NM - West Mesa Murders (2003-05)
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Kat
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I do have a question for anyone familar with that city. Is that city located within one county? Or are there suburbs that would be considered a part of the city by locals that are located within another county? If so, may I have a list of those counties please?
Kat
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@ SuziQ. I'll be happy to try to find a history on the other POI if I can. Also I saw in the article you posted an address for the location for the latest find.Here is one thing that I can't do on this computer. I can't locate map images on google and bring them here.
If someone will have a look and see if they can pinpoint the area of the discovery, and post it here it might give us an idea as to the location of the find and the city itself. Also, birds eye views and street views may be of interest?
TIA for anyone up to the challange.
The site is near Dennis Chavez and 118th street. (ETA: Sen. Dennis Chavez BLVD)
Kat
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Here is a link that provides selections of what looks like local TV station coverage. The west mesa graves in media spotlight gives a very good look at where this site is and how big this search site is...thought you might be interested SusiQ.
http://www.clipsyndicate.com/publish/video/851531/west_mesa_graves_in_media_spotlight
http://www.clipsyndicate.com/publish/video/851531/west_mesa_graves_in_media_spotlight
mysteriew
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Good job Kat. I find this interesting too. He certainly has the type of history that would go along with this type of case. 4 cases involving women including sex crimes and patronizing prostitutes. Two cases that on the surface don't involve women, but do involve guns.
They may or may not be able to find COD for the women that died, but I do hope if they were shot that maybe they could find a bullet. And I hope his gun is still in evidence.
Ruflossn
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Does anyone know if there has been foreign DNA recovered from any of the victims? I am curious to know if it matches Montoyas. I know it will take a while for any DNA results to be available but, I would like to know if DNA has been recovered.
truecrime
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http://http://cbs3.com/topstories/albuquerque.west.mesa.2.946836.html
First post with link: Hope it works - and LE doesn't think this is a sign of a serial killer!! Pleeeeeeeeease!
First post with link: Hope it works - and LE doesn't think this is a sign of a serial killer!! Pleeeeeeeeease!
mysteriew
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The chances of them getting any DNA or prints on or around the remains is very, very slim. They have been exposed to the weather and soil so any prints and DNA that might have been available is almost impossible.
Marie
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Wrong - they DO think it's a sign of a serial killer, but they're keeping quite about details - here's a quote:
Police say they suspect the remains were buried by one person but aren't limiting their investigation to one suspect. They also have not released a cause of death for any of the bodies, and are hesitant to say if any were murdered.
I corrected your link - one too many http's but great for your 1st try!
Wow! Theyre up to Thirteen?
Last I heard it was six.
Sounds like bad one.
At least were not getting the standard LE line:"Yes we have Forty bodies in the same Thirty Square Foot area but we see no,I repeat..no indication that the murders are connected ...in fact we feel they are Forty runaways who happened to all trip and fall in the same spot....":waitasec:
Last I heard it was six.
Sounds like bad one.
At least were not getting the standard LE line:"Yes we have Forty bodies in the same Thirty Square Foot area but we see no,I repeat..no indication that the murders are connected ...in fact we feel they are Forty runaways who happened to all trip and fall in the same spot....":waitasec:
Ruflossn
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I am sure you are correct about the elements destroying the DNA.
Has the cause of death been released on any of the victims? If the victims were murdered by firearms, perhaps fingerprints could be recovered from the bullets........
Kat
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I searched the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Court site for Fred R., it was reported in the article posted in post #1 that he died in JAN 2009 at the age of 60. I have made the assumption that he was born in 1948 (+/- 1 yr.). I searched only for Fred R. no variations on the first name which could either be given name or a shortened version of a given name. Again, I have no middle initial.
There was one Fred R. born 1948 listed at the Court site I searched. I will post what is of interest to this case here. Traffic violations are left off.
Again, this may or may not be the POI that LE has named.
Fred D. Reynolds yob 1948
Only 4 driving violations.
Criminal Charges:
6/22/ 2001 - 2 charges of promoting prostitution both charges were Nolle prosequi.
4/11/1998 - Unlawful Carry deadly weapon - plead guilty-status closed.
Not much there.
There was one Fred R. born 1948 listed at the Court site I searched. I will post what is of interest to this case here. Traffic violations are left off.
Again, this may or may not be the POI that LE has named.
Fred D. Reynolds yob 1948
Only 4 driving violations.
