[1] Police have also suspected the involvement of a sex trafficking ring operating through neighboring Texas that targets prostitutes during events throughout the Southwest, Southern, and Western United States, especially regularly scheduled events, such as the New Mexico state fair in this case, to take advantage of reliably heavier traffic.
[3][4][5][6] This small fragment of a human trafficking ring involves numerous population centers, including Las Vegas, El Paso, Killeen, and Denver.
[2] Between 2001 and 2005, eleven women were buried by an unknown assailant in an arroyo bank on Albuquerque's West Mesa, in an undeveloped area within city limits.
After neighbors complained of flooding at the platted site (due to the burial of the natural arroyo), the developer built a retaining wall to channel storm water to a retention pond built in the approximate area of the burial site, inadvertently exposing bones to the surface.
As a result of the subsequent police investigation, authorities discovered the remains of eleven women and girls, one woman being pregnant, buried in the area.
During this section of the video, noises can be heard of which sound like Montoya tearing duct tape from a roll and opening a garbage bag.
[28] In August 2010, police searched several properties in Joplin, Missouri associated with local photographer and businessman Ron Erwin in connection with the West Mesa cases.
[30] In December 2010, convicted Colorado serial killer Scott Lee Kimball stated that he was being investigated for the West Mesa murders, but he denied killing the women.
Blea has been dubbed the "Mid-School Rapist" for his activities in the 1980s; police say he would often break into the homes of 13- to 15-year-old girls who lived near McKinley Middle School in Albuquerque and rape them.
[25][33] Blea had women's underwear and jewellery not belonging to his wife or daughter in his home and allegedly told a cellmate that he had hired the West Mesa victims, who he called "trashy".