The serial murderer who’d still be killing if he’d been in Albuquerque

Erika Peña is a hero. She was doing a car date in Laredo, Texas, on September 14, 2018 when the man pointed a gun at her and grabbed her blouse. She was able to slip out of her shirt, escape the car then run until she found a state trooper. The man who attacked her,...

Prey

I’ve talked to this woman just a few times, but there is comfort between us that allows our conversation to skip the niceties and warp speed into crime topics. Our discussion twists and turned from violence and brutality to self-preservation. She told me a story of when she was young and her and her friend...

Friday Nights: May 3rd

I’m late and the party is in full swing when I arrive. Several volunteers sorting through donations of clothing, accessories, but shoes go to the front of the line. Tonight one of our generous volunteers sent three shoes without mates. If you are reading this and find them, we’ve set their mates aside please feel...

Every 98 Seconds

According to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN) every 98 seconds an American woman is sexually assaulted. REPORT IT. Get help by calling RAINN at 1.800.656.HOPE (4673) https://www.rainn.org/ m, volunteer, Street Safe New Mexico

The rules of street survival

Women who sell sex on the street have a list of survival rules. These rules aren’t written down anywhere. And they can’t be rattled off like the alphabet. But they are known. They are an amalgamation of lessons learned by instinct and experience. A woman who is new to the street is easy to spot...

Three billboards in Albuquerque, New Mexico

It doesn't seem to make much sense. Why rent billboards about a decade-old serial killer case? Yes, the murders of 11 women whose bodies were later found buried on the West Mesa continue to haunt Albuquerque. But how would putting up billboards now help anything? The truth is, they likely won't inspire a new witness...

The victory of three serial rapists

On the surface, the three most recent serial rapists added to the Bad Guy List have few similarities. One is a white man in his 60s with salt-and-pepper hair. One is a tall African-American man in his 40s. And one is short, fat African-American man in 20s. Yet they do have several key things in...

Friday Nights: Feb. 9

“Oh yeah. That guy,” she says. Her hand is steady as she holds the Bad Guy List. I had just finished my recap of this week's scariest of the scary. She tells me how she was attacked, with what and how she escaped. She doesn’t finish shopping and walks off alone. A few minutes later...

Things that are not okay

I’m standing on a street corner, asking a group of 20-somethings if they’ve seen a woman from San Felipe Pueblo. Her family is worried. They haven’t heard from her in two months and last week a cousin saw her in a pink-hued drug house in the War Zone. Her grandmother had called Street Safe, asking...

The deaths of three women

Within 10 days over the holidays, three of our women died. All were under age 35. Audra was murdered and dismembered. Crystal overdosed on Christmas Eve. Nicole was shot. We knew all three. Audra had only been on the streets a short while, so we hadn’t had the time to get to know her well....