different and you re going to be proud of me again. then she bails two hours after she s home. the toll of michelle s addiction on her younger sister camille is also evident in dan s 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 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 her father s videos, sometimes because she avoided the camera. other times because she simply didn t show up. she knew that there was events at the house because she d call and ask if she could borrow $25. she was hungry or whatever. she was at a hurting spot.
for five years dan valdez prayed at the end of each day that the next sun rise would bring news of his daughter, michelle. police have set up a tip line. then in february, 2009, came unsettling news. a thigh bone had been found out on albuquerque s west mesa. within days evidence of one body had become evidence of two and then three, then four, then five, then six. six sets of remains were found within 20 yards of each other. dan valdez who had been wondering for years where his daughter saw his most cherished hopes and dreaded fears placed on a collision course. when they found the second, third, and fourth sets, i said to myself i have to look at this that michelle i m sure is probably out there.
birthday party. that day it fell to 15-year-old 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 she d turn up a few days later or a few weeks. it was breaking angelica s heart that day when she wasn t there. 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 was make it her mission to find the other women was on medical leave. the valdez family was at the mercy of the police department s bureaucracy. she didn t want to be found. i understand they don t just deal with missing.
this michelle, along with her sister camille and half sister kendra was a cut-and clown. showing up for her first communion and showing a budding interest for boys. this michelle according to her was an all-american girl with a future as bright as the new mexico sun. i looked up to her for many things. i was always the tagalong with her and her friends. she didn t mind? no, not at all. then came the teen years when life started coming at michelle
michelle would turn up alive was suddenly shaken one night when the phone rang at the valdez home. the caller on the other end of the line had heard something shocking. we had gotten a call from a family friend of ours that i grew up with and, you know, i pick up the phone and she s, like, oh my gosh, i m sorry about your sister. i said what are you talking about? she said michelle. michelle s michelle and cinnamon were stabbed and buried on the west mesa. did you know who that was? no. never heard of her. did you ask who she was? yeah. michelle had ran the streets and knew certain people and they had heard of her aunt. dan 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