NM - West Mesa Murders (2003-05)

[Donjeta]

http://www.krqe.com/dpp/news/politi...n_the_street_offered_little_help_200906112322

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - With a murder mystery and 11 bodies on the west mesa Lt. Gov. Diane Denish has asked the question of how the community can help women who've fallen into a cycle of drugs prostitution and violence.

"Albuquerque doesn't have that many great services for a homeless, prostitute junkie," a woman told KRQE News 13 shortly after her arrest by Albuquerque Police Department vice officers last week.

Can this little tidbit be quite right? They haven't identified all the 11 women so how could this person tell she was friends with them all?

Toya-Leclere, who was friends with the 11 women found dead on the west mesa, said such a program might have helped them.

 

[Jesikah1]

Perhaps she feels that she knows who the victims are via those who have gone missing in her "social circle". Or perhaps the reporter just broadened her intimacy with the case based on that she claims to know all identified so far, I'm not sure, but I'd think that girls who may still be living the lifestyle that the victims did will hold the key to what may have happened.

 

[Kat]

Updates:

http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S963949.shtml?cat=517
06/05/2009 7:36 AM

...Some of the families of the victims found buried on Albuquerque’s West Mesa honored an unlikely hero on Thursday night: a three-year-old dog named Ruca. ..

...Ruca and Ross (dog's owner) were presented with a custom collar, bearing the letters W-M-W for “West Mesa Women,” the dog’s name, and a bone that represents the one Ruca found.

http://www.koat.com/news/19740557/detail.html
June 12, 2009

The first funeral for one of the west mesa victims was held Friday.

Michelle Valdez, who had been pregnant when she was killed, was finally laid to rest...

 

[Kat]

http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S1016426.shtml?cat=500

Updated at: 07/07/2009 1:39 PM

West Mesa victim laid to rest

...Veronica Romero, who was 27 years old when she disappeared, was buried 12 days shy of her 33rd birthday.

Rest in Peace Veronica.


http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/07/09/new.mexico.killings/

Story Highlights
Bodies of 11 women and one unborn child found in February near Albuquerque

Police say they've identified 7 of the victims; no suspect yet in the killings

Police think one person killed all the victims between 2001 and 2004

Victims were linked through drugs, prostitution, police spokesman says

 

[believe09]

I have been lurking on this case, and I am sure you all have commented on this but I think the seven women ID'd are very similar in appearance...

 

[Kat]

Updates:

July 31, 2009 video at link:

E-Mail Could Be Clue In West Mesa Mystery
http://www.koat.com/video/20232901/index.html

I tried to do a copy of the email let me see if it works:

Article about email sent to PI.
http://www.koat.com/news/20239628/detail.html

________________________________________

UPDATED: 12:27 pm MDT July 30, 2009

Police: Arrest Could Be Soon In West Mesa Case
Suspect List Significantly Narrowed

http://www.koat.com/news/20220400/detail.html

..."Right now they are looking at between five and 10," said Hamby. "Some of them are alive, some of them are deceased, some of them are incarcerated."

Investigators also traveled outside the state looking for connections. One place of interest was Lubbock Texas, where in the last decade the bodies of five women were discovered along rural dirt roads.

APD also reached out to Wisconsin police. In the Milwaukee area, there were six unsolved murders where the victims were women. However, none of these leads panned out, so the investigation has been refocused to New Mexico....

More at link.

Interview with LE and ME in video to right of article above.

___________________________________________________

UPDATED: 5:44 am MDT August 3, 2009

http://www.koat.com/news/20259560/detail.html

West Mesa Families Meet To Discuss Updates

...The West Mesa families meet each month in Robinson Park.

The public is invited to join the families in prayers...

More at link to article above.

Video to right of article, some of the Mother's of the victims speak. Including one Mother who's daughter is still missing.

 

[Kat]

I thought this was most informative. Thank you to the poster leah on Topix. Notice the "Romero." That must be the latest victim 'id.'

What I find disturbing is that all those found and id'd are missing from the same year. They may want to try and id remains recovered with the two, IIRC, left missing from '04 and check the '03 and then the '05.

IMHO, they may have another killing field.

JMHO
fran



http://www.topix.com/forum/albuquerque/T0HE8CRBUNEHTM7KR

leah052006
Fort Worth, TX
Reply »
|Report Abuse |Judge it! |#2 57 min ago
Judged:
1
My sympathies to the Romero family.

