Missing and Murdered Indigenous People

Five years to the day that Navajo elder Ella Mae Begay disappeared from her home, the man who acknowledged beating her, stealing her truck and leaving her on the roadside is free from prison.

The sole person charged in the 2021 disappearance of Navajo elder Ella Mae Begay received a five-year federal prison sentence. The unsolved case underscores the disproportionate violence Native Americans face.

The Navajo Nation Department of Criminal Investigations does not have an on-site medical examiner, forcing criminal investigators to take on duties they are not properly trained for and slowing down murdered and missing persons investigations.

May 5 is the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons. It reflects both the collective grief and the resilience of Indigenous communities.

A man charged in the disappearance of Ella Mae Begay, a Navajo grandmother and weaver, has pleaded guilty to robbery as part of a second plea agreement.

A federal judge has rejected a plea agreement that would have allowed a man who admitted to beating a Navajo elder and leaving her for dead to avoid more prison time.

The FBI says 8-year-old Maleeka "Mollie" Boone, who was found dead on the Navajo Nation in January, may have been hit by a large vehicle like a pickup truck.

A man charged in a Navajo woman’s 2021 disappearance has pleaded guilty to robbery, a case emblematic of the crisis of killings and disappearances in Native communities.

Authorities are investigating the death of 8-year-old Maleeka “Mollie” Boone, who was reported missing from the Coalmine community on the Navajo Nation.

Ahead of the next session, Arizona Democratic state lawmakers held a town hall on missing and murdered Indigenous peoples for input on the problems facing families, advocates and victims.