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When I was growing up on the Crow Reservation,
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we never locked the doors.
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Nobody locked their doors.
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But the darkness that has happened in the last decade...
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is this...
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energy that's...
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like a black cloud, a vapor.
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That energy consumes you as an individual.
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Then, it consumes your family...
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until it consumes your whole tribe.
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The last time I saw her was two days before she went missing.
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She never made it home.
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Not knowing where she's at,
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if she's alive, if she's gone.
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Buried, not found, lost,
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murdered, still missing.
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We're the silent population that disappears.
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We were supposed to be eliminated.
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We weren't supposed to be a problem to the American life.
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We're supposed to stay in the back and be a good Indian.
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That's what you do here in Montana.
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Multiple families are grieving over teenage girls.
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What the hell is going on in this community?
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Someone knows what happened.
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That someone is still walking around here.
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When I started walking, I smelled...
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like the smell of death.
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I know the smell of death and it...
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it's not a good smell.
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I hear this little, small voice say,
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"Dad.
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Come find me, Dad."
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A devastating ending to the search
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for a 14-year-old Montana girl.
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Her body was found Friday on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation
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near Lame Deer.
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Today, we confirmed that the body was Henny Scott.
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Henny was the middle child.
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She really adored her younger siblings.
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And she had all kinds of friends.
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Henny was tomboyish.
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She liked to play football, and she played a lot of basketball.
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She was pretty good in basketball.
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The day Henny went missing, she asked if she could go to open
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gym down here at the school.
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She was a freshman at the time.
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Later on that afternoon, she called from a residence.
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The name had come up on the caller ID so I knew where she was calling from.
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It's kind of like a party place where all the teenagers go to
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party and hang out.
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There's no adult supervision.
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So I told her, "You need to come back home."
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And that's the last time I heard from Henny.
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Say hi, Snapchat.
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The night Henny went missing, I heard there was a party going on
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there.
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I know who she was with.
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They were known to mess around with younger girls.
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And, she was the youngest one there.
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Nathan had gone up to the house where she had
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called from and asked them if they had seen her.
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One of the kids comes out, and I said,
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"Theo, I wanna know if you've seen Henny."
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And he said,
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"No."
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He said that she walked off, and I was like,
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"Walked off?
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Where did she go?"
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He said, "She walked down the road and took off."
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I was told that she took off by herself and...
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she left on her own.
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Henny wasn't the type of person to up and leave.
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She would have a good reason to.
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When I went and filled out the missing person's report,
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they weren't taking me seriously.
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And when I would see the cops out in the community,
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I asked them, you know, "Have you seen Henny?"
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And it was all the time the same thing:
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"Maybe she found a new boyfriend" or...
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"She's still out partying" or...
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"She don't wanna come home 'cause she's scared."
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After the missing persons report,
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we thought that law enforcement would look for her but,
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in actuality, they didn't.
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There was no search.
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No AMBER Alert.
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No nothing.
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At school, people were saying that she was asking for it or
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it was her fault.
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If you're drunk and you're outside,
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something's gonna happen.
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They had put up missing person flyers up
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everywhere.
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And still nothing.
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We had to do our own investigation.
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And form our own search group.
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So we met up.
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You could look across.
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You could see the house where Henny had called from.
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I was on the bottom of the ravine,
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looking all over, looking through thickets,
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looking through everything, little sage brushes and...
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we didn't find nothing at all.
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The FBI showed up that morning.
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I don't know how they found out about the search because I
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didn't contact them, they didn't contact me.
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I'm walking and I look like this,
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and there's people behind the house.
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They told us, "Don't go back there."
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And I'm wondering why.
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And then that's when they had told us that they'd found Henny.
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I asked them, "Are you sure it's her?"
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And they said, "Yeah, it's her."
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They found Henny...
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about 100, 150 yards away from that house.
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You could see...
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the door, that fucking door from where she was laid at.
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A straight shot, you could see the door.
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Henny Scott's remains were discovered about 200 yards from
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the residence where she was last known alive.
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It is reasonable to assume that Henny died at the location where
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she was discovered, and that the cause of death was hypothermia.
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There was nothing to explain Henny's death either due to
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traumatic cause or preexisting disease.
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They determined Henny died from hypothermia,
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from exposure.
