Timeline
2001-2006
During these five years, women began going missing at an unusually high rate in Albuquerque, New Mexico. They were disappearing from a high-crime area.
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May 11, 2003
Moncia Candelaria is missing. She was 21 years old and last seen nearby Atrisco and Central. Her missing person's case was investigated but went cold soon after.
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October 2003
Doreen Marquez goes missing at age 27. There are reports of Doreen being seen dropping her child off at school and other reports of her being seen alone, walking in the Barelas neighborhood.
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Early months of 2004
Victoria Chavez goes missing. The 26-year-old was last seen sometime in early 2004. She isn't reported missing to the police until about a year later by her mother.
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February 15, 2004
Veronica Romero is reported missing by her family. She was 27 years o;d at the time of her disappearance.
April 2004
Jamie Barela goes missing at age 15 after going to a park with her cousin Evelyn Salazar, who was also a victim. The park was located near San Mateo and Gibson.
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April 3, 2004
Evelyn Salazar a 27-year-old, is reported missing about a week after leaving a family gathering with her 15-year-old cousin Jamie Barela to go to a park.
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May 2004
Syllannia Edwards, 15, was seen last in Aurora Colorado on East Colfax Avenue, a known high prostitution area.
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June 2004
Virginia Cloven made her last known contact with her father to tell him she was moving in with a new boyfriend. When he doesn't hear from her after four months, he reports her missing to the police.
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July 2004
Cinnamon Elks is seen last after being arrested and brought to the Metropolitan Detention Center. She is reported missing by her mother about a month later.
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August 2004
Julie Nieto, 23, is last seen at her grandfather's house by her mother.
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September 2004
Michelle Valdez, 22, is last seen by her family. She was reported missing in February of 2005.
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August 2005
Ida Lopez, an Albuquerque police detective, starts compiling a list of missing women from the Albuquerque area.
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December 2006
Lorenzo Montoya, a suspect in multiple missing prostitutes in the Albuquerque area, is shot and killed by a man after being seen moving his girlfriend's dead body. He was later named a possible suspect in the West Mesa murders.
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September 2007
The West Mesa murders case first gets some media attention when the Albuquerque Tribune publishes an article called 'The Missing', talking about the suspicious disappearances of women in Albuquerque. The article contained the list of missing women.
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February 2, 2009
The first human bone is found in an empty lot nearby 118th Street and Dennis Chavez by a woman named Christine Ross while walking her dog.
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February 9, 2009
Joseph Blea becomes a possible suspect. His ex-wife, April Gillen suggests to police her ex-husband may know something in regards to the murders because he would regularly dump landscaping debris on the West Mesa during the night.
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February 10, 2009
The first victim is identified. Victoria Chavez, 26, is identified by investigators and anthropologists. They will continue to identify victims over the next year through dental and DNA records.
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June 11, 2009
Police issue a search warrant on Blea's house and business transactions. A tree tag was found next to the body of a victim, which led police to get the search warrant for Blea's house and landscaping business.
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June 12, 2009
Deaths are ruled homicides. Anthropologists help determine two of the victims identified early in the investigation were homicide victims. The bodies were very decomposed, so there was no manner of death determined.
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October 12, 2009
The second round of search warrants were executed by police. They searched Blea's house again as well as his jail cell. They found and confiscated women's underwear and some jewelry.
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January 26, 2010
The final victim in the investigation was identified. Jamie Barela was the last victim to be identified.
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August 4, 2010
Police get search warrants to search the properties of Ron Erwin of Missouri. Ron Erwin was a photographer who owned a studio and traveled to Albuquerque frequently during the time of the suspicious disappearances of women in Albuquerque.
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August 8, 2011
Ron Erwin was ruled out as a suspect. Investigators reveal Erwin could not have been responsible for killing the 11 women because he wasn't in Albuquerque on the dates of some women's disappearances.
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March 21, 2013
Blea was tied to series of sexual assault cases. Police announced at a press conference that Blea was involved in four rapes in the late 1980s and '90s near the McKinley Middle School.
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January 31, 2014
The news outlet KRQE publically names Blea and Montoya as the suspects in the case for the first time. Police respond by confirming the two haven't been ruled out.
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The Summer of 2014
Detective Ida Lopez retires and hands the case off to Detective Mark Manary, who takes over the West Mesa Murder investigation.
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June 3, 2015
Blea is convicted of raping a 13-year-old girl in 1988. He broke into her home, and waited in her closet, then raped her. He was also convicted of five more rapes two weeks later, receiving a total of 90 years behind bars.