ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – Sunday marks 16 years since the discovery of the West Mesa Murder victims. As police continue to investigate this case, they’ve come across an obstacle in state law. Now, they’re working with lawmakers to address it this session.
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The heinous discovery 16 years ago continues to unsettle the community as police still search for the killer responsible for the West Mesa Murders. It was in 2009 that the remains of 11 women and an unborn fetus were found on the West Mesa.
Over the years, police reported that Lorenzo Montoya and Joseph Blea were possible suspects. But there’s an obstacle in current state law presenting Albuquerque police with an investigative roadblock, specifically with whose DNA they can enter into their database, CODIS, to connect suspects to crimes.
While APD commander Kyle Hartsock said these rules are necessary, there are some blind spots. “One of them is, if we have a suspect who dies before they get charged with a crime they cannot be entered into the database,” said Kyle Hartsock, Commander of APD’s Criminal Investigation Division.
With Montoya dying in 2006, killed by the boyfriend of the sex worker Hartsock said Montoya murdered, Montoya’s DNA cannot be entered into the DNA database. “We want to know: is he tied to other cases of sexual assaults, violent attacks, murders, but right now, we’re not allowed to,” said Hartsock.
A change in state law could have a big impact in investigating the West Mesa Murders and other cold cases. APD had its legal team draft up two bills which have now made their way to the Roundhouse. “Not having a resolution, it has kept our community in a ‘wonder’ situation and I’m sure the families are still in pain, unable to have some closure,” said Representative Yanira Gurrola (D-Albuquerque).
She is one of the several lawmakers who’ve signed on to sponsor the bills. “To free some resources for the police, this is a big case,” said Representative Gurrola. “I am a west side resident. I remember this case like it was yesterday. It seems like it was slow motion when the bodies were discovered.”
If passed, APD would be allowed to enter a deceased suspect’s DNA into CODIS to help connect them to unsolved crimes. But, it would only be done with the approval of a judge on a case-by-case basis. “We still want a judge to say, ‘Yup if he was alive, I’d find probable cause to charge him with a crime,'” said Commander Hartsock.
APD is also proposing a second bill to lawmakers that would help get more DNA of convicted prisoners into CODIS. The bill would remove dates of when a crime was committed that currently limits which suspects could be added to the database. It would also enable the Department of Corrections to work with the Office of the Medical Investigator to enter DNA into a database of a person who died in custody.
“If you got released from prison from 1996, or you died in prison after that fact, you’re not in CODIS. So, we have these offenders from 80s and 90s who got sent to prison before the DNA bill got put on the books,” said Commander Hartsock.
He said these changes could be monumental in solving cases. “I guarantee they’re going to solve dozens if not more of our 450 cold case homicides that I have sitting in the basement right now,” said Hartsock. “A lot of these, they’re solved. We just don’t know it yet because that offender went to prison before the law came into effect.”
APD said the focus of the legislation is to help give grieving families of cold cases like the West Mesa Murders closure. “This is also a common-sense change to the law. The person’s dead. We’re not going to charge them in the grave. That’s not the purpose of this. The purpose of this is: these victims or the families of these victims still deserve to know what happened,” said Commander Hartsock.