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for skin that looks younger than it should. fact check this ad in good housekeeping. olay regenerist. ageless. now, boost your regimen with olay regenerist concentrate. southwestern heat begins, hot air balloons rise like spring flowers over albuquerque and the surrounding desert. it's the annual fiesta. a money making spectacle that draws tourists from all over the world to albuquerque for one week in october. it's unlikely that any of the balloonists who float out over the west mesa area spend much time studying the details of the

sandy desert floor below. but if one of them had during the 2003 or 2004 festival, they might have actually seen evidence of a murderer moonlighting as a grave digger. it turns out that even though that evidence was long gone by the time those bones were discovered in 2009, a bird's eye view was precisely the perspective investigators needed to start their search for a killer. >> when you see the satellite photos and you see the scarring on the desert floor, knowing what we know now, very obvious they look like graves. >> this is what they saw when they looked at old pictures of the mesa. in this 2002 image of the area where the bones were discovered, there's nothing unusual, just desert and brush with a dry spring bed running through it.

but two years later what most of the women on ida low hez's list were disappearing, it shows tire tracks leading from this road to a few bare spots in the vegetation, spots that weren't there before. this photo taken the following year shows even more bare spots clustered within 20 yards of each other. >> it's kind of eerie looking at those satellite photos. >> that really sends a chill up and down your spine. >> the conclusion was inescapable. albuquerque police were looking at the evolving work of a serial killer. >> this particular individual made sure that they went back each and every time when he was going to dispose of a body and disposed of it in the same area where the other women were. >> somebody who lives here? >> we don't know if it was somebody who lives here or somebody who frequents albuquerque on a regular basis. >> whatever the killer's permanent address, the satellite photos were a huge break because

they told police when he was active here and most importantly, when he quit. >> there could be somebody up there right now. depending where they're at, you wouldn't see them. >> detective babcock and sergeant heck revolve drew the job of trying to track down the killer. they knew he killed at least 11 women and that the 2005 housing boom that brought suburban sprawl to the west mesa probably forced him to abort this burial ground and found another one where there would be no neighbors around to watch him work. >> you're up half a mile to 3/4 of a mile from any populated area in the time frame. >> that time frame, 2003 to early 2005. and 11 sets of bones. not a lot to go on. but the detectives knew simply finding the bones in the first place had been an incredibly

lucky break. >> all the stars aligned. >> oddly enough, the west mesa investigators' good fortune began thousands of miles to the east in the fall of 2008. that's when crumbling financial markets on wall street caused home construction on the west mesa to grind to a halt. >> the company kind of left town and just kind of left the land the way it was. >> if those houses had been built, they would have been built on top of that graveyard. >> correct. >> nobody would be the wiser. >> correct. then august of 2008, we had a really bad rainstorm. >> the rain runoff from the deserted construction site flooded the new neighborhood that surrounded it. it was when the company returned to the site to fix the runoff site that they inadvertently brought bones to the surface. where the beans were discovered by christine ross and her dog. >> look at how many things had

to have happened for these victims to be located. >> the development at first, the housing downturn, the fact that a company leaves, a rainstorm comes, unearths certain things and now the victims. >> you got lucky? >> very lucky. >> by late february 2009, then commander paul feist and his small army of crime scene investigators and volunteers weren't feeling very lucky at all. they had literally spent weeks in the trenches looking for bones at that abandoned construction site. >> it is a lot of shovel and pick work. a lot of sifting and actually in the dirt. >> two women on ida lopez's list had been identified among the 11 sets of remains. now, between the bulldozers and ida's prayers, the department was moving heaven and earth to find out if there were more women from ida's list out there.