Criminal Charges:
6/22/ 2001 - 2 charges of promoting prostitution both charges were Nolle prosequi.
4/11/1998 - Unlawful Carry deadly weapon - plead guilty-status closed.
Not much there.
Kat
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Another interesting note:
Last address for L. M. Montoya was listed as 4000 Blake Rd SW, Unit ## (I left that out in case there is family still residing there) albuquerque NM.
The closest intersection of the dig was reported as near Dennis Chavez and 118th street.
Looking at the video of the dig I would think that the dig area was on the closer side of Dennis Chavez blvd to Albuquerque.
At any rate, the last address of Montoya and the dig site( intersection given in media reports is only 3.3 mi – about 9 mins.
No wonder LE has their eye on him as a POI.
Last address for L. M. Montoya was listed as 4000 Blake Rd SW, Unit ## (I left that out in case there is family still residing there) albuquerque NM.
The closest intersection of the dig was reported as near Dennis Chavez and 118th street.
Looking at the video of the dig I would think that the dig area was on the closer side of Dennis Chavez blvd to Albuquerque.
At any rate, the last address of Montoya and the dig site( intersection given in media reports is only 3.3 mi – about 9 mins.
No wonder LE has their eye on him as a POI.
PoorPaulaNNJ
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Wow! Pretty interesting. This article is a chache view of one that was originally printed in 2006, after Montoya's death. Montoya's family is questioning certain facts in the police report/version, and letting out important details in doing so. I think this guy, who died at 39, is definitely responsible for these bodies......but even scarier.....at 39, I find it extremely likely, that he didn't begin his killing career only five years before his death. I'm going to look and see if I can find more stuff based on where he lived before he died, other than at the trailer park. This was one bad dude.
http://tinyurl.com/d9tcdm
The story, as bad as it is, just doesn't add up, the man's family says.
Lorenzo Montoya, 39, met the 19-year-old girl in an Internet chat room, police had said. But according to his family, Montoya didn't know anything about computers, and didn't own one.
Police said that, moments before Montoya was shot to death, he threatened the girl's boyfriend with a gun. But he wasn't holding a gun, only a flashlight, the family said.
And according to police, the boyfriend discovered the girl, bound and strangled to death, inside Montoya's South Valley trailer. Yet her body was actually found outside the trailer on the ground, the family said.
But mostly, the story of Lorenzo Montoya's end, his portrayal as a monster and possible serial killer, doesn't add up with what his family says they knew about a man they loved.
"We are led to believe that a man with a 16-year-old daughter he cared for so deeply is capable of choking the life out of a 19-year-old girl," one family member wrote in an e-mail.
Police, meanwhile, acknowledged Wednesday that some details initially released about the killings were not accurate but say they still believe Montoya killed Shericka Hill before he died.
Montoya and Hill did not meet in an Internet chat room, as first reported, but in a chat room of the older, telephonic variety. It was the kind of place you might reach by calling the numbers in the blue ads at the back of certain local news magazines, said Carlos Argueta, a sergeant with the homicide unit of Albuquerque police.
Montoya and Hill then met briefly in person and agreed to rendezvous at Montoya's trailer off Blake Drive in the South Valley. Montoya left to get money. Hill went and picked up her boyfriend, 18-year-old Fredrick Williams, who stayed out of sight in the car once they arrived at the trailer park.
What happened next, Argueta said, also differed from initial reports.
Williams remained in the car, as police had said. After some time had passed, he grew concerned and began trying to contact Hill on her cell phone. The phone was equipped with a walkie-talkie device, and Williams tried to reach her using that. He was calling constantly, Argueta said.
But before the confrontation in which police say Williams shot Montoya in apparent self-defense, the two men had another encounter.
In that encounter, Argueta said, Montoya presented himself as "some kind of security guard" and ordered Williams to leave. Williams said he was looking for his girlfriend, that she was somewhere in the trailer park. Montoya "shooed him away," Argueta said.
Williams circled the park. Some minutes later, Argueta said, Williams again noticed Montoya. It was still dark, some time between 4 and 5 a.m. on Sunday, Dec. 17. Montoya was outside his trailer, Argueta said, attempting to load Hill's body into a red truck that belonged to his neighbor. He saw Williams and dropped the body, perhaps hoping Williams hadn't noticed, and resumed his security guard pose. He walked toward Williams and told him he would help him search for his girlfriend, Argueta said.
Williams had noticed something. He told Montoya that he was calling police. The men argued.
