Casefile True Crime - Case 27: The West Mesa Bone Collector

Episode Date: July 31, 2016

The eastern side of the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico, is closed in by mountains. On the city’s west side, a mesa rises out of the Rio Grande Valley. In 2005, subdivisions and new housing were being built along the West Mesa. The construction pressed up against the vast desert that stretches beyond where you will find tumbleweeds, high tension wires and trash. It is a desolate isolated spot. For all credits and sources please visit casefilepodcast.com/case-27-west-mesa-bone-collector

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On the city's west side, a mesa rises out of the Rio Grande Valley. In 2005, subdivisions and new housing were being built along the west mesa. The construction pressed up against the vast desert that stretches beyond where you will find tumbleweeds, high-tension wires and trash. It is a desolate, isolated spot. In 2008, the economy crashed and the new homes stopped being built. It was on a 92-acre lot of land on the west mesa one year later, 2009, where subdivision work had started but construction had never gone ahead,

where a serial killer's burial ground was found. Detective Ida Lopez from the Albuquerque Police Department was assigned to the missing persons unit in 2005. She was the only detective assigned there. It was low priority work. Detective Lopez was the first officer to sense something wasn't right in Albuquerque. Two missing persons reports came across her desk. Both women fit a similar profile. They were known sex workers who also used drugs and they vanished without a trace,

not letting friends or family know of their whereabouts. It's common in these types of cases for family members to hear. Well, that's just part of the lifestyle they live. Sometimes people don't want to be found. They don't have to keep contact with you or tell you where they are. It doesn't mean they're missing. And that's exactly what many families of the victims in this case heard. But Detective Lopez couldn't ignore the similarities in these two missing girls' appearance

or the circumstances in which they vanished. She started looking into other cases involving women who had disappeared from Albuquerque that matched the same profile. She discovered more and more cases that all bore eerie similarities. The list of missing women eventually grew to 24. Some were crossed off that list as time went on, eventually, turning up either back in the Albuquerque or in other parts of the country. But it was clear something wasn't right.

The common thing the missing girls shared was that they were involved in sex work and many battled drug addiction. The area of the Albuquerque all of the victims were known to work is referred to by some as the war zone. In recent years, the area was rebranded as the International District. There is an area there on Central Avenue that is something of a red light district. It's a place where the most vulnerable, the most desperate show up

looking for money, looking for drugs. It's also where people prey on those who have no place else to turn. Detective Lopez hit the streets to try and find out as much information as she could, questioning anyone who would speak to her about the missing girls, trying to find out about their last movements if they knew each other, trying to find that common thread. It wasn't long before Detective Lopez started to hear about the rumours circulating the streets at the time. There were whispers around town that Albuquerque had its own version of Jack the Ripper,

a psycho praying on vulnerable victims who he felt society wasn't going to miss. The rumours even mentioned specifically the missing girls were dead and were buried on the West Mesa. As that information was just rumour at the time, there was no evidence to go on, no specific spot to start. The West Mesa was too vast of an area to start searching for victims who might be buried there. It's the desert. Where would the police even begin? They needed something more. And so Detective Lopez kept working, kept pounding the pavement,

asking questions, trying to find out what happened. Part of the investigation process carried out by Detective Lopez was asking for dental records and taking DNA samples from family members of the missing girls. This work would prove vital later on. As the years passed though, nothing much came of the investigation. There was very little media coverage of the missing girls. Not many people seemed to care. It was never really in the public's minds.

There are varying reports depending on where and who you are getting them from about just how hard the police were actually looking. Most of the local media didn't even bat an eyelid at the story, even turning some of the victims' families away, refusing to give it any airtime. If there was any truth to that rumour about Albuquerque having its own Jack the Ripper, it looked like he was proven right. Society didn't seem to care. The story didn't really fade from the public's mind

because it was never really there in the first place. Nobody other than the families of the missing girls and Detective Lopez seemed to care. It was the 2nd of February 2009, five years after Detective Lopez had made up a list. And Christine Ross, who lived in one of the new housing subdivisions on the West Mesa, was taking her dog for a walk. Her dog started playing with a bone sticking out of the ground on an abandoned construction site that was supposed to have had new homes built on it by now. Christine felt uneasy about 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 sent it to her sister, who was a registered nurse. Her sister got back to her almost immediately. It looked like a human female. Christine contacted the Albuquerque Police Department. They arrived and were able to quickly determine that it was most definitely a human bone. A crime scene was established. It would become the largest crime scene in Albuquerque history.

