00:00:00Indigenous Persons Missing in Montana
00:15:39Indigenous Women Missing and Murdered
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We're sharing the disturbing accounts of five Montana Indigenous people—Diane MedicineHorse, and Amy Marie Johnson, Jody Fern Howard, Leo Wagner, and Ashley HeavyRunner Loring, who were tragically ripped away from their families in the early 1980s. Their unresolved cases reveal uncomfortable truths about the efforts, or lack thereof, of authorities like the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Montana Department of Justice, leaving their families with more questions than answers.
The alarming trend of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People in Montana is a chilling truth we all need to confront. By shedding light on these stories, we hope to draw attention to this ongoing issue. We encourage you to delve deeper into this reality—check out documentaries such as Murder in Bighorn and others like it to learn more about the severity of this crisis.
For images related to the cases, check out the Instagram.
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WEBVTT
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Hiya, this is Julia and murder is bad.
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On this episode about missing and murdered Indigenous persons, I'll be covering cases coming out of Montana.
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Diane Medicine Horse was last seen on September 28, 1981.
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She was dropping off her daughter, natasha Rondo, to her father, henry Rondo, who had been staying with his brother, tim, in Crow Agency, montana.
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She got into her white car and was never seen again.
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She was 26 years old.
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Diane also had a son who was living with his grandmother in Glendale, washington because she saw the troubles in the household.
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Diane dealt with trauma and stresses, with drinking and not staying put for too long.
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Her disappearance was not immediately reported because of those kinds of behaviors but her sisters did report her missing.
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When Diane didn't show up to her mother's funeral, the Bureau of Indian Affairs looked into a few tips.
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They checked a drug treatment facility in Glendale Washington.
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They looked in for Birthold, north Dakota, and followed a tip that she had been buried in a basement in Lodgrass, montana.
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Those were all dead ends.
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When Natasha was young she was told that her mother had wandered far and hadn't found her way home yet.
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Quote they say I'm just like her, small, we're both small.
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They call me tiny.
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When my father heard that he got watery eyes.
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He said let me tell you something, girl.
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Did you know your mother's name was tiny?
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If you have any information about Diane Medicine Horse, you can contact Special Agent Jose Figueroa of the Bureau of Indian Affairs at 406-638-2632.
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24-year-old Amy Marie Johnson went missing on May 16, 1986.
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She was last seen in downtown Livingston, montana.
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Amy was born on the Flathead Reservation on September 4, 1961 and was adopted soon after by Cliff and Peg Johnson.
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Amy Marie was the fourth of five adopted children for the Johnsons and four of the five children were Indigenous.
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They were raised in the Catholic Church in Livingston.
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Her brother, chris, said Livingston didn't like dark people.
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It was a very prejudiced town and still is.
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When Amy was growing up she was described as reserved, shy, caring and artistic.
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One of her neighbors, agnes Schaefer, said I thought she was one of the most beautiful girls I had ever seen and she was so sweet and shy.
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And, sad to say, I don't think I ever told her so.
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School was hard for Amy, as someone who struggled with confidence.
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This would cause her grades to suffer, which steeped her in stress and lack of sleep.
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She started to experiment with alcohol and drugs as a teenager.
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After graduating high school, amy continued to spiral into heavy drug use and was exploited by people who preyed on the downtrodden.
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Her brother, chris, said Amy made some bad choices, but I don't think she was mentally prepared to understand what she was choosing.
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Amy had children with several people, most of who were set to prison for violent crimes.
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She herself had been beaten by an ex-boyfriend who hit her in the face with a shovel.
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Amy permitted her children to be removed and adopted out.
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When she drank she would get aggressive and mean spirited.
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At times she would take on another persona she called JoJo, but in the spring of 1986, they were promising signs that Amy was starting to make different choices for herself, which, if you start making better choices for yourself or you retire or something like that, just be prepared for terrible things to happen to you, I guess, is the lessons we've learned.
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She was working as a certified nursing assistant at Livingston Health Care and had a newborn child at home that she was determined to keep and support.
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At the time Amy was roommates with her childhood friend, mary Guana.
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Mary said she was a good person who was full of laughter.
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She could make up a story just like that when we were not everyone's cup of tea.
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We would be considered what most people would call lower class people.
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But you know what?
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We didn't care.
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Amy was tribal and dark-skinned and I'm Mexican, and I guess that's why we fell into friendship with each other.
