Crime Junkie
Crime Junkie
"When you think about it at 14, the whole world is ahead of you. You're thinking about high school and then college and your job, and you're going to-- you have all these big dreams for your life. And she really felt like all of her dreams were dying." — Ashley Flowers
"The FBI at this time puts a profile together and it's like the most vanilla profile I've ever seen. Like this guy's 35 to 50, he lives alone or he like travels a lot. He's familiar with prostitution trade. He's had a couple brushes with the law. And that's it." — Ashley Flowers
"The West Mesa is like a vast ocean. You look out and it just goes on forever. And so it's not like they can just go around digging up holes in the West Mesa thinking they're going to come across something." — Ashley Flowers
The episode begins by introducing the West Mesa murders, a case that significant portions of the public, including the hosts, were not aware of at the time it broke in 2009. The narrative then delves into the tragic story of Michelle Valdez, one of the first victims to go missing. Her life, marked by a difficult childhood, teen pregnancy, struggles with addiction, and a transient lifestyle, illustrates the vulnerability of individuals in high-risk situations. The difficulty in her initial reporting as missing, due to her lifestyle, highlights the challenges faced by law enforcement in prioritizing such cases.
The investigation gains momentum with the involvement of Detective Ida, who recognized a pattern of missing young women fitting a similar profile. Her diligent work, connecting at least eighteen potential victims, laid the groundwork for a later discovery. The turning point occurred in February 2009 when a woman walking her dog in the West Mesa area discovered human bones. This led to an extensive excavation that ultimately uncovered eleven bodies. The discovery was a confluence of events, including a housing boom that brought construction to the area and a subsequent economic downturn that halted it, followed by heavy rains that unearthed the remains. Satellite imagery from before and after the construction provided chilling evidence of the burial site's development.
The identification of the victims was a painstaking process, with DNA and dental records slowly matching the discovered remains to missing persons. Michelle Valdez was identified as Jane Doe #8. The investigation also highlighted the critical role of cold case detectives, particularly one who identified Selena Edwards, a young African American girl who did not fit the initial victim profile, as Jane Doe #7. The potential involvement of individuals like Lorenzo Montoya, who had prior arrests involving prostitutes, and a photographer in Joplin, Missouri, are discussed as persons of interest. However, the perpetrators have not been definitively identified, and the possibility of additional burial sites remains a significant concern.