Human bones were found scattered in one section of a 92-acre piece of land owned by a home developer, KB Home. It was the work that KB Home had already completed on the site that made the huge task more complicated. The builders had done extensive grading and digging and a lot of heavy machinery had been used in order to get the land ready to build on. That work had totally changed the landscape and shattered many of the bones in the process, scattering their location.

The police had the call in state of the art equipment to help process the crime scene. Ground-penetrating radar, lasers, aerial photography and digital mapping were all used. In total, police dug through 40,000 cubic yards of dirt, digging down as far as 15 feet in some places. It took them two and a half months of processing the crime scene before they were satisfied that they had recovered all of the victims buried at the site. In total, there were 11 female victims. The youngest was 15, the oldest was 32.

One of the victims was also four months pregnant. Reconstructing the skeletons was a long and difficult process. It was like putting together a giant puzzle, and a lot of the puzzle pieces were broken. It would take one year before all of the victims were positively identified. The work of Detective Lopez in compiling the list of missing girls from Albuquerque and obtaining dental records and getting their DNA on file was a huge help to the investigation.

In total, seven of the 11 victims found buried at the West Mesa already appeared on that missing list compiled by Detective Lopez. Some of the victims have more information released about them than others, but those seven were. Monika Candelaria, who was 21 years old. Monika enjoyed laughing, joking, looking after babies, and spending time with her family. She was a loving mother to her son.

She was last seen in South West Albuquerque on the 11th of May, 2003. Monika was reported missing soon after her disappearance. Her report was treated primarily as a missing persons case, but it was noted that foul play could be involved. Incredibly, detectives working the case heard a rumor that she had been killed and buried on the Mesa. That rumor would be proven right many years later, but nothing had became of it at the time.

The file was turned over to the cold case unit after a few months. That's where Detective Lopez discovered that the circumstances matched other missing girls in the area, and she added Monika to her list. Doreen Marquez, who was 27 years old. She loved jewellery and fashionable clothes. Always had her hair done and nails painted. She was a loving mother who was known to throw extravagant birthday parties for her children. In the year 2000, Doreen's life started to unravel.

She went through a difficult breakup and turned to heroin to numb the pain. By 2003, Doreen's behaviour had gotten very erratic. She would disappear for months at a time, leaving her children with their father or with family members. Her sister says she didn't live that lifestyle until the last few years of her life. That's when things started to unravel for Doreen and her addiction got the better of her. There are conflicting reports of when she was last seen. The police say it was October 2003, although a friend is adamant that she saw her after that.

Whichever it was, she was reported missing in 2004. Victoria Chavez, who was 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 over a year. Veronica Romero was 27 years old. She had four children and was reported missing in February 2004, not long after she was last seen. Cinnamon Elks was 32 years old.

She was friends with three of the other victims. Victoria Chavez, Julie Nieto, and Michelle Vauders, who you will hear about next. When Cinnamon's mother didn't hear from her for her birthday in August 2004, she knew something was wrong straight away. She reported her missing, although it took a few calls before that report was taken. She was told initially that Cinnamon was an adult and she had the right to cut contact with her. Julie Nieto was 23 years old.

Enjoyed sewing, cooking and music. A beautiful and devoted daughter, a loving mother, and a beloved friend. Julie was a sweet girl who unfortunately fell to a drug addiction at age 19. Her mother tried to get her treatment, but it didn't work. Julie had a son who she doted over. She was a loving mother. Her family knew something was very wrong when she stopped sending birthday, Christmas and Easter presents to her young son. She was last seen in August 2004. Michelle Vauders was 22 years old.