"A gunbattle ensued," Argueta said. Police had, he said, found a gun on or near Montoya.
Much of that account is based on statements to police by Williams, who was questioned and later released and has not been charged with a crime. But Argueta said police have also found evidence linking Montoya to Hill's death, the nature of which he said he couldn't disclose.
Police have searched Montoya's trailer and several vehicles in connection with their investigation, and those search warrants will be made public soon, Argueta said.
"We're not just going off what the boyfriend says," he said.
Argueta said police have not received any response to bulletins sent to other law enforcement agencies across the country, asking if any have similar, unsolved crimes.
Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White said his detectives are sharing information with Albuquerque police about a pair of missing person cases involving women with vocations similar to Hill's. But that part of the investigation - which has fueled speculation that Montoya may have been involved in other crimes - is just beginning, White said.
Members of Montoya's family, who spoke to The Tribune on the condition they not be identified, said they still have questions about the police version of events. Why, one asked, would Montoya load a body into someone else's truck?
They acknowledged that Montoya had done things in his life he wasn't proud of. He'd been arrested in 1999 on charges he choked and raped a prostitute, but those charges were dropped.
His family said they knew him as a different man, one who had come through his adversities. He was funny and bright, a good father and a hard worker, someone to be proud of.
"I'll say this," one family member said. "If he did what they're saying, he was the greatest Jekyll and Hyde act I've ever heard of."
http://tinyurl.com/d9tcdm
The story, as bad as it is, just doesn't add up, the man's family says.
Lorenzo Montoya, 39, met the 19-year-old girl in an Internet chat room, police had said. But according to his family, Montoya didn't know anything about computers, and didn't own one.
Police said that, moments before Montoya was shot to death, he threatened the girl's boyfriend with a gun. But he wasn't holding a gun, only a flashlight, the family said.
And according to police, the boyfriend discovered the girl, bound and strangled to death, inside Montoya's South Valley trailer. Yet her body was actually found outside the trailer on the ground, the family said.
But mostly, the story of Lorenzo Montoya's end, his portrayal as a monster and possible serial killer, doesn't add up with what his family says they knew about a man they loved.
"We are led to believe that a man with a 16-year-old daughter he cared for so deeply is capable of choking the life out of a 19-year-old girl," one family member wrote in an e-mail.
Police, meanwhile, acknowledged Wednesday that some details initially released about the killings were not accurate but say they still believe Montoya killed Shericka Hill before he died.
Montoya and Hill did not meet in an Internet chat room, as first reported, but in a chat room of the older, telephonic variety. It was the kind of place you might reach by calling the numbers in the blue ads at the back of certain local news magazines, said Carlos Argueta, a sergeant with the homicide unit of Albuquerque police.
Montoya and Hill then met briefly in person and agreed to rendezvous at Montoya's trailer off Blake Drive in the South Valley. Montoya left to get money. Hill went and picked up her boyfriend, 18-year-old Fredrick Williams, who stayed out of sight in the car once they arrived at the trailer park.
What happened next, Argueta said, also differed from initial reports.
Williams remained in the car, as police had said. After some time had passed, he grew concerned and began trying to contact Hill on her cell phone. The phone was equipped with a walkie-talkie device, and Williams tried to reach her using that. He was calling constantly, Argueta said.
But before the confrontation in which police say Williams shot Montoya in apparent self-defense, the two men had another encounter.
In that encounter, Argueta said, Montoya presented himself as "some kind of security guard" and ordered Williams to leave. Williams said he was looking for his girlfriend, that she was somewhere in the trailer park. Montoya "shooed him away," Argueta said.
Williams circled the park. Some minutes later, Argueta said, Williams again noticed Montoya. It was still dark, some time between 4 and 5 a.m. on Sunday, Dec. 17. Montoya was outside his trailer, Argueta said, attempting to load Hill's body into a red truck that belonged to his neighbor. He saw Williams and dropped the body, perhaps hoping Williams hadn't noticed, and resumed his security guard pose. He walked toward Williams and told him he would help him search for his girlfriend, Argueta said.
Williams had noticed something. He told Montoya that he was calling police. The men argued.
"A gunbattle ensued," Argueta said. Police had, he said, found a gun on or near Montoya.
Much of that account is based on statements to police by Williams, who was questioned and later released and has not been charged with a crime. But Argueta said police have also found evidence linking Montoya to Hill's death, the nature of which he said he couldn't disclose.
