West Mesa murders

On February 2, 2009, a woman walking a dog on Albuquerque's West Mesa found a human bone and reported it to police. The subsequent investigation uncovered the buried remains of eleven women and girls in an undeveloped area within city limits, in what became one of the largest serial crime scenes discovered in United States history. Satellite imagery reviewed by investigators showed tire marks and disturbed soil in the area between 2003 and 2005, with the last apparent burial dated to 2005 based on the imagery. Development on the site had been halted by the 2008 housing bubble collapse; a retaining wall built to address neighbor flooding complaints inadvertently exposed the remains.

The eleven identified victims disappeared between May 2003 and September 2004: Monica Diana Candelaria, Victoria Ann Chavez, Syllannia Terene Edwards, Doreen Marquez, Veronica Romero, cousins Jamie Caterina Barela and Evelyn Jesus Maria Salazar, Virginia Cloven, Julie Cyndie Nieto, Cinnamon Elks, and Michelle Gina Valdez. The victims ranged in age from 15 to 32; most were Hispanic and had ties to sex work and drug use. Edwards, a 15-year-old runaway from Lawton, Oklahoma, was the only African American victim and the only one from out of state. Valdez was four months pregnant at the time of her death. Prior to the discovery, Albuquerque Detective Ida Lopez had compiled a list of missing women with similar backgrounds; nine additional women on that list remain missing and have not been confirmed as linked to the case.

In December 2010, police released photographs of several additional unidentified women potentially connected to the case, obtained through means police did not disclose; some were later identified, including at least one woman found to have died of natural causes and two located alive.

No official suspects have been named, and no arrests or charges have resulted from the investigation. Police have said the killings may be the work of a single perpetrator, referred to publicly as the "West Mesa Bone Collector," and have also examined the possibility of a sex-trafficking ring operating through Texas and other southwestern states. Several men attracted investigative attention without being formally named as suspects, including a pimp who died of natural causes shortly before the remains were found, a local pressman who lived near the burial site and was fatally shot in 2006 while attempting to conceal the body of another woman he had killed, a photographer whose properties were searched and who was later cleared, a convicted Colorado serial killer who said he was being investigated but denied involvement, and a man later convicted in an unrelated decades-old sexual assault case whom police examined based on physical evidence recovered near the burial site. A reward of up to $100,000 was offered in 2010 for information leading to an arrest and conviction. In June 2020, a memorial park was opened at the burial site to honor the victims and their families.