in late january 2010, nearly a year after the first bones were discovered on albuquerque s west mesa, the last set of remains was matched to another name on ida s list. university of north texas identified jamie barela through dna. reporter: although 15-year-old jamie barela was not a prostitute, she was last seen with one, her cousin evelyn salazar, whose remains were also found on the mesa. there were still seven missing women who fit the profile on ida lopez s list. and if they weren t on the mesa, where were they? with the investigation now focused on finding a serial killer, ida thought back to her late-night chats with the women of the war zone. when you ask them how many bad dates have you had? oh, i ve had 17.
paydirt. at one point syllania had been arrested up in the denver area for prostitution, going by a different name at the time. had been booked. they were able to get me a booking photograph of what syllania looked like around the time that she died, we believe. reporter: syllania edwards was released from that denver-area jail in july 2004, the same year almost all the other west mesa women had gone missing. the next time anyone heard anything about syllania, she was here in this makeshift grave site outside albuquerque, sharing it with ten other women she never knew in life but will be forever linked with in death. the biggest thing that makes syllania different is she s not a local girl. all of her other victims were local. they had ties to albuquerque. she was last seen in denver. last known police positive contact was in denver.
the fall of 2005 was one of those times. it was a time when a sinister force seemed to be snatching 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
something that tells us a little bit more about their lifestyle as well, which would give us again that kind of immediate gut reaction, it s got to be. it s got to be that person. reporter: it was that kind of gut reaction that led detectives to joplin, missouri, in august of 2010. well, brian, investigators are extremely tight-lipped at this point but we do know that this is in connection to the west mesa murders in albuquerque, new mexico. reporter: the target of the search warrant was a local joplin, missouri, photographer who had allegedly been in albuquerque to take pictures during the city s 2004 balloon fiesta. but police think it wasn t just the balloons he was photographing. remember, 2004 is when almost all of the women found on the west mesa disappeared. he s in the area where the prostitutes frequent. he s a photographer. so he s going to have close contact with these people. whatever else draws that connection to him. we have to look into it.
reporter: mostly she just watched it grow. but occasionally she was able to do some pruning. whenever a lost soul was found. i find a girl with the same background. but guess what? i find her months later. and i get to call the dad and say, we found her. she s been arrested. kind of weird to be able to, you know, call a family and say great news oh, yeah. your daughter s a prostitute. and she s alive. right. but i get to say this is where she s at. reporter: the families of the 18 women now on ida s list prayed for happy endings like that one. but most of the women who worked albuquerque s war zone, fellow travelers who might have helped ida find the missing, were too drug addled to provide useful