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On the night of Friday, may 16th 1986, amy was excited about a date.
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Mary had agreed to babysit for Amy as long as she was back by the next morning.
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Mary was a little concerned because she had never met the guy Amy was going out with, but she agreed anyways.
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That was the last time she spoke to or saw Amy.
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Amy left her baby girl and all of her belongings, including an uncashed welfare check.
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She was supposed to have dinner the next night with her parents, but she never showed up.
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Authorities suspected that she had been murdered.
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Livingston Police Captain Steve McCann confirmed that Amy was seen with a former boyfriend, ron Phillips, the evening of her disappearance.
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Phillips said that he had dropped her off downtown that night after they had driven around a while.
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A sighting was reported six days later in a bar at Gardner, which was 50 miles to the south, but it was never verified to be her.
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But the lead soon went cold.
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The Johnsons eventually turned Amy's child over to Child Protective Services to be adopted before moving to be closer to Amy's siblings.
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Both parents have since passed away.
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In the early 2000s a man admitted to police that he knew where Amy's body was.
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He took them to a craggy mountainous area where he claimed her remains had been stored.
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The man denied having been involved in her murder but said he was forced to participate in the disposal of her body.
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They didn't find Amy and no charges were filed.
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Phillips said the Department of Justice and Helena is supposed to be the overseer and auditing all of these people.
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Why does Livingston have so many unsolved homicides and suspicious deaths and most other places don't have any?
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Amy wasn't one of Livingston's model residents, but doesn't her family have the right to learn of her whereabouts?
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If you have any information about Amy Marie Johnson, you can contact AJ Leonard Knudsen of the Montana Department of Justice at 406-444-3874.
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Jody Fern Howard was 28 years old when she went missing after being seen at a gas station on the Fort Peck Reservation in Wolf Point, montana.
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Jody was last seen at the Town Pump gas station on October 7, 1991.
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Jodi was a mother of four boys and was extremely close to her family, especially her three brothers and her sister.
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She was always in contact with family members and saw them almost every other day.
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They described her as outgoing and friendly.
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The original investigator assigned to Jodi's case, nelson Hart, had always suspected foul play for the simple fact that the funds in her tribal bank account had never been touched.
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Others followed leads and sightings but never found Jodi.
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A rumor had started to circulate that Jodi had been murdered and dumped into the Brockton Lagoon near Poplar Montana, and in 1995, the lagoon was drained, but they didn't find Jodi.
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If you have any information about Jodi Fern Howard, please contact under Sheriff John Summers at 406-653-6230.
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Leo Wagner went missing on April 27, 2021, at the age of 26.
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He was last seen by family and friends near the St Mary and Bab areas east of Glacier National Park.
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Authorities have received a call about a possibly intoxicated man walking near the banks of St Mary Lake and in a second call the same man was seen walking north on West Shore Road with an injured arm.
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They couldn't find that man believed to be Leo when they checked that area.
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Those areas were searched again on May 1 of that year.
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The next day, a cabin was burglarized.
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When the scene was searched, clothes and items thought to belong to Leo were found.
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On the clothes.
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There was evidence that Leo had been severely injured.
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Search efforts were scaled back a week later.
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Leo's sister, mikaela, said our family literally fell apart.
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Leo was described as a well-loved father of five.
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He helped at the family ranch outside of Browning and was also a boxer.
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His father, bill, said he was the jokester of the family and always had everybody laughing.
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The family conducted their own searches and hired a professional to search St Mary Lake.
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They were able to find a shoe and some more blood evidence around the same cabin.
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Bill said that they wanted justice but haven't gotten any answers.
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The cases were transferred to the BIA in the summer of 2022.
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They told the family that his case was ongoing, but the family hadn't heard anything in about a year.
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Mikaela said they care, but it's not their top priority.
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If you know anything about Leo Wagner, please contact the Blackfeet Tribal Law Enforcement Agency at 406-338-400.
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On June 5th 2017, 20-year-old Ashley Mariah, heavy runner luring, went missing after attending a party on the Blackfeet Reservation in Northwest Montana.
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She had packed a change of clothes in her blue pool string backpack before a friend picked her up to take her into Browning for a party.
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That night.
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Ashley texted her 25-year-old sister, kimberly, to ask for some money.
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She responded that she couldn't because she was in Africa.
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She was visiting her fiance in Morocco.
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Kimberly didn't immediately hear from Ashley when she returned to Montana, but it wasn't unusual for Ashley to lose track of her phone.
