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
and she didn t mind? no.n not at all. not at all. reporter: then came the teen years.me when life started coming at michelle valdez fast and furious. by then dan and michelle s mother were divorced, and dan was raising michelle and camilln alone while working days at the juvenile detention center. and nights and weekends playing steel guitar with his 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 on where careless mistakes can lead. some of it seemed to take. some of it didn t. at 13 michelle became pregnant. i was devastated. but what can you do?te you can t 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 a mistake. and sometimes they make the i wrong turn or a mistake.ke reporter: shortly after her . 14th birthday michelle valdez gave birth to a baby girl she named angelica.
and now on the cusp of young adulthood michelle looked gaunt. her face bore the kind of sores that suggested she d been hitting the crack pipe.ug when did you notice things were going wrong? i m 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?wr the drugs. the drugs. definitely. reporter: dan knew about the drugs and twice got her to agree to enter rehab.ug but michelle never showed up.nt increasingly there were run-ins with the law.
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