West Mesa Serial Killer-$100,000 Reward. Victim: Victoria Chavez Suspect: Unknown Location: 118th Street SW, Albuquerque, N.M. Synopsis: In 2005 an unknown. Sep 4, 2020 - How to find giant mule deer using Google Earth.

The West Mesa Bone Collector is the pseudonym of one or possibly more as yet unidentified serial killers who has been responsible for murders since at least 2003, presumably in the Albuquerque area , in the US state of New Mexico . The case (also known as The West Mesa Murders ) has resulted in twelve murder victims so far. So far, there are no witnesses , fingerprints or a DNA sample of the perpetrator.

View of the West Mesa desert area with the city of Albuquerque in the background

The case

On February 2, 2009, Christine Ross's dog discovered the bone of a thigh on the property of an abandoned building site in the West Mesa desert west of Albuquerque. Over the next few weeks and months, the remains of eleven women and a fetus were found in an area of over 30 hectares .

The victims

The women (with the exception of Jamie Barela) were drug addicts prostitutes who had been killed in a series of murders in the New Mexico Metropolitan Area . A reward of $ 100,000 was offered for clues leading to the arrest of the perpetrator. The public and the media refer to the murderer (s) as the West Mesa Bone Collector . The women who disappeared between 2003 and 2005 are:

Jamie Barela, 15, cousin of Evelyn Salazar
Monica Candelaria, 22
Victoria Chavez, Jan.

Virginia Cloven, Jan.
Syllania Edwards, 15
Cinnamon Elks, 32

Doreen Marquez, 24
Julie Nieto, 24
Veronica Romero, 28

Evelyn Salazar, 27, cousin of Jamie Barela
Michelle Valdez, 22, and her unborn baby

The women, except for Syllania Edwards, who was African American , were all local Latinas .

To identify the seventh victim, forensic scientist Wendy Honeyfield made a sketch of the face with the help of the facial bones and resembled it with missing girls from the Internet platform National Center for Missing and Exploited Children , a website with thousands of missing and missing children and adolescents in the United States , from. In the end, one of about 30 girls remained - Syllania Edwards, a then 13-year-old runaway from Lawton , Oklahoma . The remains were positively identified on the basis of the teeth, and the dead woman had a name. It turned out that Syllania was killed when he was 14 or 15.

In January 2010, the last Jane Doe was identified by DNA: Jamie Barela. Although Jamie was not a prostitute, she was last seen with Evelyn Salazar, her cousin, who was engaged in the job. Evelyn was already identified from among the remains of the mass grave. This brought the victim identification investigation to a close.

Furthermore, seven more women are missing who could also be victims of the serial offender. These are:

Felipe Victoria Gonzalez (also Vicky ), 23
Nina Herron, 21
Sephira Mora (also Debra Martinez or Johanna Trujillo ), 29
Leah Peebles (also Mia ), 23

Vanessa Reed (also Vanessa Reid Lujan ), 25
Anna Vigil, 21
Shawntell Waites (also Monique ), 30

The investigations

By comparing satellite photos from 2003 to 2005 with satellite images taken after the excavations, it turned out that clear tire tracks and individual spots where the perpetrator buried the corpses can be seen in the desert terrain.

Since this area on the western edge of Albuquerque, in which the remains were excavated, was to be used for the expansion of further settlement space in 2008 (the construction projects were abruptly stopped in view of the real estate scandal and the economic crisis) and the location was getting closer and closer, the police leave today assume that the perpetrator may continue to bury his murder victims in other parts of the desert. For tactical reasons, the investigators withhold how the victims were killed.

One suspect came into the crosshairs after one of the investigators recalled a specific case from his time on a special commission in 1999: Lorenzo Montoya, a quick-tempered guy who had a particular predilection for violence against prostitutes. In 2006, he baited and killed a woman. At the moment when he tried to load the corpse wrapped in a blanket in the back of his pickup truck, the friend of the killed appeared and shot him. What ruled out Montoya as a serial killer in retrospect was the fact that a victim of the perpetrator only disappeared after Montoya's death. Lorenzo Montoya wasn't the serial killer.

Although the police had many tips and hints, it remained open who the perpetrator is and where he is. The police conducted nationwide investigations to answer these questions. Texas , Pennsylvania and Florida are just a few of the US states in which the profiling data was used particularly intensively. Investigations are underway in Missouri for the same reason . Investigators noticed that the murders could also be related to the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta , an annual hot air balloon festival in Albuquerque.

In August 2010, the New Mexico State Police, along with the FBI and Joplin , Missouri Police, went to search Fox Farm Whole Food and Erwin Photo Studio in Joplin to search their homes. Both are possessions of 57-year-old Ron Erwin, who was believed to be a suspect after it became known that he attended the hot air balloon fiesta in 2004 , the same year that most of the victims were reported missing. In August 2011, Erwin was ruled as a suspect.

From December 9, 2010, photos were used to search for more women who could be connected to the murders.

Serial killer and former FBI informant Scott Lee Kimball , who was incarcerated in a Colorado prison, said investigators questioned him in December 2010 about the murders. Kimball denied being involved in the crimes. The FBI denied interviewing Kimball.

In April 2011, the police announced that they were looking in part at links with the Craigslist Ripper , another series of serial homicides in New York State.

Individual evidence

^ 'Bone Collector' Murders Search Expands to Missouri
↑ Few Answers Forthcoming In Albuquerque Homicides
^ National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
↑ ^a^b^c Video NBC Dateline
↑ Interactive: The missing women of 'West Mesa' - Dateline NBC - msnbc.com
↑ Police Rule Out Man In Mesa Murder Case - Albuquerque News Story - KOAT Albuquerque ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
↑ New women possibly connected to West Mesa case (photos)
↑ Photo timeline of West Mesa murder investigation (more photos according to time schedule)
↑ Serial killer Scott Kimball says police questioned him about NM murders - Boulder Daily Camera
↑ Unearthed bodies in NY could reopen West Mesa murders case | KOB.com

Web links

The case of the West Mesa Serial Killer at the Albuquerque Police Department (English)
Interview with detectives, the father of Michelle Valdez and others, in the West Mesa Bone Collector case (NBC-Dateline )

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West Mesa Serial Killer Satellite Image