commander feist knew every scrap of evidence recovered from that gigantic crime scene would have to be cataloged and stored until it came time to prosecute the west mesa grave digger. >> the scope of this thing was bigger than we imagined it would be. as it unfolded. >> it was a crime scene that covered the equivalent of 75 football fields. because construction crews had once leveled and filled a dry stream bed where some of the bodies had been buried, the team had to dig deep to find what had once been shallow graves. >> we're police officers, not archeologists. we have no background in some of these things. something of this level was -- >> early in the excavation, one investigators watched as an earth mover dug deep and dumped a load of dirt only to see a human skull roll down the hill and stop at his feet. it was an eye-opener that taught

everyone from seasoned criminal investigators to backhoe operator to tread lightly. >> from the time that bone came out of the hole, just about every single remaining victim came out intact. >> they were using the best technology the department could bray to bear. such as lasers and ground penetrating radar. the commander would soon feel as if the eyes of nation were watching every move he made. >> i'm wondering how many more am i going to find and how many names will i go home with tonight. coming up -- >> investigators are looking for connections. any signs that the women knew each other. >> we wanted things we wanted to keep secret, things we didn't want released. >> parents who lost a child find awe cause. >> we all had a common denominator, our daughters. a lot of people said they were drug addicts and prostitutes. but you know what the first

thing is they were human beings to begin with. >> when "dateline" continues. so you're looking for male customers, ages 25-54,

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before february 2009, victoria chavez and michelle valdez had been virtually invisible to everyone in albuquerque except their families, their customers and detective ida lopez. who had their names on her list of missing women. but for the most part, the public didn't even know there was a list. the news media had shown little interest in the story when desperate family members had come to them asking for help. >> they wouldn't even put a picture on the news, nothing. that's all we wanted. flash their picture real quick. >> of course, all that changed once bones started turning up on

the mesa. >> a few years before the first body was found, a colleague of mine and i had heard about a list of women that were missing. >> as it turns out, jolene gutierrez krueger, a journalist, had gotten a copy of the list a few years earlier when she worked the police beat. now that two women had been identified, she had an idea. >> i said to an editor, maybe we ought to run that list. maybe we ought to be a little more proactive. editor didn't say a whole lot. i thought, well, i'll write it and we'll see what happens. >> the resulting column, which for the first time publicly connected the missing women on ida's list with the west mesa bone field hit the page 1 month after the first bone was found. >> the response was amazing. i think because for the first time we started to put faces on these women and we had explained

to the citizens of albuquerque that there weren't just two women that were missing. there were a whole bunch of them. >> suddenly families who once felt isolated in their agony now felt a communal bond. at the center of it all was dan valdez. >> i said let's gather these families together and be each other's support system. let's exchange phone numbers. >> an impromptu memorial came to life alongside the line that bordered the desert crime scene. the newly organized families, which included everyone with a daughter on ida's list, began holding monthly vigils to keep public attention focused on finding all of the missing women. by now, dan was emerging as the videographer and de facto spokesman for the family. >> we all had a common denominator. our daughters. some of them chummed around with

one another. it was comfort rg that it didn't just happen to me. >> six weeks after the digging began on west mesa, even more sets of remains were identified. and sure enough, they, too, were names on ida lopez's list of missing women. >> investigators are looking for connections. any signs that the women knew each other. >> by now the street alongside the desert crime scene was a media encampment where reporters were predictably live at 5:00, 6:00 and 10:00. sometimes reporting details that crime scene commander paul feist preferred to keep secret. >> all of the victims were buried naked, with no clothes on. >> we had things we wanted to keep very secret. things we didn't want released. we had them in the air, they had the telescoping. there were certain processes that did pose a concern. >> pressure to keep the pressure

informed and the need to prevent key details from leaking out to cranks and copycats who routinely clawed headlines. commander feist found himself scheduling sensitive excavation work in the off hours when he knew cameras wouldn't be looking over his shoulder. >> i needed to know where they were all the time. if i was looking at something specific, i needed to know that i didn't have the eyes of america in that hole with me. >> by mid-april, 2009, after 2 1/2 months of intensive searching, mapping and aerial photographer, commander feist finally felt confident that his team had found all the bones there were to find. he began shutting down the west mesa crime scene. >> just a few minutes ago, albuquerque police left the site. >> the total body count stayed at 11 sets of adult remains and

