Claims of Corruption, Lies and Cover-ups About El Paso's Northeast Desert Murders of 1987

Days before convicted serial murderer David L. Wood was to be executed by the state of Texas for the murder of 6 girls from El Paso back in 1987, I received an email along with the name and phone number of someone very concerned with his execution. I decided to call the women and hear what she had to say. I have done an interview with David, and he sent me much paper work and newspaper clippings that convinced me of his innocence. Click on the blue link to read the interview. Wood was convicted mostly on circumstantial evidence, and "snitch" testimony which is very incredible. Although he had been convicted of prior rapes and spent time in prison it didn't mean he was the perpetrator of these serial murders. News has come in that one of the snitches that helped convict Wood recieved 13K in reward money, and that can be read here.

The women's name is Mona Dismukes, and she is the sister in-law of one of the women who went missing around the time of the "Northeast Desert Murders". What she had to say convinced me even more that Wood could in fact be innocent of all charges related to the murdered girls. I spoke with Mona several times, and also received numerous emails from her about these murders. She states she is certain that Wood did not commit these murders and has her own thoughts, information and opinions about it. Being a resident in El Paso almost her entire life she is familiar with the streets, clubs, people and news from El Paso. She stated she knew several of the missing girls, and that "in the Northeast, everyone knew everyone at that time". She has studied the case, and has done her own investigation into the case. Her claims are believable, and shocking. Read what Mona has to say about these murders and see if in the end, there are doubts in your mind that Wood is responsible for The Northeast Desert Murders.

She stated that when she was 17 years old her sister in law Cheryl Vasquez Dismukes disappeared. She was on a mission to find her or at least find out any information she could about the disappearing girls, so she set out to see if the killer would kidnap her as was done to the other girls. This was when she met David L. Wood. She states that when the police found out she met Wood, they brought her in for questioning. "They wanted me to sign a statement claiming David had tried to kidnap me". She said she did not because in fact he had yelled at her from about 30 feet away telling her to get home because the cops were saying he had taken her. She says she looked a lot like her sister in law.

When she refused to sign the statement, the detectives took her to the desert where the missing girls had begun to show up and casually "spoke to me about how easy it was for women to disappear out there, and what a shame it would be if she disappeared as well." She said it really scared her but she still refused to sign the paper. She claims since that day she has been anonymously threatened, and everytime she tried to speak to the media about this publicly she got harassed, anonymously.

Mona stated that after her sister in law disappeared she walked the streets posing as a hooker to see what information she could get. Most of the missing and murdered girls were involved with drugs and prostitution. She claims she met Judith Brown Kelling, the alleged rape victim of Wood, which helped convict him for the serial murders. She showed Kelling a photo of Wood and states that Kelling replyed "wow, who is that guy, he's hot!". "I said to her, you don't know who that is"? Kelling replied "no." At that point Mona stated she was mad and asked her why she didn't recognize a man she had said raped her. Mona states Kelling confided in her and said she only lied about Wood because the cops had charges on her that they were going to drop in exchange for her fabrication.

Mona said she met up with her sister in law, Cheryl, one of the alleged missing girls about a year later. She spoke briefly with her and took down the plate number of the car she got into. Mona said she brought the plate number to the police, but they just called her "crazy." Mona also alleges that she recently found out through another family member of Cheryl's that police in New York City had requested dental records for Cheryl Dismukes to match up to a body they found dead in New York approximately 3 years ago. Mona also states that her mother received a call 5 years ago from a man stating he was a law enforcer, and wanted her to know Cheryl was doing fine and had given birth to a baby girl shortly after she disappeared. Mona believes she was cheating on her brother, pregnant and seeing another man and that could have been why she took off.

The other 2 missing girls, Melissa Alaniz, and Margie Knox have not yet bee found, dead or alive.

The girls who were murdered hung out at a hotel in El Paso called The Hawaiian Royal according to Mona. She said it was a shady place and rumors were that a couple of cops sold drugs out of there and a house on the East side of El Paso, and that the "girls" lured the buyers in. Mona stated that a family member of one of the girls even told the police this after her sister went missing but she was told not to talk about it. Mona says she was the sister of Angelica Frausto. "she even told the press that after they told the cops about other cops selling out of the hotel, they started getting death threats. so they stopped talking about it."

