West Mesa Murders Q&A Thread

Hello,
I'm trying to find out if anyone feels there is a possible connection between the West Messa Killings and the David Parker Ray killings in Truth Or Consequence NM, which is only about a 2 hour drive away. While Ray and his coconspiratiors where apprehended, police believed there where alot more victims out there that just haven't been found yet. It is quit possible that Rays friends are continuing the killings. Ray was a sexual sadist who picked up prostitutes and torchred them and video taped these crimes. It was also theorized, that he was makeing snuff films to sell. It is quite possible that these killings are in some way related to this case.
 
Hello,
I have a question about the mysterious phone calls that some of the families received regarding their daughters' disappearances.
How did the callers get the phone numbers? According to the news articles I've read, some of the family members had different last names than the victims, so it seems unlikely that the information could be found in the phone book.

For example, Cinnamon Elks’ mother, Diana Wilhelm, said that she received several phone calls from different people telling her that Cinnamon had been murdered. She said victim Virginia Cloven had called her two months after she (Virginia) had disappeared, and that victim Jamie Barela called her before the graves were discovered. Cinnamon was friends with a few of the other victims, but I can find no evidence that she knew either Virginia Cloven or Jamie Barela.

The only explanations I can think of are:
- The families were passing out fliers for their missing daughters with personal phone numbers listed on them (isn’t a police number usually given, though?), or
- Someone was able to access the next-of-kin information on the missing womens’ driver’s licenses, or
- Someone was able to take the phone numbers off the womens’ cell phones (if they had them).

Has anyone seen any more information about these calls?
 
Did any of the West Mesa victims have social media sites and, if so, were they “friends” with any of the other victims? Did they have friends in common, particularly male friends?

I could find only one. Leah Peebles has a Myspace account. She was not found in the burial site, but she is among those who went missing later (2006, I think) and was on Ida Lopez's list of missing prostitutes. I didn't see any of the other missing women in her connections. It looks to be mostly friends from Texas, where she was from.
 
Does anyone have a line up pictures of the victims? How many families received the calls?

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The most recent missing date was Michelle Valdez. Her lka is 9/22/2004. However, we don't know when Syllania Edwards went missing or even arrived in Albuquerque. From the dateline special, apd has her alive in July 2014 in Denver.

I'm sorry, did you mean to say 2014? I'm assuming you meant 2004.
 
With all due respect, this is an absurd suggestion. The last thing you are going to do when you have a valuable load of drugs that you need to be moved from one place to another is put those drugs in the hands of a drug addict who is friends with other drug addicts and is prone to nodding off. Her memory is not up to par, so asking her to keep track of something is asking a lot. Her friends will steal from her. So, tell me again how she is going to be a drug runner? Give me a break!

These women were targeted because they were vulnerable for being sex workers. The same thing happened with the Green River Killer near Seattle and with Jack the Ripper in London. Women who work the streets are terribly vulnerable and we are not serving them well.

In response to the believe of a serial killer, killing the working girls found in West Mesa is not the work of Serial killer, but the work of the Cartel from Cidad Juarez, Mexico. This is their work, they find working girls because most of them use drugs so they hire them for their US.Citizenship to move the drugs across the border. The Cartel has these girls to bring in more. After one becomes expendable they kill them. They use the I 10, I 40 and I 25 to move their goods. Also it's a known fact that the Cartel will hold girls who have worked for them. They will Place a Price on them and contact their parents or closest relative and tell them to pay up within a certain time limit or they will not see them again. That is how the Cartel Operates.
 
They're not serving themselves well....They're vulnerable because they often make themselves more vulnerable. One victim of Robert Pickton even said the love for getting high was worth more than the fear of being killed
 
I was reviewing the time-lapse photography of the burial site and what jumps out at me is the development of the area. The area is rural right up until the murders stopped (2004 / 2005)- which is when the subdivision was defined. Is my timeline right?

https://www.westmesamissing.com/burial-site-aerial-views

I'm new to this discussion and assume this has been asked before... but why conclude that anything stopped? I looks to me that the remote area being used for burial / disposal all of a sudden became too public for that purpose? Might the killer have moved on to another area for burial?
 
