Another one here, then another one there. He may be waiting to start doing the same thing again. Missing women. Forgotten by almost everyone but her. I just always felt that they were going to be together. If you find one, youre going to find them all. Sometimes ida lopez simply cant wait for sunday. Sometimes in the middle of her work week the albuquerque detective feels a pressing need for spiritual solace and divine guidance. 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 mexicos largest city. And the devoutly religious detective knew she needed all the help she could get. I think its somebody whos very organized. I think hes been preying on his victims, has a particular victim in mind. Reporter sticking up for victims comes naturally to ida lopez. Its 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 im in the porch area. And theres a foot chase. And the guy goes toward him, and hes tackled by police. I just thought that was the coolest thing id ever seen. And so that curiosity. And then there was the service part, the helping people part of police work. Reporter after college ida graduated from the Police Academy and joined the force as a uniformed officer. Most of my areas that i worked, especially patrol, i was assigned working the prostitutes in the area. Reporter and so she learned about the lives of the women on the street. And it was here while posing as a decoy during prostitution sting operations that she learned the raw power of their addictions. I just learned the absolute dependence on the drug for the girls because theres no way in your right mind youre going to get into a car and do what this person just told you to do. Theres no way. And so that gave me an empathy for them on that part, and i thought, wow, this has got to be powerful. Reporter over the years idas career blossomed. She made detective, married another cop, and started a family. Her future seemed assured. But in 2004 while pregnant with her second child doctors discovered a mass in idas right kidney. It was growing, and i had kidney cancer. What did doctors tell you . Well, they were shocked. They said it wasnt common in women and it wasnt common in women my age. He wouldnt say what the plans were because the only, you know, close person i knew had cancer and died. And i thought, well, i need to make further plans. You know, my husbands got young kids to take care of. Frightening. Then about a month and a half after i was diagnosed, then i had my kidney removed. Reporter surgeons also removed idas adrenal gland because it too had a mass on it. But because doctors caught the cancer early, ida required neither chemo nor radiation therapy. Idas return to work would have to be gradual, if it was going to happen at all. For a lot of people that would be the end of police work. Right. Not for you. No. I wasnt done. Reporter and so in july 2005, after a few months of recuperation as a reserve officer, the department offered ida a 20houraweek desk job working missing persons. Missing persons is kind of a backwater in a lot of departments. I mean, thats not exactly, you know, the premier detective job. Right. Right. Its where they needed somebody, and it worked out, you know, for me. And for them. Missing persons, you know, was busy. The position was there. And it was i thought perfect timing. Reporter as you will soon see, timing, both perfect and not so perfect, will play a critical part in the story were about to show you. Within weeks of starting her new job, ida was handed two missing persons files. Those two files would mark the beginning of the biggest case in her career and would turn into one of new mexicos most heinous crime stories. But at the time it was routine low priority policework. How many other detectives in missing persons . I was the only detective in there at the time. Reporter both of those missing persons were attractive women in their 20s, with arrest records for drugs and prostitution. Both had seemingly vanished without a word to friends or relatives. Sad but common, especially for these dark streets where drug addiction and prostitution literally go hand in hand. Ida went by the book. So what i usually do is i go back to see what their arrest history is. Their lifestyle has been with drugs. So its a matter of time before they go back out. So i keep them, do my full background on them. Then a third one comes in. A third one. A third one. And then as the months go by, we search more and find that there are, you know, maybe another one here, then another one there, and that sort of thing. Reporter soon there were five missing women with eerily similar profiles on idas list. All of them about the same age, with a similar look. All were known to hang out in a section of albuquerque so notorious that cops call it the war zone. And all but one, a juvenile, had lengthy arrest records for drugs or prostitution. So she did what every good detective does. She started keeping a list of missing women who match that profile. That was the easy part. The hard part was that many of them had already been missing for more than a year before ida even had a chance to start looking. Its one of those timing issues we told you about earlier. Lengthy delays in reporting missing people as missing. Its like being in a race and somebody has a year ahead start. Ready, set, go. And i dont have phone records. I dont have a normal, you know, regular address. You dont have a School Schedule or work schedule, that sort of thing. And you dont have anybody who saw them yesterday. Right. And can tell you what they were doing, what their state of mind was, who they were hanging around with. Right. And the family knows them better than i do. But they hadnt seen them. Or they see them once a month or every six months. Reporter add to that fact that most of the missing women had supported their drug habit as street prostitutes who got into cars with strange men as often as 20 to 