After Herr told him that he had savings of about $62,000 from combat pay, Wozniak decided to kill him in order to acquire grasping at smoke. not just because of what happens but because of what might have been prevented, missed, or altogether avoided. >> right. (vo) you earned it, we're here to make sure you get it. >> reporter: commander feist, who tried to keep the local press at arm's length during the excavation, finally allowed them to cross under the yellow tape and onto crime scene, along with crews from "america's most wanted." click, call, or visit a store today. His cellmate said Blea admitted to knowing many of the murdered women and had even hit one of them for allegedly trying to steal his money. a meticulous man whose grim will had brought him back to the mesa again and again to bury his victims. that the chin was specific for me. and the women who work its. for the detective who'd long maintained that everybody counts, the existence of that kind of reward was a sign of progress. >> they would say we found a skull that had a lot of hair and she's pregnant. when he was active here and, most importantly, when he quit. but her presence in the west mesa bone yard raised a troubling prospect. it's got to be that person. Trish Hoffman, spokeswoman for the Albuquerque Police Department. by the fall of 2004 dan valdez's calendar was beginning to fill with xs. they can be. let's send to everyone! n.d then there was the service part, the helping people part of police work. it was not the way that her mother and i raised her. Detective Ida Lopez's dedication to finding these missing women is admirable. [ camera clicking ] wifi up there? was it all hot air, or did someone with knowledge of the murders mix a kernel of truth into those rumors? but because doctors caught the cancer early, ida required neither chemo nor radiation therapy. >> she came over to the house one day, and i'd given her a few dollars, and she stood up. >> he was going to let her stay with us. [9][14] Police would not say how or where they had obtained the photos. "Dateline" aired a two-hour show on the murders a gruesome case where the remains of 11 women and an unborn fetus were found buried in the desert near New Mexico's largest city in December. >> -- your daughter's a prostitute. Over time, a number of men have attracted police attention, though not named as full suspects, in connection with the murders. Albuquerqueans dont relate to the victims. >> you're asked to call 1-877- -- >> though the police tip line with hundreds of calls from a trail mix of nuts, kooks and the merely misguided -- >> detective babcock. [4] Blea, in the Mid-School rape case, was sentenced to 36 years in June 2015, at 58 years of age. probably familiar with the prostitution trade. with uncontrolled moderate-to-severe eczema, or atopic dermatitis, you feel like you're itching all the time. i had to take that avenue. just desert and sage brush with a dry stream bed running through it. The 49 girls and women murdered by Gary Ridgway, the "Green River Killer," in Washington state in the 1980s and '90s didn't receive anywhere near the same level of public attention and sympathy as the college students Ted Bundy murdered in the same state in the 1970s. maybe we ought to, you know, be a little more proactive. Dirk Gibson, a communications and journalism professor at the University of New Mexico (Det. Thirteen years ago, the discovery of a femur bone on Albuquerque's west side would lead investigators to a mass grave site where 11 women were buried. >> reporter: and so in july 2005, after a few months of recuperation as a reserve officer, the department offered ida a 20-hour-a-week desk job working missing persons. after months of digging for bones in the desert west of albuquerque, detectives desperately wanted to get on with the work of catching a killer. >> and sometimes they make a a mistake. The mysteries surrounding the West Mesa Murders, an unsolved case of 11 female bodies discovered in a desert graveyard near Albuquerque in 2009. Dirk Gibson has no faith that will change, because police lack the necessary incentive. She compiled a list of the missing not all of whom have been found, raising concern there might be more victims. >> reporter: though both dan and camille valdez believe michelle's killer is still alive, dan prefers these days to dwell on the things he knows for sure. so you can move more. Due to the 2008 housing bubble collapse, development on the West Side halted before housing could be built at the burial site. Police have offered a $100,000 reward for anyone offering evidence leading to the discovery of the person the media came to call the West Mesa Bone Collector. that dares to last into the morning. >> what we see very often is the women involved in prostitution work in what's called the circuit. Daniel Wozniak, the California theater actor accused of beheading his neighbor, Army vet Sam Herr, and his friend Juri "Julie" Kibuish, in Costa Mesa six years ago, is the focus of Dateline NBC tonight. and every time the phone rang his heart stopped. A North Miami woman bent on revenge was convicted Wednesday of gunning down the ex-business partner she blamed for the murder of her alleged drug-dealer husband. too many people in pain settle for. >> she was last seen in denver. An unsolved murder case has haunted the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico for more than a decade. >> this particular individual made sure that he went back each and every time when he was going to dispose of a body and disposed of it in the same area where the other women were. >> we went back starting in 2002, and we got the records