There are indeed suspicions of the killer having another burial site containing at least another six women. Check out this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3XtjFgPryEY&index=10&list=PL_CMMI_Axw0Pjxd12xu65hCv-JzP49kyw.

I personally don't think the killer is dead (if he is, I'm confident it was Montoya), but a friend of mine brought an interesting article to my attention which could indicate this person is still roaming around out there: https://fnsnews.nmsu.edu/the-west-mesa-murders-a-central-american-connection/. To digress, if this potentiality is true, then there might—emphasis on might—be a possibility of a cartel, but I'm confident that, despite there being a potential link to South America, there is no connection with a cartel. I cannot expel this theory as I have no evidence, but it doesn't seem plausible at all that a cartel was involved.

I'm thinking the perpetrator is still out there, acting independently—or, at least without the influence of a cartel, because I don't deny the possibility of the killer having associates–perhaps perpetuating these crimes.
 
New to Websleuths here. I joined solely because of the West Mesa homicide case. My friend's grandfather lived in Albuquerque, NM around that 2009 and the way he talked about how horrifying it was really sucked me in. Thing is, this is a case that is almost 10 years old now! I have no idea where to start. Do you guys have any sort of recommendations? I am currently an undergrad at a state university and I have a lot of resources I could use that aren't free to the public. I thought about emailing the detective that was working on it but when I put the email address in it said it was no longer an active address.

I would truly love to help and it could be a great learning experience for strengthening my investigative skills in the future.
 
New Mexican born and raised here; I'm not from Albuquerque, but I've been there a million times. It's very interesting to see someone come here solely because of this particular case considering it's so underrated and fairly old at this point. I joined solely for the case as well.

It can be confusing where to start looking, considering the case was pretty ambiguous from the beginning, but what's helped me to get a start is to focus on one of the victims first. I've focused solely on Syllannia Edwards, and with the generous help of another, I've been able to gather some information, albeit not much. Some of the victims knew each other, like Syllannia and Monica, so by focusing on one person, it sheds a bit of light, helping to further conjecture.


Here's a playlist on YouTube that has a bunch of videos; in particular, newscasts on the case: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_CMMI_Axw0Pjxd12xu65hCv-JzP49kyw

Here's another forum where some other people have been discussing the case, and it looks like one person has taken it upon themselves to some serious investigation of their own: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3631148&userid=112779

Hope this gives you a good starting point, and of course, browsing through the forum will help. I'd be happy to talk more.
 
Hello, my mother, Cheryl Blea was married to Joseph Blea, suspected West Mesa killer, when he was arrested. I can shed ALOT of light on this case but cant figure out how to post. Can someone please write a list of instructions on how to post, i will be happy to answer all questions Joseph Blea related. Im also getting my mom to start a profile so you can ask her questions too.
 
Bumping this post so someone that can help you sees it.

Welcome!

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Hello, my mother, Cheryl Blea was married to Joseph Blea, suspected West Mesa killer, when he was arrested. I can shed ALOT of light on this case but cant figure out how to post. Can someone please write a list of instructions on how to post, i will be happy to answer all questions Joseph Blea related. Im also getting my mom to start a profile so you can ask her questions too.

You have to become a verified insider. So message Tricia or Bessie or a mod. You or your mom just give them basic info with some type of id proof and then you can post all of the insider information that you like.


Now I remember a documentary that said a boyfriend or pimp killed a john that was trying to kill a prostitute. So I thought he was the serial killer at first. Idk.
 
