The West Mesa Murders

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1:13Voices for Justice is a podcast that uses adult language and discusses sensitive and potentially triggering topics, including violence, abuse, and murder. This podcast may not be appropriate for younger audiences. All parties are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Some names have been changed or omitted per their request or for safety purposes. Listener discretion is advised. My name is Sarah Turney, and this is Voices for Justice.

1:45Today, I'm talking about the West Mesa murders. In February 2009, a woman was walking her dog when they came across a human bone. When police came to investigate and excavate the area, they found the remains of 11 women, all of whom were murdered. But 15 years later, the case remains unsolved. This is the case of the West Mesa murders.

2:15On February 2nd, 2009, Albuquerque resident Christine Ross was walking her dog Ruka in the West Mesa area when she noticed that he took a sudden interest in something sticking out of the ground. As Christine got a closer look, she realized that it was a bone, and she thought it might be human. She immediately takes a picture and sends it to her sister who worked as a nurse, and her sister confirmed that it looked human to her too. It looked like a femur. So Christine hangs up and calls the Albuquerque Police Department. Now, apparently investigators were not alarmed at this initial phone call because it's not uncommon to find bones out in the West Mesa area.

2:55It's technically within the city limits of Albuquerque, but it's an undeveloped area. It has a long and rich history, and many visitors and locals have come across relics and bones. But investigators asked a medical examiner from the University of New Mexico to take a look, and they confirmed that it was human. And again, this doesn't really shock investigators. But what did alarm them is that the medical examiner said that the bone was relatively fresh. Whoever it belonged to died within the past few years. Things happen pretty quickly at this point. Within just a few hours, they put together a team to go back out to where the bone was found.

3:34And this area was quickly dubbed the 118th Street Site. One of the first bones that they find is a right clavicle. And as they continue to dig and find more bones, they find another right clavicle. So now they know that they're looking for at least two sets of human remains. Now, if you aren't familiar with this area of Albuquerque, it's essentially a huge piece of desert. This 118th Street site is 92 fenced-off acres, and it sits high on a plateau that rises over the Rio Grande with a view of downtown Albuquerque. But it's surrounded by residential and commercial areas, a speedway, and a county detention center.

4:16So it's not like it's in the middle of nowhere. There were plans to develop the land, but the project was abandoned about a year before the first bone was found. Obviously, this is a huge piece of land to search and really dig through. Outside of any physical abnormalities in the land, if there were more remains, they had no idea where to begin looking. So investigators decide to take a look through satellite images of the area taken over time. They say that the desert floor is very unique compared to most terrain. When you change the terrain, or as Detective Schultz in this case says, scar the desert floor, it takes years to heal.

4:55And it leaves a lasting visual impact. So as they scan through these images, they begin to see these scars. And these become the areas that investigators focus on. On February 12th, they began one of the largest full-scale excavations in U.S. history. They moved over a million pounds of desert floor, and while reports do differ, some say that they found women buried as deep down as 21 feet. They used every resource at their disposal at the local and state level, and they also worked closely with the FBI. Obviously, this is a slow process, and it took months, but as the number of remains rose, suddenly everybody in Albuquerque was paying attention to the dig What started as local news became national news Pretty soon, the APD was flooded with calls from all around the country and the world Families were calling in, wondering if that was their loved one that was found Now, this is really where investigator Ida Lopez comes in And her work becomes crucial in helping identify the remains that were found.

6:05By 2009, she was already looking for nearly two dozen girls and young women. And as she's investigating each case, she begins to see a pattern. It seems that a lot of young, Latina women around the age of 20, most of which engaged in sex work, were going missing from an area known as the war zone. And just as it sounds, the war zone isn't the best place to be. There's a lot of crime and drugs, and now young women are disappearing what feels like left and right. So Lopez gets to work on cross-referencing her missing persons cases with the remains found. And very quickly, she begins to start making some matches.

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7:57All of the 11 victims recovered on the West Mesa were buried nude, and investigators never recovered any personal effects like clothing from the site. There was just very little physical evidence, or really anything left behind. Outside of human remains, all they find is one tree tag from a local nursery and one acrylic fingernail. Now, we don't have a lot of information about what was or wasn't tested from the site, so as far as perpetrator DNA goes, that is largely unknown. But of course, the first step in trying to identify the perpetrator outside of DNA is to begin identifying who was found and working the case from there.

