and so this case was going nowhere until late in the afternoon on february 2, 2009, when with christine ross her dog ruka for a walk. >> okay. >> they strolled out of her new you subdivision, one of many that had recently sprouted up on the desert west of albuquerque and then over to an abandoned construction site where christine let ruka off the leash to run. >> she ran up ahead of me and she was messing with something on the ground, and then she left it. we came upon it, and it appeared to be a bone. didn't look like the normal animal bone you find out here so i took a picture of the bone, i sent it to my sister who is a nurse. she confirmed that that looked like a femur bone and i should call the authorities. >> finding a bone, even a human bone, is not unusual out here on albuquerque's west mesa. this is storied territory where native american tribes, conquistadors and cowboys once roamed. the bone could have easily belonged to one of them. but the police who arrived at the scene shortly after nightfall soon determined that this was no ancient artifact. this bone belonged to someone who