and the baby. but knew it was reality. i just could feel all the strength in my body just kind of just 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, you know, it s okay. and then she says is there anything that we can do? do you need anything? i said no. 12-year-old daughter, angelica. and i said, angelica. i said, detective lopez just told us that your mother has been positively i.d. d as one of the west mesa women victims 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. for ida lopez there was the fear that her nightmare prediction was coming true. i just always felt that if you find one you re going to find them all. reporter: and for albuquerque s homicide detectives there was the most pressing question of all. who was responsible for turning the west mesa into an unmarked cemetery? protectio
it was comforting that it didn t just happen to me. reporter: six weeks after the digging began out on the west mesa, even more sets of remains were identified. and sure enough, they too were names on ida lopez s list of missing women. investigators are looking for connections. any signs that the women knew each other. reporter: by now the street alongside the desert crime scene was a media encampment, where reporters were predictably live at 5:00, 6:00, and 10:00. sometimes reporting details that crime scene commander paul feist preferred to keep secret. all of the victims buried out on the west mesa were buried naked, with no clothing on. it was a problem. we had things that we wanted to keep very secret, or things that we didn t want released. we had them in the air. they had the big telescoping lenses. they were there constantly. and there were certain processes that it did pose a concern. reporter: caught between the pressure to keep the public informed and the need to
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. and i had to tell dan. the hardest part of this whole thing is having to go to somebody s house and say we
no. no. never heard of her before. did you ask her where she heard that? yeah. her aunt ran the streets, knew michelle, knew certain people, and they had heard it from her aunt. reporter: dan immediately called detective ida lopez with the tip. but she was unable to find the aunt or to pin down the source of the rumor. it was all just unverifiable street talk, the kind ida lopez had heard before. except for one tantalizing tidbit. cinnamon was a name on ida s list. cinnamon elks, missing since august of 2004. but even if those rumors were true and human remains were cooling in the desert night on albuquerque s west mesa, the detective knew, it would take a miracle to find them. was a serial killer stalking the women working the war zone? i just always felt that they were going to be together. in death as in life? if you find one, you re going to find them all. licking, scratching, scooting, and rubbing. may be signs of allergic itch, a medical condition that may require f
it took years. but in the end ida was able to make everybody care. to this day faded photos of women on her list hang on her wall, alongside a line of scripture that reads, nothing is hidden, except to be revealed. it s a quote familiar to detectives everywhere. and what information do you have? reporter: and it s not just there for inspiration. for ida lopez that s a mission statement. i have to keep believing that we ll find an answer soon. soon could be months. soon could be years. but i just have to keep believing that today could be the day, today could be the day. what about those last seven girls? do you think you ll ever find them? i think we will. reporter: one of those women, safira mora, was found alive and well a few weeks after this story first aired in december 2010.