8:38So let's talk about who was found. There were 11 women in total ranging from ages 15 to 32 years old and one fetus. Most, but not all, were Latina, engaged in sex work, and were somehow involved in drugs. There was a clear pattern here that investigators couldn't ignore, but I'll talk about that more in a bit. First, let's talk about who these women were and what we know about them. I'm going to go in order of when they were first reported missing or believed to have gone missing. Since we don't know exactly when most of these women were murdered or even when they went missing, I'll be using the ages they were when they were first reported missing.

9:20Monica Candelaria, age 22, was born on June 20, 1981 in Albuquerque. She was last seen on May 11, 2003, near the corner of Atrisco and Route 66, about seven miles from where she was ultimately found. Her life wasn't the easiest. She lost her father Gabriel and a daughter Raina during childbirth. She left behind a son named Michael, and according to her obituary, Monica enjoyed laughing, joking, taking care of babies, and being with her family. Her friends reported her missing after hearing rumors that she'd been killed and buried in the desert, but her case went cold very quickly until her remains were found.

10:02Investigators believe Monica was killed sometime between 2003 and 2005. Solania Edwards is the youngest victim at 15 years old. She was born on November 26, 1987 in Harris County, Texas. When she was only five, her mother was convicted on murder charges, and she became a ward of the state. In August 2003, she was living in a group home in Lawton, Oklahoma, before running away at age 15. That's when she was reported missing. According to reporting from OklahomaColdCases.org, she may have run to reunite with her mother in Texas, but it didn't go well. She was arrested on prostitution charges at age 16 in Aurora, Colorado.

10:46It's not exactly clear how she made it to New Mexico, but she was identified using dental records in West Mesa. Investigators believe she was killed between 2004 and 2005. Doreen Marquez, age 24, was born on August 31, 1976 in Albuquerque. She was last seen in October 2003. Unfortunately, there's a lot of conflicting information about exactly where she was last seen, but she attended and graduated from West Mesa High School where she was a member of their cheer team. She had two children, Destiny and Mercedes, and developed a reputation in her neighborhood for the extravagant birthday parties she would throw them.

11:30Unfortunately, after her partner was incarcerated, Doreen struggled to make ends meet as a single parent, and she began using drugs in the year before she went missing. Her friends and family have told various media outlets that this was completely out of character for Doreen. After she went missing, her sister Julie was extremely active in looking for her, but believes her case wasn't taken seriously by law enforcement. Investigators believe Doreen was killed sometime between 2003 and 2005. Victoria Chavez, age 26, was born on May 20, 1979 in Albuquerque, and she went missing in either June 2003 or early 2004.

12:13Again, we have more conflicting reports here. We don't know a lot about her life, but her loved one said that Victoria loved the outdoors, hiking, and camping, and that she was a really fun person to be around. As it relates to the case, like most of the other victims, Victoria was a sex worker and struggled with substance use disorder. Investigators believe she was killed in 2005. Veronica Romero, age 28, was born on June 19, 1976, and was reported missing in February 2004. She comes from a large family and has been described as funny and intelligent. She was a sex worker and was last seen by her boyfriend Clay getting into a truck.

12:57Investigators believe she was killed sometime between 2004 and 2005. Now, the next two victims were cousins and last seen together at a family function in April 2004. Jamie Barella, age 15, and Evelyn Salazar, age 27, were headed to a park near San Mateo and Gibson in South Albuquerque when they disappeared. Evelyn was identified two months before her cousin Jamie. Jamie's mother, Jane, told NPR News in 2010, quote, I still remember what my daughter was wearing. She was wearing blue jeans with high-top shoes and a t-shirt, and her curling iron was on. And she said, I'll be back, Mom, later. and she never came back.

13:41End quote. Jane said that she filed a missing person report when Jamie first disappeared, but she's been very vocal that she doesn't believe that that report or any of the other victims' reports were taken seriously. Now, it's worth noting that Jamie is believed to be the only victim who did not engage in sex work at some point in their lives. Investigators believe Jamie and Evelyn were killed sometime between 2004 and 2005. Cinnamon Elks, age 32, was born on October 24, 1972. She was last seen in July 2004. She had two children, and her mother Diana has been quoted as saying drugs stole everything from them.

14:25While Cinnamon was known to be gone for long periods of time, Diana knew that something was very wrong when she didn't call her to wish her a happy birthday. She reported her daughter missing shortly after this. Cinnamon's remains were later identified using dental records And investigators estimate that she was abducted and murdered sometime between 2004 and 2005 Julie Nieto, age 23, was born on August 28, 1980 And went missing shortly before her 24th birthday in 2004 She was described as a happy child She eventually joined the Job Corps which ultimately led to her identification through the dental records she provided them.