She had one daughter who she was devoted to. A good, kind-hearted person who would give you the shirt off her back if you needed it. Fun loving always had a smile on her face and could brighten up the room with her personality. Unfortunately, she fell into drugs and started disappearing for days at a time. In weeks, then months. She would return to visit her father and he would give her small sums of money knowing it was likely going to be spent on drugs. But he gave it anyway in the hope she would keep coming back. One day she never returned.

She was reported missing in February 2005. Michelle was four months pregnant at the time of her death. The other four victims found buried on the West Mesa that were not on Detective Lopez's list were. Jamie Borralla who was 15 and Evelyn Salazar who was 27. They were cousins and were both last seen together at a family gathering in 2004. They left the family gathering and they were never seen again. Jamie was an outgoing 15-year-old school student who loved to sing and dance, read and play sport. Her smile was so bright it was enough to lift up anyone, no matter how down they were.

Her older cousin Evelyn liked camping and outdoor activities and she was a good cook. Jamie and Evelyn were treated as runaways by police. Their family members saying little was done in the way of an investigation. In fact after the initial report their family says they hardly heard from the police again. Solania Edwards was 15 years old. She stands apart from the other victims as she was the only one with no known friends or family in Albuquerque. Solania never knew her father and last saw her mother when she was five. She ran away from foster care in Oklahoma in 2003 which is when she was reported missing.

She was last seen in the Denver area in May 2004. Police believe Solania may have been travelling along the I-40 into State Highway which is how she ended up in Albuquerque. Virginia Cloven who was 23 years old. Virginia was a funny, humorous girl who took everything in her stride. The type of person that if she told you a lie two minutes later she would admit it until the truth because she felt bad. When Virginia was 17 and still in high school her brother was shot dead. Absolutely devastated and struggling to cope Virginia ran away from home. She lived with her grandfather in Albuquerque for a little while before moving out with a boyfriend. Tragically her boyfriend got hit by a car and went into a coma.

Virginia lost the place they were living in and was soon homeless living on the streets of Albuquerque. Her parents last heard from her in June 2004. She called them to say she had a new boyfriend who had just gotten out of prison and she was going to marry him. Virginia was never heard from again. Her parents reported her missing in October 2004. 10 of the 11 victims were known sex workers. The one who wasn't was 15 year old Jamie Burralla. Jamie who disappeared with her cousin Evelyn Salazar.

Evelyn did have one prior for sex work so that common thread did still appear in their disappearance. A huge task force comprising of over 40 police was assembled to investigate the serial killings. It was called the 118th Street Task Force although Albuquerque police seemed reluctant in the early stages to refer 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 all possibilities were being considered. Some of the early considerations were gang activity. The idea being that they had been executed by gang members after running drugs. Another one was that a local pimp was responsible. Another being someone that had something against sex workers and who thought they were doing the Lord's work.

Hard of putting together a list of possible suspects police looked for men with a history of violence against sex workers who lived in the area. Unfortunately that list wasn't short. The list of potential suspects was large. An interesting part of the investigation was a timeline police created using satellite photos. All of the victims found at the West Mesa disappeared between 2003 and 2005. So they were able to access satellite photos of the area taken in 2002. There was nothing unusual. The satellite photos of the area taken in 2004 were a totally different story.

They showed tyre marks leading to bare spots which police determined to be graves. In 2005 the photos showed the tyre tracks again and even more bare spots. The satellite photos provided police with an evolving snapshot of the killer's work. It was in 2005 that the landscape of that area changed for good. That's when the housing boom was in full swing and large chunks of the area were subdivided and your estates were put up. Lots of digging and levelling of the land occurred. It was still on the outskirts of Albuquerque, still vast desert west of the homes. But all that activity is what police believe forced the killer to stop using that particular spot as a burial ground.

