ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO – Today marks 17 years since the remains of 11 women and an unborn fetus were discovered on Albuquerque’s West Mesa — a case that continues to be one of New Mexico’s most significant and haunting homicide investigations.
The case began on February 2, 2009, when a woman walking her dog on the West Mesa reported finding what appeared to be a human bone. That discovery led police to uncover a large burial site in an undeveloped area near 118th Street and Dennis Chavez Boulevard. Over the following weeks, investigators unearthed the remains of 11 women, most of whom had disappeared between 2003 and 2005, along with the remains of an unborn child.
The discovery quickly drew national attention due to the number of victims, the timeline of their disappearances, and the isolated location where the remains were found. Investigators determined most of the women had ties to drugs or sex work, which contributed to the theory that the killings may have been the work of a serial offender operating in the early 2000s…