15:09Julie was last seen with her parents before her father was scheduled for surgery. Her mother, Eleanor, said that when she got back from the hospital, Julie was just gone. She spent a lot of time putting up flyers for Julie in the war zone, but she says that they were always quickly torn down after she put them up. She never believed that Julie would leave her son Dominic willingly, and says that when she heard about the West Mesa murders, she knew Julie would be found with the others. Investigators estimate that she was abducted and murdered sometime between 2004 and 2005. Virginia Cloven, age 24, was born on August 7, 1981, in Las Chaves, New Mexico.

15:52She was last seen by her family in June 2004 and later reported missing in October. The exact date that she was last seen is unknown. Her parents, Elizabeth and Robert, described her as a happy, girly girl who could never handle the guilt of lying to someone. She'd fess up about two minutes after. But her life unfortunately took a dark turn after her brother Robert was shot and killed. After that, she moved in with her grandfather in Albuquerque. But not long after, she was actually hit by a car that resulted in her being put into a coma. It was after this that she began using drugs and engaging in sex work.

16:30The last time her parents spoke with Virginia, she told them that she had a new boyfriend, but they never got to meet him. Investigators believe that she was killed sometime between 2004 and 2005. The last victim is Michelle Valdez, age 22. She was born on August 1, 1982, and was last seen by her father Dan on September 22, 2004. She was later reported missing in February 2005. Dan described her as a beautiful person that everyone wanted to know. He said that when she walked into a room, everyone took notice. Her mother Karen sat down with The Real Story with Maria Elena Salinas to talk about who Michelle was.

17:17She said that Michelle was bubbly, kind, loving, and a good person. She had fond memories of dancing with Michelle, going out together, and just laughing. Michelle was her oldest daughter, and as Karen says, her first baby. But Karen says that when Michelle was about 12 years old, she noticed this massive shift in her. She was living with her father and had joined a gang in middle school. Michelle began fighting with her dad, and that's when she moved in with her mom full-time. Karen hoped that this would be a fresh start for her, and at first it went well. But then, Michelle started making friends with much older classmates.

17:56She wanted to be able to run around and keep up with their lifestyle. It's at this point that Michelle began running away. She was defiant, she was yelling at her mom, and she would just leave when she wanted to. Now, luckily, Karen had a friend at the local police department. So whenever Michelle ran away, she would just call this friend and essentially they would bring her back home. When Michelle was killed, she was four months pregnant. and investigators estimate that her abduction and murder happened sometime between 2004 and 2005. Unfortunately, this case is riddled with estimated dates, so it's nearly impossible to track down when each of these women went missing and when they were killed.

18:39But one thing was clear. The city of Albuquerque either had a serial killer on their hands or some type of extremely organized operation of multiple murderers.

18:54While the families of the 11 victims were grateful that the remains of their loved ones were being recovered and identified, many of them struggled with the way that they were being portrayed in the media. The case was likened to that of Jack the Ripper and his victims, basically one notoriously scary serial killer taking the lives of sex workers who were considered to have little value. Many of these families fought for years for their loved one's missing persons case to be featured in the media, for people to care about them being found. And now, they were being boiled down to a bunch of stereotypes that seldom featured who they were outside of the crime.

19:33But either way, the news was out. There was likely a serial killer running loose in New Mexico, and the media went wild for it. And of course, that pressure applied to law enforcement. Eventually, they create an entire specialized task force to work on the case and sift through leads. They call it the 118th Street Task Force. And as I mentioned earlier, really the standout investigator was Ida Lopez. But many of the victim's family members report that Lopez had already been working these cases for years. She had boots on the ground in the war zone looking for the women, holding events, and working with their families.

20:12In the summer of 2007, Maggie Shepard, a reporter for the Tribune, decided to go on a ride-along. On this ride-along, she meets Investigator Lopez, and Lopez pulls out a stack of missing persons flyers and tells Shepard, these are my girls. She explains that the number of missing women in this area is rising quickly. And Shepard is really inspired by this. After writing the first article about the ride-along, she writes another article highlighting the missing women. She's hoping to generate some attention and leads for the cases. That article was released in September 2007, and it featured the stories and faces of 16 missing women.