30 times a day. And its easy to see how another detective, one with a harder heart than the one beating inside ida lopez, might have given up. What about the argument that somehow prostitutes arent worth as much of your time as somebody else . My argument back is their soul is no different than mine and theyre not any less important to god and i have a responsibility. Whether sorry. It doesnt matter if shes the girl on the street or the college student. You know, everybody has different pains and how they deal with it. So everybody counts or nobody counts. Yeah. And everybody counts. A missing daughter and a fathers regrets. I took her to a friends house and dropped her off there. I know in my heart i didnt do the right thing, but i knew that i had to. Is that ice cream . Uh, no, its breyers gelato indulgences. It looks like ice cream. Its not. Can i have some . You really wouldnt like it. Its got caramel and crunchy stuff. I like caramel and crunchy stuff. Its not for kids. Im a grownup. [ female announcer ] new breyers gelato indulgences. Creamy gelato, rich caramel, topped with crunchy curls its way beyond ice cream. Yeah. Well. Your boss loves the beach. Really . Oss . Shes been to london, paris. And her son plays baseball. You psychic . No. I speak pandora. He went to jared. Celebrate lifes unforgettable moments with a fabulous selection of pandora charms and bracelets including these charms, exclusively at jared the galleria of jewelry. Telling her lifes story with just a turn of the wrist. Youre good. I know. Thats why he went to jared. Its all your favorites and a whole lot more, like a 20piece chicken mcnuggets just 5 bucks. More choices than ever before. Thats the dollar menu and more. [ male announcer ] sponges take your mark. [ female announcer ] one drop of ultra dawn has twice the everyday grease cleaning ingredients of one drop of the leading nonconcentrated brand. [ crowd cheering ]. To clean 2x more greasy dishes. Dawn does more. So its not a chore. Every life is a mystery. Not just because of what happens but because of what might have been prevented, missed, or altogether avoided. In the whole wide world. Reporter such was the mystery of the women on detective ida lopezs growing list of the lost. Its a mystery their families still struggle to understand. Theres a dad who had a calendar. Every time he saw her he marked the date down. Gave her 20 bucks. Maybe he knew where the money was going to go. But he saw his daughter. And that didnt take that part away, that she was still somebodys little girl. I think theyre trick candles. Reporter the name, the face, belonged to Michelle Valdez, one of the first women on idas list. Dan valdez, her father, had reported michelle missing six months before ida got the case. He was the guy who kept the calendar. The xs indicating no no knowledge of her, disappeared, nothing. No word. Reporter the fact is dan valdez had been recording his daughters comings and goings for years. This is michelle. Hi. I took it upon myself to tape them, tape every event. Every chance that i had i had the videotape there. Reporter the Michelle Valdez that appears in these home videos with her Little Sisters is a far cry from the thin, drugwasted young woman police would later come to know and fingerprint. Daddy, can i have something to eat now . Reporter this michelle, along with her sister camille and half sister kendra, was a cutup and a clown. Im freeding. Reporter whether in costume for a school play, dressed up for her first communion, or showing a budding interest in boys. Oh, yeah. Davy. Reporter this michelle according to her sister camille was an allamerican girl with a future as bright as the new mexico sun. I looked up to her for many things. You know, i was always the tagalong with her and her friends. And she didnt mind . No. Not at all. Not at all. Reporter then came the teen years. When life started coming at Michelle Valdez fast and furious. By then dan and michelles mother were divorced, and dan was raising michelle and camille alone while working days at the juvenile Detention Center. And nights and weekends playing steel guitar with s country band, cimarron. Dan tried to keep a watchful eye on his girls and even took them to work with him at the juvenile Detention Center to show them where careless mistakes can lead. Some of it seemed to take. Some of it didnt. At 13 michelle became pregnant. I was devastated. But what can you do . You cant be with them 24 7. All you can do is bring them up, nurture them, show them love, attention, appreciation. And sometimes they make a mistake. And sometimes they make the wrong turn or a mistake. Reporter shortly after her 14th birthday Michelle Valdez gave birth to a baby girl she named angelica. So you were being a father all over again. Father all over again. I was only 8 years old and becoming an aunt, you know. It was tough. But once once, you know, we had that bond, me and angelica, it was nice. I enjoyed it. Reporter 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. Michelles little girl angelica was now the center of attention. But on the periphery in offhand moments dans camera also caught something else. The look and the unspoken despair that signaled the death of a young girls dreams. She struggled to hold it all together. But michelle eventually dropped out of school. For a while she tried to support herself and angelica with a series of minimum wage jobs but couldnt make ends meet. After three years angelica was sent to live with dans mother, who lived nearby, and michelle took to living with a series of people she called friends. By 2002 the wear and tear is written all over her face. Happy birthday that September Angelica celebrated her sixth birthday. Michelle had just turned 20. A milestone that was not lost on mother or child. Mommys not a grownup anymore i mean, a teenager anymore. Reporter no. In a sense michelle never was a teenager. And