one fetus. for ida lopez, the discovery and identification of seven women from her list meant that years of careful detective work were finally paying off. >> she was very passionate about her job. she realized that these women all had families. they've got parents and grandparents and some had children of their own. she wanted to be able to provide them with some answers. >> in addition to victoria chavez and michelle valdez, the others from ida's list were cinnamon elks, julie -- veronica romero, and doreen marquez. >> a lot of people said they were drug addicts and prostitutes. well, if they were, then so be it. i didn't choose their lifestyle. but you know what the first thing is, they were human beings to begin with. >> commander feist who tried to keep the local press at arm's length during the excavation finally allowed them to cross

under the yellow tape and on to the crime scene along with crews from america's most wanted. >> america's most wanted was at the crime scene today filming for the west mesa mystery. >> media coverage could be helpful now and might generate badly needed tips from the public because not only was there a serial killer to catch, but also because of one set of remains that was about to upset everything detectives thought they knew about that killer. coming up -- >> when they told us they had a young black girl, i thought i didn't have a young black girl on my list. >> who was she? where did she come from? how did she get to albuquerque? not all those questions have been answered as of yet. >> was it possible ida lopez's list was just the tip of the iceberg. >> it's desert. there could be very

realistically, a lot of bodies. >> this in a way suggests that maybe there are women out there who weren't on any list. >> that's a possibility. >> could be others. could be others. >> when "dateline" continues. approximate thanks for giving victor the energy to be the rowdiest and joseph, the ability to see monsters. when you choose walgreens, you choose to make a difference... like how every vitamin and flu shot you get at walgreens helps give life-changing vitamins and vaccines... to children in need around the world and here at home. so, really... happy thanks for giving! walgreens. at the corner of happy and healthy. whstuff happens. old shut down cold symptoms fast with maximum strength alka seltzer plus liquid gels.

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. i'm dara brown. more backlash for charlie rose following sexual misconduct allegations. university kansas rescinded their journalism awards to rose. the move comes after cbs and pbs parted ways with rose. the navy identified the three sailors who lost their lives on wednesday in the philippine sea. the remains of lieutenant steven combs and the others were recovered on thursday. now back to "dateline."

after months of digging for bones in the desert west of albuquerque, detectives desperately wanted to get on with the work of catching a killer. so far, all the remains identified had been names on ida lopez's list of missing women. and all had worked as prostitutes on the mean streets of the city's war zone. for police, that seemed like a good place to start their search for the killer. >> we're looking for people who had histories of showing violence against prostitutes. >> that's more than just a few guys? >> it's more than just a few. >> it had to be someone local, investigators assumed. a meticulous man whose grim will brought him back to the mesa again and again to bury his victims. everything was in a pretty contained area, all the bones, all the remains. >> yes. >> because this guy had complete freedom or he thought nobody is

going to come out here? >> probably because he felt safe out here. >> for detectives like babcock, it seemed to add up except for one thing. the crime lab had determined that one of the unidentified sets of remains, jane doe number 7 was a young black female. >> when they told us they had a young black girl, i thought, i didn't have a young black girl on my list. >> the medical investigators, wendy honeyfield, the bones of jane doe number 7 and her pink tipped acrylic nails were a beguiling puzzle. >> she's like a lot of other cases where we have skeletal remains that come in. there's so much work done behind the scenes to get them identified that nobody really ever sees. >> fort detectives who were trying to catch a serial killer, those remains represented a wildcard with staggering

implications. what if the west mesa grave digger was a prolific transient? what if jane doe number 7 was the first of many victims the grave digger brought to the west mesa from somewhere else. >> who was she? where did she come from? how did she get to albuquerque? not all those questions have been answered as of yet. >> it would take more than diligent detective work to find those answers. but within a few months of receiving those remains, the lab-coated sleuths at the office of the medical investigators began unraveling the -- jane doe number 7. >> the skull was pretty much intact. one of our senior investigators who is able to do forensic sketching started to do a profile for her. >> based on photographs of the skull and a partial hair weave that was recovered from her grave, the sketch artist imagined that jane doe number 7

