Between and , at least 19 girls and women disappeared on the streets of Albuquerque, New Mexico. Most of them were Latina sex workers in their 20s, and for years, no one knew what happened to them. Female prostitutes are more likely to be murdered than other women, and they have a much higher chance of being murdered by a serial killer, according to a study published in the Journal of Forensic Sciences.
She was last seen with her year-old cousin Evelyn Salazar, whose remains were also discovered at West Mesa. In addition to Barela, investigators discovered the remains of another year-old named Syllannia Edwards, the only Black girl identified at the West Mesa site.
The U. Department of Justice has been monitoring the Albuquerque Police Department since due to unrelated civil rights violations. Jaramillio now sits on the board of directors for Safe Streets New Mexico, an organization Barber founded in response to the West Mesa killings that keeps track of sex workers and alerts the public if they go missing. Though the West Mesa murder case remains unsolved, one of the primary suspects is Lorenzo Montoya , who lived one to two miles from the burial site and had a history of violence against women and soliciting women for sex.
Williams shot and killed Montoya; and after this, the disappearances stopped. Nor do the surviving bones reveal how the girls and women died, though investigators suspect their cause of death was strangulation. New information about what happened to the eight missing women who disappeared in , and could also potentially help the case if their disappearances are related to those of the 11 others.
In July , there was a false alarm when a construction crew discovered human remains near the site where the 11 West Mesa victims were discovered. The state Office of the Medical Investigator quickly determined they were likely Native American bones circa to unrelated to the disappearances.