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After a week passed and their ill father was hospitalized for liver failure.
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Kimberly immediately started to panic.
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Kimberly and Ashley had plans to move to Missoula together.
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They were extremely close to each other and their family, and that made it even more difficult.
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When Ashley was reported missing to the Tribal Police Force, which included federal agents from the BIA, kimberly said no one took it seriously.
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They just said she's of age, she can leave when she wants to.
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When we talk to other families whose girls went missing, they say that's what they got from law enforcement too.
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It's not a proper response.
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Two weeks after Ashley was last seen, a tip came in.
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A young woman was seen running from a car on an empty stretch of Route 89.
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All that was around that area were swamps on either side, some dense forest and an occasional trailer or two.
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A three-day search was organized but didn't turn up anything.
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A grey sweater, believed to be Ashley's, was found in a dump, but before any testing could be done it was misplaced by authorities.
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According to Kimberly, it took those same authorities two months to start their official investigation and by then the lead investigator had started a relationship with one of the main suspects.
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Quote it was ridiculous.
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One of the officers actually apologized to me.
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He said he's sorry about my sister and that he was working overtime on the case, but that nobody was taking it seriously.
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People in Browning know exactly what happened to my sister and where she's at, but they're not speaking up because law enforcement ruined her case.
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This was when Kimberly took things into her own hands.
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She started to scour mountains and ravines.
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She dug up freshly moved dirt piles.
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She studied bones and talked to anyone who had anything to say, no matter how implausible or gruesome.
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There's also a story about how she basically had to fend off a bear during one of her searches.
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Kimberly said every day is a nightmare.
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We don't know what really happened to her.
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There's rumors about her being hurt and her body put places, being all cut up and scattered on the mountain.
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That's why I search for her.
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That's why I go out in the mountains and look.
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I don't want my baby sister laying out there alone.
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Ashley's childhood friend, erica Denny, described her as strong spiritually, emotionally, mentally, physically.
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Erica said she'd stick up for people.
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If someone was getting bullied or if she saw something that was wrong, she would come out and tell you Ashley's father, a former firefighter who was in the hospital when she initially went missing.
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Roy Heavy Runner said that whoever had a hand in her disappearance is likely still on the reservation.
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Several leads kept taking investigators off the reservation and even out of the state, so the FBI eventually took over Ashley's case.
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After this transition, ashley's grey sweater was located and sent off for testing, but that was in 2019.
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There hasn't been any movement in her case.
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Erica said all of a sudden she's just missing.
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She didn't even get to see her 21st birthday.
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She had plans, she had goals and someone took that from her.
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Kimberly agreed.
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She said my sister is a beautiful, intelligent young woman who has goals and dreams.
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A missing and murdered Indigenous woman was not one of them.
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If you have any information about Ashley's disappearance, please contact Blackfeet Tribal Agent Josh Byrd at 406-338-400.
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There's not much else to say.
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It's just horrendous that an entire population has basically been kept silent.
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There's this crazy statistic that I'm sure is echoed in a lot of states, but of Montana's population, indigenous people make up about 6%, but Indigenous people make up 22% of the murders.
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That is just mathematically unacceptable, not to mention all these stories coming out.
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I know there's a series that recently came out, I think, on Showtime, called Murder in Bighorn takes place in Montana and they cover three cases of missing or murdered women and definitely give that a watch.
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There's a similar one on different channels like Investigation, discovery and stuff.
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Thank you for listening.
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Take care of each other and remember murder is bad.
00:17:43.883 --> 00:17:49.175
Amentideorg.
00:00:00.560 --> 00:00:04.403
Hiya, this is Julia and murder is bad.
00:00:04.403 --> 00:00:26.304
On this episode about missing and murdered Indigenous persons, I'll be covering cases coming out of Montana.
00:00:26.304 --> 00:00:34.451
Diane Medicine Horse was last seen on September 28, 1981.
00:00:34.451 --> 00:00:44.630
She was dropping off her daughter, natasha Rondo, to her father, henry Rondo, who had been staying with his brother, tim, in Crow Agency, montana.
00:00:44.630 --> 00:00:48.668
She got into her white car and was never seen again.
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She was 26 years old.
00:00:51.045 --> 00:01:00.146
Diane also had a son who was living with his grandmother in Glendale, washington because she saw the troubles in the household.
00:01:00.146 --> 00:01:08.451
Diane dealt with trauma and stresses, with drinking and not staying put for too long.
