Have you seen her? Missing list grows
Jul. 31—Over the years, the list of possible additional victims of the West Mesa serial killer has changed.
Some of the missing women were found alive, or discovered to have died some other way, and were removed from the list. Two women were added in recent years as investigators recognized similarities in their circumstances to those of the 11 women who were found buried in the barren plot of land on the outskirts of town.
Here are the women investigators are searching for now. The dates they were last seen and the information about their lives and the situations leading up to them going missing are drawn from interviews with their families, investigator Ida Lopez's notes and incident reports released to the Journal.
September 2003: Martha Jo Lucher, 32, was reported missing by her mother after she hadn't been in contact with her family or children. Witnesses said she and a friend were "coming and going" from a "street corner" and Lucher never returned, according to Lopez's notes.
In 2009, after women were found buried on the West Mesa site, Lucher's friend told investigators about a possible suspect and said she was worried about Lucher, who she hadn't seen in years.
Lucher knew at least two of the women found at the West Mesa site. She went missing in 2003 — in between the disappearance of two of the victims — but, Lopez said, it is unknown if she "was a victim of the same killer and perhaps due to circumstances the killer decided to or was forced to dispose of her body elsewhere."
The Journal did not hear back from her family.
January 2005: Anna Love Vigil, 20, had been arrested for prostitution for the first time during a vice sting, according to Lopez's notes. When she was released from jail, dropped off Downtown around midnight, she called her father for a ride. By the time he arrived, she was no longer there.
Anna Vigil's boyfriend said that a couple days later she went to Taco Bell to apply for a job, but he never heard from her again.
Anna Vigil's mother, Stacy Love Vigil, spoke with the Journal from her home in Arkansas and said her daughter had moved to Los Lunas to live with her father as a teenager because she had "met a boy."
"She was at that age — 16 — when that's the most important thing in the world," Stacy Vigil said. "And to my chagrin, I said, 'OK, you know, well, if that's what you want to try, then you could do the school year out there.' But from that point on, literally, things I think started spiraling."
Anna Vigil had a son who was 4 months old when she went missing; her son is now 16.
Remembering her daughter as an absolutely gorgeous baby who loved dressing up for Halloween as she grew older, Stacy Vigil said she has no idea what happened to her but she can't believe she's alive and hasn't contacted her or her son.
"I just don't think she'd do this," Stacy Vigil said. "My youngest daughter and I — she's 32 now — we talk sometimes and will say 'what would you do if Anna walked through the door?' I'd smack her in the face and kiss her at the same time. I'd say 'How dare you? Come here. I love you.'"
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May 4, 2005: Felipa Gonzales, 22, was released from jail and her mother picked her up. As soon as they got home Gonzales said she was going for a walk, left and was never seen again.
Her mother reported her missing.
Gonzales did not have any arrests for prostitution but, according to Lopez's notes, friends and family said she would do that sometimes to pay for a heroin addiction. She frequented the area near West Central.
Gonzales had a 2-year-old daughter who was staying with the child's father. She was struggling with post-partum depression.
Gonzales's mother declined to speak with the Journal, saying she doesn't like talking about it and it's "hard enough carrying it in my heart, mind and life." She said Lopez was the only one she feels comfortable talking to.
May 2005: When Nina Herron, 21, didn't visit her parents' house to check on her 4-year-old son for three days they got worried and reported her missing.
She lived in Southeast Albuquerque and, Lopez said, it was known that "on a few occasions Nina did prostitute to support her drug and alcohol addiction."
Growing up, Herron was a really good kid and had a heart of gold, said her mother, Theresa Fresquez.
"She went to middle school and she was a cheerleader," Fresquez said. "She wanted to graduate but the drugs got in her way."
About three years after Herron went missing, Fresquez, her husband, and their grandson moved to Edgewood to get the boy out of Albuquerque.
"I want him to live peaceful and without any worries because, you know, we worried all our lives," Fresquez said. "We give our worries to him you know?"
Now she said she keeps up with the news about the West Mesa case, and frequently calls Lopez.
"The women that were found, you know, it brings them closure," Fresquez said. "I want to be them too, you know, I want to get closure and I want them to find whoever did this to these women."
March 1, 2006: Shawntell "Monique" Waites, 29, was reported missing by her grandfather who — along with his wife — were raising her four children, ages 4, 8, 12 and 14.
Her 74-year-old grandfather was recuperating from knee surgery when he reported that he had not seen his granddaughter in seven months — an unusually long period of time.
He was quoted in an incident report as saying: "Shawntell had had a difficult life and had been involved in drugs, and was currently living as a transient."
Waites was removed from NCIC because it was thought — mistakenly — that she had been found at the West Mesa site. She was re-entered in 2013.
In 2012, Waites' grandfather filed a petition to have her presumed dead so he could receive funds from a small life insurance policy in order to care for her children. The petition and an attached affidavit from Lopez cite the fact that his granddaughter "has a background similar to those of the 11 women whose bodies were discovered in 2009 on Albuquerque's West Mesa."
Waites's grandfather died in 2017. The Journal did not hear back from her other family members.
March 2006: Jillian Henderson Ortiz, 19, was reported missing out of Moriarty by her mother, but she lived and was last seen in Albuquerque. She was added to the list of missing women more recently.
Shortly before her mother reported her missing, police were dispatched to a domestic disturbance call between Ortiz and her boyfriend.
Ortiz's friends and family told police they worried about her because "they said she worked the streets to support her heroin addiction." according to Lopez's notes.
The incident report for the case was not available and the Journal could not reach her family.
June 2006: Vanessa Reed, 24, and her sister were living in a motel off East Central and were both involved in drugs and prostitution, according to an incident report.
Reed was last seen leaving the room after an argument with her sister and after that her sister often used her information when she came into contact with the police, according to the report.
Her sister reported her missing after the skeletons of 11 women were found on the West Mesa; Reed was not among them.
The Journal could not reach her family.
August 2006: Leah Peebles, 23, grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, and moved to Albuquerque in 2006 looking for a fresh start.
In early June of that year she told her family she had a job interview at Flying Star Cafe and was going on a date, but she never went to the interview. Her father reported her missing a short time later.
Lopez, the investigator, believes she saw Peebles walking on Fourth Street not long after that.
Her mother, Sharon Peebles, still lives in Texas. She told the Journal that her daughter was very outgoing and was into cheerleading and drama.
But, she said, her daughter had been molested by a relative as a child and then by a schoolmate in high school.
"Her behavior started changing when she started hanging around different people that would smoke pot, and then she got into the drugs," Sharon Peebles said. "But, I mean, she was a wonderful child."
Sharon Peebles said Leah Peebles had spent several weeks in jail in Texas and when she got out she wanted to move to Albuquerque where her friends — a couple who had been music ministers at the family's church — lived. Her father helped her move and everyone felt hopeful.
Then, they lost touch with her. Sharon Peebles remembers the panic and feeling like they didn't know what to do or how to help. The couple came to Albuquerque multiple times to try to find their daughter, passing out fliers Downtown and at truck stops.
In 2013, Leah Peebles' father died in a motorcycle crash. Her two younger brothers are doing well — one is married and has children, the other is about to get married.
Sharon Peebles holds out hope that her daughter is still alive. She thinks maybe she is the victim of trafficking.
"God knows where she's at, I don't," she said. "I do believe she's still out there. She will surface. So I won't say she has been killed or anything. It's like I choose to not take that view until I have absolute proof that she has been so I continue to have hope."
Stay in touch
Investigator Ida Lopez asks the families of missing women who have not updated their contact information to do so by reaching out to her at ilopez@cabq.gov
