Girl found dead in ditch talked suicide

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) - There are still lots of questions surrounding a young woman's mysterious death.

KRQE News 13 has discovered suicidal messages the 18-year-old appears to have left on the internet. But sheriff's investigators say, her death appears to be an act of murder.

The teen's body was found Friday, floating in a ditch near Edith and Osuna.

The investigation has left residents in the northeast Albuquerque neighborhood shaken.

"We noticed that there was a little bit more vehicle activity the day before they found the body, and that's you know we don't get too much truck activity on the ditch but that day there was," said Kristi Baca, who lives near the ditch.

Friday, when the body was found, there was little information. Investigators knew the person whose naked body was found floating in a nearby ditch belonged to a young woman, with a tattoo across her chest that said "por vida."

Now, Bernalillo County Sheriff's investigators have released her name, 18-year-old Amanda Wiley.

A look at her Facebook page shows she was going through a difficult time.

A post on April 12 said she was "getting kicked out of her place," with nowhere to go. An April 17th post says she wanted to die, that she wanted to shoot herself in the head.

According to the Sheriff's Department, Wiley's apparent cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head.

Despite the suicidal postings, investigators are handling the case as a homicide.

Officials say there was no weapon found near Wiley's body, and that told there were drag marks along the ditch bank.

Sheriff's investigators have since cleared the scene.

Concerned residents are still wondering what happened.

"My dogs were barking a lot that night about 11:45, but I personally didn't hear any gunshots that night," Baca recalled.

It appears Amanda had been missing for several days. According to her Facebook page, she had just started working at a local car wash.

The investigation is ongoing and the Sheriff's Department has not identified a suspect.