Jamie Barela was 15 when she vanished from Albuquerque after spending time with family and walking with her cousin Evelyn Salazar toward a nearby park on March 26, 2004. The two never returned home. For years they were listed among several young women who disappeared from the city in the early 2000s.

In February 2009 a hiker’s dog uncovered human bones on the West Mesa, and police later uncovered a clandestine burial ground containing the remains of eleven females. Forensic and DNA analysis identified Jamie and her cousin Evelyn, bringing the families’ long search to an end but leaving the circumstances of their deaths unanswered. Investigators estimate the victims were killed and buried between 2001 and 2005, and Jamie is presumed to have been killed sometime after her March 2004 disappearance.

Detectives have examined multiple persons of interest connected to the broader West Mesa cases, including Lorenzo Montoya and Joseph Blea, but no one has been arrested for Jamie Barela’s murder and the official suspect remains unknown. Does anyone have information about Jamie’s last known movements on March 26, 2004, or about people she was with that day?