the boyfriend shot and killed lorenzo montoya on the spot. a bit of frontier justice for montoya, who was about to literally get away with murder. but years later his death would be just as tough a break for detectives investigating the bodies found on the west mesa. >> there's nothing to connect lorenzo montoya to those 11 bodies? >> not directly. >> just that he committed that kind of crime. >> it's hard to get over a guy getting shot with a dead prostitute in his arms. it is. >> reporter: 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. sapfira mora, one woman on ida lopez's list, had vanished after lorenzo montoya died. >> and if you close this case and decide it was lorenzo montoya and then later you find out it was somebody else, a lot harder to prosecute that person. >> absolutely. >> absolutely. >> reporter: as 2009 drew to a close, two more women from ida's list were positively identified. virginia cloven and evelyn salazar. there