Ricky Frailey:
Dogs. Man's best friend... but what happens when your best friend uncovers a human bone right in front of you? That chilling thought was the reality for a woman by the name of Christine Ross, on the night of February 2nd, 2009.
I'm Ricky Frailey and I'm joined by-
DiDi:
DiDi from The Land, Ohio
Ricky Frailey:
On The Dark Deeds Diary Podcast. And today we will be talking about the West Mesa Bone Collector.
[Intro]
Ricky Frailey:
Situated in the US state of New Mexico, the West Mesa is a plateau that lies west of the Rio Grande in Albuquerque. Its span reaches from the Pajarito Mesa in the South Valley running north towards Bernalillo. With the city of Albuquerque expanding westward on the lower portion of the mesa, there were a number of subdivisions being developed
Decades ago the West Mesa was just a dry, arid outpost of Albuquerque. But by the 1980s, rapid expansion began westward with significant growth in the West Mesa region.
Between 1980 and the 2000, the population grew from 40,000 to about 200,000. This resulted in the growth of the housing projects from the 90’s and to the early 2000’s. In addition, two major highways, the I-40 and route 66. That one from Cars.
DiDi:
Get your kicks on route 66.
Ricky Frailey:
Route 66.
DiDi:
Oh okay.
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, that one.
DiDi:
Thats a long stretch.
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, that very same one. Yep. So I-40 and route 66, actually attracted an increase in both visitors and businesses, which significantly increased the population of the West Mesa area.
DiDi:
Well, yeah, because it runs from the ... to L.A.
Ricky Frailey:
Yep. The growth in housing continued until around 2006, when prices began to decline nationally, and that led to the collapse of the housing bubble in 2008. We're all aware of that.
DiDi:
Yeah
Ricky Frailey:
The recession brought a swift halt to the housing development in the West Mesa area, as I'm sure it did in many other places in the country. Of course, many jobs were lost to New Mexico, including numerous ones in real estate.
This left the area with many housing developments only in the planning stages, underscored by many excavated and vacant plots. So you're getting a sense it's like a ghost town, but one that wasn't even fully built.
DiDi:
Yeah, they just kind of stopped.
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, exactly. Residents found themselves living in developments with sparse housing, with neighbor and cleared plots remaining vacant. So
DiDi:
No stores
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah
DiDi:
Just a rural area... just gotta drive out for everything.
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, exactly. It paused in time and construction.
DiDi:
Wow. That's really weird
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah. One such section where it was sparsely populated was 118th Street in the southwest corner of Albuquerque. Christine Ross and her husband and dog had recently moved there. They took frequent walks through one of the sections with housing just in the planning stages, and they used the cleared land as a walking path.
It was there that in 2009, in this desert area near one of the housing developments, that a horrific discovery was made. Specifically, Christine Ross was on her regular evening walk on February 2nd, 2009, when her dog, Ruca, found a bone that turned out to be human.
This is how she stumbled on the largest crime scene in Albuquerque history.
There have been many suspects named, but there's never been any arrests or charges laid. The remains of 11 woman, and-
DiDi:
Stop playing
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, mhm
The remains of 11 women and one unborn baby were found buried in shallow graves
DiDi:
Oh, my goodness
Ricky Frailey:
Subsequent investigations revealed that these victims had gone missing between the years of 2001 and 2005.
The West Mesa name has therefore become synonymous with the graveyard of an unknown serial killer, labeled variously as the West Mesa Bone Collector, the West Mesa Serial Killer, and the West Mesa Grave Digger.
DiDi:
Ooh, oh my goodness, Ricky Frailey. Ooh, oh my gosh.
That's a crazy discovery to stumble upon like while walking your dog.
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah. You’re out walking your dog... could you imagine?
DiDi:
No, because I got sh*t to do. You know I got a whole day... and you come across like a bone and then you report it like, you know, a human bone?
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah
DiDi:
A human bones is very distinctive. Oh my God... to even be, like, trying to get it from your dog. Like-
Ricky Frailey:
Oh, yeah no I can’t
DiDi:
Imagine trying to touch it. Like, you know, it's not cleaned off.
You know, there's probably still some type of carnage on there.
Oh my gosh
This one took me.
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah. I don't think that... I don't know what I would do if I’m out for a walk and my dog just comes back with like a femur in its mouth.
DiDi:
Boy in the box. I'm going... I don't know if I make it. I'll go home, you know. That's that first man that stumbled upon his body and he didn't say nothing he went home
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah
DiDi:
He looked in that box and went home.
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah I... Honestly
DiDi:
Not today. Not today, devil. Not today
Ricky Frailey:
Not today satan
DiDi:
Not today satan
Ricky Frailey:
No. It's crazy. I don't know what I would have done in that situation
DiDi:
Oh my god.
Ricky Frailey:
Especially in 2009 like-
DiDi:
Yes!
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, thats crazy
DiDi:
Man stop playing with me. Go on.
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, so she and her husband were walking Ruca when he found a human bone. Christine didn't anticipate, and I'm sure none of us could have anticipated that soon there would be many more. The scene would enlarge beyond anyone's imagination, all with the Ruca’s single discovery.
Ruca started sniffing at something sticking out of the ground, but they didn't think much of it until closer inspection. Christine grew concerned when it looked to her while she was looking at it like a human bone. So what she did was she snapped a picture of it and-
DiDi:
Yeah, that's what I was thinking when you say that, like, what would you do? I'm gonna snap a picture and be like, hey po-
Ricky Frailey:
Well, she didn't even... She didn't start with the police. She didn't want to-
DiDi:
She went on Facebook?
Ricky Frailey:
No, what she did was she texted it to her sister. Her sister was a nurse.
DiDi:
Oh okay
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, shortly after her sister did confirmed that the bone was, in fact, human.
DiDi:
Oh, yeah.
Ricky Frailey:
And it looked like either a femur or a rib bone from the picture
DiDi:
I’m gonna call the police regardless cause ain’t no cows supposed to be over here. Like if it was-
Ricky Frailey:
Out in the desert
DiDi:
You know what I'm saying? Like if it was a cow bone or like, a giraffe bone... prehistoric giraffe bone. You know what I'm saying? Like I'm just throwing ‘em out there I'm not trying to say a Tyrannosaurus Rex because you wanna..., I'm sorry
They already excavated the ground, this was a new formed housing development. Like she was living in the sticks
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, and this was up by the surface
DiDi:
And then this is one of those yards that they had excavated and they didn't finish it out. So they probably just, you know... flattened it out and walked away because they couldn't leave it like stacked up. It’s crazy.
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, no... it's crazy
Once she got confirmation from her sister that she wasn't crazy and that, that was, you know, most likely human bone, they called the police
DiDi:
Of course
Ricky Frailey:
They documented the find and confirmed, the police confirmed, that it was indeed human and this led them to search further in order to find the rest of this person's body and possibly identify them.
