Criminology - The West Mesa Murders

Episode Date: September 11, 2022

In 2009, the bodies of eleven women were unearthed in an area of Albuquerque, New Mexico, called the West Mesa. Many of the women were identified as missing persons who had been on the radar of police for many years. Detective Ida Lopez had long suspected that many of the women on her missing person's list would be found together, and she turned out to be correct. Many have theorized that a lone serial killer, who has been dubbed "The West Mesa Bone Collector", is responsible for this series of murders. Join Mike and Morf as they discuss the West Mesa murders and the person many believe to be responsible, "The West Mesa Bone Collector," In addition to being buried in the same location, these women had many things in common. Is one person responsible for this series of murders, preying on women in the middle of the night and then burying their bodies in one location? Or were there multiple killers operating over the years who happened to choose to bury the bodies of the victims in the same location? You can help support the show at patreon.com/criminology An Emash Digital production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If you like true crime stories, you will want to check out the True Crime Garage podcast. They feature a new case and true crime story each week. True Crime Garage has been around since 2015, so they have hundreds of episodes to download and listen to for free. Featuring cold cases, missing persons cases, and serial killer profiles. You are sure to enjoy True Crime Garage. Available now for free, wherever you listen to podcast. Criminology is a true crime podcast that may contain discussion about violent or disturbing topics.

Listener discretion is advised. For everyone and welcome to episode 223 of the criminology podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson. And I'm Mike Morford. Mr. Morford, buddy, what's going on with you down there in the sunny state of Florida? Oh, that eventful morning. I'm sick, but I'm powering through and then I'm on the phone for like two hours with the cable company trying to get something squared away. you know how it is you get connected to one person and they transfer you, then you're on hold,

and you get knocked off. And it's just been one of those warnings. All the cable companies, kind of like the government, they're kind of hard to fight. And they don't always give you what you want, when you want it. So, well, good luck to you on that one. Yeah, I'll need it. So a lot of people probably heard a pretty familiar voice during the intro to this episode. That was our friend Nick from True Crime Garage. Be sure to go over and check their show out. Nick and Captain. If you like criminology, you'll like them as well, no doubt. They're a bunch of good guys. More of let's go ahead and give our Patreon shoutouts. We had Tona Ogle, Kate Gallis, Peter Kelso, Valerie Power, Nicole Wren and Marion Egermont Swinkles. So that's a lot of great new support,

man. Really appreciate it. Yeah, we can't thank you enough. That really goes a long way. And, you know, for everyone that takes the time to support the show, we appreciate it. And you can support criminology by going to patreon.com slash criminology. All right, buddy, let's go ahead and jump into this episode. We had a pretty big case last week. This is a big case as well. We're talking about a puzzling series of murders in the West Mesa Desert area. It's a series of murders sometimes referred to as the West Mesa murders.

And the possible serial killer connected to these cases is often called the West Mesa Bone Collector. Yeah, we've definitely covered some desert. area cases before on criminology. When we talk about deserts, that generally brings to mine large and empty areas, not bustling communities. According to the city's parks and recreation website, Albuquerque, New Mexico definitely has empty land. There are over 10,000 acres of open space on the west side of the city. But Albuquerque is far from desolate. It has a large population, larger than a lot of people might think. In 2020, Albuquerque was the fourth largest city in the

southwest with a population of over half a million people. It's a very picturesque place. To the east are the Sandia Manzanow Mountains, known for their striking, colorful sunsets. The Rio Grande winds through the center of the town, and to the south, the West Mesa, a vast area of land nestled above the rest of the South Valley. This picturesque setting provided the backdrop to a series of brutal murders that came to light in 2009. On February 2, 2009, Christine Robb, was walking her dog Ruka in a large empty dirt lot near 118th Street and Mole Mesa Avenue in southwest Albuquerque, New Mexico. The area was being developed into a housing tract,

but was still just a flat expanse of dirt. It was there that Ruka found a large bone. Christine texted a photograph of the bone to her sister, who was a nurse. Her sister told her, yes, that was definitely a human femur. authorities were called to the spot in search of a body. As they began investigating, they stumbled upon multiple sets of remains. The more they looked, the more they found. They had not been prepared to find the bodies of 11 women buried in the desert on the West Mesa over a search that lasted a month.

This was a very vast search. In fact, it was the country's largest crime scene. And the area was said to have been as big. as 75 football fields, according to The Daily Beast. News of the remains of these women being found wasn't much of a surprise to Albuquerque police detective Ida Lopez, who worked the missing persons unit. In 2005, she'd created a list of women who had gone missing from the city. All of the women on Detective Lopez's list were sex workers, were involved in the drug world in some way. She expected that many of the remains

found were tied to her missing persons cases. Lopez had earlier theorized, that many of the missing women's cases were connected to each other. And she knew in her gut that if one missing woman's remains were to be found, they might be found alongside other missing women as well. As she told the Albuquerque Journal, her thinking was, if you find one, you're going to find them all. Authorities worked to identify the bodies and figure out how long the women they uncovered had been buried.

