it was comforting that it didn't just happen to me. >> reporter: six weeks after the digging began out on the 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. >> reporter: 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 buried out on the west mesa were buried naked, with no clothing on. >> it was a problem. we had things that we wanted to keep very secret, or things that we didn't want released. we had them in the air. they had the big telescoping lenses. they were there constantly. and there were certain processes that it did pose a concern. >> reporter: caught between the pressure to keep the public informed and the need to prevent key details from leaking out to cranks and copycats who routinely clogged tip lines, commander feist found himself scheduling sensitive excavation