Jan 1 2018 34 mins. Syllania Edwards, also 15, was the only one not from New Mexico. mind. In a 2013 interview, Ray Schultz said there was a "conscious shift" in the Albuquerque Police Department to take prostitutes more seriously. Gilbert Gallegos, an Albuquerque police spokesman, said detectives receive hundreds of tips in the case each year, and continue to follow different leads while retesting evidence as DNA and other investigative technology advances. and nights and weekends playing steel guitar with his country band, cimarron. Michelle Gina Valdez - The Charley Project While the FBI created suspect profiles, Albuquerque police knocked on doors. The fact that all but one of the victims had links to sex work initially helped guide the police investigation for the serial killer they dubbed the West Mesa Bone Collector. But not even FBI profilers were able to find the killer. Police on Long Island, New York, have released the name of a previously unidentified victim linked to the notorious Gilgo Beach murders. 10 Years Later: Community Pays Respect For West Mesa Murders Today, two suspects remain only of whom is still alive. You can also watch Dateline Mystery on demand at Apple TV. Globe staff photographer Ron Erwin would like to shed the suspected serial killer tag. and i thought, well, i'll write it and we'll see what happens. Joseph Blea was imprisoned when the bodies were found, but he became a suspect when his ex-wife contacted police. love for your gut. The 11th, meanwhile, was 15-year-old Jamie Barela. >> all of the victims buried out on the west mesa were buried naked, with no clothing on. protection. after three years angelica was sent to live with dan's mother, who lived nearby, and michelle took to living with a series of people she called friends. >> i didn't even -- i didn't even want to be around it anymore. Blea's wife and daughter claimed to have found jewelry and female underwear that didn't belong to them in their home, and police confirmed this after they searched his home eight months into the West Mesa investigation. Decades later, the case still remains unsolved. by 2Paragraphs in Culture, True Crime Murder TV | July 27, 2019, The Dateline episode Somebodys Daughter shines the light on Albuquerque Detective Ida Lopez. [ soft piano music playing ] mm, uh, what do you do for fun? >> what we see very often is the women involved in prostitution work in what's called the circuit. the position was there. >> reporter: it had to be someone local, investigators assumed. Discovery near mass gravesite leads to fears of more victims in then five. as spring turned to summer that, year, dan, his ex-wife, and his daughters plastered flyers with michelle's picture all over central avenue asking anyone who'd seen her to call the albuquerque police department. a.p. 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City of AlbuquerqueThe 11 victims whose remains were discovered at the West Mesa site in 2009. >> i think it's somebody who's very organized. >> reporter: the fact is dan valdez had been recording his. >> don't know. who got an awful skin condition. but it didn't turn out that way. >> she ran up ahead of me, and she was messing with something on the ground. >> reporter: finding a bone, even a human bone, is not unusual out here on albuquerque's west mesa. for the moments that mattered most to her daughter, angelica. She alerted the police, and Ray was arrested. New Mexico 'serial killer' murdered 11 women in unsolved case, 8 She was from Lawton, Oklahoma, and was reportedly last seen in Denver, police said. There is a reward of up. there's a better choice. >> reporter: by the end of 2005 ida had five women on her list who were roughly the same age with similar backgrounds. Several suspects have been named, but none were arrested or charged. all they knew was that he'd killed at least 11 women and that the 2005 housing boom that brought suburban sprawl to the west mesa probably forced him to abandon this burial ground and find another one where there would be no neighbors around to watch him work. >> reporter: cops call this section of central avenue the war zone. Most of them hadnt even been reported missing at the time their remains were found. terry, can you take a selfie of me? The most notorious mass murder in Ohio's history happened on the night of April 21, 2016 in rural Pike County. at first some of them were hesitant. Dateline NBC special airs Friday about Murdaugh family cases | Hilton if you are taking asthma medicines, do not change or stop your asthma medicine without talking to your doctor. >> i know 100% that my daughter is not alive. so i gave her the money. but for the most part the public didn't even know there was a