There was just too good a chance he would be seen coming and going from the area, if not caught red handed. In 2008 the economy crashed. The home developer KB Home packed up and left the Mesa. But not before preparing the area where the victims were buried to have new homes built. This is where the landscape was changed by the heavy machinery, totally disrupting the crime scene. But on the flip side, if the crime scene was never disturbed like this, the victims may never have been found. Imagine if the economy never crashed, new homes would be on top of the burial ground. And we probably wouldn't even be aware of this case.

FBI profilers were called upon to assist. They believed the offender to be male, working alone, aged 35 to 50. He either lived alone or was away from home for extended periods. He probably had previous run-ins with the law for minor offences. And he liked to hire sex workers and was familiar with that world. That profile is pretty generic and could fit a large amount of people. And just like any other case where a profile is made, police can't rule out somebody just because they don't fit that profile. It's not an exact science.

The FBI and the Aberkirche Police Department offered a $100,000 reward, which is still current, to anyone who assists in the arrest and conviction of the killer. This reward initially led the police to be flooded with crank calls, false confessions, and calls from people trying to be helpful, but who were misguided. Police have remained tight lipped about the cause of death. It's something that they have kept very close to their chest. All they will officially say is homicidal violence. This is an example of a piece of information they would deliberately hold back to help sift through the crank calls and false confessions,

easily able to dismiss them if their accounts don't match with the evidence they have. There are two main suspects who were most talked about with this case. The first is Lorenzo Montoya, a short, powerfully built man who was in his 30s at the time the West Mesa killings occurred. Montoya had multiple arrests for solicitation, including one involving violence in 1999. In that particular incident, the 23-year-old female victim was being watched by the vice unit. They observed her get into Montoya's vehicle, which they followed to an isolated spot. Montoya sexually assaulted her and started choking her. The victim believed she was going to die and suffered bruising around her throat.

She said it looked like Montoya was enjoying what he was doing. The vice police approached the car and arrested Montoya. However, the case never proceeded as the victim declined to testify. But it's what happened in December 2006 that lead many to believe Lorenzo Montoya is the West Mesa killer. About 2am on Sunday 17 December 2006, Montoya started a conversation in a chat room with a 19-year-old, Sharika Hill. After that conversation, they agreed to meet in person. Hill agreeing to go to Montoya's mobile home in the 4000 block of Blake Road, Albuquerque. She agreed to perform a dance for him.

On her way there, she picked up her 18-year-old boyfriend, Frederick Williams. They parked the short distance away from Montoya's home and Hill went inside. What occurred inside was a brutal, orchestrated and very violent attack. Hill was strangled to death and bound with duct tape by Montoya. After about an hour, Williams got concerned and went to check on Hill. And it's here that he got involved with a confrontation with Montoya, who was dragging Hill's body to his car. Montoya produced a gun, but Williams shot him first. Montoya didn't make it, dying at the scene.

Police feel that the probability was higher that this wasn't the first time Montoya had committed a crime like this. It was too brutal and too planned to be his first one. As one officer said, This isn't the type of crime where you wake up one morning and just decide that you're going to brutally murder someone. They felt he had done it before. Unfortunately though, there is not a shred of physical evidence that links Montoya to any of the victims or to the crime scene. Detectives have stated they would have loved the chance to interrogate him about the Wes Mesa case. But now they will never have that chance.

He remains a person of interest. The other suspect talked about in this case is Joseph Blair. Seven days after the discovery of the first bone on the Wes Mesa, a female called police and said they should look into her ex-husband, Joseph Blair. Police knew him quite well already. Between 1990 and 2009, Blair had over 130 different contacts with police. Many of those run-ins with police were in areas frequented by the victims. On one such occasion, he was found with rope and electrical tape in his car. Before that in 1985, his DNA was found on the body of a dead girl found in the upper curkey.

He was never charged with that crime. In fact, somebody else was sent to prison for her murder and was acquitted once that DNA result came back, matching Blair many years later. In the weeks after the victims were found on the Wes Mesa, Blair was actually under police surveillance and he appeared to be stalking sex workers on Central Avenue in Albuquerque. He didn't approach any, but he was closely watching them, continually circling the block and sitting in his car at a distance, just staring. One sex worker informed police Blair had tried to tie her up on one encounter she had with him, but she was able to get away. Blair is currently serving a 90-year prison sentence for four sexual assaults on minors, not related to the Wes Mesa case. He was only recently convicted of these crimes, which occurred in the late 80s and early 90s. The recent convictions coming about by way of DNA evidence.

