one fetus. for ida lopez, the discovery and identification of seven women from her list meant that years of careful detective work were finally paying off. she was very passionate about her job. she realized that these women all had families. they ve got parents and grandparents and some had children of their own. she wanted to be able to provide them with some answers. in addition to victoria chavez and michelle valdez, the others from ida s list were cinnamon elks, julie veronica romero, and doreen marquez. a lot of people said they were drug addicts and prostitutes. well, if they were, then so be it. i didn t choose their lifestyle. but you know what the first thing is, they were human beings to begin with. commander feist who tried to keep the local press at arm s length during the excavation finally allowed them to cross
that changed when michelle failed to show up for angelica s seventh birthday party. that day it felt a 15-year-old camille to fill in for michelle and act as mom. that christmas angelica opened her presents alone with no sign of her mother michelle. i thought maybe she would turn up a few days later, a few weeks or she d call us. it was breaking angelica s heart that day when she wasn t there. in february, five months after michelle was last seen, dan went down to the albuquerque police station and 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 did the police tell you? she didn t want to be found. and i can understand that ap doesn t just deal with missing persons. they deal with all kinds. for a long time, the news would be full of stories about
thing is having to go to somebody s house and say, we found her, and she s not alive. i see her pull up out front and i go out and stand on the sidewalk. she gets out of her car and comes up to me, and ida says, dan, she says, i have some bad 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,
put her arms around me and i hugged her. she said, no, dad. squeeze me tight. squeeze me like you ve never squeezed me before. and i got her and i gave her the biggest hug a father could ever give his daughter. remembered moments like that sustained dan and drove him to continue his lonely search for michelle. then, in july 2005, about five months after dan had first reported michelle missing, he got a call from a detective who had only recently been assigned michelle s case, a detective named ida lopez. i thought ida for being a police officer was awfully small. she was a short lady. other than that, it seemed that she was on the up and up and she was doing what she could in her power and the time that she had to go out to the streets.
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. but in the periphery in off-hand moments, dan s camera also caught something else, the look and the unspoken despair that signaled the death of a young girl s dreams. mom, mom! she struggled to hold it all together, but michelle eventually dropped out of school. for a while she tried to support