A woman disappeared without a trace 23 years ago. But a new ‘significant’ tip is giving her friends hope
Melissa Montoya disappeared after a night out in Dulce, New Mexico on March 9, 2001. For 23 years, there was no movement in the case but Darlene Gomez, an advocate for MMIW cases, never gave up the search for her friend. She tells Andrea Cavallier how a new tip could be the key to finding her
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For more than two decades, there has been little movement in the case of a missingNew Mexico woman who vanished from her hometown – but a recent search has attracted long-awaited attention and sparked new tips, including one that investigators say is “pretty good.”
Melissa Montoya was 42 years old when she went missing on March 9, 2001, after a night out in Dulce, New Mexico, on the Jicarilla Apache Nation Reservation.
Two months later, her then-boyfriend was found dead at their Colorado home. A short time after that, the house burned to the ground.
Melissa’s mysterious disappearance was reported to local authorities, who questioned the boyfriend, who was later considered a suspect, and conducted an initial search of the property. But with no leads, the case quickly went cold.
On November 3, 2024, nearly 24 years after Melissa went missing, officials from several local agencies along with three cadaver dogs returned to the same property in Archuleta County, Colorado.
An all-day search of the 50-acre property in Colorado ended in defeat when officials came up with nothing, leaving Melissa’s loved ones devastated and left with more questions.
But what happened the next day has given them fresh hope. New tips have trickled in, including one that was called into police after the person spotted a Dateline NBC article about the search on social media.
“It appears to be significant,” Darlene Gomez, a friend and cousin of Melissa’s, told The Independent a few days later. “And I know that the police are looking into the tip.”
Law enforcement officials confirmed the tip to The Independent and said it appears to be from a woman who says she heard from her significant other about an off-putting encounter he had with the suspect on the night Melissa went missing.
Investigators told The Independent that because of new locations mentioned in the tipster’s account, several agencies are involved and are working to “corroborate her claims” and possibly reach out to individuals who may have information about that night.
Gomez, who was in law school when Melissa disappeared, is now an attorney and has been advocating for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) cases for more than 20 years. She continues to push for answers in her friend’s case and has become the liaison between the family and law enforcement.
“Nobody wanted to talk about it,” Gomez said. “One of my biggest concerns now is could I have done more in the beginning.”
“I believe that as I became powerful in my own voice, growing into my own voice as a woman and as a woman of color, I was able to kind of press the issue forward,” she said.
She told The Independent that she hopes the renewed attention on the case will generate tips that could result in potential leads, and ultimately mean finding Melissa.
For over 20 years there were no ground searches, no missing person posters, no calls for action. What happened to Melissa was a mystery and Gomez is still afraid that the case might never be solved.
“This morning I started crying,” she said, her voice cracking. “Because… I don’t know if I’m ever going to find her.”
The disappearance of Melissa Montoya
In March 2001, Melissa lived with her boyfriend in Colorado just across the border from her hometown of Dulce, New Mexico, on the Jicarilla Apache Nation Reservation.
According to Gomez, there was a history of domestic abuse in the relationship and Melissa was desperate to get out.
In the days leading up to her disappearance, she had told family members that if something ever happened to her, it would be at the hands of her partner.
“She was definitely afraid to leave him,” Gomez said, adding that there was nowhere for her to go. “At that time, there were not any domestic violence shelters in the area, no resources that would protect Melissa.”
“No one reached out to help her,” Gomez added. “She was trapped and she knew she was trapped.”
So Melissa stayed with her boyfriend.
On March 9, 2001, Melissa went to a St Patrick’s Day party at the Jicarilla Apache House of Spirits, also known as “The Zoo,” that was once located on reservation before it closed.
After she left the bar that night, she was never seen or heard from again.
A dead suspect
About a month after Melissa was officially reported missing that May, her boyfriend was found dead at his home.
Jicarilla Apache Nation Police Criminal Investigator Chris Rafferty told The Independent that the man’s death was ruled a suicide at the time. A short time later, the house on the Colorado property burned down, adding another twist to the mystery.
Investigator Rafferty explained that the boyfriend, who was not named, was considered to be a suspect in Melissa’s disappearance and that he was even questioned at the time.
“He says they weren’t together at the bar, but we had a lot of witnesses that said they were,” Rafferty told Dateline in an earlier interview about the boyfriend. But it’s the “boyfriend who was the one that she left with the night that she went missing,” he said.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs, which is also involved in the investigation, reportedly did its own interviews around town, but nothing came from them.
Rafferty explained that the biggest issue that they are dealing with is incomplete police reports from 20 years ago, along with a lack of evidence and a dead suspect.
“We’re basically starting from scratch,” he said.
Another factor in the complicated case is the many law enforcement agencies who have a hand in the investigation.
The Jicarilla Apache Nation Police Department is the lead investigating agency while the investigation into the boyfriend’s death was handled by the Archuleta County Sheriff’s Office in Colorado. The search on Sunday was also launched by the sheriff’s office.
