After more than five years of court proceedings, Wozniak went to trial and was convicted on two counts of first-degree murder. On May 21, 2010, Wozniak shot and killed his neighbor, Private First Class Samuel "Sam" Herr, a 26-year-old Afghanistan War veteran, at a Los Alamitos theater. yes, i pray that they're okay. a detective named ida lopez. Sorry! detectives thought they knew about that killer. Daniel Wozniak (murderer) 1 language Talk Read Edit View history Daniel Patrick Wozniak (born March 23, 1984) is a former American community theatre actor who was convicted of two counts of murder in September 2016. >> reporter: after college ida graduated from the police academy and joined the force as a uniformed officer.ol >> most of my areas that i ce worked, especially patrol, i was assigned working the prostitutes in the area. im i remember that. to discuss leads on missing persons, on cold cases, on sexual predators, and on unidentified remains. well, if they were, so be it. >> reporter: that was true then, and it's true today. >> lives alone or is away from home for extended periods of time. so he's going to have close contact with these people. >> reporter: soon there were five missing women with eerily similar profiles on ida's list. >> reporter: for medical investigator wendy honeyfield the bones of jane doe number 7 and her pink-tipped acrylic nails were a beguiling puzzle. -keith used to be great to road-trip with. A North Miami woman bent on revenge was convicted Wednesday of gunning down the ex-business partner she blamed for the murder of her alleged drug-dealer husband. Syllania Edwards, a 15-year-old runaway from Lawton, Oklahoma, was the only African American, and the only victim from out of state. her face bore the kind of sores that suggested she'd been hitting the crack pipe.ug >> when did you notice things were going wrong? it was not the way that her mother and i raised her. >> it had to be brutally difficult to think of michelle living that kind of life. after years of having only her rap sheet and her father's bittersweet memories to go on, ida lopez was now sure she knew where michelle valdez was. but that's not the -- that's not what he saw in his eyes, or his heart. Paige Birgfeld, 34, was a well-liked . Sadly, the rumor was true. The bodies were discovered a decade ago this weekend, kicking off an investigation into the largest crime scene in Albuquerque's history. Since 2009, families of some victims have stressed publicly that the women and girls were loved. Dateline is the long-running, award-winning news magazine bringing viewers stories ranging from compelling mysteries to powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. In 2005, she was handed two missing persons files including missing 25-year-old Michelle Valdez,. gave her 20 bucks. an amusement park so he stepped on the dr. scholl's kiosk. In 1999, a sex worker named Cynthia Vigil Jaramillo was kidnapped and imprisoned in a city south of Albuquerque by a man named David Parker Ray, aka the "Toy-Box Killer." mind. the first words out of this girl's mouth was that he was trying to kill her. >> reporter: the resulting column, which for the first time publicly connected the missing women on ida's list with the west mesa bone field, hit the front page one month after the first bone was found. Ross walked her dog, Ruca, along along a dried-out wash in Albuquerque, New Mexico. it was so much going through my. there's a better choice. -what teach here isn't telling you is that snapshot rewards safe drivers with discounts on car insurance. >> when they told us that they had a young black girl, i thought, i didn't have a black girl on my list. click, call, or visit a store today. >> hi. >> investigators are extremely tight-lipped at this point, but we do know that this is in connection to the west mesa murders in albuquerque, new mexico. but they hadn't made an i.d. It plans to tie them to fencing near the crime scene Saturday ahead of a gathering to mark the anniversary. and last longer with fewer pills. In one incident years before the West Mesa murders, police searched his car after a woman said he had exposed himself to her. at 13 michelle became pregnant. For example, the case of serial killer Ted Bundy, who killed 36 women in Washington state in the 1970s, received loads of media attention, and Bundy's name is well-known. The police are reportedly willing to reward $100,000 to anybody who provides information on the West Mesa murders. >> reporter: in that time the case has gone from a nightmare for a few flawed souls to a nationwide search for a serial killer, an unidentified man who police believe may not have succeeded in killing every woman he coaxed into his car. >> no. >> all six sets of remains were found within 20 yards of each other. backing you. dr. scholl's. >> i started looking into the missing and exploited children's website and was able to search through as many african-american females that matched the possible stature, where they might have been when they went missing. In 2006 there were reportedly dirt trails leading from his trailer park to the site. Barela is the only victim who police say wasn't known to have been subjected to sex trafficking. Terms of Service (last updated 12/31/2014). Call the 118th Street Task Force at 1-877-765-8273 or (505) 768-2450. Joseph Blea (left) and Lorenzo Montoya (right). >> you're up half a mile