1999 when babcock was working the vice unit in albuquerque. i was actually watching a particular prostitute. see a vehicle pick this girl up, drive to a remote location. we approached the vehicle, opened the door, first words out of this girl s mouth, who s a known prostitute, was that he was trying to kill her. and the man in the car was? lorenzo montoya. lorenzo montoya, a short powerfully built man in his 30s, known to have an equally short temper and a taste for prostitutes. babcock said he saw marks on the woman s throat and that she told him montoya looked like he was enjoying it. did you believe her story? yes. so he was arrested for charges beyond just patronizing a prostitute. yes, he was. that assault charge against lorenzo montoya went nowhere because the victim later refused to testify. but it was what had happened next that really focused the
and that s more than just a few guys. it s more than just a few. it had to be someone local, investigators assumed, a meticulous man whose grim will had brought him back to the mesa again and again to bury his victims. everything was in a pretty contained area, all the bones, all the remains. yes. because this guy had complete freedom or he just thought, nobody s ever going to come out here? probably because he felt safe out here. for detectives like todd babcock, it all seemed to add up except for one thing. the crime lab had determined that one of the unidentified sets of remains, jane doe number 7, was a young black female. when they told us they had a young black girl, i thought, i didn t have a young black girl on my list. for medical investigator wendy honeyfield, the bones of jane doe number 7 and her
one girl whose face, age and biography seemed to match what she saw in the sketch. her name was syllania edwards. according to the web site, she had been a 13 year old runaway from a group home in lawton, oklahoma, in 2003. it was her ear, her ear that was exposed in the photo, and it was her eyes. that was what kept me bringing me back to her. dental records from oklahoma confirmed that jane doe number 7 was, in fact, syllania edwards. one answer found. but that only generated more questions, like, when did the oklahoma teenager get to new mexico, and, who brought her? don t know that s what we re trying to figure out. possibly the killer? don t know. have no idea how she got here. so detectives started checking with police departments and jails throughout the southwest on the hunch that syllania, as young as she was, might have been entangled in a prostitution circuit that shuttles women from city to city. what we see very often is women involved in prostitution worki
meticulous man whose grim will had brought him back to the mesa again and again to bury his victims. everything was in a pretty contained area, all the bones, all the remains. yes. because this guy had complete freedom or he just thought, nobody s ever going to come out here? probably because he felt safe out here. for detectives like todd babcock, it all seemed to add up except for one thing. the crime lab had determined that one of the unidentified sets of remains, jane doe number 7, was a young black female.
cases was dialing the phone. there were numerous rumors out there that certain individuals had killed several of them and then one in particular had been killed by drug dealers. were all the victis killed the same way? we believe so. can you tell me what that is? homicidal violence. can t say gun, knife, strangulation? you re keeping that quiet because you don t want somebody to confess to this who didn t do it snf that s correct. that s why we re staying with homicidal violence. homicidal violence. no shortage of names on the police list of potential suspects who were capable of that. but one name stood out, a name and face detective babcock knew quite well from 1999 when babcock was working the vice unit in albuquerque. i was actually watching see a vehicle pick this girl up, drive to a remote location.