must have looked something like this. >> he was able to define out her ears, the chin was specific for me. her nose and her eyes were very important. >> jane doe number 7's nose had been broken sometime before she died. so that was represented in the sketch. because her wisdom teeth had not fully developed, wendy knew this jane doe was probably only 14 or 15 years old when she died. >> i started looking into missing and exploited children's websites and was able to search through as many african-american females that matched the possible sketch or where they might have been when they went missing. >> from a pool of hundreds, wendy first narrowed the field to 30, then to 10 and then to one. one girl whose face, age and biography seemed to match what

she saw in the sketch. her name was saline i can't edwards. >> according to the website, she was a 13-year-old runaway from a group home in lawton, oklahoma, in 2003. >> it was her ear. her ear that was exposed in the photo and it was her eyes that was what kept me -- bringing me back to her. >> dental records from oklahoma confirmed that jane doe number 7 was, in fact, saah lane i can't edwards. >> one answer found. that only generated more questions. like when did the oklahoma teenager get to new mexico and who brought her? >> don't know. that's what we're trying to figure out. >> possibly the killer? >> don't know. i have no idea how she died here. >> so detectives started checking with police departments and jails throughout the southwest on the hunch that as

young as she was, she might have been entangled in a prostitution circuit that shuttled women from city to city. >> we see very often the women involved in prostitution working what's called the circuit. they'll move from albuquerque to phoenix to las vegas to los angeles and maybe not return on that circuit for several years. >> it was in denver another city on the circuit that detective todd babcock hit pay dirt. >> at one point she was arrested in the denver area for prostitution going by a different name at the time. had been booked, they were able to get my a booking photograph of what she looked like around the time that she died, we believe. >> edwards was released from that denver area jail in july 2004, the same year almost all the other west mesa women had gone missing. >> the next time anyone heard anything about her, she was here

in this makeshift gravesite outside albuquerque sharing it with ten other women she never knew in life. but will be forever linked with in death. >> biggest thing that makes her different, she's not a local girl. all the other victims were local. they had ties to albuquerque. >> she was last seen in denver. >> last known police positive contact was in denver. >> suggesting possibly that the killer met her in denver, brought her here? >> i don't believe so. >> you think she came here on her own? >> i know she had been to albuquerque at least one prior time to her ending up out here, possibly two prior times. >> nine months after the discover i have the first bone on the west mesa, the detectives were back to square one. the odds were good that edwards, like the others, had simply strolled out into the war zone and climbed into the wrong car. but her presence in the west mesa boneyard raised a troubling

prospect. >> there are other girls from out of state in the same -- are we going to find a repeat? we don't know. >> now, investigators feared the serial killer they were hunting may have buried other bodies elsewhere in the vast desert west of town. >> it's desert. there could be very realistically, a lot of bodies. >> this, in a way suggests that maybe there are women out there who aren't on any list. >> that's a possibility. could be others. there could be others. coming up -- >> watching a particular prostitute, see a vehicle pick this girl up, drive to a location. >> a suspect caught in the act. >> we approached the vehicle. opened the door. first words out of this girl's mouth was that he was trying to kill her. >> when "dateline" continues.

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from the moment the west mesa murder case landed in their laps, the detectives knew they would be chasing a phantom. the killer, whoever he was, and police naturally assumed the killer was male, had a five-year headstart. >> you think we're dealing with one guy here? >> i think -- >> i think there's no doubt you're dealing with one guy. based on our experience with crimes of this nature, homicide crimes, when you have multiple offenders, more than one of them, someone is going to talk. >> this kimmer had seemingly -- killer had seemingly left nothing behind but a pile of dry bones and a few hazy satellite images of tire tracks on the desert sand. >> it's almost frustrating. because you look at this picture and you see the disturbed bursts

which are gravesites and you see the tire tracks but you can't get your hands-on anything else. >> no witnesses. no fingerprints. no dna. >> we went back starting in 2002. we got the records from our local jail. was anybody arrested for prostitution, criminal solicitation, anything like that. >> but what kind of man is capable of killing and disposing of 11 women without somebody noticing something? >> fbi behavioral sciences agents came in, took a look at our crime scene and what evidence we had. they came up with their profile of who they thought we were looking for. included in that profile was a white man. >> 35 to 50? >> away from home for extended periods of time.