DiDi:
But they got to map out that whole area.
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah.
There were more than 24 detectives collaborating with authorities, medical investigators, and volunteers to comb the area. Little did they know that they were about to unearth the largest crime scene in Albuquerque history.
The investigators, cops, and just various authorities and volunteers work through many feet of soil, but they experienced great challenges as the earth had already been dug up, like you said, and excavated by the developers and the builders.
They found many bones, some in shallow graves, some as deep as 15ft underground. In addition, scavenging animals had done their part to make the search very difficult.
DiDi:
Yeah, cause Ruca was trying to eat at like get at too. Ruca was like, Dig that up! That's a good ball!
Ricky Frailey:
That's a good ball. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And that's just one lady's dog, can you imagine the coyotes? Uh- yeah, I'm pretty sure coyotes are in New Mexico
DiDi:
Yeah, they run... and wild boar.
Ricky Frailey:
Oh, yeah, true true. They do have those down there
DiDi:
That's wild boar land. Uh huh
Ricky Frailey:
Hey good luck with that.
DiDi:
And they overran.
Ricky Frailey:
Those things are crazy
DiDi:
They done got extremely overran in these last few years. But in the 2000’s that's when they was running rampant even more so because they were untamed. It’s not that a lot of people were living out there.
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, no that's rough... just not even from a human standpoint, but just like nature
DiDi:
Yeah
Ricky Frailey:
All the animals... the environment itself. That's a rough area really.
DiDi:
It really is
Ricky Frailey:
Most of the bones that were found were intact, but they were scattered in and around the construction equipment that was left there. This presented a huge puzzle which required weeks to put them back together.
In the process, it was discovered that it was not just one body, but several... and that many were buried in the same vicinity.
It was more than a week before the police admitted that the bones were all human.
DiDi:
Oh my God.
Ricky Frailey:
During a month long search, police unearthed the remains of 11 female victims and one unborn child. The victims ranged in age from 15 to 32, except for obviously, the unborn child.
DiDi:
Man, from 15 to 32?
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, the youngest was 15. The eldest was 32
DiDi:
So, this is a young killer
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, yeah
DiDi:
Oh my goodness
Ricky Frailey: The painstaking job of identifying the victims now followed. The victim's were mostly Hispanic and were identified as follows:
Jamie Barela, she was 15
Monica Candelaria, who was 22
Victoria Chavez, 26
Virginia Cloven, 24
Syllannia Edwards, 15
Cinnamon Elks, who was 32
Doreen Marquez, 24
Julie Nieto, 24
Veronica Romero, 28
Evelyn Salazar, 27
Michelle Valdez, 22
I do want to say, you know... that's a lot of people, a lot of families, a lot of pain and heartbreak there. So I do want to highlight the victims.
DiDi:
Yes.
Ricky Frailey:
Of this crime and not just talk about the crime itself
DiDi:
Yes definitely, because that's 11 lives and-
Ricky Frailey:
Mhm
DiDi:
Yes
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah
DiDi:
Did they catch- I want more... I need to know that they... I need closure for this one.
Ricky Frailey:
Umm... we'll get into it.
The first victim to be identified was Victoria Chavez. She was found by Ruca on February 2nd, 2009.
DiDi:
And that’s the person... That's the body that we found.
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, that Ruca found.
DiDi:
Wow
Ricky Frailey:
Her remains were in an advanced state of decomposition, and with so much time passing, it was impossible to determine her cause of death.
Victoria disappeared sometime in 2004, and her mom reported her missing in 2005.
DiDi:
Oh, my goodness.
Ricky Frailey:
She was 26 years old and a mother of two.
Over her short life, she had unfortunately fallen into the life as a sex worker, and was a drug user. At the time of her disappearance, she had been reportedly in and out of prison, caused by her run ins with the law for prostitution.
She was, in the eyes of a killer, the perfect victim. With all the challenges that she faced and with no one noticing for quite a while that she had gone missing.
DiDi:
It's unfortunate.
Ricky Frailey:
It's unclear what was done to investigate Victoria's disappearance at the time. The police didn't have much to go on anyways.
Victoria was also the first to be identified. Her family had submitted her dental records around the time that they reported her missing, so that's how they identified her when they found the rest of her body
DiDi:
Man
Ricky Frailey:
As investigators continue to excavate the area, they would pull many more remains and bones from the Mesa grave site.
The medical examiner for the area had his hands full trying to determine if these bones were human. It took months to make the determination
By February 21st... so remember it started on the 2nd with Ruca. By the 21st, the remains of two more women were excavated from the site.
DiDi:
Oh my God.
Ricky Frailey:
On the 23rd, a full body was unearthed. This was the eighth, if you include partial remains, this was the eighth person to be found. This woman had been pregnant at the time of her murder, as the decomposed remains of an infant was found with her. It was later estimated that she was roughly four months pregnant when her life was taken.
She was the second victim to be identified. Even though she was the eighth to be pulled out, she was the second to be identified.
She was Gina Michelle Valdez, born August 1st, 1982. She was 22 years old and the eldest of three girls. She had previously had two children: a daughter and then a son, as a young teenager.
Although she did her best to take care of her two children, her lifestyle choices eventually led her to associate with the wrong kind of people, where she became involved in sex work and habitual drug use. Her lifestyle and drug use resulted in her being around periodically, but for long intervals of time, she would be absent from her family and children.
Eventually, she would just not return, and in February 2005, she was reported as a missing person by her father. She would remain missing even as her case languished for lack of investigation. Although an exact time of her disappearance was not pinned down, it appears that she disappeared roughly in the same time period as Victoria Chavez. That would be 2004. Late 2004
DiDi:
Wow
Ricky Frailey:
The total number of bodies unearthed was 12. This is including the baby
DiDi:
Oh my gosh... the baby, yeah
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah. They were mainly found in the same area of about 10 by 30 yards. So 30ft by 90ft. So that's all the same area. That's a significant-
DiDi:
That's a small yard
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah
DiDi:
That's like one house plot.
Ricky Frailey:
Exactly. Yeah, they were all... they were mainly found in that same area. The implications there were hard to deny that they were all the victims of possibly the same perpetrator.
DiDi:
Mhm
Ricky Frailey:
A minimal number of bones were scattered, but they were mostly contained in the same place, with many of the skeletons still being intact and fine. That showed that most of the bodies were not drastically impacted by the construction.
DiDi:
Uh huh, cause it was the construction worker. Solved the case. There you go
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, you would think that, you know, if you’re digging up a place where a bunch of shallow graves are.
DiDi:
Who gonna let them be digging up over there? Like you just gonna let some random man come to your neighborhood in the middle of the night. I know white people is nosy and white people moved out here, stop playing with me. You know, there's not black people and Mexican people, of course, as well, but this neighborhood
And you know Mexican people know what's going on in that neighborhood. Mexican people don’t never go to sleep, stop playing with me. I know. I used to live in a Mexican neighborhood. I used to live in Texas
Ricky Frailey:
Don't ever go to sleep.