These are the names of the missing women. Let their names not be forgotten.
1. Teresa Reyes missing 1998
2. Darlene Trujillo missing 2001
3. Sonia Lente missing 2002
4. Monica Candalaria missing 2003
5 . Doreen Marquez missing 2003
6 . Cinnamon Elks missing 2004 BODY IDENTIFIED
7. Veronia Romero missing 2004 BODY IDENTIFIED
8. Victoria Chavez missing 2004 BODY IDENTIFIED
9. Michelle Valdez missing 2004 BODY IDENTIFIED
10. Virgina Cloven missing 2004
11. Julie Neito missing 2004 BODY IDENTIFIED
12. Evelyn Salazar missing 2004
13. Jamie Barela missing 2004
14. Anna Vigil missing 2005
15. Felipa Gonzalez missing 2005
16. Nina Herron missing 2005
17. Shawntell Waites missing 2005
18. Vanessa Reid Lujan missing 2005
19. Leah Peebles missing 2006
20. Katrina Hurts missing 2006
OTHER ADULTS ALSO MISSING FROM ALBUQUERQUE
21. Betty Vigil Garcia missing 1998
22. Jeanette Maria De La Cruz missing 1999
23. Christine Julian missing 2003
24. Brenda Jeen Apalicio missing 2003

THESE TEENS CLASSIFIED AS ENDANGERED RUNAWAYS ARE ALSO MISSING FROM ALBUQUERQUE
25. Brittney Ann Jaramillo missing 2007..is 17 now
26. Danisha Renee Klug missing 2008..is 17 now
27. Johana Elvira Martinez missing 2008..is 17 now
28. Ashley Nichole Lopez missing 2008..is 18 now.
30. Xylonia Begay missing Feb. 2009..is 16 now
29. Amber Adelia Bittinger missing March 2009....
is 15 now.
Sources:
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
www.missingkids.com
National Center for Missing Adults
www.theyaremissed.org/

Bolded by me ~ I found an article about Ms. Lente.

http://www.newswest9.com/Global/story.asp?S=10564685

Associated Press - June 19, 2009 5:35 PM ET

FBI identifies body found at Isleta Pueblo

... Authorities identified a woman whose body was found on Isleta Pueblo and are looking into whether her case is connected with 11 human remains found on a desert mesa west of Albuquerque.

FBI spokesman Darrin Jones says Sonia Lente was identified by dental and DNA records...

...Jones (FBI spokesman Darrin Jones) says her body was found by hunters in 2004.

Lente's name appeared on a list of 16 women reported missing between 2001 and 2006 that was compiled by Albuquerque police.

 

[Donjeta]

Thanks for the update. Rest in peace, Sonia.

Google Map says Isleta Pueblo is about 25 minutes south of Dennis Chavez Boulevard where the big site is, just over ten miles, 18 miles on another route.

 

[Tonia]

DNA from 2006 sexual assault matches Albuquerque crimes

Police in Albuquerque, N.M., have matched the DNA from a serial rapist in that area with DNA found at the scene of a sexual assault in Austin in 2006, Austin police Cpl. Scott Perry said.

The nature of the assaults had made it difficult to create a sketch of the suspect because in each case, the man put a rag soaked in a chemical over the woman’s face and knocked her out before assaulting her, Perry said. In the Austin incident, which took place in May 2006, a man assaulted a woman while she was sleeping in her home on 55 1/2 Street, Perry said.

Recently, police were able to create a sketch of the suspect from the Austin and Albuquerque cases thanks to a possible botched sexual assault during a robbery.

Albuquerque police matched the DNA from the suspect they believe committed several rapes in that city between 1991 and 2001 with DNA found in an unsolved robbery case. The victim in that incident told police the man tried to put a rag over her face, but she was able to fight him off and see his face.

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/blotter/entries/2009/09/17/sexual_assault_suspect_dna_fro.html

 

[Donjeta]

http://www.koat.com/video/20414052/index.html

This is a video of the victims' children on a school shopping spree. 12 kids who have been to 6 funerals this year...

 

[Jesikah1]

Thank you for posting this Donjeta. I hope their peers are supportive as well. In some ways I fear that children will be merciless to the children whose mothers' were known as the prostitutes who died. I hope that this is not the case and am relieved that the community of Albuquerque are being supportive of the families, who were victims too.

 

[WhyaDuck?]

Eighth West Mesa Murder Victim Identified

Officials are "cautiously optimistic" that Syllannia Edwards may provide the final bread crumbs on the trail to the most prolific killer in Albuquerque history.

Edwards on Wednesday became the eighth of the 11 West Mesa murder victims to be identified, and she does not fit the profile of the other women, officials said. She was 15 years old when she was reported missing from Lawton, Okla., in August 2003, officials said. She was black and had no known ties to Albuquerque.

More at:
http://www.abqjournal.com/paperboy/text/news/metro/132218499508newsmetro11-13-09.htm

 

[WhyaDuck?]

P.S. If people could take a moment to add the victims' names to the tags, this will make the searches more affective. TIA.

 

[mayebelle]

could this me the man responsible for the murders? http://www.truecrimereport.com/2009/11/post_2.php

 

[MeoW333]

could this me the man responsible for the murders? http://www.truecrimereport.com/2009/11/post_2.php

Ronald Ralph King Jr. might be the culprit, he got locked up in 2005.
He was a long haul trucker from 1991-2005, he drove through N.M.

