women off the streets of new mexico s largest city. and the devoutly religious detective knew she needed all the help she could get. i think it s somebody who s very organized. i think he s been preying on his victims, has a particular victim in mind. reporter: sticking up for victims comes naturally to ida lopez. it s the same instinct that drew her to police work years ago, when she was a kid, growing up in albuquerque. i was about 9 years old. actually, it was my grandfather raised me. he was outside. he was about in his 80s. and i m in the porch area. and there s a foot chase. and the guy goes toward him, and he s tackled by police. i just thought that was the coolest thing i d ever seen. and so that curiosity. and then there was the service part, the helping people part of police work. reporter: after college ida graduated from the police academy and joined the force as a uniformed officer.
Detailed text transcripts for TV channel - MSNBC - 20181231:04:22:15
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maybe it was camille saying no or whatever. reporter: but dan s confidence that michelle would turn up alive was suddenly shaken one night when the phone rang at the valdez home. the caller on the other end of the line had heard something shocking. we had gotten a call from a family friend of ours that i grew up with, and you know, i pick up the phone and she s like, oh, my gosh, i m sorry about your sister. and i said, you know, what are you talking about? she said, michelle. michelle s michelle and cinnamon were stabbed and buried on the west mesa. did you know who cinnamon was? no. no. never heard of her before. did you ask her where she heard that? yeah. her aunt ran the streets, knew michelle, knew certain people, and they had heard it from her aunt. reporter: dan immediately called detective ida lopez with
formally reported his daughter missing. detective ida lopez, who would later make it her mission to find michelle and the other missing women, was on medical leave at the time. so in ida s absence the valdez family was at the mercy of the police department s bureaucracy. what d the police tell you? she didn t want to be found. and i can understand it. a.p. doesn t just deal with missing. they deal with all kinds. for a long time the news would be full of stories about girls who were missing and everybody s looking for them. and one of the things that those girls all had in common was that they were all attractive and blond and white and didn t have any criminal record. and i guess i just kind of wonder whether police and everybody else would have start of stepped up their game a little bit if that had been the case here. yeah, that did cross my mind