Police have searched Montoya's trailer and several vehicles in connection with their investigation, and those search warrants will be made public soon, Argueta said.
"We're not just going off what the boyfriend says," he said.
Argueta said police have not received any response to bulletins sent to other law enforcement agencies across the country, asking if any have similar, unsolved crimes.
Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White said his detectives are sharing information with Albuquerque police about a pair of missing person cases involving women with vocations similar to Hill's. But that part of the investigation - which has fueled speculation that Montoya may have been involved in other crimes - is just beginning, White said.
Members of Montoya's family, who spoke to The Tribune on the condition they not be identified, said they still have questions about the police version of events. Why, one asked, would Montoya load a body into someone else's truck?
They acknowledged that Montoya had done things in his life he wasn't proud of. He'd been arrested in 1999 on charges he choked and raped a prostitute, but those charges were dropped.
His family said they knew him as a different man, one who had come through his adversities. He was funny and bright, a good father and a hard worker, someone to be proud of.
"I'll say this," one family member said. "If he did what they're saying, he was the greatest Jekyll and Hyde act I've ever heard of."
PoorPaulaNNJ
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This was one super evil monster. I'm shaking as I'm typing because of the stuff I'm finding. Creeeeepy! Thank god, he's dead.
Here's Montoya's vitals: Lorenzo M. Montoya; Date of Birth: May 29, 1967; Date of death: Dec 17, 2006
and another interesting article cache after his death
http://tinyurl.com/b7jrx2
Shooting Victims Behavior Probbed
Had Lorenzo Montoya done something like this before?
That question hung over the scene police discovered at a West Side trailer park Sunday morning.
Montoya, 39, had been shot dead in apparent self-defense by the boyfriend of a 19-year-old woman who police say had agreed to return to Montoya's home to dance for him.
The woman, Shericka Hill, was found inside the trailer, partially clothed, her hands bound with duct tape. She had been strangled to death, police say.
Authorities are looking into the possibility that Montoya may have killed before, though they haven't found indication of that, Albuquerque Police spokesman John Walsh said Monday.
Bulletins have been sent to law enforcement agencies across the country asking if any have unsolved crimes resembling the scene left by Montoya. So far, none have called back, Walsh said.
Court records from Albuquerque, however, show that Montoya had a history of arrests here involving prostitution and violence. In one, he was accused of picking up a prostitute and choking and raping her.
That was in 1999. According to a criminal complaint, Montoya picked up the woman near Sun Port Boulevard.
She later told police that he forced her to perform oral sex, then slammed her against a seat and began choking her. A police car pulled up alongside, and the officer found Montoya wearing a condom and trying to pull off the woman's underwear, the complaint states.
No money changed hands, and Montoya's wallet was found to contain only $2. He was charged with criminal sexual penetration, attempted criminal sexual penetration and kidnapping, but later that year, the charges were dropped.
District Attorney Kari Brandenburg, on vacation Monday, said she would have to research why the case was dropped. She said evidence may not have corroborated the woman's story, or the woman may have refused to cooperate with prosecutors, among other possibilities.
Montoya was arrested at least seven times in the last 20 years. Out of those arrests, he was found guilty only once, on a 1989 weapons charge.
An aggravated battery charge from 1987 was dismissed, according to court records. Charges of patronizing a prostitute in 1998 and 2005 were deferred, as were a 1994 domestic violence charge and charges of shoplifting and carrying a concealed deadly weapon from 2002.
Montoya's second arrest for patronizing a prostitute occurred on Jan. 12, 2005 near Central Avenue and Gen. Stillwell Street Northeast, a few blocks from where Hill lived, according to motor vehicle records.
According to those records, Hill was 4 feet, 8 inches tall. She had no criminal record in New Mexico.
Police say she and Montoya met on an Internet chat room about 2 a.m. Sunday, then the two met briefly in person near University and Menaul.
There, Hill agreed to return to Montoya's mobile home at 4000 Blake Drive Southwest and "perform a dance," Walsh said.
Unbeknownst to Montoya, Hill stopped on her way and picked up her boyfriend, Fredrick Williams, 18.
At the mobile home park, Williams waited in the car while Hill entered Montoya's trailer. After about an hour, he grew concerned and pulled closer to the trailer. Montoya came outside with a gun, police say. Williams also had a gun, and shot Montoya multiple times, killing him.
Inside the trailer, he found Hill's body, police say.