20:53But Shepard was disappointed in the response. She said that the community didn't really care, and that there was no national news coverage like she thought this many missing women in one city would and should garner. She followed up with her sources at the APD after the release of the article, and they confirmed that it didn't seem to generate any tips or further media. From the outside, it looks like investigator Ida Lopez was the only one who cared about this case before it became the West Mesa serial killer, or the West Mesa bone collector as some news outlets for some reason chose to run with despite not knowing if these murders were done by one person or more than one person.

21:39Really, all they knew, or at least what they released to the public, was that someone or a group of people were targeting young women in the Albuquerque area, most of which were Latina, engaged in sex work, and were somehow involved in drugs. There's no real way to sugarcoat this, and I'm not really sure that I want to. They were targeting women that would, unfortunately, be treated as the lowest priority of missing person due to law enforcement considering their lifestyles to be high risk. I wish it wasn't true, but the mentality of they were asking for it was very strong at this time. And again, unfortunately, still in many departments across the country to this day.

22:25It's just the harsh reality of how these cases are often treated. And while Investigator Lopez worked on these cases in earnest for many years, it seems clear that the department as a whole did not prioritize these cases. Really, it's the same in true crime. Anyone with access to their analytics can tell you that when you feature a victim with a history of sex work or substance use disorder, it doesn't often get the same amount of impressions as someone without that history. But since there's now potentially a serial killer attached to this case, the media and the Albuquerque PD finally made them a priority.

23:04And even with these new resources available to them, it took over a year to fully excavate the site and sift through everything. Outside of any DNA taken from the women's remains, in the end, they were left with that one tree tag and acrylic fingernail. It doesn't seem that they were able to do much with that fingernail. but the tree tag was a different story. Investigators were able to link it to a tip that they'd received over a year ago, right after the story hit the media. According to reporting by Nicole Perez and Robert Brownman for the Albuquerque Journal, a woman named April Gillen called the APD a week after the first bone was discovered in West Mesa, and she tells them that she knows a man they need to look into, her ex-husband, Joseph Blee.

23:52It seems that he worked in landscaping, and was known to frequent the nursery that the tree tag originated from, as well as the West Mesa area as a whole. But the APD was already extremely familiar with this man. According to that reporting, they'd encountered him 140 times between 1990 and 2009. And many of these encounters were in the war zone where many of the women were last seen or went missing from. In one report, a woman claimed that Blee called her over to his car and exposed himself. She reported this to police, and when he was found, officers discovered rope and electrical tape in the front seat.

24:35Now, to their credit, they took his ex-wife's tip seriously. The APD has something called the Repeat Offender Project. That unit followed Blee for four days, and what they observed was very disturbing. He was in the war zone. And not actually actively engaging sex workers, but just following them and watching them. His home was searched about eight months into the investigation. And while we don't know everything that was taken, we do know that they found women's jewelry and underwear that did not belong to anyone in the home. His wife Cheryl confirmed that she would sometimes find women's jewelry that didn't belong to her or their daughter as well.

25:17and unfortunately, it was their daughter that found women's underwear hidden in their shed. It's also extremely worth noting that some family members of the 11 victims have reported that their loved one's jewelry was missing. However, due to this being an open and ongoing investigation, law enforcement has not commented on whether any of the DNA collected from the items from Blea's home are a match to any of the 11 victims. Now, investigators did interview Blee's former cellmate, who says that Blee knew some of the victims and paid them for sex work. He would call them trashy and even bragged about hitting one of them when she tried to take his money.

26:01In 2015, Blee was sentenced to 90 years in prison for sexually assaulting four women in the late 80s and early 90s. His DNA was also found on the clothing of a sex worker who was found deceased in the war zone. But he was never charged with any crime in connection to that discovery, or with any crime connected to the 11 victims in this case. There was also a search warrant served on the business of 58-year-old Ron Irwin from Joplin, Missouri, in 2010. He had an interest in photography, and would go to New Mexico a few times a year to take pictures. But he stopped making those trips after the murders made the news.

26:44He was sent to Virginia to be polygraphed by the FBI and was eventually cleared. While at times investigators had lists with up to 20 suspects, there's just one more man I want to talk about. Lorenzo Montoya. Montoya lived just under two miles from the burial site. His co-workers told police that he said that he had killed and buried women on the West Mesa. And Montoya had three previous charges for hiring sex workers. In 1999, police set up a sting operation following Montoya after he picked up a woman on East Central. They caught him raping and strangling the woman in his truck. Luckily, police were able to intervene and she survived.