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But being a hunter, how come no animals got to her?
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No mountain lions.
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No coyotes.
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No foxes.
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They even have dogs here; how come they didn't get to her?
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When Henny was found,
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it wasn't her clothes that she was found in.
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She was wearing somebody else's clothes;
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she was wearing sweatpants, and a t-shirt was found beside her.
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Maybe the shirt came off and they threw it beside her.
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And to me, it made me think that she was drugged out there.
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We finally got to bring her home,
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and we noticed that her nose was...
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a weird shape.
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It looked broken.
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She had bruises, she had scratches,
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and it looked like she had a burn on her shin, also.
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What happened?
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There's something behind the back of her neck right here.
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They still don't tell us what that is.
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Why?
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I think that she did get assaulted.
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I don't know where to turn,
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I don't know who to ask.
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I know something happened to her out there.
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So this is the street I grew up on.
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My cousins still live in this area.
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All the same people live here.
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David, Sarah...
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My uncle Ben lives down in that trailer where we lived.
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When I was a kid, Ben lived in this front trailer and we lived
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in the back trailer.
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And my friend Tasha lived in this house.
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Tasha's mom went missing when we were...
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babies.
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This is the most dangerous place for Native women in the country.
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When it comes to the murdered and missing women epidemic,
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this is the hottest zone.
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Big Horn County...
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Crow Reservation...
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the Billings area...
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the Northern Cheyenne Reservation.
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There have been stories that go back generations of women going
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missing and then found dead with little to no explanation.
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There are so many different possibilities for what happened
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to these murdered and missing indigenous women in Big Horn County.
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Is it a hypothermia death?
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Is it a beating?
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Drug-related?
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Trafficking?
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We have all the questions in the world...
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and we don't have the answers.
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When I graduated from high school,
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the thing that I wanted to do was leave.
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But then, when I went off to college,
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the only thing I wanted to do was come back.
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I decided that this is definitely where I wanted to be.
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I wanted my kids to be connected to the family,
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to the community, because despite all of the bad things
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that happen here, despite missing people,
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despite high crime rates, despite domestic violence,
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despite everything...
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this is our home.
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We want to have the experience of being Crow...
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in Crow country.
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But I know how dangerous this place can be for my daughter.
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Being a female makes her a target,
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being a female makes me a target,
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makes my mother a target, makes my grandmother a target.
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This crisis that we're living in,
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it affects every woman on the reservation,
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and I don't know how to help other than the work that I do as a journalist.
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I always knew I was gonna cover stories about missing people.
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And I knew that the majority of missing person cases in Montana
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were gonna be Native people.
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As soon as I got this job, one of the first things that I did
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was look up my aunt's case.
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In 1977, my dad's sister went missing,
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and was found four days later in the Big Horn County fairgrounds,
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frozen in the snow.
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The coverage of that case was...
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heartbreaking.
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She was...
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another dead Indian.
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And they didn't offer any kind of common decency
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in writing about her as a missing person
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and in her as a human.
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There are cases stretching back so far that...
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it feels like we're born into it.
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It feels like, as Native women, this is something that's in our
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DNA, this is something that's in our blood.
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But that has to change.
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And so, one of the reasons that I do what I do
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is because I feel like, as a journalist,
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keeping the community informed is important,
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telling the community's stories is important.
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These cases are not true crime stories to us.
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These cases are our relatives.
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And tonight, we continue our coverage of the
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death of Henny Scott.
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Northern Cheyenne tribal members mourn the 14-year-old girl whose
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body was found a few weeks after she was reported missing near Busby.
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Amazing grace...
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The Henny Scott case did mark a turn in how our
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local media paid attention to murdered and missing indigenous
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cases.
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She had her name in the headlines in a way that cases
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like this don't get.
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They were hitting the heart really because Henny was 14.
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She was...
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so damn young.
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And that made people feel like...
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"That could've been my kid."
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Family and friends of Henny's went to the
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believed site where her body was found.
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They mourn and remember the bright young girl they love.
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And it was a victory and, at the same time,
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a huge tragedy, because it took a 14-year-old girl dying...
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A child.
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And people had to see that to pay attention,
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to think, "my God, what's going on over there?"
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The family is praying for ice for Henny
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and other missing indigenous women from the reservation.
