The West Mesa Bone Collector: Will This Chilling Mystery Ever Be Solved?
Veronica Romero was witty and intelligent. Victoria Chavez had a love for adventure. Michelle Valdez had an infectious energy that could light up any room.
Yet, along with six other women and two teenage girls, their lives were brutally cut short in the early 2000s. Their remains were buried in the vast desert outside Albuquerque, New Mexico, left as a grim testament to an unknown predator’s reign of terror.
Then, in February 2009, fate intervened. A woman walking her dog in the West Mesa area stumbled upon a human bone, inadvertently exposing what has since been called New Mexico’s most heinous crime.
As investigators unearthed a mass grave containing the skeletal remains of 11 women and an unborn child, fear gripped the city. A serial killer had hunted in their midst—and had likely vanished without a trace.
Fifteen Years of Frustration
“It was a case everybody wanted to solve,” former Albuquerque Police Chief Michael Geier told A&E True Crime. Yet, more than 15 years later, the identity of the murderer, ominously dubbed the ‘West Mesa Bone Collector,’ remains an enigma.
With one exception—15-year-old Jamie Barela—every victim had ties to sex work and struggled with drug addiction, according to the Albuquerque Police Department. But their families refuse to let their loved ones be defined by those circumstances.
“When Michelle walked into a room, it lit up,” her father, Dan Valdez, recalled. “Her smile was just beautiful, and I want everyone to know she was a beautiful person.”
A Crime Scene Unlike Any Other
Between 2003 and 2006, at least 19 women and teenage girls disappeared from Albuquerque’s streets. To this day, eight remain missing.
The 11 known victims were killed sometime between 2003 and 2005, buried in an undeveloped stretch of land that was soon to become a new housing development.
Detectives faced an uphill battle. Unlike most homicide investigations, where the first 48 hours are crucial, they were already working against a timeline stretching back years. “We were behind the power curve by three years or more,” Geier admitted.
Archeologists assisted police in excavating the site. The crime scene was massive, and as more remains were found, more families were forced to confront their worst nightmares. “As they found them, more and more parents were getting concerned,” Geier said.
One rare piece of evidence—a plant tag found near a body—led police to Joseph Blea, a local landscaper with a history of violence. Investigators combed through thousands of receipts from nurseries but were unable to definitively link him to the murders.
“There were so many dead-ends,” Geier said. “That is what the biggest frustration was for me. When you deal with families, it’s just heart-wrenching.”
A Predator Hiding in Plain Sight?
Many of the victims frequented Albuquerque’s vice-ridden War Zone, a neighborhood teeming with sex work, drugs, and crime.
“That area of the city where these girls worked is literally like Walmart for vice,” said Clay Dean, Veronica Romero’s boyfriend. “Every single day and night, the people circling around it are either prostitutes, Johns, dealers, or cops. And they all know each other.”
Authorities suspect the killer was someone the victims trusted enough to get into a vehicle with. Many believe he strangled his victims before burying them in the West Mesa desert.
“These women weren’t shot. There was no evidence of blunt force trauma,” said Albuquerque Police cold case investigator Liz Thomson. “This complicates the case and makes it a little harder to solve because we don’t have the clear indicators of what actually caused their deaths.”
The Victims: More Than Just Names
The West Mesa victims were:
- Jamie Barela, 15, and her cousin Evelyn Salazar, 27
- Monica Candelaria, 22
- Victoria Chavez, 26
- Virginia Cloven, 24
- Syllvannia Edwards, 15
- Cinnamon Elks, 32
- Doreen Marquez, 24
- Julie Nieto, 24
- Veronica Romero, 28
- Michelle Valdez, 22, and her unborn child
Each one had a story, a life, and people who loved them.
Doreen Marquez’s daughter, Destinie, described her mother as an “amazing woman.” Victoria Chavez’s mother, Mary Gutierrez, still struggles with the horror of it all. “How could one person or anybody do this to 11 girls?” she asked.
The last time Clay Dean saw Veronica Romero, he dropped her off at her usual spot. “I saw her get into a truck, and I never saw her again,” he said.
Suspects and Theories: A Killer Among Us?
Over the years, investigators zeroed in on two primary suspects: Joseph Blea and Lorenzo Montoya.
Blea, a convicted rapist, is currently serving a 90-year prison sentence for multiple sexual assaults, including one against a 13-year-old girl. He was known to pick up sex workers from the area where the victims worked, but he has never been charged in connection with the West Mesa case.
Montoya had frequent run-ins with police, including an incident where he attempted to strangle a sex worker. In December 2006, his violent tendencies caught up to him. After raping and strangling a teenage sex worker, Montoya was shot and killed by her boyfriend.
“We lost [Montoya], who I think was probably our best suspect,” Geier admitted. “He lived a very short distance from the burial zone.”
Tire tracks leading from the burial site to a street near Montoya’s home only deepened suspicions.
Criminologist Stephen Jones theorized, “I think it’s certainly possible that the killer is no longer with us because the crimes stopped.”
A Darker Theory: Was It More Than One Killer?
Some, like former University of New Mexico professor Dirk Duran-Gibson, believe the murders may have been the work of multiple people involved in organized crime or biker gangs.
“Their vulnerable lifestyle put them in contact with a lot of nefarious people,” Duran-Gibson said. “Those women knew something that they shouldn’t have known.”
He speculated that at least three individuals were involved—“the boss, the intermediary, and the hitman.”
But without DNA evidence, willing witnesses, or a primary crime scene, the case remains frustratingly cold.
Still Waiting for Justice
The Albuquerque Police Department insists the case remains active. Tips can be submitted via email to ilopez@cabq.gov or by calling the department’s tip line at (505) 768-2450 or (877) 765-8273.
Yet, for the families of the victims, the agony of unanswered questions lingers.
“For this to happen in such a small, concentrated area of well-known activity and to still be unresolved at this point is beyond me,” Dean said.
Will the West Mesa Bone Collector ever be identified? Or will this haunting mystery forever remain buried beneath the sands of time?