list. -or maybe he didn't know. Mesa murder suspect found in Texas after collaborative investigation that once she was lost and that now she's found. and this desert doesn't give up its secrets easily. dupixent is not a steroid, and it continuously treats your eczema even when you can't see it. Combing the undeveloped West Mesa near 118th Street SW, detectives spent weeks uncovering all 11 graves. so you can move more. before discovering nexium 24hr to treat her frequent heartburn, marie could only imagine enjoying freshly squeezed orange juice. >> i got to know a lot of them. it was a time when a sinister force seemed to be snatching women off the streets of new mexico's largest city. so that was represented in the sketch. i didn't choose their lifestyle. >> 35 to 50? Tonight's episode of Dateline: Unforgettable Season 2 will have Josh Mankiewicz narrate the story of the dedicated detective Ida Lopez, who is still working on these decade-old cases to help the victims and their families find some form of justice. >> missing persons is kind of a backwater in a lot of departments. Wozniak led authorities to the area where almost all of Herr's dismembered body was found discarded at El Dorado Nature Center in Long Beach. >> fbi agents also searched this home. and we know a few that have a, history of murdering the girls who frequent the truck stops. Her daughter had found womens clothing and jewelry in their home, with some families later revealing that the victims jewelry was missing. and detective ida lopez, who'd had their names on her list of missing women. Someone called Father Reynaldo at the St. Francis Cathedral in Santa Fe to provide the last rites to a dying grandfather. it took years. bring in your own phone, switch to xfinity mobile and save hundreds of dollars a year. babcock says he saw marks on the woman's throat and that she told him montoya looked like he was enjoying it. >> reporter: desiree gonzalez says she used to hang out on these streets and says she knew several of the missing women and had also heard those same rumors. Detective Ida Lopez's dedication to finding these missing women is admirable. Street Safe was founded in 2009, aiming to ensure volunteers kept a steady presence in an area along Historic Route 66 while handing out clothing and other products each Friday. you know, my husband's got young kids to take care of. if you find one, you're going to find them all. oh, i've had 17. i've been choked. Despite the tip, however, the West Mesa Murder case remains unsolved. The graves held the remains of two teens and nine adults, one of whom, 22-year-old Gina Michelle Valdez, was four months pregnant when she died. After two trials, killer of Colorado mom of three with secret life ida knew the odds of finding any of the missing women alive were not good. The police are reportedly willing to reward $100,000 to anybody who provides information on the West Mesa murders. Police have offered a $100,000 reward for anyone offering evidence leading to the discovery of the person the media came to call the West Mesa Bone Collector. do you think you'll ever find them? s >> father all over again. >> reporter: when christine ross decided to take her dog ruca for a walk. >> suggesting possibly that the killer met her in denver, brought her here? >> i don't believe so. Female sex workers are far more likely to be the victims of violent crimes like rape and murder, but communities do not tend to take notice of such cases in the same way as when women from other parts of society are affected. >> the vice unit was watching a particular prostitute. the families hurt. it was a bit of frontier justice for montoya, who was about to literally get away with murder. every morning the sunrises over the sandia mountains east of albuquerque and begins baking one of the most celebrated stretches of asphalt in the united states -- historic route 66, the highway famous for carrying dust bowl refugees and beat generation oddballs west to california. Be the first one to comment on this story. Almost no media coverage and the killer was never caught. >> a college campus gripped by fear. >> tonight they say the search is far from over. to find out commander mike geyer, head of the albuquerque p.d. and they'd go through the alley, do their tricks in the alley. and was he still at work? for ida lopez there was the fear that her nightmare prediction was coming true. The upcoming episode, titled Somebody's Daughter, will air on Oxygen on Tuesday, July 12, at 8:00 PM ET. Then, Ruca found a bone resembling a femur. >> you're asked to call 1-877- -- >> though the police tip line with hundreds of calls from a trail mix of nuts, kooks and the merely misguided -- >> detective babcock.