probably had brushes with law enforcement, probably familiar with the prostitution trade. >> yeah. >> i'm still down the middle of the fairway and that's a lot of people. >> it's a lot of people. do you use that profile and rule somebody out because they're not on that profile? >> you can't. >> the detectives needed a solid tip. and by the summer of 2009, the fbi and the city of albuquerque were offering $100,000 to anyone who could help them catch and convict the man responsible for killing the west mesa women. for the detective who had long maintained that everybody counts, the existence of that kind of reward was a sign of progress. the police tip line buzzed with hundreds of calls from a trail mix of nuts, kooks and the merely misguided. nobody who seemed to know something about the

five-year-old missing person's cases was dialing the phone. >> there were numerous rumors that certain individuals had killed several of them. and then one in particular had been killed by drug dealers. >> were all of the victims killed the same way? >> we believe so. >> can you tell me what that is? >> no. >> homicidal violence. >> you can't say gun, knife, strangulation? you're keeping that quiet because you don't want somebody to confess to this who didn't do it? >> that's correct. we're staying with homicidal violence. >> homicidal violence. there was no shortage of names on the list of suspects who were capable of that. but one name stood out. a name and face detective babcock knew quite well from an encounter in 1999 when babcock was working the vice unit in albuquerque. >> vice unit was watching a particular prostitute, see a vehicle pick this girl up, drive

to a remote location. we approach the vehicle, open the door. the first words out of the girl's mouth who is a known prostitute was that he was trying to kill her. >> and the man in the car was? >> lorenzo montoya. >> a short powerfully built man in his 30s who was known to have an equally short temper and a taste for prostitutes. babcock said he saw marks on the woman's throat and that she told him montoya looked like he was enjoying it. >> did you believe her story? >> yes. >> so lorenzo was arrested for charges beyond patronizing a prostitute. >> question, he was. >> that felony assault charge against montoya went nowhere because the victim later refused to testify. but it was what happened next that really focused the detective's attention. in 2006, years after being caught in the act of choking one

prostitute, lorenzo montoya was caught in the company of a dead one. >> on the surface, seems like a pretty good suspect. >> yeah. but we don't know if it's him or not. >> montoya lured the woman to his home near the west mesa burial ground, killed her, wrapped her body in a blanket and was preparing to dump her in the trunk of her car when the woman's boyfriend showed up. >> we would love to have the opportunity to interview him and treat him just like any of the other individuals we're looking at in this case. >> that unfortunately, will never happen. the boyfriend shot and killed lorenzo montoya on the spot. it was a bit of frontier justice for montoey ttoya who was aboutt away with murder. years later, his death was just as tough a break for detectives investigating the bodies found on the west mesa.

>> nothing to connect lorenzo montoya to the 11 bodies. >> not directly. >> just that he committed that kind of crime. >> beside getting shot with a dead prostitute in his arms, it is. >> but as tempting as it might be to pin the west mesa murders on a dead man, the detectives say there are a few disquieting facts, starting with this one. one woman on ida lopez's list had vanished after lorenzo montoya died. >> if you close this case, and you say we've decided it was lorenzo montoya and then later you find out it was somebody else, a lot harder to prosecute that person. >> absolutely. >> absolutely. >> as 2009 drew to a close, two more women from ida's list were positively identified, virginia cloven and evelyn salazar. there was only one set of nameless remains left to