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We're dealing with these at an alarming rate that...
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there's gotta be something done...
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ice, you know?
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Tender
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A lot of these murdered and missing persons cases shows the
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lack of response from law enforcement.
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There's a lack of a sense of even responsibility
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to the Natives in this community.
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In the case of Henny Scott, because her body was found
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within the exterior boundaries of the reservation,
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the BIA... Bureau of Indian Affairs... law enforcement
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office is in charge of investigating.
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They have authority on reservation land.
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They dropped the ball in so many ways.
264
00:19:02,096 --> 00:19:06,016
We found out that when we filed the missing persons report in
265
00:19:06,216 --> 00:19:10,186
Crow, her report sat on a desk because the individual was
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00:19:10,386 --> 00:19:14,816
out on vacation, and so nobody had been looking for her.
267
00:19:15,316 --> 00:19:19,366
And then, we filled out another missing persons report with the
268
00:19:19,566 --> 00:19:24,496
Lame Deer BIA, but it was like hitting a brick wall.
269
00:19:26,156 --> 00:19:30,206
By the time the BIA police in Lame Deer actually got the alert
270
00:19:30,406 --> 00:19:35,046
out that this girl was missing, this 14-year-old girl was missing,
271
00:19:35,246 --> 00:19:38,336
it was two full weeks.
272
00:19:39,676 --> 00:19:42,226
And then, the FBI got involved.
273
00:19:43,176 --> 00:19:47,226
I don't know if the FBI investigated it.
274
00:19:47,426 --> 00:19:49,186
They said they did.
275
00:19:50,346 --> 00:19:52,736
To this day, I've never seen nothing.
276
00:19:52,936 --> 00:19:56,636
We got no communication from them... at all.
277
00:19:56,836 --> 00:20:01,866
From the beginning of the investigation to the end.
278
00:20:03,526 --> 00:20:07,076
Why didn't the BIA investigate it properly?
279
00:20:08,946 --> 00:20:11,586
Why didn't the FBI investigate it properly?
280
00:20:13,616 --> 00:20:16,546
You know, what really happened that night?
281
00:20:17,716 --> 00:20:19,756
And why did it happen?
282
00:20:22,126 --> 00:20:26,996
We tried to let the ice system work for us.
283
00:20:27,196 --> 00:20:31,606
But I honestly believe that, being Native,
284
00:20:31,806 --> 00:20:34,226
that the system failed us.
285
00:20:34,856 --> 00:20:38,946
Not only us, but a lot of families around here.
286
00:20:42,316 --> 00:20:44,792
There's a concern and call for action following the
287
00:20:44,816 --> 00:20:47,116
death of a 14-year-old Lame Deer girl.
288
00:20:47,316 --> 00:20:51,286
On Tuesday, US Senator Jon Tester released a letter to FBI
289
00:20:51,496 --> 00:20:54,626
Director Christopher Wray and Acting BIA Director Darryl LaCounte.
290
00:20:55,596 --> 00:20:58,966
In it, Tester says the response to Henny Scott's disappearance
291
00:20:59,166 --> 00:21:01,806
was inadequate, and she isn't the first.
292
00:21:02,006 --> 00:21:05,476
Tester says these delayed, ineffective responses on Indian
293
00:21:05,676 --> 00:21:08,646
reservations are a trend, and there needs to be a much higher
294
00:21:08,846 --> 00:21:12,436
standard to protect citizens in Indian country.
295
00:21:53,386 --> 00:21:56,526
Big Horn County sits right on the south end of the
296
00:21:56,726 --> 00:22:00,526
Montana/Wyoming border, and it goes all the way
297
00:22:00,726 --> 00:22:02,486
to outside of Billings.
298
00:22:02,896 --> 00:22:05,856
It encompasses part of the Northern Cheyenne Reservation
299
00:22:05,896 --> 00:22:08,866
and most of the Crow Reservation.
300
00:22:11,066 --> 00:22:13,052
There's a difference between saying "Crow country" and
301
00:22:13,076 --> 00:22:15,046
"the Crow Reservation."
302
00:22:15,246 --> 00:22:17,546
The Crow Reservation has 2.2 million acres
303
00:22:17,746 --> 00:22:19,716
that's all within Montana.
