Police hope body IDs crack mesa mystery

BELEN, N.M. (KRQE) - One investigator calls the identification of two more of the 11 women murdered and buried on Albuquerque's southwest mesa a "huge" step in solving the mystery of who killed them.

Forensic scientists identified Virginia Cloven and Evelyn Salazar as two of the women buried on by a serial killer between 2001 and 2005 in what was then open desert near 118th Street SW and Sen. Dennis Chavez Boulevard.

Cloven was 22 when she disappeared in 2004. Salazar, who disappeared the same year, was 25.

An investigator on the case who didn't want to be named said identifying the women helps to better profile the victims for common connections and to figure out what type of woman the killer was targeting.

One important connection among the women is their murderer. Tracing their last steps will eventually lead to him, investigators believe.

So far all the women identified led risky lifestyles and were mixed up with drugs and prostitution.

Forensic anthropologists at a North Texas State University lab discovered Cloven and Salazar's identities through DNA.

"I asked them if they were sure," Robert Cloven told KRQE News 13. "You don't want to believe your child is dead."

Cloven said he never stopped hoping his daughter was alive even after police unearthed the 11 bodies after a woman walking her dog found a human bone at a subdivision construction site in February.

"My God, that is sad," Cloven said. "So many victims up there and nobody knows who they are.

"Lord help us we hope she ain't one of them."

But Virginia Cloven was on of them.

He last spoke to his daughter in June 2004. She told him that she had a new boyfriend she wanted to marry named Robert who had just been released from prison.

Cloven said he told his daughter he'd like to meet him first and that she said they would make arrangements for the meeting the next time she called. That call never came.

Cloven reported his daughter missing in October 2004.

Salazar had told relatives she was going to park for an hour with her 15-year-old cousin, Jamie Barela, but they never returned.

There's still one more West Mesa victim to be identified, and police said that should happen soon. Investigators said they have not ruled out that Barela could be the 11th victim, but that they're looking at other women too as possible matches.

Cloven said his daughter took a wrong turn after her brother's murder and ended up on the streets.

"Before that she was a loving kid," Cloven continued. "She was the politest person you've ever met."

No matter what she always called him, he said, so when his phone stopped ringing in 2004 he didn't stop calling police hoping they'd found his daughter. Now he said he hopes police will find her killer.

"There's nothing that's ever going to bring her back, but we would like to see the guy punished," Cloven said. "That's all we could hope for."

Police said they still don't have a main suspect in the case although they are looking at a small number of possibilities.