Monica Candelaria, 22, of Albuquerque disappeared on May 15, 2003. Friends told police at the time they had heard she had been killed and buried on the city’s West Mesa, a rumor that persisted in her missing-person file. Her date of death is not precisely known but is placed sometime after her disappearance in May 2003.

In February 2009 human bones were exposed during grading and construction on Albuquerque’s far West Side, revealing a clandestine burial field. Among the remains later recovered and identified was Monica Candelaria; her skeletal remains were matched and her name restored in April 2009. Detectives concluded the site held multiple victims now known as the West Mesa murders, a series of women and girls buried there who disappeared between 2003 and 2004. The burial timeline, supported by satellite imagery and development records, places the killings roughly between 2001 and 2005.

No one has been arrested or charged in Monica Candelaria’s murder; the suspect remains officially unknown and authorities continue to seek information. If anyone knew Monica, her movements in 2003, or has information about the West Mesa area then, please come forward.