There had never been a documented serial killer to Albuquerque before. Police went to great lengths to ID the remains. Photographs of acrylic nails were, circulated in the hoops that the nails had been done locally. It was going to be an uphill battle, and there were a lot of potential names that might be related to the bodies. In the end, authorities were able to identify 11 victims discarded in the area. 22-year-old Monica Candelaria had been missing from Southwest Albuquerque since May 15, 2003.

She was last seen on 118th Street near Atrisco and Central. 27-year-old Doreen Marquez disappeared on October 10, 2003. There are conflicting accounts of her last citing. Authority stated that she had been seen at Calvary Christian Academy, dropping off her son, but friends say she was seen in the Borrellas area of Albuquerque. Doreen had no criminal prostitution charges, but she did have a history of substance abuse.

27-year-old Veronica Romero disappeared from Albuquerque in early February 2004. She was reported missing on Valentine's Day, 23-year-old Evelyn Salazar, and her cousin, 15-year-old Jamie Borrella, were last seen on March 26, 2004, at a family gathering. They walked to a nearby park and were never seen again. It was supposed to be a quick outing. Jamie's curling iron was still on at home. Jamie was the last victim. Identified by DNA and dental records, Evelyn had two young daughters. 24-year-old Virginia Cloven disappeared from Albuquerque on April 13, 2004. She was last seen near 118th Street. She wasn't reported missing until October 2004. The last time she spoke to family, she called home

informing them that she was going to marry her new boyfriend, who had just been released from prison. 23-year-old Julie Nietto was last seen on July 5th. 2015, 2004 at her grandfather's house. She had a young son. Sadly, two years after her disappearance, her sister Valerie was found dead from an overdose in a Central Avenue hotel. After the news came out that Julie had been found, her mother, Eleanor Grigo, said to the Albuquerque Journal, I collapsed, crying. I had just buried one daughter, and then they found the other one. Eleanor was left to raise both Julie's and Valerie's young sons. Thirty-two-year-old cinnamon elks had been missing from Albuquerque since August 20th, 2004.

She was last seen near 118th Street. According to the Daily Beast, a friend had been told by cinnamon right before she vanished that a dirty cop was chopping off the heads of prostitutes and burying them on the West Mesa. 22-year-old Michelle Valdez, the second victim overall to be identified, disappeared from Albuquerque on September 22nd, 2004. She wasn't reported missing until February 2005. Michelle had been about four months pregnant when she was killed. 15-year-old Selenia Edwards was last seen near 118th Street. She ran away from a group home in Lawton, Oklahoma on August 17, 2003, and was seen in May 2004 with sex workers in Aurora,

Colorado. She's the only victim who wasn't local to the Albuquerque area. the only one who wasn't Hispanic and one of the only two victims who were teenagers. Then spokeswoman for the Albuquerque police, Nadine Hamby, told the Albuquerque Journal, Salani was associated with three other females and that she may have gone by the alice's chocolate or Mimi. 26-year-old Victoria Chavez, the first victim to be identified, was seen near 118th Street in Albuquerque on June 5, 2003. She wasn't reported missing until March 2005. So more if we've gone through a lot so far, this is a large number of victims who disappeared in a relatively short period of time. You know, go back to the the female detective who had that theory that these disappearances were connected and then if they could find one of the missing women, they would most likely find them all or a number of them.

and she turned out to be correct. And we mentioned that Albuquerque is a big city, but at the same time, when you have that amount of missing young women from that area, you had to figure that was going to catch people's attention. And it did catch the attention of Ida Lopez who thought that these cases were definitely connected. And you know this was difficult for all these family members,

and we talked about Eleanor, who's lost both her daughters. you know, one was found here, buried here, and then the other one died of an overdose, and she was left to raise both of their children. So this is, you know, you could see that this was something that was tragic and the effect it had on people. Yeah, and we see that in quite a few cases where parents, grandparents of victims are left to take care of children. Now, they do so willingly, I'm sure, but that's a lot to take. take on on top of the grieving process, right? You still got to work through that. And at the same time, you got to look out for the well-being of these children. The women had all been buried in

shallow graves. And the cause of death for each victim was officially listed as homicidal violence. But the remains were too decomposed to actually determine what happened to each of them. And fortunately, there just weren't a lot of clues found with. the remains to point to a suspect, a plant ID tag from a local nursery was found buried near one of the victims. At least four of the victims, Gina Michelle Valdez, Victoria Chavez, cinnamon elks, and Julie Niebuh, knew each other. Many family members of these victims were not surprised when their remains were found together. For years, some of them had heard rumors that they were all dead and that their deaths were connected. Some had even received phone calls from people apologizing

to them for their loss, saying that their loved ones had been killed and buried in the West Mesa. News of the findings of the remains of these 11 victims shocked the Albuquerque community. As we mentioned, together, the murders are commonly known as the West Mesa murders. However, the Albuquerque police department referred to them as the 118 street homicides. The unknown suspect, whoever killed these 11 women, and one unborn child, has been dubbed the West Mesa Bone Collector. Police worked hard to figure out who the bone collector was and tried to establish a timeline. Satellite photos show that the burial stopped in 2005.