identify. but by now it seemed likely that whoever she was, her name was probably already on ida's list. the new year began with the detectives knowing they needed a break and they were prepared to follow any tip anywhere if that's what it took to solve the case. >> albuquerque police and fbi agents are now in joplin, missouri. >> then a news flash came from missouri that had everyone in albuquerque glued to their screens. >> that's a long ways away from albuquerque, new mexico. coming up -- is the answer to the mystery blowing in the wind? >> he's in the area where the prostitutes frequent. a photographer, someone has close contact with the people. and now to investigative leads or other sources, we find something that tells us a little bit about their lifestyle which could give us again that gut

reaction. it's got to be. it's got to be that person. >> when "dateline" continues. when it's time to move to underwear

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in late january 2010, nearly a year after the first bones were discovered on albuquerque's west mesa, the last set of remains was matched to another name on ida's list. >> university of north texas identified jamie borel a through dna. >> although the 15-year-old was not a prostitute, she was last seen with one. her cousin evelyn salazar. whose remains were also found on the mesa. there were still seven missing women who fit the profile on ida lopez's list. if they weren't on the mesa, where were they? with the investigation now focused on finding a serial killer, ida thought back to her

late-night chats with the women of the war zone. had there been anything she had overlooked? anything specific about a car, a smell, a tattoo or an accent? something that might be significant. >> then you ask them how many bad dates have you had. oh, i've had 17. i've been choked, i've been beat, i've been raped a number of times. so you get a lot of that. then i'm thinking, okay, is it somebody that's nice and picking them up. >> investigators had plenty of leads but none that had gotten them closer to answering two questions. who was he and where was he now? to find out commander mike gyre, hid of the criminal investigations unit said the department chased leads all over the country, from texas, where women were profiled similar to the west mesa women who also gone missing.

to states as far away as pennsylvania and florida. the backgrounds and travel patterns of certain types of men seemed to warrant close attention. >> there's probably people that were in albuquerque during the time frame we're looking at and now through investigative leads or other sources, we find something that tells us a little bit more about their lifestyle as well, which would give us, again, that kind of immediate gut reaction. it's got to be. it's got to be that person. >> it was that kind of gut reaction that led detectives to joplin, missouri in august of 2010. >> investigators are tight-lipped at this point but we know this is in connection to the west mesa murders in albuquerque, new mexico. >> the target of the search warrant was a local joplin, missouri, photographer, who had allegedly been in albuquerque to take pictures during the city's 2004 balloon fiesta. but police think it wasn't just the balloons he was

photographing. remember, 2004 is when almost all of the women found on west mesa disappeared. >> he's in the area where the prostitutes frequent, he's a photographer, so he's going to have close contact with these people. whatever else draws that connection to him, we have to look into it. >> it was intended to be a low-key search of the man's home and offices. but it didn't turn out that way. >> it gathered a lot of attention because we had to utilize the fbi. we had to utilize the joplin police department and one of the locations that was searched was next door to the newspaper. if that same individual was here in albuquerque, the media wouldn't have known about it. >> fbi agents also searched this home. >> the man's whose house you served a search warrant on, was he a suspect? >> no. i wouldn't say he's a suspect. >> he's an individual that came to our attention that we had to follow through. >> so this guy takes photographs of the part of town that you're sort of looking at. is that what we're looking,

you're interested in his photos and whether he found anything in them? >> we really can't say why. >> though detectives spent months combing through all the evidence taken from the photographer's office and home, nothing definite was found. months later, most of these boxes were returned. months later, most of the boxes were returned. now they are sure of only one thing. if the serial killer who preyed on their city is still alive, he's probably moved on to another hunting ground. >> in my personal opinion, i believe that that person is still out there. coming up -- the trail goes cold. but the danger lingers. >> he may be waiting in some other community to start doing the same thing again. >> and if he is, it may only be a matter of time.

when "dateline" continues.

