Staff Writer
The Albuquerque Journal
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. —
The Albuquerque Journal is reporting that detectives with the task force investigating the West Mesa murders are poring through a U-Haul full of photographs, financial records and other potential evidence gathered in Joplin four weeks ago.
The items were seized during searches of at least two residences and a photography studio owned by Joplin businessman Ron Erwin.
Albuquerque’s police chief told the city’s newspaper that there are “literally tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of photographs,” including some on negatives and computer discs, that the detectives are examining, as well forensic evidence that has been submitted to a crime lab. Chief Ray Schultz said the process could take more than a month to complete.
The task force has been probing the murders of 11 young women and teens whose skeletal remains were discovered in February 2009 on the mesa on the southwest side of Albuquerque.
The women are believed to have disappeared between the years 2003 and 2005. One of the victims was pregnant at the time and the remains of her unborn child were among the bones recovered on the mesa.
Schultz told the Journal that investigators were acting on a tip when they searched Erwin’s properties. He would not elaborate on the source of the information or say what probable cause the task force had to obtain the search warrants.
While Schultz and the task force are still declining to call Erwin a suspect, a detective involved in the probe told the Journal that a preliminary interview was conducted when the search warrants were served “to establish his patterns and eliminate possible future alibis.”
