Albuquerque's Murder Mystery...body count 13 / New Mexico (ALL 13 ID'd)

[Nut44x4]

Woman's Death May Be Related To West Mesa Case
Thursday, 18 June 2009 16:06

Body found several years ago on Isleta Pueblo, ID'd today
A few hours ago, authorities positively identified Sonia Bernadette Lente as the woman whose body was found on Isleta Pueblo several years ago, FBI spokesman Darrin Jones tells ABQjournal.com.

Jones could not recall the exact date her body was found.

Lente was on a list of about 20 women Albuquerque police have been scrutinizing in an effort to identify the last four sets of remains uncovered on the Far Southwest Mesa earlier this year. Seven of those victims have already been identified.

Jones said it is yet unclear whether there is a connection between Lente's death and the women buried on the mesa.

"The question we're asking now is, was this victim related in any way to" the West Mesa case, he said. "It may not be directly related, but it hasn't been ruled out."

Pick up a copy of tomorrow's Journal for more details on this story.
http://www.abqjournal.com/abqnews/crime-blotter-mainmenu-59/13276-breaking-womans-death-may-be-related-to-west-mesa-case.html

[Nut44x4]

These some of the known missing women, let their names not be forgotten.

Darlene Trujillo missing since 2001

Sonia Lente missing since 2002/BODY FOUND 2004 on Isleta Pueblo ID'd 2009


Monica Candalaria missing since 2003/BODY FOUND


Jamie Barela missing since 2004 / BODY FOUND


Cinnamon Elks missing since 2004 /BODY FOUND


Veronica Romero missing since 2004/BODY FOUND


Victoria Chavez missing since 2004 / BODY FOUND


Michelle Gina Valdez missing since 2004 / BODY FOUND w/Fetus


Virginia Cloven missing since 2004 / BODY FOUND


Doreen Marquez missing since 2004 / BODY FOUND


Julie Nieto missing since 2004 / BODY FOUND


Evelyn Salazar missing since 2004 / BODY FOUND


Anselma Guerra missing since 2004 / BODY FOUND but not on Mesa
Info here > http://tinyurl.com/ce8mv2

Syllannia Edwards / BODY FOUND /not on list (missing from Oklahoma 8/2003)


Anna Vigil missing since 2005
Felipa Gonzales missing since 2005
Nina Herron missing since 2005
Shawntell Waltes missing since 2006
Leah Peebles missing since 2006

http://www.topix.com/forum/source/kob-new-mexico/TV7FGN5QNJ4GK78A8

BUMP

[Nut44x4]

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

Photo Summary to date:
The bodies of Candelaria, Chavez, Elks, Marquez, Nieto, Romero and Valdez were all ID'd by New Mexico police.

[Mtnmom]

http://www.krqe.com/dpp/news/crime/crime_krqe_albuquerque_fair_prostitutes_may_solve_west_mesa_200909102122

Fair prostitutes help West Mesa murders
Reporter: Alex Tomlin
Albuquerque - The New Mexico State Fair and West Mesa murder mystery couldn't seem further apart, but police say they are closely linked.

The fair kicks off Friday and investigators hope prostitutes coming into town for the event will lead them to a killer.

Every year dozens of prostitutes travel to New Mexico as part as a circuit that stops at the State Fair and police hope they can help them solve the mystery of eleven women found buried on Albuquerque's west mesa.

Investigators unearthed 11 women in a vacant lot at 118th Street earlier this year. Seven of them have been identified but four sets of remains are still labeled as Jane Does.

Albuquerque Police Chief Ray Schultz said all of the indentified women were connected to Albuquerque.

“There’s a possibility that one or more of the four unidentified women may have come from somewhere else," he said.

Now police are turning to the State Fair and prostitutes who are only in town for the two-week event. “We feel that it is very important that we spend the time on the fair grounds and that we identify women that are normally not here in Albuquerque to talk to them and see if they have any information that might help us on this case."

Schultz said police are focused on the years between 2000 and 2005 when they believe the unidentified women went missing and will be questioning several people.

“It not only includes women that are working on the streets but also customers of those women," he said.

He said the smallest detail could crack this case wide open.

Tips continue to pour in on the case, especially since America's Most Wanted continues to profile it. The information has investigators continuously updating their suspect list.

"We have people that have been there from the beginning and people who get added to the list and taken off the list," and there are about six people on the list right now, Schultz said.

He cautioned, however, that just because the list has more names added doesn't mean investigators are loosing their grasp, or if the list shrinks, it doesn't necessarily mean they are closing in on their killer.

Prostitution is illegal and Schultz said that anyone caught in the act will be prosecuted.

DNA profiles of the four unidentified women are now complete and are being run through criminal and missing person’s databases looking for a match.

Facial reconstruction of the remains to determine what the women looked like should begin shortly.