it's been years since that summer night ida lopez just took to the streets of albuquerque's war zone alone, searching for a couple of missing women. these days, she patrols with a partner, still looking for the lost. >> the majority of our girls were with street-level prostitutes. >> in that time, the case has gone from a nightmare for a few flawed souls to a nationwide search for a serial killer, an unidentified man former police chief ray schultz says may not have succeeded in killing every woman he coaxed into his car. >> he may be waiting in some other community to start doing the same thing again, and what we hope to happen is that someone that's had an encounter with this killer will make that

phone call you to us and we can link that individual to these crimes that occurred here in albuquerque. >> if these women had been blonde, white and from the right part of town, would you guys have sounded the alarm sooner? >> what makes this case unique is several of these victims were missing for months before anybody ever reported them missing. also, again, it goes back to the lifestyle. women very often involved in prostitution, it's not uncommon for them to go missing for weeks or months at a time. >> that was true then and it's true today. out in the war zone, there's a new crop of ragged women on the streets willing to sell themselves in return for a puff of smoke from a glass pipe. >> i want to talk to you. >> most of the new girls either never knew or barely remember the women whose places they've taken. >> whatever you tell us, it's no judgment at all. okay?

>> but some do. and in spite of their example, they can't quit the life. >> did you notice when the girl were going missing? >> though police say they have a half dozen suspects on their radar at any given time, so far they haven't been able to eliminate or arrest any of them. >> it's a cold case, and so we have to recreate and you have to kind of go back into the time machine so to speak to that era or that time in these people's lives and memories fade and witnesses disappear and some just don't want to be part of it anymore. >> many who lost friends and relatives to the west mesa gravedigger are convinced there is still someone somewhere who knows something because, they supposed, all those earlier rumors about the women being abducted, killed and dumped in the desert had to have started somewhere. was it all hot air, or did someone with knowledge of the murders mix a kernel of truth into those rumors? >> we're not the only family that got a call saying that

their sister, daughter was murdered and buried out there. >> somebody was trying to send a message at some point. >> could never trace it back. it led them to a dead end. >> though both dan and camille valdez believe michelle's killer is still alive, dan prefers these days to dwell on the things he knows for sure. >> i love you, michelle. i miss you, hon. >> that he once had a daughter named michelle who was the light of his life, that once she was lost and that now she's found. >> and we will see justice served i love you, hon. >> i know 100% that my daughter is not alive. i know and i'm comfortable with the fact that they identified her as my daughter. i am comfortable with the fact that we gave her a proper burial as a human being should be buried.

and i'm happy and satisfied with that. >> ida lopez began this case with the mantra that everybody counts. it took years, but in the end, ida was able to make everybody care. to this day, above her desk hang faded photos of the women on her list, alongside a line of scripture that reads "nothing is hidden except to be revealed." a quote familiar to homicide detectives everywhere. >> and what information do you have? >> and it's not just there for inspiration. for ida lopez, that's a mission statement. >> i have to keep believing that we'll find an answer soon. soon could be months. soon could be years. but i just have to keep believing that today could be the day. today could be the day. >> what about those last seven

girls? you think you'll ever find them? >> i think we will. one was found alive and well a few weeks after this story first aired in december 2010. remember, mora was the one woman who had gone missing after montoya had been shot and killed. these are the women currently on ida's list. ida's list. anna vehill, shontel wait, felipe pa gonzalez, nina, herron, vanessa reed, leah peoples. >> we're looking and we'll keep looking. i pray i don't have to tell another mom or dad, but it's the same background, same area. they're somewhere out there. >> maybe ida lopez will find those answers here in the same sun-baked desert sand that once hid this mystery and then later revealed it.

but the problem, then as now, is time. and this desert doesn't give up its secrets easily. i'm craig melvin. >> and i'm natalie morales. >> and this is "dateline." he said, "nicole has gone missing." we are frantic. calling, all her friends are calling. you think that that sort of thing happens to other people. it's the most frightening thing in the world. >> a young wife. >> she always saw the good in people. >> she had a way to make you smile. >> missingor