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Will the West Mesa Serial Killer Ever Be Found? · Murder Files Unsealed

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  Between two thousand and one and two thousand and five, a total of eleven
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  women were murdered and subsequently buried in the desert as part of the West Meser
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  murders that occurred in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Initially, it seemed like an
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  ordinary Monday night, but February second, two thousand and nine would forever be
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  etched in Christine Ross's memory. Ross strolled with her dog Ruca along a dry
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  wash in Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was during this walk that Rucus stumbled
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  upon a bone resembling a femur. Little did Ross know this discovery would lead
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  to the revelation of eleven deceased individuals, now known as the West Meser Murders,
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  buried beneath the surface. This case proved to be the most unsettling homicide
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  investigation the Albuquerque Police had ever encountered, and it remains unresolved to this day.
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  It took nearly a year for forensic experts to identify the decomposed victims,
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  the majority of whom were of Hispanic descent and all of whom were female.
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  These individuals had been reported missing between two thousand one and two thousand five,
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  with ages ranging from fifteen to thirty two. Initially, the fact that all
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  but one of the victims had connections to the sex trade provided a starting point
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  for the police's pursuit of the serial killer they dubbed the West Mesa Bone Collector.
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  However, even with the assistance of FBI profilers, the identity of the
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  killer remained elusive. As time passed, only theories remained promising leeds turned into
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  dead ends as each potential suspect was cleared. Detectives were confronted with the reality
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  that serial killers possessed the ability to move discreetly, often disappearing long before their
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  victims are ever discovered. It is perhaps due to this evasiveness that the FBI
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  eyes one hundred thousand dollars reward for information has remained unclaimed for over a decade.
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  Ross hesitated to confirm whether the bone was human, but acknowledged the possibility
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  after snapping a photo and sending it to her sister, a registered nurse.
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  She received confirmation by contacting the Albuquerque Police Department. Ross initiated the uncovering of
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  unprecedented horrors within the city, exploring the desolate West Mesa near one hundred eighteenth
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  Street, s W investigators dedicated weeks to revealing all eleven graves. These graves
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  contained the bodies of two adolescents and nine adults, including twenty two year old
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  Gina Michelle Valdez, who was four months pregnant at the time of her death.
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  The common thread among the victims was that ten of them were either sex
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  workers or victims of sex trafficking. The eleventh victim was fifteen year old jars
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  Amy Barela, who was discovered buried alongside her twenty seven year old cousin evel
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  In Salazar. Both had vanished after heading to a nearby park in two thousand
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  four. With the exception of one victim, all of those affected by the
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  West Mesa murders were Hispanic and native to New Mexico. Fifteen year old Solania
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  Edwards stood out as the sole black victim at the scene, as well as
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  the only individual from out of state. Edwards was identified as a missing endangered
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  individual from Lawton, Oklahoma, in two thousand and three, and was last
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  spotted in the company of three sex workers in Aurora, Colorado, in May
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  two thousand four. She was known to possibly use the aliases Mimi or chocolate
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  during her stay at the Ranger Motel. Law enforcement assured the families of the
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  victims that justice would prevail. However, all they discovered were the remains and
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  DNA of eleven individuals. Apart from Barella, Edwards, Salazar, and Valdez,
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  the other victims include Monica Candelaria twenty two, Victoria Chavers twenty six,
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  Virginia Cloven twenty four, Cinnamon Elks thirty two, Doreen Marquez twenty four,
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  Juli Nieto twenty four, Veronica Romero twenty eight. There hasn't been the degree
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  of public fear and alarm that you might expect. There has been very little
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  publicity. There's a sense of physical remoteness. This place was very removed,
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  said University of New Mexico professor Dirk Gibson, who has written two books on
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  serial killers. There has been little pressure on the police to investigate how the
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  FBI and Albuquerque Police investigated the crime. While the FBI developed profiles of suspects,
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  the Albuquerque Police took a more proactive approach by conducting door to door visits.
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  They collected valuable information from grieving families and local residents, which helped establish
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  the last known whereabouts of the victims. However, this information did not shed
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  light on the cause of their deaths. Barrella, for instance, was last
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  seen at a family gathering before leaving with Salazar to a park located near the
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  airport on San Matteo and Gibson Boulevard. Unfortunately, there were even fewer details
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  available for most of the other victims. Many of them had either engaged in
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  sex work or had run away from home years before their demise. The police
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  found themselves at a loss. The harsh reality was that sex workers were vulnerable
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  targets, often disconnected from their families, while their communities remained oblivious to their
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  disappearances. Shockingly, most of these individuals had not even been reported missing by
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  the time their remains were discovered. That's why the West Mesa killer was able
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  to do it, she said,