Mona speaks about the "orange fibers" that police linked Wood to the murders with. They allegedly were from an orange blanket kept in the back of Wood's truck according to reports. Mona stated "they were more of a big blob of orange fibers which were odd since this evidence sat out in the desert several days before even being recovered," "odder still was the fact that another women found more than a year later was wrapped in an orange blanket." Mona states her disappearance and discovery was never reported in the news, and that it was only brought up in Wood's trial, which is why they withdrew the fiber evidence because the prosecutors didn't want the jurors to hear about a body being found over a year after Wood's arrest, a body which had been dead for approximately six months before being discovered. "they knew the orange fibers would be the thing that could exonerate David, "she speaks in her opinion.

Mona speaks of another of the victims, Dawn Marie Smith. Mona stated that three witnesses to her murder came forward to the police, whose names were never released to the public and stated they had seen her shot in the head in a trailer in Chapparel New Mexico, about eight miles out of El Paso. "They said that a biker who resembled David Wood named Cory had shot her, and buried her in the desert." Mona went on to say that David;s defense team tried to have her exhumed to prove this, since the El Paso medical examiner stated that there were no malformations or nicks to her skull. Mona states the only thing the defense team were allowed were her x-rays which an independent examiner said the x-rays didn't look right to him. "he said there was some kind of trauma but he needed to examine the skull to see what they were," but they were not allowed this. "As for the witnesses, their tip never made it to the news, and the trailer home in Chaparrel was removed before David's investigators could get any forensic evidence from it to prove Dawn Marie Smith had been murdered there."

Mona speaks about another of the victims, Maria Rosa Casio. "nobody saw her disappearance. She was in a bar called the Cabaret Club with her car parked right in front of the club, so she didn't need a ride home, or a ride to her car. Nobody saw her leave because a major fight broke out outside the bar. The next day her car was found two blocks away from the club. In court, prosecutors tried to say she had accepted a ride from David Wood, who no one saw there that night." Hypothetically speaking she says, " if Wood had been there and offered her a ride, then how did her car end up two blocks away from where she left it?"

Concerning another victim, Desiree Wheatley, Mona states that "all throughout the media and in court it was reported that she disappeared right after school, on the last day of school. They told everyone that she was seen getting into Wood's truck, but this isn't true. " Someone left a comment on the Interview I did with Wood which states "I was also best friends with desi, she was last seen at my house, the last day of school we had all walked to park and she had on my dads shirt all the kids from school had signed so excited for school to be out, just an innocent child and I personaly hope they fry the sob. " So that in itself is a contradiction of what police claim.

I asked Mona is there were ever any other suspects in this case, or if she knew of anyone else who could have done this. She said she knew of a man named Michael P. (last name withheld for this article). "he drove a tan pick up truck, a Nissan, like Wood had with the same stripes except Wood's truck had brown stripes, and Mike's had gray. This guy Mike had tattoos similar to Wood's and was the same height and weight as Wood. He looked quite a lot like Wood and actually bragged about it to anyone who would listen. Almost all the witnesses who said they saw David abducting women said "it was a biker guy with blond hair and blue eyes, in a beige truck with tattoos." Wood at that time had light to medium brown hair and hazel eyes, however Mike, well he had blond hair and blue eyes.

Mona continues by stating one of the prostitutes who alleged that Wood raped her and took her to the desert stated that before going there, they had stopped off at an apartment on Mccombs St. in Northeast El Paso. The prostitutes claimed that he went into the apartment where he told her some friends lived to get something. Mona claims she investigated Michael and found out that not only did he look like Wood, he also rode a red Harley which he kept at his apartment, and he lived on McCombs St..Mona informed the police but was once again shot down.

Mona also stated that a cop, homicide detective who was working the desert deaths was "off on another track, a track that led in a completely different direction from David Wood as the killer, he was on to what he believed to be a drug and prostitution ring, that he believed David Wood to have no involvement in." Mona says the strange thing about this is that right before he completed his investigation, he died in a one car collision, and was killed instantly. She alleges the other detectives claimed to look into his investigation but that it led no where.

So there, you have it ! Claims of corruption, lies, cover ups and set ups. Mona has been to the police about all of this, as well as the media, but it seems that since they have already charged Wood with these crimes, nobody wants to "make waves." Was David L. Wood a scape goat for crimes that were committed by others? Was he just a convenient person to "railroad"? Unless an investigation further into these allegations take place, maybe no one will ever know for sure.

The execution of Wood was halted determining his mental capacity.

I wish to thank Mona Dismukes for coming forward with the information she has gathered throughout the years. And for taking the risk of being harassed and criticized because of it.

If anyone has anymore information about this case please message me privately.

Sources

Phone calls and emails from Mona Dismukes

Associated Content

Interview with David L. Wood

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/568683/interview_convicted_serial_killer_david.html?cat=17

Channel 9 news
http://www.elpasotimes.com/ci_13345464?source=most_viewed