from our local jail. commander feist knew every scrap of evidence recovered from that gigantic crime scene would have to be cataloged and stored until it came time to prosecute the west mesa grave digger. All of the women were Latina and all were from New Mexico, except Syllannia Edwards, who was African American and from Oklahoma. >> reporter: soon there were five missing women with eerily similar profiles on ida's list. The same evening, Wozniak went on to perform in his local theatre production of the musical Nine. >> reporter: it had to be someone local, investigators assumed. ten. >> and just depending on where they're at, you wouldn't even see them up there. >> february 2nd is when one of our violent crimes detectives said oh, they found a bone on the mesa, i'll let you know. but guess what? forgotten by almost everyone but her. soon could be years. >> reporter: such was the mystery of the women on stal detective ida lopez's growing list of the lost. Theres a sense of physical remoteness this place was very removed, said University of New Mexico professor Dirk Gibson, who has written two books on serial killers. it was a bit of frontier justice for montoya, who was about to literally get away with murder. The last segment of last night's two-hour exploration of the West Mesa serial murders on NBC's Dateline reviewed the search warrants executed by the Albuquerque and Joplin police departments and the FBI of properties owned by Joplin businessman Ron Erwin. - Investigation Discovery", "93 - Live At The Grove In Anaheim My Favorite Murder With Karen Kilgariff And Georgia Hardstark podcast", "20/20: 'The Final Act' Watch Full Episode", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Daniel_Wozniak_(murderer)&oldid=1142204623, Prisoners sentenced to death by California, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from August 2022, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2018, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 1 March 2023, at 02:21. -they're very tasteful. in albuquerque, where the old highway becomes central avenue, the city's decidedly down-scaled drug and prostitution trade flourishes. >> and i said, "angelica." Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. In this video we take a look at an infamous killer in Albuquerque, New Mexico, known as the West Mesa Bone Collector. ask your veterinarian about apoquel today. Daniel Patrick Wozniak (born March 23, 1984) is a former American community theatre actor who was convicted of two counts of murder in September 2016. >> daddy, can i have something to eat now? Dateline is the long-running, award-winning news magazine bringing viewers stories ranging from compelling mysteries to powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. To this day only theories remained. >> reporter: two women on ida lopez's list had already been identified among the 11 sets of remains. local station as finding a femur bone. see a vehicle pick this girl up. [11], On September 12, 2018, Buffett was convicted on two of those counts with a maximum possible sentence of 44 months and, on November 8, 2018, was sentenced to 32 months minus time served and good behavior. clustered within 20 yards of each other. >> so you were being a father all over again. paws down. In 1999, a sex worker named Cynthia Vigil Jaramillo was kidnapped and imprisoned in a city south of Albuquerque by a man named David Parker Ray, aka the "Toy-Box Killer." According to Tixier, the department made the decision to bring Lopez back due to her extensive involvement in the case as well as her connection with the families of the victims. Paige Birgfeld: Missing Mother Living a Double Life Was Kidnapped & Murdered. a name and face detective babcock knew quite well from an encounter in 1999, when babcock was working the vice unit in albuquerque. The tragic truth was that sex workers made for easy targets, and are often distanced from relatives while communities are blind to their disappearance. >> reporter: whether in costume for a school play, dressed up for her first communion, or showing a budding interest in boys. She was convinced he was the West Mesa killer. ida's return to work would have to be gradual, if it was going to happen at all.s >> for a lot of people that would be the end of police work. Today, two suspects remain only of whom is still alive. there's a better choice. >> for a long time the news would be full of stories about girls who were missing and everybody's looking for them. i know and i'm comfortable with the fact that they identified her as my daughter. the only one to combine a safe sleep aid and the 12-hour pain-relieving strength of aleve. all i want to know is a timeline. >> it was growing, and i had kidney cancer. Photo Source [3] He was incarcerated at California's San Quentin State Prison until July 2021, when he was moved to Salinas Valley State Prison as part of the Condemned Inmate Transfer Pilot Program. [7], Soon after, Wozniak was apprehended by US Marshals while at his bachelor party two days before his wedding. No one noticed they were gone.. When her boyfriend arrived, he shot and killed Montoya. tired of seeing him hurt. Genre (s): Talk & Interview, Business, News, Documentary, Events & Specials Season 19 Episodes tbd S19:E72. bones started to get names. >> it's kind of eerie looking at those satellite photos. On May 21, 2010, Wozniak shot and killed his neighbor, Private First Class Samuel "Sam" Herr, a 26-year-old Afghanistan War veteran, at a Los Alamitos theater. Genres >> reporter: -- no one who seemed to know something about the five-year missing persons cases was dialing the phone. There are so many episodes online but I can't find this one, http://www.nbcnews.com/watch/dateline/somebodys-daughter-part-1-254001731808. Where to Watch Dateline Mystery Dateline Mystery is available for streaming on the NBC News website, both individual episodes and full seasons. >> reporter: dan may have had. lending tree made lenders compete for my business and i ended up with a loan that saved me over $9000 and no more credit card debt. so why am i still thinking about this? ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) The notes are written on paper tags, tributes to the nine women, two teenage girls and unborn child found buried 10 years ago atop a New Mexico mesa. this is storied territory, where native american tribes, conquistadors, and cowboys once roamed. >> thin, wired out, strung out maybe. apoquel has helped over 6 million itchy dogs get the relief they deserve. i've been beat. Wozniak lured Kibuishi to Herr's apartment, where he shot and killed her. Only one signficant discovery was made along the way, which is that they were all murdered. i mean, that's not exactly, you know, the premier detective job. West Mesa murder victims Evelyn Salazar, left, and Cinnamon Elks. Case 27: The West Mesa Bone Collector. they use stamps.com all the services of the post office only cheaper get a 4-week trial plus postage and a digital scale go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again. >> you're up half a mile to 3/4 of a mile from any populated area back in the time frame. any trucker initiatives or murderers that the fbi sent us we posted on the wall. you're lying to me. >> 35 to 50? NEW MEXICO: It took police a year to identify the remains of 11 women killed in the West Mesa Murders, but they still haven't identified the killer. i just thought that was the coolest thing i'd ever seen.ce and so that curiosity. now between the bulldozers and ida's prayers the department was moving heaven and earth to find out if there were more women from ida's list out there. Her organization recently gathered the notes from the women it meets with weekly. shadows prostitutes. serious allergic reactions can occur, including anaphylaxis, a severe reaction. awesome. Albuquerque police spokesperson Tanner Tixier stated that she returned in 2015 to continue working on the unsolved case. ida knew the odds of finding any of the missing women alive were not good. >> it's like being in a race and somebody has a year ahead start. In 2014, a breakthrough on a decades-old case caused Albuquerque police to become interested in Joseph Blea as a suspect for the murders. i have no idea how she got here. >> reporter: at 14 most kids rightfully think their best years are ahead of them. i miss you, hon. right. [9] Some of the women appear to be unconscious, and many share the same physical characteristics as the original 11 victims. i used to live actually behind there when i was in college. New Mexico State University", "Fair prostitutes help West Mesa murders", "The Untold Truth Of The West Mesa Murders", "APD Talks 10-Year Investigation Into West Mesa Murders", "The West Mesa Murders And The Bone Collector Behind Them", "Updated: Seven years later, one detective remains on West Mesa killings", "AMW Fugitives West Mesa Bone Collector Case", "Women's photos may link to mesa murders", "West Mesa Serial Killer--$100,000 Reward", "Lawton girl was only teen in mass grave", "Albuquerque police release photos in West Mesa murders investigation (warning: content may be disturbing for some people)", "Police identify 2 women from photos, both alive", "Dateline To Air Story on West Mesa Deaths", "West Mesa Bone Collector Albuquerque NM", "Police Pursue Possible Leads In West Mesa Cases", "Albuquerque police release photos in West Mesa murders investigation", "Joplin man says he has been cleared of suspicion in serial murders", "Colorado killer quizzed in mesa murders", "Does APD have a suspect in the West Mesa Murders? except their families. it took years. >> there were numerous rumors out there that certain individuals had killed several of them, and then one in particular had been killed by drug dealers. >> i'm still right down the middle of the fairway on this, right? >> and sometimes they make the i wrong turn or a mistake.ke >> reporter: shortly after her . >> reporter: this is what albuquerque police chief ray schultz says investigators saw. 2019 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. Handout from Costa Mesa Police Department -- Anyone who knew Julie Kibuishi described the 23-year-old dancer and college student from Southern California as kind and full of life. According to Dateline NBC's website, the episode entitled "Plot Twist," will include new details in the high profile murder case. >> not for you. but one name stood out. Many of the victims' families reported them missing years earlier. Her skeletal remains were found at a construction site in the West Mesa area of Albuquerque in February, along with the bodies of many other victims. it's a mystery their families th still struggle to understand. but she was unable to find the aunt or to pin down the source of the rumor. >> i thought maybe she'd turn up a few days later, a few weeks, or we'd -- you know, she'd call us. Tonight's Dateline episode entitled Miami Heat will focus on the tragic events that led up to the fatal shooting of Orlando Mesa and 18-month old Noah 'Noa' Mesa, who survived the brutal attack. long. you don't have a school schedule or work schedule, that sort of thing. >> the numbers grew. >> if those houses had been built, they would have been built right on top of that graveyard. >> reporter: the conclusion was inescapable.