Issue link: http://cp.revolio.com/i/30780
A makeshift memorial for Victoria Chavez (left) near the West Mesa site (right) where 11 victims were found client’s mental-health diagnosis will “almost always” in- clude post-traumatic stress disorder. Commonly, formerly incarcerated women also have other mental-health diagnoses or are grappling with a brain injury or development disabilities. “Once you add on to that the criminal record that they have gotten in try- ing to survive—and in many instances their record is relat- ed to their addiction—then it’s almost impossible to find housing, to find a job, even to qualify for a number of ben- efits,” says Simpson. Abusers and criminals prey on these women, and without homes or support it’s easy for them to slip back into cycles of drug abuse and crime. “The women who we’re working with often are engaged in prostitution, either to feed their addiction, or for a roof over their head,” says Simpson. Once women maintain their sobriety and can support themselves financially, they no longer have to resort to prostitution: “It wasn’t really a career choice, you know? “There’s definitely hope on an individual level that all of these women have the potential to have a wonderful life, to contribute to the community in their own way,” says Simpson. “The downside is that it is not too encour- aging that the community will ever invest the resources to make that an option for everyone.” Another strategy to stop the serial murders and soothe the anxiety of missing women’s families is to treat the disappear- ance of vulnerable women with more urgency. Prompted by the West Mesa case, the New Mexico Legislature did pass the 2010 Missing Persons Information and Reporting Act, which created an information clearinghouse to provide law enforcement and media with the “necessary tools they need to record, track and publicize missing-persons cas- es.” Dan Valdez has also lobbied for passage of an Amber Alert-type system for at-risk missing adults, but the pro- posed law has gone nowhere. As activist Jessica Aranda notes, it’s difficult to find elect- ed leaders willing to take up the cause: “No one wants to step out and be a champion for folks who are on the fringe of our society, who are defined the way they were.” When the West Mesa bodies were found, Albuquerque City Council member Ken Sanchez pledged to build a park dedicated to the victims. “I felt this was sacred ground,” he explains. “We need to protect this area—plus www.msmagazine.com we need to make the community aware of what happened, and not cover it up.” But two years after the bodies were found, the park has yet to be built. Sanchez says the developer who owns the land never provided plans, and the city can’t act on its own. In fact, nothing today on the West Mesa marks the largest crime scene in the city’s history or honors the victims. The mounds of dirt investigators sifted through are now packed nearly flat. And in December 2009, KB Homes had families remove a makeshift memorial—flowers, photos, mementos and candles against a wall that faces the empty desert—after someone spray-painted the wall with graffiti. Not only that, but police have yet to arrest anyone for the murders. According to Sgt. Trica Hoffman, the inves- tigation is ongoing, and while the APD continues to fol- low up on leads, the department has not named any suspects. Community advocates urge the police to better advertise the $100,000 award for information leading to an arrest. “Someone, somewhere, knows,” says Young Women United director Adriann Barboa. At least the identification of the remaining bodies last winter has made these women human again in the eyes of the public. “What always bothered me about these mur- ders is [that] the women were for so long absolutely face- less,” says state Sen. Eric Griego, who is also executive director of the nonprofit New Mexico Voices for Chil- dren. “When young women make these kinds of choices around drugs or alcohol…and can’t figure out how to get out of it, they sort of become forgotten. …It’s tragic, and it’s something we all have to own,” he says. Owning the loss of the women’s lives, he says, requires taking responsibility for those who have fallen through the cracks of society. That requires looking at who gets elect- ed, what services the public is willing to fund and even how people think about the roles of government, nonprofits and schools. Says Griego, “We have some hard internal work to do about what we think is acceptable as a society.” We owe at least that to the women of the West Mesa. n LAURA PASKUS is an Albuquerque-based independent reporter and editor who has been covering the West Mesa murders since 2009. Her research has been supported in part by the Center for Civic Policy in Albuquerque. SPRING 2011 | 39 LEFT: ADOLPHE PIERRE-LOUIS/ALBUQUERQUE JOURNAL; RIGHT: SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN/AP PHOTO