DiDi:
And I know that ain't nothing about nobody about to just dig up the yard. This had to happen when the construction people were outside. This was a construction worker in charge of, go ahead put in that stuff. He said, I'm going to be the last one. I'm gonna put them bodies in there.
Oh, it's a creep
Ricky Frailey:
That's crazy
DiDi:
And he like the prey on the weak, these are all weak people. Like people. Well, I'm not saying
Ricky Frailey:
In unfortunate circumstances
DiDi:
Unfortunate circumstances. Vulnerable
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah
DiDi:
He's preying on vulnerable women.
Ricky Frailey:
They are. Like, I think I said in last episode, the less dead
DiDi:
Oh my goodness, he’s an incel
Ricky Frailey:
An incel?
DiDi:
I don't want to put down blaming no group of people, but this is a lot of women.
Ricky Frailey:
It is, yeah.
As the investigation itself continued, a third victim, Cinnamon Elks, was identified. Her lifestyle before going missing paralleled that of the first two victims. So obviously this person or group of people, still unsolved, had a profile.
DiDi:
Yeah
Ricky Frailey:
A victim profile
DiDi:
Yeah
Ricky Frailey:
She grew up with her youth, running along the lines of regular children. But by her teenage years her life became troubled, and she escalated into drug use.
DiDi:
Oh, baby.
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah.
DiDi:
Low hanging fruit.
Ricky Frailey:
Mhm
Escalated into drug use and consequently drug abuse and sex work. She racked up 14 convictions for prostitution and solicitation and-
DiDi:
She was a thug
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, she was... she had some run ins with law enforcement
DiDi: Mhm
Ricky Frailey:
She would be arrested a dozen times for drug possession. By July of 2004, she would go missing after her final arrest. By August of 2004, a month after her arrest, her worried mother reported her missing.
DiDi:
She just was trying to find her way. She wasn’t no thug.
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah
DiDi:
She was just trying to find her way and she just kept on running into the law. She was low hanging fruit.
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah. I mean
DiDi:
She just really was. She was so young.
Ricky Frailey:
Life circumstances really do that to people and it's awful.
DiDi:
It impacts who you meet.
Ricky Frailey:
Oh 100%
DiDi:
It impacts who you let speak to you, yeah
Ricky Frailey:
100% yeah
DiDi:
Yeah
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah
So, Cinnamon had a habit of calling her mother and wishing her a happy birthday whenever she wasn't, you know, in confinement. But her mother knew that she was free, she wasn't locked up, but she hadn't called her for her birthday and that's what got her mom worried.
DiDi:
Yeah.
Ricky Frailey:
Nothing was done, as the police informed Diana Wilhelm, which is Cinnamon's mother, that she was an adult and had every right to go missing if she wanted to.
DiDi:
Thats... yeah...
Ricky Frailey:
Which I mean, it's true, but like you have to listen to people.
DiDi:
Yeah. You know people's habits.
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, exactly.
It wasn't until December of that year, so months later, that the police report was finally filed. And by that time so much time had passed that it was a challenge to find anything on the trail that had gone cold months ago.
DiDi:
Yeah, for sure.
Ricky Frailey:
Most of the family.
DiDi:
Oh and also, even if it was the construction workers and stuff... Shoot
Ricky Frailey:
They’re gone now
DiDi:
They gone now
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah
DiDi:
Yeah, and those people, they don't know who have they have working for them
Ricky Frailey:
No. No, I mean anybody could be doing anything for real, especially in a job like that.
DiDi:
Yeah
Ricky Frailey:
People come and go
DiDi:
A lot of times people come up at Dunkin Donuts in a group of 40.
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah. Nah people come and go and... yeah
DiDi:
Yeah, the trail is like, really cold for when she went missing like... it’s so long
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah. Police didn't do anything, and I think that that's something that needs to be changed.
DiDi:
Yeah, they need to take it serious. They need to have a database where if they don't know, you got to come in.
Hey, turn your name in.
Your name?
Oh, I turned your name in, check into it.
You know what I'm saying? Like a check in database on these people. Like, stop waiting till they been gone or making all these...
I know how my daughter is. I know my daughter call me every day, every morning we talk. We sit here and talk and Kiki, and then we go. You know what I'm saying?
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah
DiDi:
She was going, I know she's supposed to be here it was three days later. I'm telling you now, it's been that time.
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah. Like she isn't... like we need to do something.
DiDi:
Yeah, immediately. We need to have a database immediately where we start looking for people. Like we have an Amber alert for children, we also need to have one for adults, where if things don't look right-
Now, granted, we know that adults will go lay up somewhere for a couple days and that’s they right or whatever, but we need to have a check in board. You know what I'm saying?
Like girl, you know you didn't do the check in board, you know what I'm saying?
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah
DiDi:
You didn’t tell nobody so I put your name on the board.
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah.
DiDi:
Be mad at me if you want to
Ricky Frailey:
Hey, I mean, that's-
Yeah, be mad if you want, but
DiDi:
Yeah, I was looking for you. I was concerned
Ricky Frailey:
Somebody cares, yeah
DiDi:
I care
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, that's something that we need to change honestly.
The most that the family could do was provide the police with a copy of Cinnamon's dental records in the event that her body was ever found, which, that's such a sad thing to have to do
DiDi:
That’s sad to do
Ricky Frailey:
Mhm
DiDi:
But they need to. They need to make sure that most people has turned it in. They have to.
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah.
Four years later, unfortunately, that record was used to identify her body. It was the 12th body to be found at the dig site.
At age 32, she was the oldest victim of this mystery killer
DiDi:
Right! I was about to say, Oh my God, how for do... No, oh I meant... she was killed four years prior to that?
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, well when they found
DiDi:
That's sad that she was the oldest one of them, she was a 32 year old
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, at the time of her death
DiDi:
Yeah. But, she had been missing for four years?
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, she went missing in the end of 2004, around 2005
DiDi:
Wow.
Ricky Frailey:
And they weren't discovered until 2009.
DiDi:
Right... oh my God. That is a lot
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, after Ruca dug up that first bone
DiDi:
Oh
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, so...
Yeah, there was four years where her family was just sitting around wondering where she was and what happened to her
DiDi:
I can’t imagine... I can’t imagine, could you?
Ricky Frailey:
No, I... That's such a hard situation, that's so gut wrenching honestly
DiDi:
Yeah
Ricky Frailey:
Diana Wilhelm identified her daughter and confirmed to police that her daughter was acquainted with the previously identified two victims. So they did all know each other at least, or know of each other
DiDi:
Oh my gosh
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah
On the heels of the information that Wilhelm shared with the police, another victim was identified.