Syllania was first reported missing in 2003 from Lawton OK
 
In response to the believe of a serial killer, killing the working girls found in West Mesa is not the work of Serial killer, but the work of the Cartel from Cidad Juarez, Mexico. This is their work, they find working girls because most of them use drugs so they hire them for their US.Citizenship to move the drugs across the border. The Cartel has these girls to bring in more. After one becomes expendable they kill them. They use the I 10, I 40 and I 25 to move their goods. Also it's a known fact that the Cartel will hold girls who have worked for them. They will Place a Price on them and contact their parents or closest relative and tell them to pay up within a certain time limit or they will not see them again. That is how the Cartel Operates.

I know this was posted awhile ago and I am sure this theory has been proved wrong but still wanted to throw in my two cents.

I was born and raised in Mexico and have seen the horrors of the drug war. I have also seen the disregard for human life that the cartels have. Your theory just doesn't make sense.

If they were running drugs across the border, why bury them in the states? Why not bury them in Mexico where they know their surroundings and control the area.

I doubt the Cartel would use someone with a record, even if they are U.S. citizens. As someone who crosses the border and has been crossing it since I was kid, things changed after 9/11. They really did. The requirement of a U.S. passport for one.
 
New to the site. Just wanna comment that word on the streets is that it wasnt Mexican cartels but Cuban Crack dealers. Who are now long gone but once ran rampant through the Zone. Js.
 
You have to become a verified insider. So message Tricia or Bessie or a mod. You or your mom just give them basic info with some type of id proof and then you can post all of the insider information that you like.


Now I remember a documentary that said a boyfriend or pimp killed a john that was trying to kill a prostitute. So I thought he was the serial killer at first. Idk.

Yeah, thats Lorenzo Montoya, I'm pretty sure he was the killer.
 
They could get that information from NCIS or the state crime data information computer system but would need a government job or a police contact to find that information.

Same occured in LISK.

Because the VICE unit was so embedded in these investigations part of me hopes that these girls were undercovers and needed to escape after an investigation concluded. I would really be furious if I wasted my time on this case and it was APD vice being ridiculous 20 years later. Stop doing that, if that's true, VICE...you're wasting people's time and energy I would like to work on legit unsolved homicides.

The Montoya story was so sus that it felt like it was perpetrated by dirty cops, and/or it was VICE was covering their PCO's arses. Either way, it looks like police might be involved. LISK gives me the same vibe. When I come to that conclusion in any case, I first have to see what is more likely: corruption or investigations. Leaving this case open if it is the latter really screws with tourism and commerce. I figured they would have squashed it by now if it were investigators being pulled out. Then again, I wonder how one of them would testify in court if they "killed them" to pull them out. Seems wasteful from a prosecutorial angle.

Hello,
I have a question about the mysterious phone calls that some of the families received regarding their daughters' disappearances.
How did the callers get the phone numbers? According to the news articles I've read, some of the family members had different last names than the victims, so it seems unlikely that the information could be found in the phone book.

For example, Cinnamon Elks’ mother, Diana Wilhelm, said that she received several phone calls from different people telling her that Cinnamon had been murdered. She said victim Virginia Cloven had called her two months after she (Virginia) had disappeared, and that victim Jamie Barela called her before the graves were discovered. Cinnamon was friends with a few of the other victims, but I can find no evidence that she knew either Virginia Cloven or Jamie Barela.

The only explanations I can think of are:
- The families were passing out fliers for their missing daughters with personal phone numbers listed on them (isn’t a police number usually given, though?), or
- Someone was able to access the next-of-kin information on the missing womens’ driver’s licenses, or
- Someone was able to take the phone numbers off the womens’ cell phones (if they had them).

Has anyone seen any more information about these calls?
 
Last edited:
You have to become a verified insider. So message Tricia or Bessie or a mod. You or your mom just give them basic info with some type of id proof and then you can post all of the insider information that you like.


Now I remember a documentary that said a boyfriend or pimp killed a john that was trying to kill a prostitute. So I thought he was the serial killer at first. Idk.
He was proven not to be the West Mesa Serial killer, and neither was Montoya. The Mo is completely different, and organized verse disorganized. We like to look for people with records because it gives us comfort that it’s easy to spot the bad guy, however this guy has no record.
 

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