news for you. dan, she was i.d. d, and it was her. they found you know, she was pregnant and the baby. it was just very difficult. i looked at her in disbelief but knew it was reality. i just could feel all the strength in my body just kind of drain all of a sudden. and i kind of was wobbling a little bit, and ida consoled me a little bit and said, it s okay. it s okay, you know. then she says, is there anything that we can do? do you need anything? i said, no. i just said, the information you gave me was plenty. of course, there was more dan needed to do that evening. he would have to tell michelle s 12 year old daughter angelica. and i said, angelica, detective lopez just told us that your mother has been positively i.d. d as one of the
all with the same name, jane doe. and ida lopez couldn t help but wonder if these dry bones were the women she had been looking for. you know, i just didn t know with so much going through my mind. over the years, ida s list to of the lost had become two dozen women that fit the same profile, young drug-addicted hispanic women who were known to roam the streets of albuquerque s war zone. for ida, walking through this bone yard felt as if she were with watching a horror movie unfold in realtime. you re watching this and i ve carried this flyer in my pocket and in my car for the last, you know, four years. within weeks, ida s early work of collecting dental records of the moising women and dna samples from their families began to pay off. bones started to get names. the only body that has been identified so far, victim victoria chavez. she was on your list. she was on my list. and you thought, this is it. i thought, this could be it, yeah. but there was more. somethin
i was devastated. but what can you do? you can t be with them 24/7. all you can do is bring them up, nurture them, show them love, attention, appreciation. and sometimes they make a mistake. and sometimes they make the wrong turn or a mistake. shortly after her 14th birthday, michelle valdez gave birth to a baby girl she named angelica. so you were being a father all over again. father all over again. i was only 8 years old and becoming an aunt, you know. it was tough, but once, you know, we had that bond, me and angelica, it was nice. i enjoyed it. at 14, most kids rightfully think their best years are ahead of them. high school, college, career. that was not the track michelle valdez was on. though dan continued to tape all the usual family functions, michelle s little girl angelica was now the center of attention.
gave me was plenty. of course, there was more dan needed to do that evening. he would have to tell michelle s 12 year old daughter angelica. and i said, angelica, detective lopez just told us that your mother has been positively i.d. d as one of the west mesa women. and that s when angelica looked at me and started crying. she said, no, don t tell me that, you re lying to me. don t lie to me. i said, honey, i m not. i m telling you the truth. it was a scene that no doubt had played out earlier at the family home of victoria chavez. but for the families of the other women on ida s list, the waiting and wondering would go on for months. for ida lopez, there was the fear that her nightmare prediction was coming true.
every lifeis a mystery. not just because of ha happened but what might have been prevented, missed or altogether avoided. we re the coolest girls in the whole wide world. such was the mystery of the women on detective ida lopez s growing list of the lost. it s a mystery their families still struggle to understand. there s a dad who had a calendar. every time he saw her he marked the date down. he gave her 20 bucks. maybe he knew where the money was going to go, but he saw his daughter. and that didn t take that part away that she was still somebody s little girl. i think they re trick candles. the name, the face belonged to michelle valdez, one of the first women on ida s list. dan valdez, her father, had reported michelle missing six months before ida got the case. he was the guy who kept the calendar. the xs indicating no knowledge of her, disappeared, nothing, no word.