00:01:08.451 --> 00:01:20.665
Her disappearance was not immediately reported because of those kinds of behaviors but her sisters did report her missing.
00:01:20.665 --> 00:01:29.411
When Diane didn't show up to her mother's funeral, the Bureau of Indian Affairs looked into a few tips.
00:01:29.411 --> 00:01:32.649
They checked a drug treatment facility in Glendale Washington.
00:01:32.649 --> 00:01:40.807
They looked in for Birthold, north Dakota, and followed a tip that she had been buried in a basement in Lodgrass, montana.
00:01:40.807 --> 00:01:43.825
Those were all dead ends.
00:01:43.825 --> 00:01:50.822
When Natasha was young she was told that her mother had wandered far and hadn't found her way home yet.
00:01:50.822 --> 00:01:56.983
Quote they say I'm just like her, small, we're both small.
00:01:56.983 --> 00:01:58.563
They call me tiny.
00:01:58.563 --> 00:02:02.087
When my father heard that he got watery eyes.
00:02:02.087 --> 00:02:04.987
He said let me tell you something, girl.
00:02:04.987 --> 00:02:07.646
Did you know your mother's name was tiny?
00:02:07.646 --> 00:02:24.044
If you have any information about Diane Medicine Horse, you can contact Special Agent Jose Figueroa of the Bureau of Indian Affairs at 406-638-2632.
00:02:26.705 --> 00:02:32.457
24-year-old Amy Marie Johnson went missing on May 16, 1986.
00:02:32.457 --> 00:02:36.212
She was last seen in downtown Livingston, montana.
00:02:36.212 --> 00:02:46.931
Amy was born on the Flathead Reservation on September 4, 1961 and was adopted soon after by Cliff and Peg Johnson.
00:02:46.931 --> 00:02:55.568
Amy Marie was the fourth of five adopted children for the Johnsons and four of the five children were Indigenous.
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They were raised in the Catholic Church in Livingston.
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Her brother, chris, said Livingston didn't like dark people.
00:03:05.295 --> 00:03:08.211
It was a very prejudiced town and still is.
00:03:08.211 --> 00:03:15.776
When Amy was growing up she was described as reserved, shy, caring and artistic.
00:03:15.776 --> 00:03:25.674
One of her neighbors, agnes Schaefer, said I thought she was one of the most beautiful girls I had ever seen and she was so sweet and shy.
00:03:25.674 --> 00:03:29.290
And, sad to say, I don't think I ever told her so.
00:03:32.025 --> 00:03:36.375
School was hard for Amy, as someone who struggled with confidence.
00:03:36.375 --> 00:03:41.836
This would cause her grades to suffer, which steeped her in stress and lack of sleep.
00:03:41.836 --> 00:03:45.693
She started to experiment with alcohol and drugs as a teenager.
00:03:45.693 --> 00:03:56.390
After graduating high school, amy continued to spiral into heavy drug use and was exploited by people who preyed on the downtrodden.
00:03:56.390 --> 00:04:05.538
Her brother, chris, said Amy made some bad choices, but I don't think she was mentally prepared to understand what she was choosing.
00:04:07.645 --> 00:04:13.676
Amy had children with several people, most of who were set to prison for violent crimes.
00:04:13.676 --> 00:04:19.896
She herself had been beaten by an ex-boyfriend who hit her in the face with a shovel.
00:04:19.896 --> 00:04:24.153
Amy permitted her children to be removed and adopted out.
00:04:24.153 --> 00:04:27.613
When she drank she would get aggressive and mean spirited.
00:04:27.613 --> 00:04:48.415
At times she would take on another persona she called JoJo, but in the spring of 1986, they were promising signs that Amy was starting to make different choices for herself, which, if you start making better choices for yourself or you retire or something like that, just be prepared for terrible things to happen to you, I guess, is the lessons we've learned.
00:04:48.415 --> 00:04:59.233
She was working as a certified nursing assistant at Livingston Health Care and had a newborn child at home that she was determined to keep and support.
00:05:00.545 --> 00:05:03.935
At the time Amy was roommates with her childhood friend, mary Guana.
00:05:03.935 --> 00:05:08.334
Mary said she was a good person who was full of laughter.
00:05:08.334 --> 00:05:14.119
She could make up a story just like that when we were not everyone's cup of tea.
00:05:14.119 --> 00:05:17.593
We would be considered what most people would call lower class people.