He has openly talked about the Wes Mesa case before, claiming to have paid to be with several of the victims in the past. One of the few pieces of physical evidence located at the crime scene was a plant tag, located next to Virginia Clover's remains. The plant tag was traced to a nursery in California and that nursery sends plants to Albuquerque. Police conducted a search warrant on Blair's house on the 11th of June 2009. They seized business records showing Blair purchased plants from nurseries that sold the California plants that matched the plant tag found at the crime scene. Circumstantial at best, but still interesting. Blair's ex-wife said she found jewelry in their house that didn't belong to her or her daughter. Women's underwear not belonging to her was also found.

Some of the victims' families have reported that jewelry was missing from them. On the 12th of October 2009, police conducted another search warrant on Blair's house, where they seized some of that jewelry and women's underwear. As it's an active investigation, police won't comment if any of the jewelry or underwear matches the victims or if there is any DNA evidence on them. But considering the case remains unsolved, you would assume there are no matches. But we don't know for sure. There is nothing conclusive to tie Blair to the crime and he strongly denies any involvement. I mentioned before that the list compiled by Detective Lopez of missing women from the Albuquerque area at one point reached 24. There are currently six that are still missing.

Ana Vigil aged 20 years old. She was last seen in Albuquerque on the 21st of January 2005. She was reported missing a few days later and has not been seen or heard of again. Felipe Gonzalez aged 22, last seen on the 27th of April 2005 in Albuquerque. Nina Heron, 21 years old. She was last seen about 5pm on the 14th of May 2005 at her home residence in Albuquerque. She has not been seen or heard of again since that sighting at home. Chantel Weitz aged 29.

She was last seen in Albuquerque on the 15th of March 2006. Leah Peebles aged 23, last seen on the 22nd of May 2006. Leah had only been living in Albuquerque for two weeks. She was temporarily staying with friends at the time of her disappearance. She left the house on the 2nd of May after telling her friends she was going on a date with a man she had met at a local café, where she was actually due to start work the following week. Leah never returned and has not been seen or heard from again. Vanessa Reid aged 24, last seen on the 13th of June 2006,

walking away from the motel she lived at in Albuquerque after having a fight with her sister. All of these missing women match a similar background to the victims found at the West Mesa. The interesting thing about the timeline of these still active missing person cases is that Ana Vigil was the first to go missing of these group of six, last seen on the 21st of January 2005. This is after Michelle Valdez, who is the last of the West Mesa victims to have gone missing. Although Michelle wasn't reported missing until February 2005, she hadn't been seen for months before that. So if Michelle is the last of the West Mesa victims to go missing,

and Ana went missing after that, followed by five other girls who match a similar profile and background, is it possible that one or more of them are also victims of the West Mesa serial killer? But for reasons already mentioned, the killer was forced to change his burial site. Another interesting note on the timeline that you may have already picked up. The last victim to go missing of these six still currently active missing person cases was Vanessa Reid, last seen in June 2006. Lorenzo Montoya was shot dead six months later. There is vast desert everywhere.

Police concede it is very possible that there are other victims buried out there somewhere. Although they are satisfied that the 11 West Mesa victims were all buried within a contained area and no others were buried in that specific location. Has the killer been stopped by another method? Maybe he is dead or imprisoned for other crimes. Or is he still out there? Maybe he has moved to another place he uses as his hunting ground. It is possible that there are people out there who know something,

who were maybe too afraid to come forward before. The rumours that Albuquerque had its own Jack the Ripper and missing girls had been killed and buried on the Mesa had to have come from somewhere. Detective Lopez was told this before the victims had been found. There are people that obviously know something. But a major problem with cold cases is that memories fade and witnesses disappear. Hopefully there is someone out there who knows something with the courage to come forward. you