If you have any information on the West Mesa murder mystery, call 877-SOLV-APD.

[Nut44x4]

I know what Fair Rats are, but I never really thought about Fair Hookers ...    So much for family entertainment 

[Nut44x4]

Hat Tip/Muffy

DNA from 2006 sexual assault matches Albuquerque crimes

By Andrea Lorenz | Thursday, September 17, 2009, 04:01 PM

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.

Anyone with information about the suspect pictured below should call Austin police, or 911.

http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/blotter/entries/2009/09/17/sexual_assault_suspect_dna_fro.html
http://scaredmonkeys.net/index.php?topic=6142.new#new

[Nut44x4]

Report: Murder victim's cause of death unknown

Posted at: 09/24/2009 4:04 PM

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - An autopsy report released Thursday for a woman whose remains were found in a mass grave on the west side of Albuquerque concludes she was murdered.
The remains of 28-year-old Victoria Chavez were uncovered in February.

She was the first of the 11 victims and a fetus buried at the site to be identified.

The autopsy report says her skeletal remains were unclothed and no personal effects were found near her.

It says there were no injuries that could explain exactly how Chavez died.

http://www.kob.com/article/stories/s1157501.shtml?cat=504

suffocation/strangulation is my bet.... The hyoid bone was obviously not broken, but it isn't always broken in strangulations.

[Nut44x4]

One of the victims was found to have an unusual set of acrylic fingernails . These nails may help detectives identify this particular individual.


Investigators have determined that the nail art was not available in the Albuquerque area during the time period they believe the victim was killed. Detectives think that she may have been from or had traveled to another state just prior to her death.

Detectives are currently looking for leads and would like to know more about the identified victims. Investigators would like to hear from women who may have been working the streets of Albuquerque between 2001 and 2005, or anyone who may have solicited the victims during that period of time.

For more about this case visit West Mesa Bone Collector at America's Most Wanted.

Anyone with information concerning the victims and/or potential suspects is asked to contact the 118th Street Task Force at 1-877-765-8273 or Crime Stoppers at (505) 843-STOP.
http://www.cabq.gov/police/index--118th/index--118th.htm

[Nut44x4]

Friday, November 13, 2009 at 1:28 p.m.

8th Victim identified in Albuquerque (9th/includes 1 w/child)


(AP) -- ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - The state Office of the Medical Investigator has identified an eighth victim among the remains found buried on Albuquerque's west side as a runaway from Oklahoma.

Albuquerque police spokeswoman Nadine Hamby said Friday Syllannia Edwards was 15-years-old when she was reported missing in Lawton, Okla., in August 2003.

Hamby says Edwards is the first of the identified victims to come from outside New Mexico.

Police unearthed the remains of 11 victims and a fetus in the mass grave in February.

The medical examiner's director of operations Amy Boule says employees compared a forensic sketch they made of the victim based on a skull with photos of missing children posted online.

Boule says they found Edwards' photograph and a positive identification was made through dental records.

http://www.connectamarillo.com/news/news_story.aspx?id=376866

[Nut44x4]

Albuquerque Journal (New Mexico)
 
November 13, 2009 Friday 
 
Eighth West Mesa Murder Victim Identified;
Teen doesn't fit profile, might provide break
 
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.

The other women found buried in shallow graves near 118th and Dennis Chavez SW earlier this year were in their 20s and 30s. They were local women who knew one another and whose lives had intersected through substance abuse and prostitution. They were white or Hispanic.

"When you have a case like this with a serial killer, there is sometimes just one oddball piece of the puzzle that doesn't make any sense," said one official who is familiar with the investigation. "But we're hoping (Edwards) will be crucial to solving this case, crucial in breaking it wide open. The other (victims) all kind of blended into the landscape. But (Edwards) may be unique enough to really help the investigation out."

Detectives spent all day Wednesday and Thursday trying to sort out when Edwards came to Albuquerque, who might have brought her here and who may have known her. Police have narrowed their list of suspects in the case to a "small handful." Numerous search warrants have been served in the course of the investigation, including some in the past few weeks. All the warrants have been sealed, and investigators won't discuss what's been found.

Edwards has been listed as an "endangered runaway" on the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children since her disappearance.

She had been in foster care in Oklahoma, officials said. She had not seen her mother since she was 5, and she never knew her father. In late April, police released a photograph of an acrylic fingernail that was found with Edwards' remains. Investigators hoped the unique work done on the nail would help identify her.

And, a few weeks ago, forensic experts completed a sketch of Edwards' face based on skeletal reconstruction.

Finally, Wendy Honeyfield at the Office of the Medical Investigator was able to identify Edwards through dental records.

Nearly seven months had passed since authorities last identified one of the victims. Now, three of the 11 remain unidentified. 
http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100020825&docId=l:1074452106&start=4

[Nut44x4]

One of the victims was found to have an unusual set of acrylic fingernails . These nails may help detectives identify this particular individual.