to 3/4 of a mile from any populated area back in the time frame. Case 27: The West Mesa Bone Collector. but other than that it seemed that, you know, that she was on the up and up and that she was doing -- doing what she could, in her power, and the time that she had to go out and -- out to the streets. but we can protect your home and auto when you bundle with us. but can't get your hands on anything else. His cellmate said Blea admitted to knowing many of the murdered women and had even hit one of them for allegedly trying to steal his money. It was the most disturbing murder case Albuquerque police had ever seen and it remains unsolved to this day. grasping at smoke. they had literally spent weeks in the trenches looking for bones at that abandoned construction site. He has interviewed 200 hundred local women with similar backgrounds and created timelines for every suspect. do not use in breeding, pregnant or lactating dogs. to find out commander mike geyer, head of the albuquerque p.d. Send news items or comments to rturner229@hotmail.com. Several arrests and convictions in El Paso, Texas, indicated that Albuquerque is part of a broader sex trafficking route that includes the states of Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas, as well as the Mexican city of Juarez. >> no. Meet Detective Ida Lopez, bringing justice to missing women & their families. -good luck, everybody. after three years angelica was sent to live with dan's mother, who lived nearby, and michelle took to living with a series of people she called friends. podcast: Casefile True Crime. some of them chummed around with one another. where did she come from? ), First published on February 2, 2019 / 12:05 PM. >> reporter: by mid april, after 2 1/2 months of intensive searching, mapping, and aerial photography, commander feist finally felt confident that his team had found all the bones there were to find and began shutting down the west mesa crime scene. >> if you find one, you're going to find them all. >> when they told us that they had a young black girl, i thought, i didn't have a young black girl on my list. The guy is a total dirt bag and the subject of a criminal case for drugging and raping a teenage girl while still walking the streets. i got scared. and she's alive. do you know -- -room 303. >> i know 100% that my daughter is not alive. According to Albuquerque's KQRE, Montoya hired a sex worker in December 2006 and took her to his home located less than two miles away from the site where the West Mesa victims were buried. >> reporter: lorenzo montoya, a short, powerfully built man in his 30s who was known to have an, equally short temper and a taste for prostitutes. [9] Some of the women appear to be unconscious, and many share the same physical characteristics as the original 11 victims. The killings are called the "West Mesa murders" because the bodies were buried on the west side of Albuquerque. cinnamon elks, missing since august of 2004. but even if those rumors were true and human remains were cooling in the desert night on albuquerque's west mesa, the detective knew, it would take a miracle to find them. she gets out of her car and comes up to me. >> i said to one of my editors. Wozniak came under suspicion after he instructed a sixteen-year-old, Wesley Freilich, to withdraw money from Herr's accounts. what one little chew can do. as spring turned to summer that, year, dan, his ex-wife, and his daughters plastered flyers with michelle's picture all over central avenue asking anyone who'd seen her to call the albuquerque police department. dateline west mesa murders. >> she was a college student found on a lonely road in texas. "They didn't deserve what they got. >> she came over to the house one day, and i'd given her a few dollars, and she stood up. >> it was in september of 2004. all of her other victims were local. the next time anyone heard anything about syllania, she was here in this makeshift grave site outside albuquerque, sharing it with ten other women she never knew in life but will be forever linked with in death. >> reporter: at times detective ida lopez was out there too. >> she says i have some bad news for you. >> police have set up a tip line. Photos, information and videos from Dateline here. he wouldn't say what the plans were because the only, you know, close person i knew had cancer and died. then five. >> i'm still right down the middle of the fairway on this, right? -he did show us how to bundle home and auto at progressive.com and save a bunch of money. The 58-year-old Joplin businessman and photographer informed the Globe last week that he has been cleared of. -ahhh. [15][16] On December 13, 2010, police reported that two of the women in the photos had been identified as alive, and could have valuable information if they can be located. that nobody really ever sees. Victims' families weren't involved in planning the event, but relatives who attend will be asked to speak if they wish, said Barber. [9], The remains discovered in 2009 were identified as those of the following women and girls, all of whom disappeared between 2001 and 2005:[10][11]. >> reporter: -- no one who seemed to know something about the five-year missing persons cases was dialing the phone. apoquel may increase the chance of developing serious infections and may cause existing parasitic skin infestations or pre-existing cancers to