This is shortly after a lot of construction activity in the area began. Police were able to see tire tracks developed in the dirt near the makeshift graves between 2002 in 2004 using aerial views. By September 2004, the satellite imagery already showed that the dirt roads were being created and different plots of land for houses were being prepared. It looked like the killer had been spooked out of the area by the development activity and the possibility that a work crew could find a fresh body with more evidence to collect, possibly leading to the killer to be identified.

Now, Morph, over the course of this criminology podcast, you and I have talked about a lot of technology, a lot of things that law enforcement has used to try to, you know, identify and capture killers, this satellite imagery. I don't know that we've talked much about that. And to be honest with you, it's really kind of fascinating that they can go back and look at, you know, points in time and kind of work their way through and see how a plot of land has changed. where holes maybe were and now they're not, you know, kind of reminds me of maybe what you might see on the television on the news, some type of war satellite photography where you see, okay, they've built up missiles here and now the missiles are gone. I don't know. That's kind of

fascinating when it comes to, you know, using it in this type of scenario. Yeah, and it makes me think about some of the older cases that may have been solved if they had this technology, cases from the 60s or the 70s before satellite imagery really came online. But in an area like this where these bodies were dumped, it definitely came in handy since there probably weren't a lot of residents right around there to be eyewitnesses or provide information. And looking for a suspect, authorities focused on the fact that all of the bodies were buried. As detailed in the Albuquerque Journal, former Albuquerque sergeant Liz Thompson said the person responsible had the means and the know-how to not only navigate a then remote and barely accessible area of the West Mesa,

but to also methodically dig and then bury the women without clues, such as clothing, personal items, or evidence of the method of killing, such as bullets, bullet casings, or remarkable, blunt force trauma. Interim Albuquerque police chief Mike Geier told the Albuquerque Journal what he did didn't happen overnight. It was one after another and he kept going back and there was very limited access out there. Chief Geier described the area of the burial site as a place where you got away from it all if nobody wanted to see something harder and harder to find these days. the spot itself could be a clue.

Geyer added, it tells me that he stayed local for a reason, which tells me that this was his stomping grounds. Somebody had to have that connection to Albuquerque. And this is pretty familiar because I know we've covered a lot of cases where they'd be out investigating, trying to recover one body, and all of a sudden they'd stumble upon other remains. And you'd come to find out there'd be multiple victims. discarded in the same area.

I know that's happened in the Ted Bundy case. I know what's happened in another case we covered was the Texas killing fields. So I wonder if that's just a common trade among some killers to discard bodies in one area where they really feel comfortable going back and forth to. Well, you know, for me, there's a couple of things here. Going back to what the interim police chief said, this person has to have a connection to Albuquerque. Why? Well, because he kept dumping bodies in the same location, apparently over a number of years.

So logically, you're thinking, well, this is not, you know, a train hopping transient, probably that is crisscrossing the country and just happens to dump the bodies of his victims in the West Mesa. The other thought that I had was once somebody is able to get away with this, you know, able to dump a body, bury a body, and time passes and nobody finds it, nobody figures anything out. Do they then think, well, I found a good spot? So I'm going to keep going back again and again and again. Yeah.

Just to touch on your point a little further, the area where these bodies were dumped doesn't seem like a place where a stranger or just a visitor to town would know. It seems like a place, like a destination that a local would know. So that was a big clue for the police to work with. And you hear that in a lot of cases, right? Or in a lot of unsolved cases, that's the theory. You know, this area is so remote or this area is so kind of off the beaten path that it almost would have to be somebody with pretty good knowledge of the local area.

The names of two publicly known suspects were unofficially released by police until 2015, but authorities clearly had them in their site for much longer than that. Local media had been honing in on a few people, too. There was a local pimp who some suspected could be behind the murders. 60-year-old Fred Reynolds was known to have photographs of some of the missing women, including Doreen Marquez. He told Doreen's friend, Lori Gallegas, that he was trying to find these women to help them with their addictions. He died in January 2009 before the bodies were discovered. One week after the first bone was found. authorities received a call from April Gillen, informing them that her ex-husband,

57-year-old Joseph Bleya, should be heavily looked into. Apparently, he resented sex workers and dumped garbage in the desert close to the burial site. Blaia had a background. DNA connected him to the 1985 murder of Jennifer Lynn Sherm, a sex worker from Albuquerque, though he was never charged. Bleya owned a landscaping business and frequented that local nursery that the tag at the burial site came from. And he had even purchased some of that specific plant, which was noted on the ID tag. While authorities were tailing Blea, he sat and stared at sex workers without going up to them on multiple occasions once for an entire hour.

both of this guy's ex-wives who claimed that he was abusive towards them recalled that he had a habit of going out at night, claiming that he was working when they knew that he wasn't. In October, eight months after the bodies were discovered, authorities were finally able to search the home of Joseph Blay. Multiple articles of women's clothing and jewelry were taken in evidence. In June 2015, Joseph Blay was sentenced to serve 36 years. in prison for breaking into the homes of multiple 13 to 15 year old girls and sexually

assaulting them in the 1980s. For this series of crimes, he was called the mid-school rapist. All the homes he broke into were near the McKinley Middle School. So we don't know if Joseph Bleya was the bone collector or not, but one thing's for certain, Morf, this was a horrible individual. Another strong suspect was 39-year-old Lorenzo Montoya, though he died in 2006 before any of the bodies had even been discovered. He was a prime suspect because he had been killed while disposing of the body of a young woman he had just killed. Montoya met 19-year-old Sharika Hill, a sax worker online, and she went to his trailer.