"It took seven years until King, who had worked as a long-haul truck driver from 1991-2005, allegedly began claiming responsibility for raping and killing a number of women, according to an intelligence bulletin sent to the Do-a Ana Sheriff's Department's cold case unit from Virginia state police. A reconstruction of his routes from his years as a trucker included Anthony, N.M., according to sheriff's authorities, though he is not believed to have raped Eiche."
http://www.lcsun-news.com/las_cruces-news/ci_13792454

 

[darlin gal]

Final West Mesa victim identified

DNA confirms victim was Jamie Barela

Updated: Tuesday, 26 Jan 2010, 5:41 PM MST
Published : Tuesday, 26 Jan 2010, 3:57 PM MST

• Web Producer: Todd Dukart

Albuquerque police on Tuesday said DNA shows the final unidentified victim of the West Mesa serial murders was Jamie Barela, a 15-year-old girl reported missing in April 2004.
Barela was last seen leaving a family gathering with her cousin, Evelyn Salzar, who had earlier been identified as another victim. The two at the time were heading to a park near San Mateo and Gibson in southeast Albuquerque.
The remains of 11 women were found buried nude in a mass grave on Albuquerque's West Mesa last February. Police said the victims had been buried between 2001 and 2005.
The first 10 victims that had been identified all had histories of drug use and prostitution, according to police.
The University of North Texas helped test the DNA of the victims to help identify them.
Police have not named any suspects, but said they have zeroed in on a few people. They said they are sure the killer is not still roaming the streets.
The 118th Street Task Force is still investigating the deaths. Anybody with information that could help is asked to call the Albuquerque Police Department tip line at 1-877-SOLV-APD (1-877-765-8273).
http://www.krqe.com/dpp/news/crime/final-west-mesa-victim-identified

 

[Donjeta]

I'm glad to find out they have identified them all.

1. Victoria Chavez,
2. Michelle Valdez,
3. Veronica Romero,
4. Cinnamon Elks,
5. Julie Nieto,
6. Doreen Marquez
7. Monica Candelaria
8. Syllannia Edwards
9. Jamie Barela
10 Evelyn Salazar
11. Virginia Cloven
12. unnamed fetus
Rest in peace. You didn't deserve this.

Then, on January 9, 2009, they finally got their answer in the form of a postcard. It had come from an inmate in Virginia State Prison. His name was Ronald Ralph King. He was 38-years-old, serving time on two counts of rape. His expected release date was February 9, 2015. "I killed her," King wrote. "Now do your job and prove it"...
*snip*
Virginia state police claim that King had been bragging about his many Southwestern homicides to fellow inmates. They eventually sent an intelligence memo to the Do-a Ana Sheriff's Department Cold Case Unit, which then wrote King directly, asking for more information.


King not only confessed to the murder of Eiche in his postcard, but those of several other women, too -- some of whose bodies may be buried in the desert just west of Albuquerque. Those murders made national headlines earlier this year when the bodies of 11 women and a fetus were discovered on a 92-acre site that was being leveled for a residential subdivision just outside the city. It is one of the largest crime scenes in the country. And police now think it may be the work of King.

Does this mean he wrote that he killed women in Albuquerque in his postcard in Jan 2009? That was shortly before they found the first ones.
http://www.truecrimereport.com/2009/11/post_2.php

Forensic anthropologists at a North Texas State University lab discovered Cloven and Salazar's identities through DNA.

"I asked them if they were sure," Robert Cloven told KRQE News 13. "You don't want to believe your child is dead."

Cloven said he never stopped hoping his daughter was alive even after police unearthed the 11 bodies after a woman walking her dog found a human bone at a subdivision construction site in February.

"My God, that is sad," Cloven said. "So many victims up there and nobody knows who they are.

"Lord help us we hope she ain't one of them."

But Virginia Cloven was on of them.

He last spoke to his daughter in June 2004. She told him that she had a new boyfriend she wanted to marry named Robert who had just been released from prison.

Cloven said he told his daughter he'd like to meet him first and that she said they would make arrangements for the meeting the next time she called. That call never came.

Cloven reported his daughter missing in October 2004.

http://www.krqe.com/dpp/news/crime/police-hope-body-ids-crack-mesa-mystery

According to the missing person report filed with Lawton police back in August of 2003, Edwards ran away from a girls group home called Parker Pointe in Lawton. The home is geared towards young girls who are victims of neglect and abuse. Edwards was in DHS custody at the time she went missing.

Investigators said the victim's family is based in Texas but have been told Edwards entered Oklahoma DHS custody at the age of five after her mother went to jail.

New Mexico investigators said not only is Edwards the youngest victim, but also the first to be from outside New Mexico.

http://www.news9.com/global/story.asp?s=11500384

 

[Donjeta]

Jamie Barela's funeral. The reporter says that the police says the suspect list keeps changing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqCrM91lp9Y&feature=youtube_gdata

America's Most Wanted to feature the case again:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzhRM156k98&NR=1

Please call in your tips to help solve the case; you can earn 100.000 dollars.

 

[rachelle]

A local business owner in Joplin Mo had his home and businesses searched this week in connection to these murders.

 

[Fairy1]

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Albuquerque police searched the homes and one business of a Joplin, Missouri man Tuesday in connection to the 118th street murder investigation .

"We're hoping that we'll have some information and that it will help us in our investigation," said Ofc. Nadine Hamby. "Ultimately, what we want , is the person responsible for this incident to be behind bars or at least to link the person if the person is deceased or already behind bars."

http://www.krqe.com/dpp/news/crime/West-Mesa-search-warrants-executed