Williams called police and was questioned and released, Walsh said. His story matches evidence collected at the scene and and he has not been charged with a crime because police say he appears to have acted in self-defense.
Brandenburg said the case would likely be taken before a grand jury.
"We want the public to have every confidence that this case has been evaluated fairly," she said.
Here's Montoya's vitals: Lorenzo M. Montoya; Date of Birth: May 29, 1967; Date of death: Dec 17, 2006
and another interesting article cache after his death
http://tinyurl.com/b7jrx2
Shooting Victims Behavior Probbed
Had Lorenzo Montoya done something like this before?
That question hung over the scene police discovered at a West Side trailer park Sunday morning.
Montoya, 39, had been shot dead in apparent self-defense by the boyfriend of a 19-year-old woman who police say had agreed to return to Montoya's home to dance for him.
The woman, Shericka Hill, was found inside the trailer, partially clothed, her hands bound with duct tape. She had been strangled to death, police say.
Authorities are looking into the possibility that Montoya may have killed before, though they haven't found indication of that, Albuquerque Police spokesman John Walsh said Monday.
Bulletins have been sent to law enforcement agencies across the country asking if any have unsolved crimes resembling the scene left by Montoya. So far, none have called back, Walsh said.
Court records from Albuquerque, however, show that Montoya had a history of arrests here involving prostitution and violence. In one, he was accused of picking up a prostitute and choking and raping her.
That was in 1999. According to a criminal complaint, Montoya picked up the woman near Sun Port Boulevard.
She later told police that he forced her to perform oral sex, then slammed her against a seat and began choking her. A police car pulled up alongside, and the officer found Montoya wearing a condom and trying to pull off the woman's underwear, the complaint states.
No money changed hands, and Montoya's wallet was found to contain only $2. He was charged with criminal sexual penetration, attempted criminal sexual penetration and kidnapping, but later that year, the charges were dropped.
District Attorney Kari Brandenburg, on vacation Monday, said she would have to research why the case was dropped. She said evidence may not have corroborated the woman's story, or the woman may have refused to cooperate with prosecutors, among other possibilities.
Montoya was arrested at least seven times in the last 20 years. Out of those arrests, he was found guilty only once, on a 1989 weapons charge.
An aggravated battery charge from 1987 was dismissed, according to court records. Charges of patronizing a prostitute in 1998 and 2005 were deferred, as were a 1994 domestic violence charge and charges of shoplifting and carrying a concealed deadly weapon from 2002.
Montoya's second arrest for patronizing a prostitute occurred on Jan. 12, 2005 near Central Avenue and Gen. Stillwell Street Northeast, a few blocks from where Hill lived, according to motor vehicle records.
According to those records, Hill was 4 feet, 8 inches tall. She had no criminal record in New Mexico.
Police say she and Montoya met on an Internet chat room about 2 a.m. Sunday, then the two met briefly in person near University and Menaul.
There, Hill agreed to return to Montoya's mobile home at 4000 Blake Drive Southwest and "perform a dance," Walsh said.
Unbeknownst to Montoya, Hill stopped on her way and picked up her boyfriend, Fredrick Williams, 18.
At the mobile home park, Williams waited in the car while Hill entered Montoya's trailer. After about an hour, he grew concerned and pulled closer to the trailer. Montoya came outside with a gun, police say. Williams also had a gun, and shot Montoya multiple times, killing him.
Inside the trailer, he found Hill's body, police say.
Williams called police and was questioned and released, Walsh said. His story matches evidence collected at the scene and and he has not been charged with a crime because police say he appears to have acted in self-defense.
Brandenburg said the case would likely be taken before a grand jury.
"We want the public to have every confidence that this case has been evaluated fairly," she said.
PoorPaulaNNJ
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found this in NM courts; first one probably the one spoken of in article
D 21 1 30-3-5 AGGRAVATED BATTERY NOLLE PROSEQUI 01/22/1987
Domestic Violence 02/17/1998
Domestic Violence/with children 03/19/1998
D 21 1 30-3-5 AGGRAVATED BATTERY NOLLE PROSEQUI 01/22/1987
Domestic Violence 02/17/1998
Domestic Violence/with children 03/19/1998
txsvicki
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Montoya sounds like he could have been another Gary Ridgeway. He's most likely a serial killer who strangled and sexually assaulted his victims.
Kat
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I think that they did believe09. The second set of remains that were identified showed that the victim that they belonged to disappeared on a different date and year than the first set of remains identified.
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