On December 16th, she was going to dance for him a bit at his home when she didn't return. Her boyfriend, 18-year-old Frederick Williams, drove to the trailer. In between 4 and 5 a.m., he found Montoya standing over Hill's dead body, holding a flashlight. She had been partially wrapped up with a blue blanket. Her arms were bound tightly behind her back with duct tape. Her legs were stuck together with more duct tape, and there was tape wrapped around her neck tightly, and it's been described as though it was like a little. leash. Hill's boyfriend shot and killed Montoya right there on the spot.

During a search of Montoya's trailer, a roll of duct tape was found on the bottom shelf of the nightstand in reach of the bed. Many reports say that receipts from Target and Macy's for blankets just one day earlier proved that he had planned to kill. And some even state that there was proof that he bought a new blanket before each of the West Mesa victims disappeared. But investigators have since clarified that this isn't true. An open commenter, and Hill's driver's license and clothes had been stuffed into a trash bag in the trunk of Montoya's rental car that was parked in his driveway. Investigators also found homemade videos in Montoya's trailer, one of them which you can see

online today shows the wall. You can hear what sounds like duct tape, someone pulling strips of duct tape off the rule. You can also distinctly hear a trash bag rustling and then being opened. Someone is definitely moving around, but you really can't see anything happening. Towards the end of the video, there's a whisper, Tranquillo. And then a squeak of some kind. Maybe a door being opened, maybe a floorboard, maybe even an animal. It's definitely creepy. More tapes discovered showed Montoya having sex with different women, believed to be escorts.

Some have been identified and were still alive, but two remain unidentified. identify. So yeah, I mean, you know, if somebody wants to go out and check out this video, there's nothing to see, but it is creepy. You know, this whisper, the sounds, uh, Tranquillo, which means quiet. Okay. There's something going on. Police search for any sign of DNA from any of the West Mesa victims on Montoya's living room carpet and found none. The entire carpet was tested. An Albuquerque police department spokesman was quoted in the Albuquerque journalist saying, Nothing in Montoya's financial records remotely connects him to the crime.

In 1999, Montoya was arrested for assaulting a sex worker he picked up. He forced her to perform sex acts and then tried a strangler. He was found with just $2 on him at the time, signaling that he never planned any scenario where he would have paid her, an indication that he planned to attack her all along. The charges were dropped, however, because the victim didn't want to pursue prosecution. One thing that jumps out regarding the possibility that Montoya was the West Mesa Bone Collector is that the burial seemed to stop in 2005 and he was not killed until 2006 before he had the

chance to dispose of the body of his victim. It seemed to many that it was the heightened construction activity, not the death of the killer that stopped the burials near 118th Street. and a mole Mesa Avenue. If Montoya is responsible, there may be another mass grave somewhere. Chief Geyer told the Albuquerque Journal that this second burial area was something that authorities have looked into extensively.

He said, we spent a lot of effort looking for that second burial site. The existence of a second burial ground has not been ruled out. But the chances of finding it with the passage of time may be slim. He also said, my biggest fear is that it's there somewhere where we can't access it because of development. And that's a really scary thought. There might be another spot out there with who knows how many bodies. Well, and it's also a really scary thought when you think about buying a new home, right?

So somebody decides to build this big plat, which is a term I use, housing tract, whatever you want to call it, a subdivision. And you find your shiny new perfect home and you move in. And you might be there five, 10 years. What if 10 years down the road, it was discovered that the whole area was the burial ground for a very prolific serial killer. Now, that's a, that's a pretty scary thought in and of itself. And you never know you're doing some kind of renovation or putting in a swimming pool or something like that. and all of a sudden a body is on earth on your property, that would be pretty shocking. Another person whose name has been thrown out there as possibly being the bone collector is Scott Lee Kimball, who's now 55 years old.

He was convicted of four murders in Colorado in 2009. According to one of his cousins, Kimball traveled often, and police were looking to see if he had alibis for the times the women disappeared. Although Kimball is certainly a bad guy, there's nothing solid that points to him as being the bone collector. In the suburbs of D.C., a woman fails to show up for work and is found brutally murdered. I wonder what's emergency? We just walked in the door and there's blood in the foyer. For the next two decades, the case remained unsolved until new technology allowed investigators to do what had once been impossible. A new series from ABC Audio in 2020, blood and water.

Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts. If you love chilling mysteries, unsolved cases, and a touch of mom-style humor, Moms and Mysteries is the podcast you've been searching for. Hey guys, I'm Mandy. And I'm Melissa. Join us every Tuesday for Moms and Mysteries, your gateway to gripping, well-researched true crime stories. Each week, we deep dive into a variety of mind-boggling cases as we shed light on everything from heist to whodont. We're your go-to podcast for Mysteries with a motherly touch.