Ricky Frailey:
No surprise here that she belonged to the same social circle as the first three
DiDi:
Oh man
Ricky Frailey:
She was Juliean (Julie) Cyndie Nieto. She was quite petite and led a regular life, giving birth to a son as a teenager. This normal life would go on until the age of 19, when she became dependent on drugs. Her history mirrors the lives of the other three victims unearthed at the West Mesa dig site.
The last sighting of her was around August of 2004, shortly after which she was reported missing. Again, nothing much was done to find her at the time. Notably, Julie was also acquainted with the first three victims that were identified. They had all gone missing within a six month period between 2004 and 2005.
The plot continued to thicken. It was really becoming apparent that all these ladies were connected not only by lifestyle and cause of death, but may have had the same killer in common.
If it wasn't obvious already, this is the work of a serial killer.
Investigations into the habits, boyfriends, acquaintances, and activities of the four identified victims were hampered by the transience of their life, how they lived, and the randomness of their encounters. This, coupled with the length of time that it took for police to look into their disappearances, made their cases rather difficult to even begin to crack
DiDi:
Yeah
Ricky Frailey:
Add to this, the investigators were trying to make some headway into the identification of seven other victims found at the “pit” as they were beginning to call the burial site. So they were calling it the pit.
They began looking into missing sex workers as far back as 15 years prior. So in 2009, that would have been 1994. As far back as 1994 is where they're going to try and identify these women.
Veronica Romero was 28 years old when she disappeared in February of 2004, around Valentine's Day. And she was the fifth to be identified, although she was the seventh to be found. Her identity was revealed on April 2nd, 2009.
So that's what, two months later?
DiDi:
Mmm, yeah
Ricky Frailey:
Because it started in February.
DiDi:
Mhm
Ricky Frailey:
She was an only child, but had five children herself. Again, her lifestyle choices were-
DiDi:
Oooh...five children
Ricky Frailey:
Mhm
Her lifestyle choices were similar to the four already identified victims. And her family, although hopeful, figured that she may be among them once the news of the other four victims broke. They still hung on to hope that she was out there somewhere but-
DiDi:
Yeah, they knew she might of been there because... her group
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah. Yeah, the family was familiar with this...
DiDi:
Sound like he was in the same area
(Excuse me)
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, serial killers tend to... There's this profiling technique or tactic that the FBI uses when they're trying to hunt for a serial killer is where it's about proximity
DiDi:
Mhm, access
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, it's access, it's proximity. The serial killer is usually in the area
DiDi:
Yeah, he knew how to get them
Ricky Frailey:
Frequents the area.
DiDi:
He knew how to pull that money out his pocket, or put a little crack on his hand and keep walking
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah
DiDi:
Whatever he did, horrible thing
Ricky Frailey:
Oh, yeah.
Veronica Romero was last seen in a white pickup truck. And as with the previous victims, not much was done to investigate her disappearance. Now too, too much time had passed for there to be any evidence that could be used to point to her killer
DiDi:
Mhm
Ricky Frailey:
On the same day that Veronica was identified, a sixth victim was named: Monica Candelaria. She was only around 21 years old when she vanished
DiDi:
Oh my gosh... another baby
Ricky Frailey:
Her parents were Gabriel and Isabel, and she had one brother, Gabriel Jr. She was also a mother to a little boy named Michael.
It was surmised that she had ties to one of the local gangs, and that she fell into the world of prostitution and possibly drug use and abuse. The last sighting of Monica was May 11th, 2003, in the South Valley of Albuquerque, adjacent to Atrisco Drive and Central Avenue
Around two weeks from the date that she went missing, she was reported missing. Uncharacteristically, police did make an effort to look into her case for about six months.
Her mother later reported that a man named Isaac had been claiming that Monica had been killed and buried in West Mesa
DiDi:
What??
Ricky Frailey:
Mhm
Many of the rumors started way back in 2003, but the authorities didn't search that vast area, the vast West Mesa because- Well, I can only assume that at that time, in 2003, this was before all the housing project. It was just open mesa desert
DiDi:
Yeah
Ricky Frailey:
So there wasn't very much headway in searching out there
DiDi:
That desert
Ricky Frailey:
Mhm
DiDi:
Come on now, who gonna comb the desert?
Ricky Frailey:
The serial killers.
The family however did conduct their own search, but although a jawbone was discovered, they didn't find Monica. By October of 2003, Monica's case was given over to the cold case unit by the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office. It would remain that way until February of ‘09, when she would be the third body unearthed and-
DiDi:
Hold up! They found Monica's jawbone before? I thought you said they found her jawbone, where was her jawbone?? They had found her jawbone when it was discovered... when they was investigating the first six months?
Ricky Frailey:
No, they found... The family found A jawbone, but it wasn't Monica's
DiDi:
Ah!
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah
DiDi:
Oh my goodness... okay
Ricky Frailey:
I don't know if-
DiDi:
Lets just leave this jawbone alone. This is a random jawbone
Oh my goodness
Ricky Frailey:
No, well in my research I wasn't able to tell if it was a human jawbone or not
DiDi:
Wow
Ricky Frailey:
But they did find a jawbone, but they weren't able to find any trace of Monica.
DiDi:
Oh my God, that had to be the creepiest jawbone you ever found.
Ricky Frailey:
Oh, 100%.
But yeah, it would remain cold until February of ‘09, when she would be the third body that was unearthed, and the sixth to be identified. Her cause of death, however, could not be determined because of decomposition.
The seventh victim that was identified was Doreen Marquez. At age 28, in December of 2004, she was reported missing. She was one of five children of David and Dorothy Marquez. She was born August 31st, 1976 and she had two daughters. She had a pretty stable life growing up, and was loving and attentive to her children, Destinie and Mercedes. She started having problems when her then boyfriend was sent to jail. She wasn't able to cope with that and shortly after turned to using heroin.
DiDi:
Oh
Ricky Frailey:
She went to jail for drug possession, but was never jailed for prostitution, although the police believe that she dabbled in it somewhat.
Dental records from some work that she had done while in jail would come in handy in helping to identify her remains.
DiDi:
Man, that’s so bad. So sad
Ricky Frailey:
Now we move on to Syllania Edwards, a 15 year old African-American girl who was the eighth victim to be identified
DiDi:
Woah
Ricky Frailey:
She didn't fit the profile of the other victims racially, the others were either Latina or Caucasian.
DiDi:
Maybe their life though
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah. She was also much younger. She was 15, and she was not from and didn't live in Albuquerque
DiDi:
What?
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah. So she's kind of like... she's different from the rest of them
DiDi:
She is the key.
Ricky Frailey:
She, in fact, actually lived in a foster home about 500 miles east of Albuquerque in a town called Lawton, Oklahoma.