worsen. Furthermore, Police encountered Blea nearly 140 times between 1990 and 2009, often in drug-heavy areas that the victims were known to frequent. that they're actually doing okay. In addition to Barela, Edwards, Salazar, and Valdez, they are: Monica Candelaria, 22; Victoria Chaves, 26; Virginia Cloven, 24; Cinnamon Elks, 32; Doreen Marquez, 24; Julie Nieto, 24; Veronica Romero, 28. so i would tell her, you know, mean things. but what can you do?te you can't be with them 24/7. >> a few years before the first body was found a colleague of mine and i had heard about a list of women that were missing. ida went by the book. Eleanor Griego, one of the victims' mothers, had previously mentioned while commenting on the case: APD Detective Mark Manary, who continued working on the disappearances after Ida's retirement, also deserves a special mention. and the baby. For our first episode of 2018, we outline the still-unsolved murders of the West Mesa Serial Killer *FYI: We've marked this episode as explicit because there are a couple of f-bombs. and there were certain processes that it did pose a concern. what's going on out here? Wozniak lured Kibuishi to Herr's apartment, where he shot and killed her. they use stamps.com all the services of the post office only cheaper get a 4-week trial plus postage and a digital scale go to stamps.com/tv and never go to the post office again. >> tonight they say the search is far from over. and there's a foot chase. when a stolen car rap in arizona landed michelle in jail, dan says he bailed her out and pleaded with her to change her ways. It's no secret. hoping that hers had not. >> maybe there are women out there who aren't on any list. i'm guessing you noticed before anybody else. jane doe. >> i thought this could be it, yeah. squeeze me like you've never squeezed me before. >> it's like being in a race and somebody has a year ahead start. -not this. The victims included two teenagers and a pregnant woman. there's no way. While the killings were initially believed to be the work of a serial killer, the involvement of a sex trafficking ring has been suspected. searching for clues in a crime scene big enough to be seen from space. >> the reality is it was kind of like this is not happening. Or, died from other indirect causes, including assault, abuse, or homicide, prior to being funeralized; preped for burial? but by 2004 camille, the tag-along little sister, had had enough.on when michelle asked dan if she could move back home for a while, camille put her foot down. on the Internet. Lopezs investigation found that close to two dozen women with similar profiles were missing. 'd, and it was her, and they found, you know, she was pregnant. (vo) you earned it, we're here to make sure you get it. [1][2], An anonymous tip to authorities at APD and FBI linked the murders to a suspect from Central America. only activia has billions of our live and active probiotics. >> another one here, then another one there. -yeah. i said, "detective lopez just told us that your mother has been positively i.d. you know, it's not what you see in vegas. Her skeletal remains were found at a construction site in the West Mesa area of Albuquerque in February, along with the bodies of many other victims. >> we had gotten a call from a family friend of ours that i grew up with, and you know, i pick up the phone and she's like, oh, my gosh, i'm sorry about your sister. was it all hot air, or did someone with knowledge of the murders mix a kernel of truth into those rumors? and i said, you know, what are you talking about? >> homicidal violence. ", "Controversial Show Starring Accused Los Alamitos Killer to Air", "NBC Dateline | FULL EPISODE: Plot Twist", "Daniel Wozniak, Rachel Buffett: 'Dateline' NBC Follows Plot Twists Of Actor In Bizarre Costa Mesa, California Murder Case", "Dateline: Secrets Uncovered season 7 episode 10 ("Plot Twist")", "20/20: 'Mystery in Apartment 410' Watch Full Episode", "Daniel Wozniak case: Full story of California double murder investigated on '20/20", "Community actor kills veteran, student for money to bankroll honeymoon", "The Perfect Murder | Watch Full Episodes & More! >> a third one. Despite the jewelry, underwear, and other evidence that appeared to connect him to the case including the testimony of a former cellmate who said that Blea claimed to have known and hired the West Mesa victims and called them "trashy" police have still been unable to conclusively tie him to the murders. -oh, what am i into? The same evening, Wozniak went on to perform in his local theatre production of the musical Nine. they can be. However, in the proceeding decades, a man named Gary Ridgway killed almost 50 women, most of them sex workers, but the case of the "Green River Killer" received much less attention. She said the organization also will highlight the continued struggles of women living on the margins. >> reporter: it was in denver, another city on the circuit, that detective todd babcock hit paydirt. [9] In 2010, a reward of up to $100,000 was being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible.[11]. >> did you know michelle was pregnant when she disappeared? She alerted the police, and Ray was arrested. for ida lopez there was the fear that her nightmare prediction was coming true. the money. >> yes. it was a bit of frontier justice for montoya, who was about to literally get away with murder. In 2007, before the harrowing discovery, the detective reportedly claimed that she had a file of more than 17 women, whom she referred to as "her girls," with similar backgrounds of addiction or prostitution who went missing between 2001 and 2006 from the Albuquerque streets. >> reporter: dan continued to cruise the war zone, willing himself to believe that his daughter was still out there. They found rope and electrical tape during the search. now no fruit is forbidden. >> 35 to 50? In 2005, Ida Lopez, an Albuquerque police detective, also noticed sex workers vanishing. it's fast itch relief. the only one to combine a safe sleep aid and the 12-hour pain-relieving strength of aleve. However, the Albuquerque Police Department refuses to lose all hope and continues working on it with whatever leads they have. the position was there. >> reporter: michelle valdez. Investigators have said that nearly all the West Mesa victims, who were between the ages of 15 and 32, worked as prostitutes . >> reporter: according to police, montoya lured the woman to his home near the west mesa burial ground. >> no. it's a mystery their families th still struggle to understand. The only emerging pattern was that 10 of the victims were sex workers or victims of sex trafficking. All went missing between 2003 and 2005. The victims' names will be read Saturday at a brief memorial service organized by Street Safe New Mexico next to a place where city officials in June broke ground on a memorial park. that day it fell to 15-year-old camille to fill in for michelle and act as mom. >> that's correct. >> reporter: the conclusion was inescapable. you know, we could chase them out, but for me there was always a story to them. >> i thought she was alive and well and doing good but just didn't want to have any contact with the family. the fall of 2005 was one of those times. i just could feel all the strength in my body just kind of just drain all of a sudden. so, let's make this the summer of loving your gut. Two years later a local family of four, the Wagners, are arrested and charged with the crimes. could be others. a. with xfinity mobile you can bring in your own phone, switch wireless carriers and save hundreds of dollars. >> the only body that has been identified so far, victoria chavez. - Investigation Discovery", "93 - Live At The Grove In Anaheim My Favorite Murder With Karen Kilgariff And Georgia Hardstark podcast", "20/20: 'The Final Act' Watch Full Episode", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Daniel_Wozniak_(murderer)&oldid=1142204623, Prisoners sentenced to death by California, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from August 2022, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2018, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 1 March 2023, at 02:21. we weren't as close.enec because of the drugs. within days evidence of one body, had become evidence of two. i didn't choose their lifestyle. They were between 15 and 32 years of age, most were Hispanic, and most were involved with drugs and sex work. After Herr told him that he had savings of about $62,000 from combat pay, Wozniak decided to kill him in order to acquire by the fall of 2004 dan valdez's calendar was beginning to fill with xs. Downtown Albuquerque as seen from the West Mesa. In 2009, the bodies of 11 women were found in multiple shallow graves on the West Mesa of Albuquerque but the cases remain unsolved. he's a photographer. As a result of the subsequent police investigation, authorities discovered the remains of 11 women and girls[8] and a fetus buried in the area. cinnamon was a name on ida's list. It is unknown, however, if she traveled on her own or was trafficked there. The 11th, meanwhile, was 15-year-old Jamie Barela. >> suggesting possibly that the killer met her in denver, brought her here? >> yeah. "They did an excellent job with our West Mesa murders," said Sgt. nine. >> the hardest part of this whole thing is having to go to somebody's house and say we found her and she's not alive. >> reporter: but as erratic as michelle had become in recent years, she'd somehow always managed to show up. [7], Soon after, Wozniak was apprehended by US Marshals while at his bachelor party two days before his wedding. >> reporter: those were long nights, filled with bittersweet memories of michelle the way she used to be, before the drugs took over. >> i thought maybe she'd turn up a few days later, a few weeks, or we'd -- you know, she'd call us. according to the website, she'd been a 13-year-old runaway from a group home in lawton, oklahoma in 2003. and that's what we're trying to figure out. in late january 2010, nearly a year after the first bones were discovered on albuquerque's west mesa, the last set of remains was matched to another name on ida's list. who got an awful skin condition. start with supporting your gut health. Detectives were left with the fact that serial killers move with ease, often vanishing long before their victims are ever found. michelle had just turned 20. a milestone that was not lost on mother or child. so far all the remains identified had been names on ida lopez's list of missing women. Joseph Blea was imprisoned when the bodies were found, but he became a suspect when his ex-wife contacted police. Where to Watch Episode 2 i know in my heart i didn't do the right thing, but i knew that the common sense of my brain said that i had to.