Subscribe now to Moms and Mysteries wherever you get your podcast. In 2010, the Albuquerque Police Department released a series of six photographs. They asked the public for help. In identifying the seven women shown in them, one photograph was of two women standing against a painted brick wall. In the other photos, the women appeared to be unconscious or sleeping. The department refused to release any information on where the photographs had come from and how they had.

may be connected to the West Mesa case. However, on August 3rd, 2010, officers from the Albuquerque Police Department served 57-year-old Ron Irwin with a search warrant in Joplin, Missouri. Thousands of photographs and multiple cameras were seized. Irwin, a photographer from Joplin, loved New Mexico. He had started visiting the state in 1996, and until 2000, he had started visiting the state. He he would visit Albuquerque up to four times a year to take photos of everything, including sleeping women. From 2001 to 2006, he only visited Albuquerque once a year for the New Mexico State Fair, which occurred every September. Irwin admitted that the photos released by the Albuquerque police department were his. He told the Joplin Globe that his photos police were interested. He told the

photos police were interested in were just the typical stuff that's almost a cliche among street photographers. It's not clear why police became interested in Irwin or his photos. All but three of the women in the photos have been identified and are alive and well. One of the women, Christina Laba, from Albuquerque, had died from cirrhosis of the liver. The other two are still unidentified. but are not considered missing or murdered. I think more if you could see why police would have interest in talking to this individual, Ron Irwin, okay, they find out that he visited Albuquerque frequently for a number of years and then for about five years once a year to go to the state fair.

But then there's all these photographs, right? Thousands of photographs. some of the women might be unconscious. They might be sleeping. Could this guy be the West Mesa bone collector? Yeah, it seems like the police really went through great lengths to try and identify these women that were in these photos and identify the majority of them. So a lot of work on their part. But after the police put in the effort to identify these women and found out most of them were alive and well, it sort of took this guy off their radar.

Yeah, I could see that as well. I could see both things, why they would want to talk to him and why after they did all the work they did, okay, maybe he doesn't look like the suspect that he originally did. A private investigator named George Walker started getting emails and phone calls from someone in 2009. It was a man who claimed to have killed all of the West Mesa women. In one voicemail, the man says, you know who I am. I know Nina and I know who killed her. He pronounces Nina in a particular way, like Nina. We've actually discussed these calls before in a previous episode

about the murder of Amber Tuckaro and Canada. Many people believe the voice who called George Walker about Nina Heron sounds a lot like the man who was recorded driving Amber down the wrong road, trying to convince her they were going where she wanted to go, as he headed onto a desolate gravel road. The caller talking about Nina sounds slightly drunk, slurring his words a bit, and he sounds relaxed compared to the man who is talking to Amber, who sounds tense, like he's trying to talk over the noise of the highway.

And of course, as we mentioned in the episode about Amber, her murder still insult. In August 2011, Ron Irwin, the Joplin, Missouri photographer, said that he had been officially cleared as a suspect. Sergeant Tricia Hoffman, the spokeswoman for the Albuquerque Police Department, confirmed this telling the Joplin Globe. Why he was a suspect, that's all in sealed warrants. That's still part of our pending investigation. But at this point, we've been able to eliminate him as a viable suspect.

Irwin apparently still has no idea why he was ever even considered a suspect. He also wasn't close enough with anyone from Albuquerque for them to have wanted to blame him for something like this. He told the Joplin Globe, there really isn't a lot of. a lot of time for anger. I wish it hadn't happened this way. So this guy comes out and he's cleared officially, right? When Albuquerque police come out and say he's no longer a suspect and let's assume he's not the West Mesa bone collector, what would it be like to go through something like this where you know, your name splashed in papers all over the country perhaps? People are, you know, looking at you sideways on the street because it's been announced in newspapers on the news that you're being

looked at as this horrible, vicious killer. And then time goes by and they come out and say, well, no, we don't think it's him. Yeah, it's kind of hard to get the genie back in the bottle once your name has been linked to a case like this. It's sort of like the news articles when they get something wrong, that the headline is on page one, but the correction is buried in page. 34 or something. So it's sort of like that effect. Yeah. And because of that, you know, there are probably a lot of people who saw the initial

reports, but didn't see what came out later. So to them in their mind, hey, they're still looking at this guy. He could be the boogeyman, but they just didn't see what came later. I wouldn't wish that on anyone if they hadn't done anything wrong. That's, that's kind of a really horrible thing. thing to have to go through. And just as the police spokesperson said, the reason he was a suspect is sealed in their files. So we don't really know what that was in the first place that brought it to him. Well, and why would they maybe not want to release that? Do you think it could be

because it could be heavily scrutinized by people who would say, wow, that was pretty thin to go after this guy on? I'm just, I'm just guessing. I'm just throwing something out there. Another person authorities looked into as Robert Howard Bruce. In 2013, he was convicted of a series of sexual assault in Norman, Oklahoma, that occurred between 1985 and 2001. His DNA was also traced to sexual assaults in Albuquerque, as well as Texas and Colorado. Bruce used stun guns and chloroform to overpower his victims. Perhaps it's a stretch, but some people wonder if the Long Island serial killer, also known as the Gilco Beach Killer, or the Craigslist Ripper, could also be the way. West Mesa Bone Collector. In December 2010, a cadaver dog named Blue found human remains along

