temporary field headquarters so many young women missing one woman determined to find them there s a story to her too. a young woman lucky to b alive. for a lot of people that would be the end to police work. so she searched the numbers grew the families hurt. she says i have some ba news for you under a desert sky a secret waited. this is not happening missing women forgotten by almost everyone but her. i have always felt they wer going to be together if you find one you ll fin them, all. sometimes ida lopez simpl can t wait for sunday. sometimes in the middle of her work week the albuquerqu detective feels a pressing nee for spiritual solace and divin guidance the fall of 2005 was one o those times. it was a time when a siniste force seemed to be snatching women off the streets of new mexico s largest city. and the devoutly religious detective knew she needed al the help she could get i think it s somebody who s very organized i think he s been preying on
we weren t as close. because of the drugs she d come over and steal my things or, you know, i would see how upset it would make my dad. so i would tell her, you know, mean things. before long michelle valdez stopped showing up in he father s videos. sometimes because she avoide the camera other times because she simply didn t show up she knew that there was events at the house becaus she d call and ask if she coul borrow $25, she was hungry o whatever she was at you know, at a hurting spot so i gave her the money. even though you knew > even though i knew that it could be going for drugs it was my gateway to makin contact with her and seeing he in person. dan may have had th patience of job. but by 2004 camille, the tag-along little sister, had had enough when michelle asked dan if she
dan valdez, her father, ha reported michelle missing si months before ida got the case he was the guy who kept th calendar the xs indicating no n knowledge of her, disappeared, nothing. no word. the fact is dan valdez ha been recording his daughter comings and goings for years this is michelle. hi. i took it upon myself t tape them, tape every event. every chance that i had i ha the videotape there. the michelle valdez tha 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 this michelle, along with her sister camille and hal
i don t remember the last word we spoke you don t remember the last thing you said to her? no. but it might not have been nice thing no. but as erratic as michell had become in recent years she d somehow always managed t show up. for the moments that mattere most to her daughter, angelica that changed when michelle failed to show up fo angelica s seventh birthda party. that day it fell to 15-year-ol camille to fill in for michell and act as mom that christmas angelica opened her presents alone, with n sign of her mother michelle. i thought maybe she d tur up a few days later, a few weeks, or we d you know she d call us. it was breaking angelica heart that day when she wasn t there. in february, five month 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 othe missing women, was on medica leave at the time. so in ida
were not good. but that s not what she told the families when they calle in, looking to hear somethin encouraging. i would tell them every single day we re one day close to finding your daughter yes, i pray that they re okay. hopefully they ve been in commune in some mountainou town or in a rehab center or a jail or with friends tha they re actually doing okay. did you believe any of that i held on to the hope and possibility. reality, however, demande that the detective do more tha just hope for a happy ending so with the tact of a parish priest ida lopez began makin the rounds michelle. asking family members suc as dan valdez for dental records and dna swabs. when you go to some famil that s got a missing daughte or sister and say, i need some familial dna and i need your child s dental records, you re essentially saying to that family i do not expect to find