Sidebar: I hate Lawton, Oklahoma
DiDi:
For real though
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah
DiDi:
That's where um... Where Black Wall Street was
Ricky Frailey:
Uhh... no, no
DiDi:
No, that’s Oklahoma City
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah. Um, Lawton-
DiDi:
It was really racist there
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, they were. Lawton is where Fort Sill is.
DiDi:
Ohh
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah. Fort Sill, Oklahoma. That's where the US Army’s air defense artillery and I think probably regular artillery, field artillery, schools are at. I was there for air defense artillery.
I hate Lawton, just like I hate Augusta, Georgia. That's where the Signal Center of Excellence is, it’s where I went to AIT
DiDi:
Oh man
Ricky Frailey:
I hate both those places
DiDi:
It doesn't sound fun either
Ricky Frailey:
With a passion. Oh, no it's not fun
DiDi:
You said with a passion.
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, with a passion
DiDi:
I’m never going there
Ricky Frailey:
I hate both of those locations with passion.
DiDi:
We not doing no shows there
Ricky Frailey:
No, no.
Syllania Edwards was from Lawton, Oklahoma. She lived there until August 2003 when she ran away and was reported missing. She was reported missing being classified as, “an endangered runaway,” presumably because of her age. She was born in Harris County, Texas. So, Houston, in or around. She never knew her father and at age five, when her mother was incarcerated, she and her seven siblings were sent into the foster care system.
DiDi:
Oh
Ricky Frailey:
Mhm
From 2003 to 2009, no one had a clue of her whereabouts except for a reported citing in Aurora, Colorado in May of 2004. She was staying at a motel known for housing sex workers. The theory was that she had somehow gotten involved in sex work among a group of others, including three other females.
Police have never been able to identify this group. It was only after a sketch of her remains and a request for her dental records, that she had been identified.
DiDi:
Man...
Ricky Frailey:
She was described as humorous with a fiery personality
Now, let's move on to the ninth victim. She was Virginia Cloven, described as a bright presence and a teacher's pet. Victoria's life was not easy. In high school, one of her brothers was murdered, and shortly after, Virginia and another brother ran away from home. So one brother was murdered and then her and one of her other brothers ran away
DiDi:
Wow. It must have been bad at home
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah. She ended up living with her boyfriend, but tragically, soon after he was hit by a car and left comatose
DiDi:
Oh my goodness
Ricky Frailey:
Having cut ties with most of her friends and her family, Virginia turned to drug use and sex work as her life spiraled downwards. She would occasionally make contact with home. The last time that they heard from her was in June 2004, when she happily shared that she was getting married.
The next time they heard anything about her was when the authorities called to inform them that she was one of the West Mesa Bone Collectors victims
DiDi:
Oh my goodness. Oh my gosh
Oh my goodness. This is just too much.
Ricky Frailey:
It is. Rest in peace to all of these victims.
DiDi:
Yeah I'm glad we all come to God. We all shall return
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah.
The next victim to be identified was 25 year old Evelyn Salazar. Her identity was revealed in November of 2009. The 11th victim was her 15 year old cousin, Jamie Barela.
DiDi:
Oh my goodness.
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, so Evelyn Salazar-
DiDi:
Oh her and Jamie was cousins
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, were related cousins
DiDi:
Oh my goodness
Ricky Frailey: They left home-
DiDi: He like groups, he was taken them girls together.
Ricky Frailey:
Well he had a type.
DiDi:
Yeah, definitely so
Ricky Frailey:
Evelyn and Jamie, left home together in March of 2004, headed to a park near the Albuquerque International Airport. Evelyn was a mother of two and was said to be very caring. However, she did have a history of prostitution and was a drug user. In contrast, Jamie was a normal teenager. She had no history of drug use or sex work.
She had only disappeared from home once and that was to go stay with her father. Both had planned to return home within an hour. No one knows what happened to them.
DiDi:
So they left. Oh, she just consequently got caught up with... Jamie got caught up with her cousin
Ricky Frailey:
With Evelyn, yeah.
DiDi:
With Evelyn. Oh my gosh
Ricky Frailey:
A missing persons report was filed on April 3rd, 2004. Jamie was not identified until January 2010, as she didn't fit the profile of the other victims. Like I said, she wasn't a drug user, she didn't have any run ins with the law, she wasn't a sex worker.
DiDi:
But they didn't look into when they identified her cousin? Or they didn't identify her cousin yet?
Ricky Frailey:
Well, yeah-
DiDi:
They did. They just identified her, yeah
Ricky Frailey:
They identified Evelyn in November of 2009, and then Jamie
DiDi:
They didn’t think about Jamie when they...Like, automatically think about her cause they left together
Ricky Frailey:
I guess not
DiDi:
They left together, so they said they were leaving for an hour
Ricky Frailey:
They did leave together. But yeah, it was about two months later, November 2009 to-
DiDi:
Maybe they was working to identify her
Ricky Frailey:
Maybe
DiDi:
Yeah
Ricky Frailey:
To January 2010
DiDi:
Oh goodness gracious
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah
DiDi:
You know DNA had just got kicked off and started solving all these murders around that time. Around that time DNA was just getting warmed up in it like solving all these cold cases, you know? In 2009, 2010, 2008. That’s where a lot of cases were solved by DNA.
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah. DNA technology in crime scene investigation has helped solve a lot of cold cases that wouldn't have been solved.
DiDi:
But the backlog was so strong because they had storage cases in California and stuff, and owned freezers probably at Fort Knox, probably...
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah. So finally, all of the victims had been identified. It took roughly a year, but at least these unfortunate women regained their names and identities. The families had at least received some closure.
DiDi:
Yeah
Ricky Frailey:
Now they knew where their loved ones, their daughters, their sisters were for all that time.
DiDi:
Yeah. Give you some peace because that's unnerving.
Ricky Frailey:
Oh, yeah.
DiDi:
And unrest
Ricky Frailey:
The big question now was exactly who was responsible.
DiDi:
Yes
Ricky Frailey:
Who could have done such an evil deed? Who could have murdered all 12 of these victims?
Now, because there was no evidence, especially because so much time had passed between the crimes and the discovery, we're talking at least four years here. It was a challenge to pinpoint any specific suspects.
The notion of a serial killer has certainly been in the thoughts of authorities, but there have been later theories. One of them is the probable connection with sex trafficking. In 2010, there was a reward offered for information regarding the murders. So far, nobody has come forward with any information and the reward is still being offered. There have been a number of persons of interest in the West Mesa murders, but there's never been enough evidence to name any of them as true suspects. Two of them, unfortunately, have already passed away, while the others are still alive.
The persons of interest who may have played a role in the murders, or who may have information, are as follows:
Lorenzo Montoya, 39
Lou Fred Reynolds, 60
Scott Kimball 47
Robert Howard Bruce, 51
Ron Irwin or Joseph Blea
So, I have a guess as to who it probably was, his name was one of the ones that I just read.
