The Daily Beast’s Sally Denton asks, “Who’s murdering the prostitutes of Albuquerque?” A dozen sex workers were murdered in the New Mexico city from 2001 to 2006. Their families claim the local police made no effort to find them after they were reported missing. The women knew each other from Albuquerque's War Zone, the neighborhood where prostitutes and drug dealers ply their trade. They were young and Hispanic, many were mothers, and all were living what the Albuquerque police refer to as a “high-risk lifestyle.”
Cinnamon Elks, one of the seven who have been identified so far, told friends shortly before her August 2004 disappearance that “a dirty cop was chopping off the heads of prostitutes and burying them on the West Mesa,” according to Joline Gutierrez-Krueger of the Albuquerque Journal. Police have not revealed the causes of death, so whether the victims were decapitated is unknown. Police have refused to say much about the murders, although they contend the perpetrator has either died or moved to another city.