now on the cusp of young adulthood michelle looked gaunt. Her face bore the kind of sores that suggested shed been hitting the crack pipe. When did you notice things were going wrong . Im guessing you noticed before anybody else. Yeah. I noticed when she started seeing one of her boyfriends, you know. He opened up the door for all the wrong things. Like . The drugs. The drugs. Definitely. Reporter dan knew about the drugs and twice got her to agree to enter rehab. But michelle never showed up. Increasingly there were runins with the law. Michelle had already been busted for receiving and transported stolen property, drug possession and car theft. Dan knew about some of the arrests. Most he didnt. When a stolen car rap in arizona landed michelle in jail, dan says he bailed her out and pleaded with her to change her ways. On the way back from arizona to here she promised, im not going to hang out with the same people, im going to do things different and youre going to be proud of me again, and then she bails two hours after shes home. Reporter the toll of michelles addiction on her younger sister camille is also evident in dans videos. As camille becomes a teenager, she no longer seems to want to acknowledge michelle or even have her around. We were always bumping heads. We werent as close. Because of the drugs. Shed 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. Reporter before long Michelle Valdez stopped showing up in her fathers videos. Sometimes because she avoided the camera. Other times because she simply didnt show up. She knew that there was events at the house because shed call and ask if she could borrow 25, she was hungry or 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 making contact with her and seeing her in person. Reporter dan may have had the patience of job. But by 2004 camille, the tagalong little sister, had had enough. When michelle asked dan if she could move back home for a while, camille put her foot down. He was going to let her stay with us. And i remember telling him no. If she comes and stays, im going to leave. I couldnt handle it. I remember that. I didnt even i didnt even want to be around it anymore. I was so tired of it. Tired of seeing him hurt. So you told michelle she couldnt come over . I told michelle she couldnt come over. I took her to a friends house and dropped her off there. I know in my heart i didnt do the right thing, but i knew that the common sense of my brain said that i had to. I had to take that avenue. Reporter they call it tough love. But for dan valdez it was pure torture. Every night he knew she was out there. And every time the phone rang his heart stopped. Hoping that hers had not. Shocking talk on the streets. But is it true . Said michelle and cinnamon were stabbed and buried on the west mesa. A whole gallon of milk from walmart. Well see how he handles this one. And the grains and protein are in the bowl, folks and the crowd goes wild [ male announcer ] kelloggs frosted miniwheats and milk are always better together. Walmart. Save money. Live better. Are always better together. That i had sensitive teeth, i didnt want to change toothpastes, i already had a product that made my mouth feel clean. The first thing he recommended was sensodyne. It helps with the sensitivity issues, and it satisfies the needs that i would look for in a toothpaste. By the fall of 2004 dan valdezs calendar was beginning to fill with xs. Each x marking another day without word from his oldest daughter, michelle. When was the last time you saw her . It was in september of 2004. Howd she look . Thin, wired out, strung out maybe. Had spots on her face. And looked bad. Did you see her then . Honestly, i dont remember the last time i seen her. I dont remember the last words we spoke. You dont remember the last thing you said to her . No. But it might not have been a nice thing . No. Reporter but as erratic as michelle had become in recent years, shed somehow always managed to show up. For the moments that mattered most to her daughter, angelica. That changed when michelle failed to show up for angelicas seventh birthday party. That day it fell to 15yearold 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 shed turn up a few days later, a few weeks, or wed you know, shed call us. It was breaking angelicas heart that day when she wasnt there. Reporter 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 idas absence the valdez family was at the mercy of the Police Departments bureaucracy. Whatd the police tell you . She didnt want to be found. And i can understand it. A. P. Doesnt just deal with missing. They deal with all kinds. For a long time the news would be full of stories about girls who were missing and everybodys looking for them. And one of the things that those girls all had in common was that they were all attractive and blond and white and didnt have any criminal record. And i guess i just kind of wonder whether police and everybody else would have start of stepped up their game a little bit if that had been the case here. Yeah, that did cross my mind numerous times. But you know, you have to have faith in your Law Enforcement. If you dont have faith in your Law Enforcement to treat everybody equal, then what do you have . Reporter what you have in dan valdezs case is a search you do yourself. As spring turned to summer that year, dan, his exwife, and his daughters plastered flyers with michelles picture all over Central Avenue asking anyone whod seen her to call the Albuquerque Police department. At night dan drove through the war zone. Sometimes into the wee hours of the morning. Looking for michelle. It was real hard because you know, id be circling the block or whatever, see somebody that may appear to be the size of michelle, a small person, and go around the block two or three times and me wondering who they were as well as them wondering who i was. It had to be brutally difficult to thi