Investigators have determined that the nail art was not available in the Albuquerque area during the time period they believe the victim was killed. Detectives think that she may have been from or had traveled to another state just prior to her death.

Detectives are currently looking for leads and would like to know more about the identified victims. Investigators would like to hear from women who may have been working the streets of Albuquerque between 2001 and 2005, or anyone who may have solicited the victims during that period of time.

For more about this case visit West Mesa Bone Collector at America's Most Wanted.

Anyone with information concerning the victims and/or potential suspects is asked to contact the 118th Street Task Force at 1-877-765-8273 or Crime Stoppers at (505) 843-STOP.
http://www.cabq.gov/police/index--118th/index--118th.htm

This one ID'd as Syllannia Edwards 15, of Lawton, Oklahoma

[Nut44x4]

Two more mesa victims identified
Updated: Tuesday, 17 Nov 2009, 2:55 PM MST

Web Producer: Todd Dukart
ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Police on Tuesday announced that two more victims whose bodies were found on Albuquerque's West Mesa have been identified.

Virginia Cloven, born in 1981, and Evelyn Salazar, born in 1978, were identified through DNA.

Both women were reported missing in 2004, and both are from Albuquerque.

With Cloven and Salazar, police have now identified 10 of the 11 women who were buried nude between 2001 and 2005 in a mass grave on Albuquerque's West Mesa.

Police spokesperson Nadine Hamby said it's not yet known if Cloven or Salazar were involved in drugs or prostitution like some of the earlier identified victims were.

The remains were discovered in February.

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/two-more-mesa-victims-identified

[Nut44x4]

12/10/2009 7:20 PM

Woman believes daughter is unidentified West Mesa victim

The mother of a missing woman believes the only unidentified body found buried on Albuquerque's West Mesa is her daughter.

Jayne Perea's niece, Evelyn Salazar, was recently identified as one of the 11 victims.

Salazar went missing with Perea's daughter, Jaime Barela, in 2004.

Perea says investigators have promised an answer on the 11th victim in about two weeks.

http://www.kob.com/article/stories/S1305303.shtml?cat=504

Jaime Barela went missing with her cousin in 2004

[MuffyBee]

Thanks for the updates Nut.  I hope the last victim can be identified.  I'm surprised so many of them have been identified.  When I first read of the case, I was concerned we might never know who they are.  And now their families and friends can know where their loved ones are and give them a decent burial.  Maybe some were clinging to hope they were alive, but I think the not knowing would be terrible too.  So many women needlessly dead.    

[Nut44x4]

Muffy, the NOT knowing would literally kill me. I will never understand how people go on not knowing. I don't want to get into my personal non-beliefs, but I have no faith. All I have is hope and I know that would not sustain me through a time like that. Even hope wouldn't get me far because I am and always have been a pessimist / realist. I suppose many who suffer a loss in not knowing have 'faith' that they feel helps them go on. I dunnooo...anywayyyyyyyyy, here is the latest.....

Mesa murder case gets national airing
Updated: Thursday, 17 Dec 2009, 5:42 PM MST
Published : Thursday, 17 Dec 2009, 5:31 PM MST

Web Producer: Bill Diven
ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - The murder mystery surrounding the discovery of 11 women's bodies unearthed from Albuquerque's will receive national attention again this weekend from the television crime show America's Most Wanted.

Starting in February investigators working a 100-acre crime scene recovered the skeletal remains from what eventually became a 100-acre crime scene. Ten of the women were eventually identified as having disappeared in Albuquerque from 2001 to 2005.

All were described living high-risk lifestyles.

Police are looking at several suspects, but so far no one has been arrested.

America's Most Wanted has been successful in helping flush out wanted criminals for years.

The episode airs Saturday at 8 p.m. on KASA Fox 2.

http://www.krqe.com/dpp/news/crime/mesa-murder-case-gets-national-airing

[Nut44x4]

I believe this is coming up after the break on AMW --now.

[Nut44x4]

Police hope dental x-rays will help them identify the last unidentified woman

http://www.amw.com/fugitives/brief.cfm?id=64720

[Nut44x4]

When the crime scene is gone the housing construction will continue

[Nut44x4]

This is interesting......

Amole Mesa: A crime scene revealed in aerial photos?

Just something to think about, should you be looking at aerial photographs as part of your job. It’s entirely possible that I looked at the 2004 aerial when working on GIS at the City.

Here is the Amole Mesa site in 2002:


Here, the site shows tire tracks leading to a couple areas of disturbed earth in 2004:


Here, the site is shown graded over in 2006:

[Nut44x4]

OOPsss....... link for above
http://motownmutt.wordpress.com/2009/03/10/amole-mesa-a-crime-scene-revealed-in-aerial-photos/