304
00:22:19,916 --> 00:22:22,796
But "Crow country" is from the three forks of the Missouri,
305
00:22:22,916 --> 00:22:24,886
to the Milk River, to the Black Hills,
306
00:22:25,086 --> 00:22:27,346
to the Horse Creek in Wyoming.
307
00:22:27,546 --> 00:22:30,346
That's the way Crow people will see it.
308
00:22:50,526 --> 00:22:54,746
In the late 1860s, Crows became reservation people.
309
00:22:54,946 --> 00:22:58,416
It changed our identity and the way we view the world.
310
00:23:08,386 --> 00:23:11,936
They call it "living within the lines"... these arbitrary lines
311
00:23:12,136 --> 00:23:15,106
that are placed on the boundaries of the reservation by
312
00:23:15,306 --> 00:23:17,556
the US government.
313
00:23:17,846 --> 00:23:21,106
Annuities were passed out to tribal people as part of an
314
00:23:21,306 --> 00:23:25,276
agreement for moving to the reservation.
315
00:23:25,476 --> 00:23:28,616
Army bases were built outside
316
00:23:28,816 --> 00:23:30,196
of Indian reservations.
317
00:23:30,396 --> 00:23:33,132
Those army bases weren't put there to keep tribal people safe.
318
00:23:35,366 --> 00:23:40,126
Because of colonization and the Western land grab,
319
00:23:40,326 --> 00:23:44,796
tribal people were essentially prisoners on those reservations.
320
00:23:44,996 --> 00:23:48,136
So now, you get a group of people who were free...
321
00:23:48,336 --> 00:23:50,982
Hunt where they wanna hunt, go where they wanna go...
322
00:23:51,006 --> 00:23:55,306
And now are stuck and confined to the reservation.
323
00:24:00,346 --> 00:24:04,316
It's an ugly period of high levels of dysfunction...
324
00:24:04,516 --> 00:24:06,816
the mistreatment of each other.
325
00:24:07,016 --> 00:24:10,486
And the Federal government is a lot of the reason why we are the way...
326
00:24:12,026 --> 00:24:15,496
It's the conflict between our belief system
327
00:24:15,696 --> 00:24:17,826
and their belief system.
328
00:24:19,576 --> 00:24:21,052
When the Federal government implemented the
329
00:24:21,076 --> 00:24:25,506
reservation system, it was designed for us to fail
330
00:24:25,706 --> 00:24:28,176
and not thrive, so that we would move away,
331
00:24:28,376 --> 00:24:31,846
forget who we are, and assimilate.
332
00:24:32,046 --> 00:24:34,676
Then, you throw alcohol into it.
333
00:24:34,876 --> 00:24:37,846
So you have this whole time from the early 1900s where alcohol's
334
00:24:38,046 --> 00:24:42,026
placed into this an already-stripped people.
335
00:24:42,226 --> 00:24:44,856
These warriors are now emasculated.
336
00:24:45,056 --> 00:24:48,026
For one, they hold no position anymore;
337
00:24:48,226 --> 00:24:49,526
the government does.
338
00:24:49,726 --> 00:24:52,526
So the government now appoints who's gonna be the headmen
339
00:24:52,566 --> 00:24:53,786
of the tribe.
340
00:24:53,986 --> 00:24:57,036
So you have a defeated people that now are having kids,
341
00:24:57,236 --> 00:25:01,166
and those kids are raised by defeated people.
342
00:25:01,666 --> 00:25:04,386
When you take an entire society and you strip them of any self-worth
343
00:25:04,576 --> 00:25:07,506
and confidence they have...
344
00:25:08,336 --> 00:25:11,336
it becomes very fragile.
345
00:25:12,376 --> 00:25:15,386
That early reservation period is...
346
00:25:15,586 --> 00:25:18,896
it's a dangerous time, 'cause it laid the blueprint for
347
00:25:19,096 --> 00:25:22,226
everything that puts us where we are today.
348
00:25:22,426 --> 00:25:26,566
Ethereal
349
00:25:26,766 --> 00:25:30,566
On May the 5th, 2022, in Hardin, Montana,
350
00:25:30,766 --> 00:25:35,696
at the courthouse, there's a gathering for MMIW,
351
00:25:36,196 --> 00:25:40,076
missing/murdered indigenous women,
352
00:25:40,276 --> 00:25:43,416
and they're not being investigated and there's still a
353
00:25:43,616 --> 00:25:48,546
lot of missing indigenous women on our reservations.