00:05:17.593 --> 00:05:18.595
But you know what?
00:05:18.595 --> 00:05:19.276
We didn't care.
00:05:19.276 --> 00:05:26.110
Amy was tribal and dark-skinned and I'm Mexican, and I guess that's why we fell into friendship with each other.
00:05:28.141 --> 00:05:33.853
On the night of Friday, may 16th 1986, amy was excited about a date.
00:05:33.853 --> 00:05:39.329
Mary had agreed to babysit for Amy as long as she was back by the next morning.
00:05:39.329 --> 00:05:48.223
Mary was a little concerned because she had never met the guy Amy was going out with, but she agreed anyways.
00:05:48.223 --> 00:05:52.528
That was the last time she spoke to or saw Amy.
00:05:52.528 --> 00:05:59.872
Amy left her baby girl and all of her belongings, including an uncashed welfare check.
00:05:59.872 --> 00:06:04.608
She was supposed to have dinner the next night with her parents, but she never showed up.
00:06:06.139 --> 00:06:09.908
Authorities suspected that she had been murdered.
00:06:09.908 --> 00:06:19.966
Livingston Police Captain Steve McCann confirmed that Amy was seen with a former boyfriend, ron Phillips, the evening of her disappearance.
00:06:19.966 --> 00:06:26.163
Phillips said that he had dropped her off downtown that night after they had driven around a while.
00:06:26.163 --> 00:06:35.708
A sighting was reported six days later in a bar at Gardner, which was 50 miles to the south, but it was never verified to be her.
00:06:35.708 --> 00:06:38.043
But the lead soon went cold.
00:06:38.043 --> 00:06:47.367
The Johnsons eventually turned Amy's child over to Child Protective Services to be adopted before moving to be closer to Amy's siblings.
00:06:47.367 --> 00:06:50.446
Both parents have since passed away.
00:06:51.339 --> 00:06:56.331
In the early 2000s a man admitted to police that he knew where Amy's body was.
00:06:56.331 --> 00:07:02.750
He took them to a craggy mountainous area where he claimed her remains had been stored.
00:07:02.750 --> 00:07:10.747
The man denied having been involved in her murder but said he was forced to participate in the disposal of her body.
00:07:10.747 --> 00:07:14.348
They didn't find Amy and no charges were filed.
00:07:14.348 --> 00:07:23.444
Phillips said the Department of Justice and Helena is supposed to be the overseer and auditing all of these people.
00:07:23.444 --> 00:07:31.382
Why does Livingston have so many unsolved homicides and suspicious deaths and most other places don't have any?
00:07:31.382 --> 00:07:39.083
Amy wasn't one of Livingston's model residents, but doesn't her family have the right to learn of her whereabouts?
00:07:39.083 --> 00:07:55.752
If you have any information about Amy Marie Johnson, you can contact AJ Leonard Knudsen of the Montana Department of Justice at 406-444-3874.
00:07:58.560 --> 00:08:07.867
Jody Fern Howard was 28 years old when she went missing after being seen at a gas station on the Fort Peck Reservation in Wolf Point, montana.
00:08:07.867 --> 00:08:15.108
Jody was last seen at the Town Pump gas station on October 7, 1991.
00:08:15.108 --> 00:08:22.714
Jodi was a mother of four boys and was extremely close to her family, especially her three brothers and her sister.
00:08:22.714 --> 00:08:27.298
She was always in contact with family members and saw them almost every other day.
00:08:27.298 --> 00:08:30.576
They described her as outgoing and friendly.
00:08:30.576 --> 00:08:43.681
The original investigator assigned to Jodi's case, nelson Hart, had always suspected foul play for the simple fact that the funds in her tribal bank account had never been touched.
00:08:43.681 --> 00:08:47.477
Others followed leads and sightings but never found Jodi.
00:08:47.477 --> 00:09:00.538
A rumor had started to circulate that Jodi had been murdered and dumped into the Brockton Lagoon near Poplar Montana, and in 1995, the lagoon was drained, but they didn't find Jodi.
00:09:00.538 --> 00:09:14.058
If you have any information about Jodi Fern Howard, please contact under Sheriff John Summers at 406-653-6230.
00:09:17.610 --> 00:09:24.202
Leo Wagner went missing on April 27, 2021, at the age of 26.
00:09:24.202 --> 00:09:32.072
He was last seen by family and friends near the St Mary and Bab areas east of Glacier National Park.
