West Mesa suspect loses appeal in rape cases
"The fate of the only living suspect in the notorious West Mesa serial killing appears to be sealed.
The New Mexico Supreme Court last month declined to hear a case involving Joseph Blea, 61, who was convicted of a string of decades-old rapes.
That means Blea’s case is effectively dead and he’ll spend the rest of his life in prison. He is serving his 90-year sentence at the Otero County Prison Facility in southern New Mexico.
Albuquerque police have pointed to Blea as one of two suspects in the West Mesa murders....
...Police Chief Mike Geier told the Journal earlier this year that a detective tried to interview Blea in prison about the West Mesa case.
“He’s never cooperated,” Geier said. “Maybe if he’s the one, he’ll come clean one day.”..."
West Mesa suspect loses appeal in rape cases
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Is Joseph Blea tied to West Mesa killings?
June 11th, 2015
"No one has ever been charged in the murders of 11 women whose bodies were buried on Albuquerque’s West Mesa – one of the nation’s worst unsolved serial killing cases.
But an affidavit obtained by the Journal reveals that investigators believed a plant tag from a California nursery found at one of the burial sites connected the victim to a rapist sentenced this week.
The affidavit filed in 2010 in support of a search warrant seeking DNA from Joseph R. Blea, 58, says the identification tag for 5-gallon spearmint juniper was recovered from the grave of a victim found 8 feet below the surface “in an area where Blea was known to dump debris from his landscape business.
“It is highly unlikely (the tag) blew into the pile of dirt after the grave #2 had been dug up,” according to the affidavit filed by APD detectives..."
Is Joseph Blea tied to West Mesa killings?
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