Cinnamon Elks

bessie

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Cinnamon Elks

Victim: Cinnamon Elks Suspect: Unknown
Location: 118th Street SW, Albuquerque, New Mexico


Synopsis: Sometime between 2004 and 2005 an unknown person killed 32 year old Cinnamon Elks and buried her in a mesa located adjacent to 118th Street SW in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Please call the 118th Street Task Force at 1-877-765-8273, (505) 768-2450 or Crime Stoppers at (505) 843-STOP with any information you may have concerning this crime. You may also email information to Detective Mark Manary at
mmanary@cabq.gov.

https://www.cabq.gov/police/contact-the-police/west-mesa-homicide-investigation
 
Here is a good article from a local paper. If you scroll to the bottom...there is video of interviews with Julie Nieto's mom, Doreen Marquez's sister, and Christine Barber. Barber operates a local non profit for safe sex workers. In the video she discusses the theory of a second burial site, and theorizes why the killer moved to another burial site.

http://www.abqjournal.com/534884/news/families-wait-for-a-place-to-remember.html
 
Cinnamon Elks:

According to Cinnamon Elk's mother, Diana Wilhelm, Cinnamon was a near perfect child. When Cinnamon entered her teen years, she began to change, and that's when she began to get into trouble.

Cinnamon became addicted to alcohol and drugs and eventually had a rap sheet "as long as her arm", according to Diana. To support her drug habit Cinnamon stole checks and forged Diana's name on them. Eventually Cinnamon turned to prostitution to earn money she needed for drugs. Because of her dependency on drugs, Cinnamon missed out on raising her own two children.

Cinnamon would frequently run off and be gone for long stretches at a time. She would, however, return with the intent to get clean and start a new life.
According to Diana, Cinnamon once took off to El Paso, Texas with some other people. Diana says she is unsure of the reason for the trip to Texas, but suspects they were meeting with Mexican cartel that did business in Albuquerque. Diana, now feels that Cinnamon may have knew too much and for that reason she was killed.

During the many times she was gone, Cinnamon would always remember to call Diana on her birthday. On Diana's birthday in 2004, however, that call didn't come.

Diana says that Cinnamon had been staying with Art Johnson, aka Bennet in Albuquerque before she vanished. Johnson, who Diana describes as "weird" was the one who called Diana and told her that he was worried because Cinnamon was missing. Diana said that Johnson claimed that he and Cinnamon were roomates but she mainly just used his place to keep her clothes at. They reportedly were not a couple. Johnson lived 13 miles from the Central Avenue location where many of the victims frequented.

Cinnamon was 31 years old when she went missing. A missing persons report was filed in December 15, 2004.

Diana claims that WMBC victim Virginia Cloven called her and told her that both Cinnamon and Michelle Valdez had been murdered. According to Diana, friends of Cinnamon reported that Cinnamon was telling people that a "dirty cop" was chopping off the heads of prostitutes and dumping them on the West Mesa.
Diana claims to have received calls from several people telling her that Cinnamon was beheaded.

It is interesting to note that according to the Albuquerque journal, Michelle Valdez's sister was called by the Aunt (who frequented the streets) of an acquaintance had heard a rumor that Michelle and Cinnamon had been stabbed and discarded on the West Mesa.

It is important to note that according to the autopsy reports on both Cinnamon and Michelle, "no injuries that might explain her death were found". A beheading would explain death, no? So they weren't beheaded? It is reported that APD is keeping manner of death or anything that would point to manner of death close to their vests.

Diana claims she reported the phone calls about Cinnamon's murder to APD, but her phone calls were never returned.
 
Thanks for these individual threads Bessie! You even moved my Cinnamon information over. You rock!
 
I have been looking back at the girls court records/arrest records. Cinnamon Elks and Michelle Valdez's boyfriend at the time she went missing both have charges/arrests for receiving/transporting stolen vehicles during the 2003-2004 time frame. What's an interesting coincidence is that Michelle's boyfriend was arrested on the same date, 8/22/2004, that Cinnamon was last seen alive by Art Johnson. Michelle's boyfriend bonded out the next day, 8/23/2004. Could this be related or just a weird coincidence?
 
oh I think its absolutely connected Vegasdee. I think one of the things that will help solve this is the fact that MOST of the victims are connected somehow, ran in the same circles. It would stand to reason that the perp did as well, at least partly.
 
I don’t believe these women were the victim of a deranged serial killer. I believe they were killed by Mexican drug cartels to mark their territory. Before she died, Cinnamon was spreading rumors that women were getting their heads cut off and their bodies were being thrown into the Mesa. Decapitation is a Mexican thing but draws to much attention in the United States. They wanted people to know that women were dying so that when women disappeared they would think that. They couldn’t display the bodies like they do in Mexico but they made sure that people in the drug world knew that women were being killed. I think that cinnamon also ran drugs. They sent a message by killing her. All these women were heavily into the drug world.
 

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