Ocean Parkway in New York's Oak Beach. Investigators were trying to find 24-year-old Shannon Gilbert, a sex worker who had called 911 while running from a client's home in May. Despite being on the phone with 911 for 23 minutes, she disappeared. While out looking for Shannon, with the help of Blue, a German Shepherd, investigators found the bodies of 24-year-old Melissa Bartholomey, 25-year-old Marine Bernard Barnes, 22-year-old Megan Waterman, and 27-year-old Amberlin Costello. Each of the bodies have been wrapped in burlap sacks. They became known as the Gilgo Four until spring of 2011,

when 20-year-old Jessica Taylor, 24-year-old Valerie Mack, two unidentified females, an unidentified Asian male-wearing women's clothing, and an unidentified toddler were also found. one of the Jane Doe's, Jane Doe No. 7, was found to be Baby Doe's mother through DNA analysis. Interestingly, some of the remains that were found on Gilgo Beach were only partial remains and actually matched previously found remains. One of the Jane Doe's was known as Jane Doe No. 7. Only her skull and some teeth were found on the beach. But her legs had been found on April 20th, 1996, in a garbage bag in fire. Island. She had been known as Fire Island Jane Doe. Baby Doe, a female child between 16 and 24 months,

who was wrapped in a blanket, was found 10 miles west of her mother, Jane Doe No. 7. As it turns out, Jane Doe No. 7's torso had been found on June 28, 1997 in a green rubber made container at Hempstead Lake State Park in Lakeview, New York. She had been called Peaches. at the time because she had a tattoo of a heart-shaped peach with a bite taken out of it on her chest. Valerie Mack at first known as Jane Doe No. 6 also went by the name of Melissa Taylor. Only her head, right foot, and hands were found on the beach. Her torso was found in trash bags near Halsey Manor Road and Mill Road in Manorville, New York, 45 miles east of Gilgo Beach. They had called her Manorville Jane Doe. Jessica Taylor, no relation to Valerie, who went by Melissa Taylor, was also

last seen in July 2003. Only her skull, hands, and forearm were found on Gilgo Beach. On July 26, 2003, her torso was found near Halsey Manor Road in Manorville. The remains of Shannon Gilbert weren't found until December 13th, 2011, in a marshy area of Oak Beach, half a mile from where she was last known to have been, knocking on someone's door and begging for help. While there seems to be some commonalities between the Long Island victims and the West Mesa victims, there's simply nothing solid that connects the two cases. I get why some people try to connect Lisk or the Gilgo murders to the bone collector murders because of the dumping ground, how they were all found in one area together. It's very similar.

But again, we mentioned earlier. Maybe this is just a common thing among killers that find a comfortable area. They dump remains of their victims there. We're talking a great distance away. I don't know how many miles offhand it is. It's got to be a couple thousand miles from New York to New Mexico. But I definitely can understand why some people sort of look for parallels and try to connect these cases. I think it's natural, right? As people try to connect the dots, could it be this person,

could it be that person, you know, is it possible that somebody could travel or move or pick a different area? Sure, absolutely. There have been serial killers who have done it. But, you know, is the dumping ground aspect enough to connect the cases? To me, it's not because you see that in quite a few cases. There's another group of killings that seem similar to the West Mesa murders to some. It's the Jennings 8 in Jefferson Davis Parish, Louisiana. This refers to eight young women who disappeared between 2005 and 2009 from the same town in Louisiana. All were found dead in similar dumping sites. Most of those victims are sex workers with a history of drug addiction,

who knew each other, and some were even cousins like in the West Mesa murders. We've discussed this case in a previous episode, and no one's been held response. for any of the Jennings eight murders. If a serial killer moved around the New Mexico to New York to Louisiana, it could explain why no one has ever been connected to the West Mesa murders. However, for the LISC and the West Mesa Bone Collector to be the same person, they would have to move back and forth because some of the LISC bodies were found before the women in Alperkirky went missing.

At least two of the Gilgo Forrest family and friends received taunting phone calls, much like the one's investigator George Walker's received in the West Mesa case. At the end of the day, it's just an interesting theory that the cases could be connected with no evidence to confirm it. Yeah, and I go back to some of these similarities. They're there. The problem is they're also there in a lot of cases that occur around the country, around the world. I mean, how many cases have we done where people have received taunting phone calls, taunting letters, things like that? It just doesn't really prove anything. But like you said, it's an interesting theory.

You know, in a case like this that we know is unsolved, can you really throw anything completely off the table until it's proven that you should do so? And I would say no. I think you keep everything, you know, on the table, on the board, however you want to refer to it, because we don't know. There's one more possible suspect in the West Mesa cases worth mentioning. In 2014, Mark Angelo Chavez was arrested in downtown Albuquerque after his DNA matched to an assault in 2006 where he beat a woman with not just his fists, but with boards and chains. Chavez's girlfriend, Tammy Sessna, went missing in January 2014.