00:09:32.072 --> 00:09:49.303
Authorities have received a call about a possibly intoxicated man walking near the banks of St Mary Lake and in a second call the same man was seen walking north on West Shore Road with an injured arm.
00:09:49.303 --> 00:09:54.058
They couldn't find that man believed to be Leo when they checked that area.
00:09:54.058 --> 00:09:58.979
Those areas were searched again on May 1 of that year.
00:09:58.979 --> 00:10:02.138
The next day, a cabin was burglarized.
00:10:02.138 --> 00:10:07.360
When the scene was searched, clothes and items thought to belong to Leo were found.
00:10:07.360 --> 00:10:08.812
On the clothes.
00:10:08.812 --> 00:10:12.760
There was evidence that Leo had been severely injured.
00:10:12.760 --> 00:10:16.216
Search efforts were scaled back a week later.
00:10:18.029 --> 00:10:22.178
Leo's sister, mikaela, said our family literally fell apart.
00:10:22.178 --> 00:10:26.477
Leo was described as a well-loved father of five.
00:10:26.477 --> 00:10:31.259
He helped at the family ranch outside of Browning and was also a boxer.
00:10:31.259 --> 00:10:38.541
His father, bill, said he was the jokester of the family and always had everybody laughing.
00:10:38.541 --> 00:10:44.980
The family conducted their own searches and hired a professional to search St Mary Lake.
00:10:44.980 --> 00:10:50.759
They were able to find a shoe and some more blood evidence around the same cabin.
00:10:50.759 --> 00:10:56.139
Bill said that they wanted justice but haven't gotten any answers.
00:10:56.139 --> 00:11:01.559
The cases were transferred to the BIA in the summer of 2022.
00:11:01.559 --> 00:11:08.402
They told the family that his case was ongoing, but the family hadn't heard anything in about a year.
00:11:08.402 --> 00:11:13.678
Mikaela said they care, but it's not their top priority.
00:11:13.678 --> 00:11:26.740
If you know anything about Leo Wagner, please contact the Blackfeet Tribal Law Enforcement Agency at 406-338-400.
00:11:31.186 --> 00:11:43.312
On June 5th 2017, 20-year-old Ashley Mariah, heavy runner luring, went missing after attending a party on the Blackfeet Reservation in Northwest Montana.
00:11:43.312 --> 00:11:51.851
She had packed a change of clothes in her blue pool string backpack before a friend picked her up to take her into Browning for a party.
00:11:51.851 --> 00:11:53.525
That night.
00:11:53.525 --> 00:11:57.956
Ashley texted her 25-year-old sister, kimberly, to ask for some money.
00:11:57.956 --> 00:12:01.732
She responded that she couldn't because she was in Africa.
00:12:01.732 --> 00:12:04.630
She was visiting her fiance in Morocco.
00:12:04.630 --> 00:12:13.273
Kimberly didn't immediately hear from Ashley when she returned to Montana, but it wasn't unusual for Ashley to lose track of her phone.
00:12:13.273 --> 00:12:19.458
After a week passed and their ill father was hospitalized for liver failure.
00:12:19.458 --> 00:12:22.489
Kimberly immediately started to panic.
00:12:22.489 --> 00:12:26.854
Kimberly and Ashley had plans to move to Missoula together.
00:12:26.854 --> 00:12:32.431
They were extremely close to each other and their family, and that made it even more difficult.
00:12:32.431 --> 00:12:41.873
When Ashley was reported missing to the Tribal Police Force, which included federal agents from the BIA, kimberly said no one took it seriously.
00:12:41.873 --> 00:12:46.034
They just said she's of age, she can leave when she wants to.
00:12:46.034 --> 00:12:52.409
When we talk to other families whose girls went missing, they say that's what they got from law enforcement too.
00:12:52.409 --> 00:12:54.750
It's not a proper response.
00:12:56.544 --> 00:12:59.533
Two weeks after Ashley was last seen, a tip came in.
00:12:59.533 --> 00:13:06.056
A young woman was seen running from a car on an empty stretch of Route 89.
00:13:06.056 --> 00:13:14.009
All that was around that area were swamps on either side, some dense forest and an occasional trailer or two.
00:13:14.009 --> 00:13:18.673
A three-day search was organized but didn't turn up anything.
00:13:18.673 --> 00:13:28.413
A grey sweater, believed to be Ashley's, was found in a dump, but before any testing could be done it was misplaced by authorities.