354
00:25:49,256 --> 00:25:53,756
A lot of perpetrators do come to our Native communities
355
00:25:53,956 --> 00:25:56,602
because they do know that there are these gaps in jurisdiction
356
00:25:56,626 --> 00:25:59,766
and the likelihood of being held accountable is minimal.
357
00:26:02,636 --> 00:26:06,436
When you throw a crime into this area,
358
00:26:06,636 --> 00:26:10,106
it's a nightmare because Big Horn County has all of these
359
00:26:10,306 --> 00:26:11,946
jurisdictions.
360
00:26:12,146 --> 00:26:15,616
The Big Horn County Sheriff's Office has authority
361
00:26:15,816 --> 00:26:19,286
on county land off the reservation.
362
00:26:19,486 --> 00:26:21,462
For a crime that's committed on tribal lands,
363
00:26:21,486 --> 00:26:23,456
Federal law enforcement, the FBI,
364
00:26:23,656 --> 00:26:26,626
and the Bureau of Indian Affairs have jurisdiction.
365
00:26:26,826 --> 00:26:29,302
BIA law officers would be the ones who would show up
366
00:26:29,326 --> 00:26:32,796
immediately at a crime scene, and then FBI would be called
367
00:26:32,996 --> 00:26:35,136
in to do the investigation.
368
00:26:35,336 --> 00:26:38,476
But the BIA cannot exercise criminal jurisdiction over
369
00:26:38,676 --> 00:26:42,146
non-Indians when they commit crimes on tribal lands.
370
00:26:42,346 --> 00:26:45,476
And so, when we live on our tribal lands in our homes,
371
00:26:45,676 --> 00:26:48,486
our own government can't protect us from basically any crime
372
00:26:48,686 --> 00:26:50,316
committed by a non-Indian.
373
00:26:53,356 --> 00:26:56,326
And so, to figure out who has jurisdiction at any
374
00:26:56,526 --> 00:26:59,496
given time, you have to know who is the victim... are they Indian
375
00:26:59,696 --> 00:27:02,136
or not? Who is the perpetrator... are they Indian
376
00:27:02,196 --> 00:27:06,996
or not? Where did the crime occur... on Indian land or not?
377
00:27:07,196 --> 00:27:09,836
When it comes to violence against Native women,
378
00:27:10,036 --> 00:27:12,676
when it comes to missing and murdered situations,
379
00:27:12,876 --> 00:27:16,346
often times, we don't know where she went missing,
380
00:27:16,546 --> 00:27:19,676
we don't know who the perpetrator is.
381
00:27:19,876 --> 00:27:23,346
And so, I think often times, law enforcement are gonna say,
382
00:27:23,546 --> 00:27:24,732
"we don't have jurisdiction,"
383
00:27:24,756 --> 00:27:26,192
or "We don't know if we have jurisdiction,
384
00:27:26,216 --> 00:27:27,296
so take it over there."
385
00:27:27,386 --> 00:27:29,356
So it falls through the cracks,
386
00:27:29,556 --> 00:27:33,526
and we end up really being almost a lawless community.
387
00:27:36,396 --> 00:27:39,536
The FBI has clear jurisdiction on tribal lands,
388
00:27:39,736 --> 00:27:43,206
but the FBI gets involved in cases of national importance.
389
00:27:43,406 --> 00:27:45,706
They get involved when they're told to.
390
00:27:45,906 --> 00:27:48,786
Often times, what they will say is that they want the local
391
00:27:48,906 --> 00:27:51,746
jurisdiction to invite them in, and they're waiting for that to happen.
392
00:27:54,666 --> 00:27:56,716
The jurisdictional issues,
393
00:27:56,916 --> 00:27:59,886
are one of the main reasons why Big Horn County has one of the
394
00:28:00,086 --> 00:28:02,232
highest rates of murdered and missing indigenous women and
395
00:28:02,256 --> 00:28:04,386
girls in the United States today.
396
00:28:23,026 --> 00:28:24,906
In late August of 2019,
397
00:28:25,106 --> 00:28:28,076
a body was found off the reservation in the city limits
398
00:28:28,276 --> 00:28:32,256
of Hardin, which is under the jurisdiction
399
00:28:32,456 --> 00:28:34,876
of the Big Horn County Sheriff's Office.
