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.
<parameter name="timeline">[{"date": "2001", "event": "Beginning of period during which women were buried in the West Mesa arroyo, per investigators."}, {"date": "2003-05-15", "event": "Monica Diana Candelaria disappears."}, {"date": "2003-06-05", "event": "Victoria Ann Chavez disappears."}, {"date": "2003-08-17", "event": "Syllannia Terene Edwards disappears."}, {"date": "2003-10-10", "event": "Doreen Marquez disappears."}, {"date": "2004-02-14", "event": "Veronica Romero disappears."}, {"date": "2004-03-26", "event": "Jamie Caterina Barela and Evelyn Jesus Maria Salazar disappear."}, {"date": "2004-04-13", "event": "Virginia Cloven disappears."}, {"date": "2004-07-15", "event": "Julie Cyndie Nieto disappears."}, {"date": "2004-08-20", "event": "Cinnamon Elks disappears."}, {"date": "2004-09-22", "event": "Michelle Gina Valdez disappears."}, {"date": "2005", "event": "Last burial believed to have occurred, based on satellite imagery review."}, {"date": "2006-12", "event": "Lorenzo Montoya, a man of later police interest, kills sex worker Shericka Hill and is fatally shot by her boyfriend; West Mesa-type killings are believed to have stopped after this."}, {"date": "2008", "event": "Housing bubble collapse halts development at the burial site."}, {"date": "2009-01", "event": "Fred Reynolds, a pimp of later police interest, dies of natural causes."}, {"date": "2009-02-02", "event": "A woman walking a dog finds a human bone on West Mesa, leading to discovery of the burial site."}, {"date": "2010-08", "event": "Police search properties in Joplin, Missouri associated with photographer Ron Erwin; he is later cleared as a suspect."}, {"date": "2010-12-09", "event": "Albuquerque police release photos of additional unidentified women potentially linked to the case."}, {"date": "2010-12-10", "event": "An additional photographed woman is identified by family as having died of natural causes years earlier."}, {"date": "2010-12-13", "event": "Police report two women from the released photos identified as alive."}, {"date": "2014", "event": "Police become interested in Joseph Blea as a possible suspect following a break in an unrelated cold case."}, {"date": "2015-06", "event": "Joseph Blea is sentenced to 36 years in the unrelated 'Mid-School Rapist' case."}, {"date": "2018-06", "event": "Additional bones found near the burial site are later determined to be ancient and unrelated."}, {"date": "2020-06-27", "event": "Women's Memorial Park opens on the site where the remains were found."}]
Between 2001 and 2005, eleven women and girls were buried in an arroyo bank on Albuquerque's West Mesa by an unidentified person or persons. The remains were discovered in February 2009 after erosion exposed bones during construction work; no one has ever been arrested or charged.