DiDi:
Oh come on, come bring it cause I wanna know
Ricky Frailey:
But I'm going to hold off on saying who I think it is.
DiDi:
You gonna tell us about him?
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah.
DiDi:
Tell us, because I want to know the circumstances on why they feel like... Because, you know, I'm good at this part, you know I'm FBI by nature. You know, I'm FBI.
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah.
So let's start off with Lorenzo Montoya. Like I said, he was 39, and he was a printing company employee who resided in a trailer situated at 4000 Blake Road Northwest, which was not too far from the burial site. Montoya had solicited a 19 year old prostitute named Sherika Hill, sometime in December of 2006. She went to his house to dance for him.
Before leaving to go there, she informed her boyfriend/pimp, an 18 year old man by the name of Frederick Williams. He drove her to Montoya's trailer. He waited a short distance away, and when an hour had passed and there was no Sherika in sight, Williams went to see what was going on. He met a horrific sight.
DiDi:
What??
Ricky Frailey:
Montoya was attempting to put Sharika’s lifeless body in the trunk of his car.
DiDi:
What??
Ricky Frailey:
He had bound her ankles, knees ,and wrists with duct tape and electrical cords.
DiDi:
Oh my goodness
Ricky Frailey:
A struggle broke out and Williams shot Montoya. Montoya died.
DiDi:
Aww man.
Ricky Frailey:
Police ruled the case self-defense and Williams was never prosecuted
DiDi:
Right.
Ricky Frailey:
Based upon the organized and brutal way in which the murder was carried out, police suspected that it was not Montoya's first killing
DiDi:
Right
Ricky Frailey:
Investigations into Montoya's background revealed a plethora of offenses and run ins with the law related to prostitution. He was involved in different domestic violence incidents and arrested for aggravated battery in 1986. Those charges unfortunately were-
DiDi:
Battery? He hate prostitutes. He assaulted somebody.
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah. Unfortunately, those charges were later dropped by the complainant.
In 1994, he pled guilty to domestic violence, but the sentence was deferred. Then there was a solicitation of an undercover detective, and later an attempted sexual assault and strangulation of a sex worker who had gone with him into a nearby alley. This dude was a monster
DiDi:
Yeah
Ricky Frailey:
He subjected her to all manner of sexual indignities in which, according to her, he took a lot of pleasure
DiDi:
Oh my gosh
Ricky Frailey:
That was in 1999, and in 2003, he was again arrested for solicitation. The next time police would have any contact with Montoya was when he was shot to death. In 2009, police would start to suspect that maybe Montoya might have had some connection to the West Mesa murders
DiDi:
Hmm yeah. Maybe
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah
Among his various possessions that had been confiscated by the police was a series of sex tapes showing local sex workers
DiDi:
What??
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, the majority of these women were still unidentified. Montoya, however, remains one of the most likely suspects in the murders.
DiDi:
So they didn't see not one, not one of our victims?
Ricky Frailey:
I don't know, personally
DiDi:
Okay cause it’s a vast desert. It could be more than one serial killer around there so I don’t wanna be hasty
Ricky Frailey:
Oh, yeah, it's a chilling number. I think the FBI said that there's probably...
DiDi:
Oh my God, Ricky Frailey, do you know the number of serial killers?
Ricky Frailey:
Active serial killers?
DiDi:
Wow
Ricky Frailey:
I'm pretty sure the FBI said it was like 20 to 30 active serial killers running around the US.
DiDi:
Oh, crazy people everywhere
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, there's crazy people everywhere. Actually, it might be higher
DiDi:
You said how many again?
Ricky Frailey:
I said 20 to 30. I’d have to reconfirm that
DiDi:
Ohh. Oh my goodness. You know, this episode my lips have been trembling from the beginning. Like, if you could see this, my lips is like, so scared every time you talk
Ricky Frailey:
Okay, yeah. So, according to Scientific American, which I'm just going to take their word for it. I haven't looked into them. There are between 25 and 50 active serial killers in the United States at any given time. So maybe up to one per state?
DiDi:
Oh so we're taking them out and replacing them
Ricky Frailey:
Unfortunately, yeah, that's what it seems like
DiDi:
Oh my goodness. One is created every day
Ricky Frailey
Yeah, so on to person of interest, I guess
Number two: Lou Fred Reynolds, he was a 60 year old pimp.
DiDi:
You know what? When you first said 60 I was about to say, rule him out it was a whole bunch of young people. Ain’t no 60 year old man bout to pull no Lou. Ole Lou coming through here
No, but... oh my gosh. Tell me about Lou.
Ricky Frailey:
He was born and grew up in Albuquerque, but later moved to live in the California Bay area. Reynolds was a drug addict and alcoholic who was able to kick the habits after he returned to Albuquerque and enrolled in AA. He passed away on the 2nd of January 2009, and his cause of death was listed as natural causes.
He had many run ins with the police related to prostitution and two arrests, one in 1998 and the other in 2001, on suspicion of promoting prostitution.
DiDi:
Pimping ain't easy.
Ricky Frailey:
No it’s not.
He had worked for many years as a pimp through his own company called Have Mercy Escorts
DiDi:
Ooh
Ricky Frailey:
Thats goes kinda hard
DiDi:
He was a gentle pimp
Ricky Frailey:
I mean-
DiDi:
You said have mercy. He had mercy for his h*es, he was nice. Well, I don't know. I don't know what's going on Lou
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, for real.
DiDi:
Because pimping ain't good.
Ricky Frailey:
No, it's not. It's not good. It ain't easy, but it's not good either
He was also believed to have had some personal connection with Doreen Marquez and Victoria Chavez
DiDi:
Okay
Ricky Frailey:
And Victoria Reed
DiDi:
Oh, yeah okay. So I need some leads. There you go.
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah
Victoria Reed had disappeared, but wasn't among the victims excavated at the West Mesa. So she's somebody else who's missing, but her remains weren't found there
DiDi:
Okay
Ricky Frailey:
Another maybe related, but seemingly unrelated case
DiDi:
No because Lou ain't about to be burying no 11 bodies now
Ricky Frailey:
Hey you'd be surprised
DiDi:
Yeah, I mean... unless he had a lot of help. You know, he didn’t sound like he was big time pimpin
Ricky Frailey:
You'd be surprised honestly
DiDi:
He wasn't big time pimpin
Ricky Frailey:
Hey, I don't know. It's not like we can ask him
DiDi:
He was on drugs
Ricky Frailey:
He was, yeah. Well, no he wasn't. He kicked those
DiDi:
Yeah
Ricky Frailey:
He kicked those habits
DiDi:
Yeah. Okay.
