Suspect list 'small' in mesa murders

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) - The hunt for the killer behind the murders and burials of 11 women on Albuquerque's West Mesa has developed a short list of suspects, an investigator close to the investigation told KRQE News 13.

The source couldn't say where or how close they are to focusing on one main suspect. What makes the investigation so difficult is that there are no eyewitnesses investigators can talk to, the source added.

Even though list of suspects is small, none has been ruled out, the source said.

Albuquerque Chief of Police Ray Schultz has said some of those suspects are in prison and some are dead.

The source told News 13 the list includes Lorenzo Montoya and that he had never been ruled out.

Montoya lived in the South Valley not too far from the mass grave site on the West Mesa discovered earlier this year.

In 2006 he strangled a 19-year-old prostitute in his home. When the woman's boyfriend came to pick her up and saw her body, he then shot and killed Montoya.

The source said they're not only looking at people in New Mexico but declined to elaborate.

The source also said they still don't know if the killer knew the women or if he simply targeted them because they were easier prey.

All the women identified so far had histories of drug use and prostitution and led transient lifestyles. That's the life the youngest and most recent victim identified may have led as well.

"She was a runaway," Wendy Honeyfield of the Office of the Medical Investigator said.

It was Honeyfield who identified Syllania Edwards through dental records earlier this week.
Edwards was 15 when she ran away from her foster home in Lawton, Okla., in 2003.

Honeyfield said she spoke to Edwards' family in Texas, and they told her they have no ties to New Mexico. The girl had been placed in foster care since the age of 5 when it's likely her mother landed in jail.

"They just they don't really know why she ended up here," Honeyfield said.

Now it's up to investigators to find out how, why and when Edwards found herself in New Mexico and became a victim of the West Mesa mystery.

There are still three more women to be identified. Their remains are at a Texas lab where forensic anthropologists who help crack cold cases are trying to determine cause of death.

OMI is expected to do another sketch of one of those victims.

The source said it's actually not necessary to identify the women to solve the case, and that solving the case could actually help identify the women.