400
00:28:35,086 --> 00:28:39,256
The body was in a backyard
401
00:28:39,456 --> 00:28:42,266
along Mitchell Avenue.
402
00:28:42,466 --> 00:28:45,266
Mitchell Avenue is a very busy street.
403
00:28:45,466 --> 00:28:50,056
It is one of the main thoroughfares in town.
404
00:28:50,556 --> 00:28:52,936
As a man was jogging down the road,
405
00:28:53,136 --> 00:28:58,066
he passes a pile of debris in someone's yard.
406
00:28:59,236 --> 00:29:01,906
He said he had seen crows.
407
00:29:02,606 --> 00:29:06,956
He did a double-take and went back and realized...
408
00:29:07,156 --> 00:29:08,956
there was a body.
409
00:29:11,996 --> 00:29:15,586
It was 18-year-old Kaysera Stops Pretty Places.
410
00:29:18,666 --> 00:29:22,196
Kaysera was a fun-spirited young lady.
411
00:29:22,396 --> 00:29:24,466
She was a loving person.
412
00:29:28,676 --> 00:29:30,596
She was...
413
00:29:30,806 --> 00:29:32,646
her siblings' protectors.
414
00:29:32,846 --> 00:29:35,606
She was also that little mama.
415
00:29:36,016 --> 00:29:39,816
And she was the one they looked up to to be
416
00:29:40,016 --> 00:29:41,886
their stability.
417
00:29:42,086 --> 00:29:46,656
The situation that they were being raised in was...
418
00:29:46,856 --> 00:29:51,396
not a healthy, you know, stable life.
419
00:29:51,596 --> 00:29:53,666
Her parents drank a lot.
420
00:29:53,866 --> 00:29:56,336
At times, they did meth.
421
00:29:56,536 --> 00:29:59,836
But their substance of choice is alcohol.
422
00:30:00,036 --> 00:30:04,006
She really hated that, and so she was...
423
00:30:04,206 --> 00:30:07,346
getting really angry about it and upset when she started
424
00:30:07,546 --> 00:30:09,016
maturing.
425
00:30:09,216 --> 00:30:11,916
And then she became more forceful.
426
00:30:12,116 --> 00:30:14,532
She was the sister you didn't wanna piss off either.
427
00:30:15,886 --> 00:30:18,356
She was like Kaysera; she would...
428
00:30:18,556 --> 00:30:20,636
fight you and get it done and over with.
429
00:30:20,726 --> 00:30:24,526
But she was always there for her friends.
430
00:30:29,736 --> 00:30:33,036
The Crow tribe has their annual Crow Fair.
431
00:30:33,236 --> 00:30:35,546
It's always that third week of August,
432
00:30:35,746 --> 00:30:39,836
and Kaysera's birthday is always right in there.
433
00:30:41,836 --> 00:30:46,216
Crow Fair is a pow and it's on the Crow Reservation.
434
00:30:46,416 --> 00:30:48,386
There's parades, there's rodeo.
435
00:30:48,586 --> 00:30:50,556
We camp for those few days.
436
00:30:50,756 --> 00:30:53,556
A lot of my family come to visit,
437
00:30:53,756 --> 00:30:55,436
and so it's time for us to, like,
438
00:30:55,596 --> 00:30:58,516
catch up, dance at the pow
439
00:30:59,226 --> 00:31:02,906
And so Kaysera asked permission to stay a few
440
00:31:03,106 --> 00:31:06,906
more days with her aunt Percelia in Hardin.
441
00:31:07,106 --> 00:31:11,246
Happy birthday, dear Kaysera...
442
00:31:11,446 --> 00:31:14,326
The night that Kaysera disappeared was August 24th.
443
00:31:15,786 --> 00:31:18,086
She'd turned 18,
444
00:31:18,286 --> 00:31:22,256
and she went out to celebrate her birthday.
445
00:31:22,456 --> 00:31:25,756
Kaysera had her friends Isabella and Nakia with her.
446
00:31:25,956 --> 00:31:28,596
And they all got all dressed up and...
