Cinnamon Elks, a White woman, age 32, vanished from Albuquerque on August 20, 2004. For years, her family and investigators searched, until February 2009, when a woman walking her dog on Albuquerque's West Mesa discovered a human bone and police unearthed a burial site that would become the largest crime scene in New Mexico history. Among the remains later identified was Cinnamon Elks, age 32, Female, whose disappearance had once been a missing persons case and was now a confirmed homicide.
Her skeletal remains were recovered on the mesa near 118th Street SW, and authorities concluded that Cinnamon Elks, age 32, Female, was killed sometime between 2004 and 2005 before being buried in that desolate stretch of desert.
The discovery linked Cinnamon Elks, age 32, Female, to ten other victims buried in the same area—an investigation that would be known as the West Mesa murders and would grip Albuquerque for years. In March 2009, authorities formally identified her remains, closing the chapter on her disappearance but leaving open the larger mystery of who killed her and the others. The confirmed timeline places her disappearance on August 20, 2004, with investigators determining her death occurred in the 2004–2005 window; the recovery in February 2009 provided the first direct answers after years of silence.
As detectives worked the case, they publicly acknowledged the likelihood that a single person or group was responsible for the clustered burials, but the case has never produced an arrest. Official records list the suspect as unknown, and police have said no one has been arrested or charged in connection with the murders. Investigative attention over the years has focused on several men—most notably Lorenzo Montoya, who was killed in December 2006 after strangling a 19-year-old sex worker, and Joseph Blea, a convicted serial rapist investigated for potential links—but authorities have not brought charges tying any suspect to the burial ground where Cinnamon Elks, age 32, Female, was found. The case remains open, with law enforcement continuing to seek information.