She was later found dead and had actually been in her van in a hotel parking lot the entire time she was. she was missing. Chavez was arrested in connection with her death, but released pending further evidence. In 2017, Chavez entered a no contest plea to second degree murder in Tammy's case and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. So again, another really bad guy. We know that Mark Chavez is a killer. The problem is there's really no physical evidence linking him to the West Mesa. murders. A final theory we need to address is one that suggests that there actually was no Mesa bone collector, and that the victims found in West Mesa were collectively the result of multiple killers. As we've discussed in previous episodes, sometimes an area that bodies are found in

just have certain characteristics that make them ideal dumping grounds. If one killer chooses a dark, isolated spot, is it so odd to think that another would do the same? The West Mesa victims who struggle with addiction seemed to specifically struggle with heroin addiction. And some wonder if the women were drug mules or otherwise in the drug trade and that they were killed for it. Generally, we think of cartel and drug trade related killings as motivated by sending a message to others. If this were the case, would the bodies have been buried or would they have been left out

to easily be found as a warning to others? So I want to address a couple of things here that you said more. The first is, could multiple killers? use the same area to bury their victims. And I think the answer is definitely yes. You know, I think a killer who is calculating and is trying to figure out how not to get caught obviously is looking for the most ideal spot to bury their victims. And so the characteristics that make it that ideal spot would probably

jump out to more than one killer. And then, you know, when it comes to talking about the cartel, I'm sure the cartels bury some of their victims, but, you know, to your point, I think a lot of their murders are meant to serve as messages and therefore the bodies are not hidden. They, they want them to be found so that that message comes out loud and clear. Ida Lopez, retired in 2014. There are still eight women on her list who are missing. The list has been updated since 2005 with some names removed and others added. She told the city of Albuquerque Police Department in a podcast that they produced. As a parent, I try and put myself in their shoes just to know they're not forgotten and we're still looking for them. That's what I would want. It's clear that despite being

retired, Ida Lopez still worries about those missing women, which include 32-year-old Martha Joe Luker, who was last seen in September 2003, and 20-year-old Anna Vigil, who disappeared on January 20th, 2005. Days earlier, she had been arrested for sex work for the first time. She had headed off to apply for a job at Taco Bell, according to her boyfriend, and she was never seen again. At the time, she had a four-month-old son. That son is now 16 years old. 22-year-old Felipe Gonzalez disappeared on May 4, 2005.

Her mother picked her up after she was released from jail and drove her home. When they got home, Felipe went out for a walk and disappeared. Philippa, who was struggling with postpartum depression, had a two-year-old daughter. 21-year-old Nina Heron disappeared around May 14, 2005, when she didn't show up to her parents' home to chuck on her four-year-old son. for a few days in a row. They knew something was wrong. On March 1st, 2006,

29-year-old Chantelle Manique Waites was reported missing. Her grandfather, who was raising her four children, whose ages were 14, 12, 8, and 4 had not seen her in seven months. Also, in March 2006, 19-year-old Jillian Henderson-Ortiz was reported missing by her mother. She and her boyfriend had been involved in a... recent domestic violence call and Jillian was known to use sex work to support an addiction to heroin worrying her friends and family who had not heard from her. In June of 2006, 24-year-old Vanessa Reed got into an argument with her sister at the hotel on East Central Avenue

where they were living together. Vanessa left and has never been seen again. When the 11 women were found buried before they had been identified, Vanessa's sister reported her missing in case she was one of the victims. 23-year-old Leah Peebles disappeared in August 2006. She had recently moved to Albuquerque from Fort Worth, Texas, to try to make a fresh start. The last time she talked with her family, she told them that she was going up to the Flying Star Cafe for a job interview and then was going out on a date. So we've talked about a lot of people here. You know, in the beginning, it was the 11 who had been discovered.

Now we've talked about the eight individuals who are still on Ida's list. And you have to ask the question. Is it possible that some of these missing women are victims of the West Mesa Bone Collector buried out? somewhere, undiscovered, in an area of the West Mesa. By 2016, there was only one full-time detective on the case, Detective Mark Manoray, who took over for Lopez when she retired. In July 2018, construction workers found something just blocks south of the empty lot

where the 11 women were buried. More human remains. Authorities braced themselves for the recovery and identification of more missing women, but the bones turned out to belong to ancient Native America. They weren't connected to the 11 bodies buried nearby. In 2020, 11 years after the victims were discovered, a park was opened on the site. The West Mesa Memorial Park features an oval path lined by trees and benches that the families picked out. All 11 names are etched into the path. Even Ruka, the Sharpein mixed dog, who found the first bone, attended the Park's Grand opening,

talking about the new park, Mayor Tim Keller told KRQE, this is for not only to remember and celebrate those women who were murdered, but also for the daughters, sisters, mothers, cousins, friends, and neighbors who also must remember. It's a beautiful place, but it's still hard for some people to visit knowing what was found there. Mary Gutierrez, whose daughter Victoria Chavez, disappeared in 2003, has difficulty going to the park. She told the Albuquerque Journal, I feel something bad and evil happened there. And it's hard for me to go to it. In 2021, retired Albuquerque Police Department homicide sergeant, Liz Thompson, was rehired as a cold case investigator. Retired for just four years. She's now heading the investigation. Also in 2021, Ruka, the dog who found the remains and triggered the entire investigation, passed away.

