place to start.”
The profiler will look at all the similarities of the deaths. The two women identified so far both had histories of drug abuse and prostitution.
“How these women were chosen as victims is going to be very important,” Marshal said. “How they were killed is going to be very important; where they were found is going to be very important.”
As many as 40 detectives are checking leads and reviewing missing-persons reports. The grisly discovery caused authorities to reopen dozens of cold cases involving missing prostitutes, some of whom vanished as much as 20 years ago. All of them were suspected of being drug addicts and prostitutes. Of particular interest are 16 women reported missing between 2001 and 2006.
The police do have dental records of 17 of the missing women, and files were already made for them in the investigative work already done to try to locate them, but the skeletal remains will be hard to identify of the one's who's skulls have not yet been located. The bones are being sent off to an FBI lab as they try to identify the remains. So far, only three skulls have been recovered, making identification of the other remains difficult and time consuming. Identification of the remains could take up to a year and the investigation into the cause of death and any possible suspects even longer. Law Enforcement has sent a list out to all dentists in the state to get dental records.
Investigators have only identified three of the 13 sets of remains found in the West Mesa, so now authorities are looking to the internet for help. Law enforcement officials and citizens can search the same database. Namus.gov, the National Missing and Unidentified Person System, run by the Department of Justice, only recently opened to the public. Half of the website allows loved ones or victim's advocates to post a missing person, while the other half is run by law enforcement.
These some of the known missing women: Darlene Trujillo missing since 2001. Sonia Lente missing since 2002. Monica Candalaria missing since 2003. Jamie Barela missing since 2004. Cinnamon Elks missing since 2004. Veronica Romero missing since 2004. Victoria Chavez missing since 2004, body found, remains were found intact in a grave 18 inches deep without clothing or any other items. Michelle Gina Valdez missing since 2004, body found with fetus. Virginia Cloven missing since 2004. Doreen Marquez missing since 2004. Julie Nieto missing since 2004. Evelyn Salazar missing since 2004. Anselma Guerra missing since 2004. Anna Vigil missing since 2005. Felipa Gonzales missing since 2005. Nina Herron missing since 2005. Shawntell Waltes missing since 2006. Leah Peebles missing since 2006.
A new task force has been formed, the 118th Street Investigative Task Force. The group consists of agents from the FBI, New Mexico State Police, Albuquerque Police, APD, the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office, and the District Attorney.
Theories behind the mesa mystery, which include a deceased man known to pick up and strangle prostitutes, gangs, a well known pimp, and a vigilante who was “doing the Lord's work.” But most everyone believes it's a serial killers dumping ground. The citizens of Albuquerque don't think a serial killer stopped, moved or died, they think when they started developing the area the killer had no choice but to move to another dumping location.
At first it was thought that maybe the area was used as a burial ground. Because New Mexico is home to huge swaths of vacant desert land, it's not extraordinary for graveyards to be discovered in undesignated areas. As two remains have been identified to date, and the one fetus, the hope that it was once a burial ground is over.
Two suspects that are already dead are being looked at, making the people a bit guarded, as they think it's convenient to say the killer is deceased.
Lorenzo Montoya. He killed a stripper, and then was shot dead by the stripper's boyfriend during a confrontation at Montoya's house in 2006. He lived about 2 miles from the site.
Fred Reynolds, a well-known pimp who died in January, has also caught the eye of investigators. Police say Reynolds had pictures of missing prostitutes in his home.
All of the missing women are of the prostitution and drug related life style. This is important because serial killers often go for these types of people, and while the police look for a connection, this has to be considered. So while people who knew the victims won't like it being mentioned, the lifestyle of the victims are always important for authorities trying to find out why, when, where, how, and who.
The authorities manned a tip line for 24 hours, and it seems that they got a lot of calls, but if there were any useful tips, no one has reported it yet.
Neighbors living near the dig site had a meeting with Albuquerque police. Some of the resident houses are right beside the dig site, and residents were worried that the police might have to dig up their yards, or worse, afraid that a body might be buried under their houses, but authorities assured them that this would not be the case, that the dig will not go to their houses.
Police will continue canvassing the area until they are confident there are no more remains to be found there.
One man says that before the area began to be developed for housing, he often rode his four wheeler around the mesa. One day while riding, he kept his eye on two men and got a bad feeling. He hit a rut and flew off of the four wheeler, breaking ribs. The two men came to see if he was okay and he was so uncomfortable at their presence that he got up, broken ribs and all, said he was okay and hopped back on the four wheeler and got out of there.
One woman talks of moving to Albuquerque and a man telling her, 'it's alright here but don't go near the mesa, people bury things in the mesa, and not just animals either'. She thought he was being funny but now she wonders.
It might be interesting to note that the area of prostitution in Albuquerque is a 30 minute drive from the dig site.
Editor's note: this article was written in early 2009, while the excavation was still under way, and its figures are the ones the dig was reporting at the time. The final count was eleven women and an unborn child, not thirteen. All eleven were identified: Victoria Chavez, Virginia Cloven, Cinnamon Elks, Doreen Marquez, Julie Nieto, Veronica Romero, Evelyn Salazar, Gina Michelle Valdez, Jamie Barela, Monica Candelaria and Syllannia Edwards, who was the only one not from Albuquerque and the only one never reported missing there. Several of the other names listed above as missing were never found on the mesa and remain missing. The case is unsolved and no one has been charged. Both men named here as suspects were already dead when the remains were found, and neither has been established as responsible.