A new lead
In May 2024, Gomez received an email that she believes got the ball rolling in Melissa’s case after more than 20 years.
“I got an email from a woman who was looking for her missing loved one from California and came across the NamUs record showing that human remains belonging to a Native American female between the ages of 30 years old and 60 years old were found in Dulce, New Mexico,” Gomez explained.
“She had then cross-referenced it to women who were missing from the area and found out the only woman that matched that description was Melissa Montoya.”
Gomez immediately alerted the Jicarilla Apache Nation Police Department and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The bones had been discovered back in 2020 near where Melissa went missing and were kept in a police room, but had not been tested.
So Gomez pushed for the evidence to be tested.
“They were tested,” Investigator Rafferty told Dateline in a July interview, referring to when they were first discovered in 2020. “Initially, they came back as a — as a female.”
“At first, I really thought those bones were hers,” Gomez told The Independent. “So for six weeks, I didn’t sleep, I didn’t eat.”
So when Gomez received the letter, it reinvigorated the investigation – and they tested the bones again. Unfortunately, it turned out that the remains belonged to a male.
But hope would come again several months later.
“I really feel like if it was not for the woman who sent me the email from California, I mean, that is what got the ball rolling,” Gomez told The Independent.
She explained that the investigator was not even aware that Melissa went missing from Dulce, simply because there was not a system to track missing and murdered individuals.
A hopeful search
On November 3, 2024, officials from multiple law enforcement agencies descended on the Colorado property in Archuleta County hoping to find a clue as to Melissa’s whereabouts.
Jicarilla Apache Chief of Police Joseph Schake told Dateline that the search came about following a review of the department’s open cold cases.
They called in the Archuleta County Sheriff’s Office, since the property falls within its jurisdiction.
Sheriff Mike Le Roux noted that they were able to cover a huge area of the property in “perfect” search conditions. Three dogs were brought in to assist in the search, but none of them registered a positive identification for anything.
Le Roux pointed out that a long period of time had passed and that his understanding is that the canines “have the ability to detect human remains in excess of 20 years.”
Gomez told The Independent that she got a rundown of what happened during the search from the sheriff. She said one of the major issues that could impede the search or future searches was that the fire destroyed the main structure. And over the years, many new structures had gone up, hindering access to certain places where they might find evidence or even a body.
Despite not finding anything in the search, Gomez told The Independent that she is glad they were able to do it.
“I’m so very grateful that the property owners allowed us to have that search,” she said, adding that while the search was being carried out, she and other loved ones, and MMIW supporters rallied in town with bright signs that featured Melissa’s face.
Over the years, there has been little to no media coverage of Melissa’s case.
“No one had seen an article about it. Nothing printed in the local newspaper, nothing came out on the news, nothing on the radio,” she said, adding that her case could have already been solved if her story had been told.
“So potentially there’s 24 years of witnesses who have not been interviewed, 24 years of witnesses — and someone must know something.”
No additional searches are planned at the time, but investigators said that, as new tips come in, they will investigate each one.
“For me, I’m extremely grateful that the police department is actively working this case,” Gomez said. “It gives me hope.”
‘Almost 24 years later, it’s finally happening for us’
Darlene Gomez has advocated for the MMIW since she went to law school, about the same time Melissa went missing, but it’s her disappearance that has always been the driving force behind what she does for others.
She has taken on dozens of MMIW cases pro bono, and provides general counsel for Medicine Wheel Ride — a non-profit that creates awareness and fundraises for issues affecting Indigenous people.
“I am very blessed,” she said. “I got to live a wonderful life. But then I think of Melissa and think she didn’t get to leave for college, she didn’t get to travel the world, she didn’t get the chance to go buy makeup at Sephora or go to nice restaurants – instead she got poverty and domestic abuse.”
Gomez takes the anger and sadness of her grief and the loss of Melissa’s life and uses it to help others who may have once been in Melissa’s shoes. Many of the cases she represents are featured on her TikTok Page.
“All of the odds and all of the cycles I had to break to be an attorney and to be able to advocate missing and murdered indigenous relatives, I really think God put me in this place to be an attorney and I feel like this is my calling,” she said. “I try to help other families find their missing because I know what it’s like to have someone who’s gone.”
But now, it may be her turn for some hope in Melissa’s case.
“I think this also gives other families hope, because almost 24 years later, this is finally happening for us,” she said.
“I pray every day to please help me find her,” Gomez said. “I just worry that if I can’t find her, her spirit will wander all over, and then she will not be able to rest.”
Gomez said her main goal is to bring Melissa home to the reservation, to be buried with her parents next to the river.
“Just knowing that she is at peace – that’s what I want for her,” she said. “I can’t bear to think that her bones are just laying out there and no one has given her a proper prayer or shown her any love. We need her home.”
Anyone with information about Melissa’s disappearance is asked to call the Jicarilla Apache Nation Police Department at 575-759-3222 or reach out to them on their Facebook page.