First set of West Mesa bones ID'ed

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - Albuquerque police on Wednesday released the name of one of the three women whose bones were found on the West Mesa.

The woman was Victoria Chavez who would have turned 30 this year.

Chavez was last seen in June 2003 and was reported missing by her mother nine months later.

The mother told police her daughter was a known drug user and prostitute. Because of that lifestyle the mother thought maybe she was just somewhere on the streets.

However but after months of not hearing from her she knew something was wrong.

Chavez's skeletal remains were found last week after a woman walking her dog uncovered a human bone in an area of southwest Albuquerque recently cleared for development as a subdivision.

An intense search by cadaver dogs turned up Chavez's entire skeleton and two partial skeletons belonging to two other women. They still have not been identified.

The Albuquerque Police Department plans to excavate the entire area to find the rest of the remains and they believe there could be other bodies out there.

Police say they are comparing the skeletons to 24 missing person's cases in the Albuquerque area. Many of those women are prostitutes, but right now without knowing who the other two victims are they can't say if that is a common link.

Police are still not callings the deaths murder although that appears to be the most likely explanation.

Detectives also said they suspected a well-known pimp who recently died of killing prostitutes. They said there's no evidence linking him or anyone else to the West Mesa bodies.