Ricky Frailey:
Reynolds had been making inquiries about the missing woman
DiDi:
Mmm
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah. He was asking around about them
DiDi:
See? He was looking for them. He was trying to put them to work. That's was sincere looking for them
Ricky Frailey:
I mean, he is reported as saying that he wanted to help them have a good life. Up to a few months before his death in October of 2008, he was trying to find them. According to friends and some family, he appeared to be genuinely concerned about their welfare.
After his death, several pictures of the West Mesa victims were found in his home. But there was no tangible evidence to link him to the murders
DiDi:
Yeah
Ricky Frailey:
Reynolds was cleared as a suspect however. And police do not believe that he's involved in the murders
DiDi:
I don't either. A 60 year old pimp got a heart. A 60 year old pimp got too much heart, you know what I'm saying? He care about stuff he done passed that young pimping age
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, he's beyond that.
DiDi:
Yeah, he smooth. He ain’t slapping
Ricky Frailey:
Another person of interest is a man by the name of Scott Kimball. He was a former FBI informant, and get this: a convicted serial killer. At 41, he was sentenced to 70 years in prison in October of 2009
DiDi:
Ooh
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, seven decades behind bars
DiDi:
Wow
Ricky Frailey:
He had pled guilty to four murders in Colorado between 2003 and 2004. Investigators have been trying to link him to the murders in Albuquerque as his frequent travels across several states may have put him in a position to have contact with the West Mesa victims. He has, of course, denied any connection to the murders.
Next person of interest would be Ron Erwin. He was a photographer and a businessman from Missouri. His photography interests took him to Albuquerque regularly. Especially the state fair there, the New Mexico State Fair. He claimed to be interested in taking pictures of those who have never had their photographs taken.
It's not clear why the police had their eyes on him as a person of interest in the case. But until in December 2010, tens of thousands of his pictures were confiscated when police saw him as a person of interest.
DiDi:
As they should. What you taking pictures for?
Ricky Frailey:
I mean, I take pictures. Not of people, really. Unless they want me to. Unless they pay me to. I'm not just walking around taking pictures of random people though. That's kind of creepy
DiDi:
Right. Or cats
Ricky Frailey:
I mean, yeah, or cats. Cats are kind of hard to take pictures of though.
He was eventually cleared, but he claims to not know why they had focused on him in the first place.
Next would be Joseph Blea. B-L-E-A. He earned the moniker of the “Mid School Rapist” from his habit of breaking into the homes of girls aged 13 to 15 during the 1980s, and sexually assaulting them
DiDi:
What?
Ricky Frailey:
He was also suspected of killing a sex worker in 2015. His DNA was discovered in the victim's inner waistband. There is some evidence that is seen as a potential link to Blea as the West Mesa Bone collector.
One is a tree tag from a nursery that he frequently visited. He was a landscaper and had bought the same type of tree previously. This tag was found at the burial site eight feet under the grave of one of the victims
DiDi:
Oh
Ricky Frailey:
It doesn't seem like a simple coincidence.
He also had a collection of women's underwear and jewelry which did not belong to his wife or his daughter. He had collected the woman's underwear by breaking and entering people's dwellings during the late 70s and early 80s. So he was a weirdo.
He pled guilty and got probation for the breaking and entering, providing he got a mental health evaluation.
DiDi:
Mmm
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, he's a weirdo. He’d break into women's houses and steal her underwear and just kept them in a collection
DiDi:
He’s just a little freaky
Ricky Frailey:
A lot freaky you mean?
While in prison after his 2015 conviction for these sexual assaults, he confessed to a cellmate that he had used the services of the West Mesa victims.
DiDi:
Oh, wow
Ricky Frailey:
His wife reported to the police that he used the area of the burial site as his regular garbage dump, and that he frequently employed sex workers in the area. She added that he had a profound hatred for sex workers. However, he doesn't take any responsibility for the murders.
DiDi:
Oh, he don't take no responsibility for them huh?
Ricky Frailey:
Nope, he says it's not him
DiDi:
What he do?
Ricky Frailey:
He was a landscaper.
DiDi:
He was a landscaper?
Ricky Frailey:
Mhm, yeah
DiDi:
Oh okay
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah
DiDi:
Mhm. Liar
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, he was a landscaper.
From the beginning, the thoughts of the investigators revolved around the possibility of a serial offender. In the ensuing years, these thoughts have given way to suspicion of the involvement of a sex trafficking ring. According to a Wikipedia article, “an anonymous tip to authorities at APD and the FBI linked the murders to a suspect from Central America.”
Police have also suspected the involvement of a sex trafficking ring operating through neighboring Texas that targets prostitutes during events throughout the southwest, southern, and western United States. Especially during scheduled events, such as the New Mexico State Fair. In this case, to take advantage of the reliably heavy air traffic, the small fragments of a human trafficking ring involve numerous population centers, including Las Vegas, El Paso, Killeen, and Denver.In any event, through all the speculation and everything that happened here, sadly the West Mesa murders remain unsolved.
Interestingly, “Boneyard,” which is a movie loosely based on the investigation of the murder victims was scheduled to be released in July. I'll have to go back and look at that. “Boneyard” would star, 50 Cent and Mel Gibson.
This case remains unsolved to this day.
If you have any information regarding the West Mesa murders, please call Albuquerque Crime Stoppers. They are still offering a $100,000 reward for information that leads to a conviction in this case.
DiDi:
Mmm. That was a wild ride
Ricky Frailey:
Their number is (505) 843-STOP or (505) 768-2450
So that's a big case. Who do you think that it is? Just out of the persons of interest. Because I know who I think did it and I'll tell you why in just a second but
DiDi:
I really feel like it’s the landscaper.
Ricky Frailey:
The landscaper?
DiDi:
Cause he frequented the prostitution ring. He had a hatred for prostitutes, and he was trying to... he had a cover. It wasn't somebody who was out there all the time, it was somebody who went home after they did these heinous crimes
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah
DiDi:
And had somewhere to hide the stuff. And for him being a landscaper and being able... He could have came over there because like I said earlier, a random person couldn't come in, but a landscaper could pull up and be-
You don't know if he's working for the city or what
Ricky Frailey:
That's true
DiDi:
You know what I’m saying? He could go uncovered
Ricky Frailey:
That's true, that's true. And nobody's going to question why a landscaper is walking around with shovels and pickaxes and stuff like that
DiDi:
He's hiding in plain sight
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah
DiDi:
He probably did it in the middle of the daytime. And the smells... nobody’s gonna
Ricky Frailey:
I don’t know, it’s kinda hot out there
DiDi:
Nobody's coming over there to check on the landscapers bags or nothing or see why they stink. Because it always stinks, the mulch and stuff. You know he had that mulch. He could have just rode them right through the city on top of each other, you know what I'm saying? Like he had access, the availability and the network.
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, that's crazy. I mean, he is a good fit for it.
DiDi:
Yeah
Ricky Frailey:
I do personally believe, however, that it was Lorenzo Montoya.