00:13:28.413 --> 00:13:42.498
According to Kimberly, it took those same authorities two months to start their official investigation and by then the lead investigator had started a relationship with one of the main suspects.
00:13:42.498 --> 00:13:45.592
Quote it was ridiculous.
00:13:45.592 --> 00:13:49.092
One of the officers actually apologized to me.
00:13:49.092 --> 00:13:57.511
He said he's sorry about my sister and that he was working overtime on the case, but that nobody was taking it seriously.
00:13:57.511 --> 00:14:06.273
People in Browning know exactly what happened to my sister and where she's at, but they're not speaking up because law enforcement ruined her case.
00:14:08.144 --> 00:14:11.374
This was when Kimberly took things into her own hands.
00:14:11.374 --> 00:14:14.273
She started to scour mountains and ravines.
00:14:14.273 --> 00:14:16.870
She dug up freshly moved dirt piles.
00:14:16.870 --> 00:14:24.135
She studied bones and talked to anyone who had anything to say, no matter how implausible or gruesome.
00:14:24.135 --> 00:14:30.937
There's also a story about how she basically had to fend off a bear during one of her searches.
00:14:30.937 --> 00:14:34.893
Kimberly said every day is a nightmare.
00:14:34.893 --> 00:14:37.331
We don't know what really happened to her.
00:14:37.331 --> 00:14:44.707
There's rumors about her being hurt and her body put places, being all cut up and scattered on the mountain.
00:14:44.707 --> 00:14:46.708
That's why I search for her.
00:14:46.708 --> 00:14:49.652
That's why I go out in the mountains and look.
00:14:49.652 --> 00:14:53.467
I don't want my baby sister laying out there alone.
00:14:55.951 --> 00:15:01.982
Ashley's childhood friend, erica Denny, described her as strong spiritually, emotionally, mentally, physically.
00:15:01.982 --> 00:15:05.259
Erica said she'd stick up for people.
00:15:05.259 --> 00:15:17.801
If someone was getting bullied or if she saw something that was wrong, she would come out and tell you Ashley's father, a former firefighter who was in the hospital when she initially went missing.
00:15:17.801 --> 00:15:26.121
Roy Heavy Runner said that whoever had a hand in her disappearance is likely still on the reservation.
00:15:26.121 --> 00:15:37.884
Several leads kept taking investigators off the reservation and even out of the state, so the FBI eventually took over Ashley's case.
00:15:39.172 --> 00:15:46.313
After this transition, ashley's grey sweater was located and sent off for testing, but that was in 2019.
00:15:46.313 --> 00:15:48.799
There hasn't been any movement in her case.
00:15:48.799 --> 00:15:53.096
Erica said all of a sudden she's just missing.
00:15:53.096 --> 00:15:55.541
She didn't even get to see her 21st birthday.
00:15:55.541 --> 00:15:59.798
She had plans, she had goals and someone took that from her.
00:15:59.798 --> 00:16:02.230
Kimberly agreed.
00:16:02.230 --> 00:16:08.341
She said my sister is a beautiful, intelligent young woman who has goals and dreams.
00:16:09.509 --> 00:16:13.158
A missing and murdered Indigenous woman was not one of them.
00:16:13.158 --> 00:16:26.542
If you have any information about Ashley's disappearance, please contact Blackfeet Tribal Agent Josh Byrd at 406-338-400.
00:16:26.542 --> 00:16:32.133
There's not much else to say.
00:16:32.133 --> 00:16:41.450
It's just horrendous that an entire population has basically been kept silent.
00:16:41.450 --> 00:17:00.501
There's this crazy statistic that I'm sure is echoed in a lot of states, but of Montana's population, indigenous people make up about 6%, but Indigenous people make up 22% of the murders.
00:17:00.501 --> 00:17:11.005
That is just mathematically unacceptable, not to mention all these stories coming out.
00:17:11.005 --> 00:17:29.804
I know there's a series that recently came out, I think, on Showtime, called Murder in Bighorn takes place in Montana and they cover three cases of missing or murdered women and definitely give that a watch.
00:17:29.804 --> 00:17:35.401
There's a similar one on different channels like Investigation, discovery and stuff.
00:17:35.401 --> 00:17:37.592
Thank you for listening.
00:17:37.592 --> 00:17:43.883
Take care of each other and remember murder is bad.
00:17:43.883 --> 00:17:49.175
Amentideorg.
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