Christine Ross, Ruka's owner, had Ruka cremated and offered any of the victim's family's portion of Ruka's ashes. Over the years, Ruka had made a strong connection with many of the families, and had it not been for Ruka finding that first bone, those families may still be wondering what became of their loved ones. Dogs, man, dogs are amazing. You'll never convince me otherwise. about a lot of cases where there's dogs or play some role in finding a body, recovering someone who's lost. So yeah, there's a lot of love for the dogs. Yeah, and this wasn't even, you know, like a trained cadaver dog or something like that. This was just somebody's pet out, out for a walk and discovered something. In the time since the West Mesa burial ground was uncovered, sex workers in the Albuquerque area have done what they can to protect themselves.

Safe sex work was founded by sex workers to help provide resources and support to those who need it most, including a so-called bad date list that they share, which helps warn women about men who have previously attacked or sexually assaulted someone in the group. Other safety strategies include taking longer to get into a car with someone as to allow them more time to feel out who's trying to feel. who's trying to pick them up. When they do decide to get into a car, they check the door handles and the window controls before getting in to ensure that they work. They also make sure other women know where they will be and who they are with. Christine Barber, co-founder of Safe Sex Work, said of the precautions to the Albuquerque

Journal. That's why the West Mesa Killer was able to do it. No one noticed they were gone. You know, there's no doubt, morph, that a lot of the cases that we talk about, a lot of the cases that involve serial killers or, you know, killers of multiple individuals often involve sex workers. It's a very dangerous occupation. But we know that a lot of people choose to do it for a number of different reasons. It could be to take care of their family. it could be that they're in the grips of an addiction and they're trying to make money to feed that addiction.

There's a whole bunch of reasons why people would choose to do that. But the fact remains that it happens all over the place. Yeah, I think it makes a lot of sense that they came up with this plan to sort of support each other and look out for each other. And hopefully it leads to more sex workers in the area being safe as a result of it. Yeah, no matter what you think about. that line of work. It's going to happen. And so why not make it as safe as it possibly can be? I think, you know, part of the reason why is so unsafe is because of the fact that it's illegal in most jurisdictions. And so there has to be a lot of secrecy and there has to be, you know,

clandestine meetings. And it gives some of these killers an opportunity to target. And so, target individuals and take them off individuals who otherwise would probably not get in their car. In February 2022, Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller told KRQU, the only way this case is going to get solved is with our community's help or even communities around us that might know something. There's still a $10,000 reward for information regarding the West Mesa murders. If you have information, you can call the 118th Street Task Force at 5.1.5.000. 505-768-2450 or crime stoppers of Albuquerque at 505-843. Stop.

And although she's retired, you can still contact Ida Lopez by email at I-Lopez at C-A-B-Q.gov. So Morph, as we wrap up this case, it's a pretty infamous unsolved case. You know, there's a large number of victims. There's also a large number of individuals who, who are still missing in and around that area that could possibly one day be linked to the West Mesa bone collector. That is if there really is one person who is responsible for all these murders, right?

We talked about it. There's a theory that there were multiple killers. It could be one killer, but we talked about a number of suspects. Yeah, some of the suspects were really shady. One guy had the connections to the tags that were found from the landscaping. And then another suspect was caught red-handed carrying one of his victims that he murdered out to his car or when he shot dead by her boyfriend. So definitely some people that seem like they could be connected to this case in some manner. Yeah, no doubt.

The problem is they don't have any conclusive evidence or we would already have an answer to this mystery. you know one thing that I think is tough in some of these unsolved cases is when persons of interest die sometimes before the investigation really even gets underway so yeah you can go back and look through their life and and talk to people and this and that but you can't talk to that person and so there are limitations to the types of investigative methods that you can use and I think one thing that hurts in this case is we talked about the area where these bodies were dumped out in the middle of the desert. They were exposed to elements. They were there for quite a while. You have to think that maybe things like DNA and other types of evidence might have been lost or destroyed that might

identify the killer or killers in these cases. Well, and we also talked about the fact that it seemed as though the killer, if it is just one, went to some great lengths to. to try not to leave behind certain types of evidence that could possibly implicate him. But it's a mystery, man. And it's one that I hope gets solved. I think it will at some point. You know, there are still quite a few people that seem to be working on this case. And I think eventually they're going to get the break they need. You know, we're seeing so many cases that are being broken wide. open, many that we thought most likely would never be solved. And so I'm very hopeful about many of these unsolved cases. Yeah, we know there's still a lot of missing women there. So they're,

hopefully they're found. But unfortunately, there may be another burial ground out there's someplace in that area that might hold more secrets. But that's it for our episode on the West Mesa murders. If you love the show and you haven't done so yet, take a minute. And, go out, give us a five-star rating. You can leave a review. Keep telling your friends. Word of mouth is huge for the criminology podcast. If you want to find us on social media, we're on Twitter with the handle at

Criminology Pod. You can also find us on Facebook by searching for Criminology Podcast or by joining our Facebook discussion group, Criminology Podcast, Discussion and Fans. So that's it for another episode of Criminology. But Morph and I will be back with all of you next Saturday night with. a brand new episode. So until then for Mike and more. We'll talk to you next week. Take care, everyone.