DiDi:
You feel like that?
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, I think it was the
DiDi:
Yeah, I felt like that at the beginning
Ricky Frailey:
The guy that the boyfriend shot. I think it was him because, I mean, he was caught in the act of killing. Well, he had already killed.
DiDi:
Yeah, but-
Ricky Frailey:
He was caught in the act of-
DiDi:
But that could be circumstance though, because listen here, did they say that he had any type of paraphernalia or anything? Or like, anything evidence wise that tied him to all those murders? He's going to keep a trophy. He's killing 12 women. He’s keeping trophies.
Ricky Frailey:
Well, Williams, the boyfriend, was never prosecuted. So there was never any evidence regarding that specific instance that was dug up or anything. There was no investigation into it because it was self-defense.
DiDi:
Yeah, but no, I'm talking about inside his camper
Ricky Frailey:
Inside his camper?
DiDi:
He was living in that camper.
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah he was
DiDi:
That the girl pulled up in, he was living there and that wasn't even far from there. So, I mean, he does have the proximity. He has the whole motive too and he does fit the crime. It is around the time frame as well
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah
DiDi:
The time frame fits in perfectly as well
Ricky Frailey:
And then you also have to think about when he died. Although he did die a little bit after all these girls presumably stopped going missing. December of 2006 is when he died, and the girls all went missing between 2001 and 2005.
DiDi:
Yeah, it stopped when he stopped.
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah
DiDi:
But when did dude go to jail? I mean, I know there's so many questions.
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah
DiDi:
It's so many questions, but you know and I know I'm going to ask
Ricky Frailey:
You talking about the...?
DiDi:
The landscaper.
Ricky Frailey:
He didn't go to jail until 2015.
DiDi:
It wasn't him. It was the guy that got killed in the beginning. When he killed the killer
Ricky Frailey:
I think so too
DiDi:
Williams did an act of... and I'm glad you walked home bro. Even though you was out there pimping doing something you shouldn’t be doing. Get outta that sex work. Get outta that. But hey, I'm glad you got off of that because that was wrong for him to do to her.
Ricky Frailey:
I mean, yeah.
DiDi:
You know what? Pimping is not right, but when you think about the aspect of it, women do need some type of protection.
Ricky Frailey:
Protection, yeah
DiDi:
And I can see why some... cause people be like, “Women are so stupid. Why would you? Shoot, I would be getting the money myself. I would be getting that.” But you know men can play you
Ricky Frailey:
Nah, because dudes are weird. Dudes are creepy
DiDi:
And then think about the clientele. You are dealing with the creepy base, this is not
Ricky Frailey:
Oh 100% yeah
DiDi:
Yeah, this is not. Yeah, you need a pimp in that area and then even... Yeah, I have no remarks for that
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah.
No, I believe it was him, but obviously he passed away.
DiDi:
He was a sick individual
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, no doubt about it. He was a sick individual.
DiDi:
I'm glad it stopped. I'm glad it stopped.
Ricky Frailey:
So am I
DiDi:
And it’s so sad
And I feel bad for our young lady and our dog who found them. But you know what?
Ricky Frailey:
Oh, Christine?
DiDi:
It's so crazy, and that goes back. God has eyes everywhere. God's eyes are all of our eyes. And what’s done in the dark will be discovered because his eyes is on it
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah
DiDi:
And you see how... you in a vast desert and he pulled that up
Ricky Frailey:
Speaking of eyes being on it, and this is something that I'll put on the website along with the transcription for this episode in the notes. There's pictures that you can find online of that area, like Google Maps
DiDi:
Uh huh
Ricky Frailey:
Satellite images. Google Earth, sorry
DiDi:
Yeah.
Ricky Frailey:
You can see over time, that area where they were dug up. Just desert. And then fast forward a couple months, the next picture, there's tire tracks leading out there. And then there's spots of disturbed earth.
DiDi:
Yeah, oh my God. So it was the area of... Oh my goodness.
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, so the satellites caught it while he was doing it
DiDi:
I do believe that this is the case that I had read at one point that I was talking about to you yesterday. Whenever we did the... when I told you the bodies be all over the desert.
Ricky Frailey:
Oh, yeah.
DiDi:
I feel like this is the case maybe I was watching, because I watched something where they unearthed a lot
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah
DiDi:
And it's just so sad. And you know what? You talking about, how do you know where to hide it? Behind any rock. Just pull up to a rock
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, the desert people. Yeah
DiDi:
What are the odds.
Ricky Frailey:
This is a big world and there's a lot of places where theres no people.
DiDi:
That is just crazy though. But he waited til the area was populated to dump it over there. I guess he thought that maybe he had some time
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah.
DiDi:
I don’t know, because that man who was in there... wasn't that the 60 year old guy who had a girl tied up?
Ricky Frailey:
No, that was Lorenzo Montoya
DiDi:
He was 52. Or 41, he was 41 or something.
Ricky Frailey:
Umm, 37? 39.
DiDi:
Yeah. I feel like he could have been the person. But whoever that person was had to have access to be able to hide the bodies. And if he was living over there in a camper, he didn't had no other car he was driving. He was riding around in that camper. He wouldn't be able to pull up on nobody's yard in no new development. No raggedy dude in a camper just pull up and start burying stuff in the middle of the night. He wouldn’t of been able to be undetected. So that's the only reason why I felt like that it was the other young man
Ricky Frailey:
Yeah, it's rough
DiDi:
Yeah
Ricky Frailey:
It's rough. I don't like it. I don't like any of it to be honest.
DiDi:
Ugh, it’s difficult
Ricky Frailey:
But I do want to, once again, say rest in peace to the victims of the West Mesa, or we have dubbed as the West Mesa Bone Collector.
Those are:
Jamie Barela
Monica Candelaria
Victoria Chavez
Virginia Cloven
Syllania Edwards
Cinnamon Elks
Doreen Marquez
Julia Nieto
Veronica Romero
Evelyn Salazar
Michelle Valdez
And the unnamed unborn child who all had their lives taken from them far too soon by a monster, no matter who it was.
I have my suspicions. Maybe you have yours too. But I want to say, rest in peace to them.
DiDi:
Yeah, rest in peace.
Ricky Frailey:
So thank you for letting me ruin your day again. It's been great sharing this information with you, because knowing is half the battle and now we know just a little bit more.
Remember theres crazy people everywhere, especially in the desert. The desert does things to you. I can say from experience, maybe not homicidal experience, but I can say from experience. The desert does stuff to you, especially if you're not from there.
But I want you all to stay safe, stay alive, and stay listening to The Dark Deeds Diary Podcast. We love you all. Good bye.
DiDi:
Bye.
Ricky Frailey:
The Dark Deeds Diary Podcast is produced by Aezhana Media Group, LLC. A black veteran owned company. Thank you for listening.
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