Detective Ida News Today

Little bit and ida consoled me a little bit and said its okay, you know, its okay. and then she says is there anything that we can do? do you need anything? i said no. i said just the information you gave me was plenty. >> of course there was more dan needed to do that evening. he would have to tell michelles 12-year-old daughter angelica. >> and i said angelica, i said, detective lopez just told us that your mother has been positively i.d. as one of the west mesa women. and thats when angelica ...

Investigating the bodies. >> theres nothing to connect him to 11 bodies. just that he committed that kind of crime. >> its hard to get over a guy getting shot with a dead prostitute in his arms. it is. >> but as tempting as it might be to pin the west mesa murders on a dead man, the detectives say there are a few disquieting facts, starting with this one. saphira moore had vanished after lorenzo montoya died and if you close this case and you say weve decided it was lorenzo montoya and later you...

But she kept coming up empty. >> i went to some drug ri hab plac places who were not willing to help me. i sat in many waiting rooms. i said i dont want to know what their sessions were about. all i want to know is a timeline. >> some of the women had been missing for so long to ida started comparing notes with a detective in the departments cold case unit. eventually they were able to sp persuade the department to let them form an unofficial task force where once a month they met with other age...

Further plans, you know, my husbands got young kids to take care of. >> frightening. >> then about a month and a half after i was diagnosed, then i had my kidney removed. >> surgeons also removed idas a dreenal gland because it too had a mass. because they caught the cancer early she required neither chemo nor radiation therapy. nor radiation therapy. her return to work would have bei gradual if at all. >> for mostly people that woulde the end of police work. right. >> not for you. >> no. i wasn...

Explained to the citizens of albuquerque that there werent just two women that were missing, there were whole bunches of them. >> finally families once alone in their agony felt a communal bond andality the sent of it all was valdez. >> i said lets get together, lets get to be each others support system, exchange phone numbers. >> an impromptu memorial came to life along side the wall that bordered the desert crime scene and the newly organized families which included everyone with a daughter on...

Were going missing? >> mostly she just watched it grow. but occasionally she was able to do some pruning whenever a lost soul was found. >> i find a girl with the same background, but guess what? i find her months later. i get to call the dad and say we found her, shes been arrested. >> kind of weird to be able to call a family and say great news, your daughters a prostitute and shes alive. >> but i get to say this is where shes at. >> the families of the 18 women now on idas list prayed for hap...

Michelle was last seen dan went down to the albuquerque police station and formally reported his daughter missing. detective ida although hlopez we it her mission to fine the other women weres was on medical leave. the valdez family was at the mercy of the police departments bur rock crass see. >> she didnt want to be found. >> i understand they dont just deal with missing. >> for a long time the news would be full of stories about girls who were missing and everybody was looking for them. one o...

Started turning up on the mesa. >> a few years before the first body was found, a colleague of mine had heard about a list of women that were missing. >> and as it turns out, a columnist for the albuquerque journal had got an copy of a that list a few years earlier when she worked the police beat. now that two women from the list had been identified, joeleen had an idea. >> i said maybe we ought to run that list. maybe we ought to be a little more proactive and editor didnt say a whole lot and i...

Confirmed idas hunch. jane doe number eight was michelle valdez. >> i had to tell dan. the hardest part of this whole thing is having to go to somebodys house and say we found her. and shes not alive. >> i see her pull up out front and i go out and stand on the sidewalk. she gets out of her car and comes up to me and ida says dan, she says i have some bad news for you. >> dan, she was i.d. and it was her and she was pregnant and the baby. it was just very difficult. >> i looked at her in disbeli...

In the trenches looking for bones at that abandoned construction site. >> its a lot of sifting and actually in the dirt. >> two women onnide a alopezs list had had already been identified among the 11 sets of remains. now between the bulldozers and idas prayers, the department was moving heaven and earth to find out if there were more women from idas list throughout. commander knew every scrap of evidence discovered from the gigantic crime scene would have to be catalogued and stored until it be...