The West Mesa Bone Collector

A look into a 20-year-old mystery of the murder of 11 young women and the largest crime scene in recent American History

On Feb. 2, 2009, a woman was out walking her dog at West Mesa, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Little did she know the discovery she would make and the can of beans she would open. In a part of West Mesa, slated for development, a recent flooding incident uncovered a human bone. West Mesa had been an undeveloped area within the city limits, but by 2006, development had encroached on the area, and the site was buried and platted for residential development. This development was halted however after the 2008 housing bubble collapse, and neighbors began to complain about flooding in the area of the buried riverbed. The developer built a retaining wall to channel the stormwater to a retention pond built in the area of the burial, which inadvertently exposed bones to the surface. The anonymous woman stumbled across the bones, and immediately alerted local authorities.

The Skeleton in the Closet

The discovery of human bones would lead to the uncovering of the corpses of 11 young women, ages 15-32, as well as a fetus. All 11 victims, most of whom were mestizos (of European and native Central-American descent), were likely murdered by the same person or persons, who came to be dubbed “The West Mesa Bone Collector” by locals. This individual is thought to have been operating within an American chapter of a larger, global sex trafficking ring, with operations in a number of population centers, including Las Vegas, Nevada, El Paso and Killeen, Texas, and Denver Colorado. 

The victims had been declared missing between the years 2001 and 2005, but it wasn’t until 2009 that they were discovered. The women were: Jamie Barela, 15, Monica Candelaria, 22, Victoria Chavez, 26, Virginia Cloven, 24, Cinnamon Elks, 32, Doreen Marquez, 24, Julie Nieto, 24, Veronica Romero, 28, Evelyn Salazar, 27, Syllannia Edwards, 15, A non-Hispanic black runaway from Oklahoma, and Michelle Valdez, 22, who was found to be 4 months pregnant at the time of death. Most of the women were involved in drugs and sex work.

The identification process took roughly a year to complete, but by 2010, all of the victims had been successfully identified. Investigators built detailed timelines of the women’s last known whereabouts, interviewed 200 women who had been working the streets the same years that the victims were, and compiled suspect timelines. They executed a number of search warrants in the investigation’s first year and focused on a number of potential suspects, but none have been officially accused of the crime. In 2010, a prize of up to $100,000 was being offered for any information that would lead to the arrest and conviction of the person/s responsible but has since gone unclaimed.

The Usual Suspects

Over the years, as the case remained unsolved, a number of men attracted police attention, and while not officially named as suspects, were potential candidates for the identity of the West Mesa Bone Collector.

Fred Reynolds, aged 60, was a pimp who knew one of the missing women and reportedly had photos of west mesa victims, but no physical evidence linking him to the crime. He was arrested in 1998 and 2001 on suspicion of promoting prostitution. He died of natural causes on Jan. 2, 2009.

Lorenzo Montoya, aged 39, had a number of charges for prostitution and rape pressed against him, but all were dropped by police. He was shot by 18-year-old Fredrick Williams, officially, in self-defense after Montoya had strangled Williams’ girlfriend, 19-year-old Shericka Hill, who reportedly agreed by phone to dance for Montoya at his mobile home. Authorities did not charge Williams in Motoya’s death.

Scott Kimball, aged 47, was a former FBI informant and sentenced to 70 years in prison in October 2005 after pleading guilty to the killing of four people in Colorado between 2003 and 2004. Kimball traveled often across multiple states. A relative of Kimball’s told authorities that they suspected him of more deaths, and looked at him for links to the West Mesa case. Kimball denied killing any of the women in New Mexico.

Robert Howard Bruce, aged 51, nicknamed “Ether Man”, was sentenced in 2013 to 177 years in prison for sex-related offenses in Norman Oklahoma. DNA evidence connected him to several rapes in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for which he was sentenced to 156 years in prison; however, he has not been connected to any homicides.

In 2014, a breakthrough on a decade-old Albuquerque case led police to take interest in one, Joseph Blea. Blea has been nicknamed the “Mid-School Rapist” for a number of cases in the 1980s wherein he would often break into the homes of 13-15-year-old girls who lived near McKinley Middle School in Albuquerque, and rape them. In 2015 Blea was also suspected of the murder of a sex worker. He was sentenced to 36 years in prison for the rapes in June 2015, at 58 years old.

On Dec. 9, 2010, Albuquerque police released 6 photos of 7 other unidentified women thought to also be linked to West Mesa. The police would not disclose the source of these photos, but many of the women appear to share characteristics with the original 11. On the 13th, two of the women in these later photos were identified as alive, and could potentially have important information if located. In 2018, more bones were discovered in the area, but though they sparked concerns among the police, they soon turned out to be ancient and unrelated to the case.

Final Thoughts

The murder of these 11 women is still shrouded in mystery, and the perpetrator of these crimes continues to evade justice. In what has come to be called the largest crime scene in American history, the world still waits with bated breath for the answer to the question: “Who is the West Mesa Bone Collector, and when will he pay for his crimes?” We can only hope they’re brought to justice soon.