Women possibly connected to West Mesa case

detecitves are following a possible lead at his point in the investigation, but before we go any further, we need to see who these women are nearly two years after the skeletal remains of 11 women were found buried on the west mesa --- a potential lead. just a few hours ago, albuquerque police released the pictures of seven women - who could be connected to the west mesa case but police don't know who the women are -- or even if they are alive today. jeff maher is here with our big story. jeff. we want to warn viewers some of the pictures you're about to see, are hard to look at. investigators are not sure if these are seven additional victims -- or just seven women who are still alive today, and are not connected to the west mesa case at all. i spoke with one a-p-d official -- who says some of the women in these pictures appear to be unconscious -- but he says they were alive when the pictures were taken. police don't know who took the pictures, or when. but chief ray schultz says the women are local. they need your help in identifying these women. the chief will not say where a- p-d got the pictures, but he did say they came from an unidentified source. police think the women are connected to the west mesa case because they match the same physical size and profile of the women who were killed and buried on the west mesa. investigators have had the pictures for a while, and spent a lot of time trying to identify the women on their own, but haven't had any luck. we really don't know anything about these women, we believe that these are women from the albuquerque area, weon't know who they are or where they are at this point in time, that's why we're asking for help if you can help police identify the women, call the west mesa hotline at 1-877-765-8273 the chief says the west mesa case has not gone cold. he says detectives are still following leads, both locally and in other states. back to you. the last big break in the west mesa case came in august -- and took albuquerque police to joplin, missouri. police searched the properties of ron erwin... who owned some businesses include a photography studio. police obtained several photos as part of their search. erwin was never named a person of interest. police said he often traveled to new mexico in either september or october. tomorrow night -- dateline n-b-c is scheduled to air a two hour special on the west mesa buried bodies mystery. dateline talks to the victims family members and detective ida lopez about albuquerque's largest crime scene -- near 118th and dennis chavez. ida lopez: it was, like , god this is not happening. you know, it's stuff you read about. tomorrow night's dateline the search for somebody's daughter" airs tomorrow night here on kob from eight to ten pm. we're continuing to follow today's developments on the west mesa buried bodies investigation. stay with kob eyewitness news four -- we'll have the latest coming up tonight at six and six-thirty.

• Category

  News & Politics

[drumheadcircle]

How can this keep happening? Can't someone donate some knives and pepper spray to the hookers? It may take a hooker to kill him- the cops aint smart enough.

[Harleighcollins77]

Ron Erwin owned A store called exsentricts? Or a place some like that. In Joplin, Mo! Thats were i live. Ron erwin is a very nice guy i have met him. I can never imagin him being the person who they think my be the person who commited the crimes. I lin Ron and to think he would be or actualy do something like that! Thats in my wildest dreams. The only reasons he was in albuquerque was to take hot air balloone pictures for the fest. If you ask questions i will only anserw if i wish to.

[DESERTSUN2010]

HOPING FOR ALL THIS WOMAN TO BE SAFE WITH THEIR FAMILIES.

I WATCH THE PROGRAM...IS SUCH A SAD STORY. MY HEART GO TO THE FAMILIES OF THE VICTIMS FOUND

IN THE DESERT.