sure. i love you, michelle. i miss you, hon. that he once had a daughter named michelle who was the light of his life. that once she was lost, and that now she s found. and we will see justice served. i love you, hon. i know 100% that my daughter is not alive. i know and i m comfortable with the fact that they identified her as my daughter. i am comfortable with the fact that we gave her a proper burial, as a human being should be buried. and i m happy and satisfied with that. ida lopez began this case with the mantra that everybody counts. it took years, but in the end, ida was able to make everybody care. to this day, above her desk hang
to fill with xs. each x marking another day without word from his oldest daughter, michelle. when was the last time you saw her? it was in september of 2004. how d she look? thin, wired out, strung out maybe. had spots on her face. and looked bad. did you see her then? honestly, i don t remember the last time i seen her. i don t remember the last words we spoke. you don t remember the last thing you said to her?
even a human bone, is not unusual out here on albuquerque s west mesa. this is storied territory, where native american tribes, conquistadors, and cowboys once roamed. the bone could easily have belonged to one of them. but the police who arrived at the scene shortly after nightfall soon determined that this was no ancient artifact. this bone belonged to someone who had died in the not too distant past. february 2nd is when one of our violent crimes detectives said oh, they found a bone on the mesa, i ll let you know. tonight they say the search is far from over. i saw it on tv on february 2nd, when christina ross and her dog ruca was reported on the local station as finding a femur bone. i was on a ski trip. and when i came home, i had seen it on the news, and i told my boyfriend. i said, you know, what if that s michelle? when you heard it, what did you think? hoping again. the old parental parental feeling is hoping that it wasn t.
calendar. the xs indicating no no knowledge of her, disappeared, nothing. no word. reporter: the fact is dan valdez had been recording his daughter s comings and goings for years. this is michelle. hi. i took it upon myself to tape them, tape every event. every chance that i had i had the videotape there. reporter: the michelle valdez that appears in these home videos with her little sisters is a far cry from the thin, drug-wasted young woman police would later come to know and fingerprint. daddy, can i have something to eat now? reporter: this michelle, along with her sister camille and half sister kendra, was a cut-up and a clown. i m freezing. reporter: whether in costume for a school play, dressed up for her first communion, or showing a budding interest in
she was on my list. and you thought, this is it. i thought this could be it, yeah. reporter: but there was more. something that surprised even veteran crime scene investigators. in the grave of jane doe number 8 investigators found a tiny second set of bones. it was a fetus. jane doe number 8 had been four months pregnant at the time of her death. they would say we found a skull that had a lot of hair and she s pregnant. i said it s michelle valdez. but they hadn t made an i.d. yet. reporter: michelle valdez. after years of having only her rap sheet and her father s bittersweet memories to go on, ida lopez was now sure she knew where michelle valdez was. did you know michelle was pregnant when she disappeared? i did. reporter: a few days later lab work confirmed ida s hunch. jane doe number 8 was michelle valdez.