447
00:31:28,796 --> 00:31:31,766
I think Kaysera changed like three times that night,
448
00:31:31,966 --> 00:31:34,266
so she was really excited for that.
449
00:31:36,466 --> 00:31:38,936
Kaysera never made it home.
450
00:31:39,136 --> 00:31:41,936
When the girls woke up, I asked where Kaysera was.
451
00:31:42,146 --> 00:31:44,276
And they both looked at each other like,
452
00:31:44,476 --> 00:31:46,616
"We thought she already...
453
00:31:46,816 --> 00:31:48,116
came home."
454
00:31:48,316 --> 00:31:50,122
And I was like, " she's not home."
455
00:31:51,986 --> 00:31:54,456
I started reaching out, sending Kaysera messages,
456
00:31:54,656 --> 00:31:57,136
trying to call her and some of her friends and her
457
00:31:57,326 --> 00:32:00,296
sister-cousins, asking them to look.
458
00:32:03,326 --> 00:32:06,136
Everyone started getting more alarmed by Tuesday.
459
00:32:08,666 --> 00:32:10,812
When a young Native woman goes missing in Big Horn
460
00:32:10,836 --> 00:32:15,136
County, your mind immediately starts racing.
461
00:32:15,336 --> 00:32:18,146
They might be trafficked, they might be getting beaten to
462
00:32:18,346 --> 00:32:21,976
death, they might be being used as a drug mule.
463
00:32:22,186 --> 00:32:27,106
And the scariest part is the not knowing what's happening.
464
00:32:28,446 --> 00:32:29,832
I was like,
465
00:32:29,856 --> 00:32:31,662
"We need to go to the police station."
466
00:32:31,686 --> 00:32:33,946
So we went.
467
00:32:34,156 --> 00:32:37,826
And I felt like the officer, Jeramie Middlestead,
468
00:32:38,026 --> 00:32:39,842
didn't really take take me as serious.
469
00:32:39,866 --> 00:32:43,166
Like, I wasn't given a form to fill out,
470
00:32:43,366 --> 00:32:45,682
he jotted down the information on his little tablet
471
00:32:45,706 --> 00:32:47,836
that he carries in his pocket.
472
00:32:50,206 --> 00:32:53,006
There was no posters up, there was nothing put out there that
473
00:32:53,046 --> 00:32:54,846
she was missing.
474
00:32:55,046 --> 00:32:59,356
They weren't professional about the whole situation.
475
00:32:59,556 --> 00:33:02,856
And then, five days after Kaysera went missing,
476
00:33:03,056 --> 00:33:06,856
I got a message through one of my co-workers who lived on Range
477
00:33:07,056 --> 00:33:11,926
View that they found a young female...
478
00:33:12,126 --> 00:33:17,156
behind the house on Mitchell and Range View.
479
00:33:20,156 --> 00:33:23,706
But if it wasn't for my co-worker messaging me,
480
00:33:23,906 --> 00:33:26,496
I don't think any of us would have known.
481
00:33:26,996 --> 00:33:29,716
The Sheriff's Office didn't notify us to say,
482
00:33:29,916 --> 00:33:31,386
"Hey, we did find a body.
483
00:33:31,586 --> 00:33:33,386
It may be her, it may not be her;
484
00:33:33,586 --> 00:33:34,716
we don't know."
485
00:33:34,916 --> 00:33:37,556
They didn't say anything.
486
00:33:37,756 --> 00:33:41,056
She was taken to the State Crime Lab in Billings,
487
00:33:41,256 --> 00:33:42,726
Montana.
488
00:33:42,926 --> 00:33:47,516
And she was not identified until September 11th.
489
00:33:47,816 --> 00:33:51,566
They had to go into dental records to identify her officially.
490
00:33:53,666 --> 00:33:57,906
Then, after that was when she was finally returned to Hardin.
491
00:33:58,106 --> 00:34:01,536
From August 29th all the way to September 11th?
492
00:34:02,206 --> 00:34:04,816
That is a long time.
493
00:34:05,016 --> 00:34:10,046
We waited and waited for the Big Horn County Sheriff's Office to
494
00:34:10,336 --> 00:34:15,546
really even announce that a case was opened,
495
00:34:15,756 --> 00:34:20,436
that it was pending, that...
496
00:34:20,636 --> 00:34:25,396
new details are emerging, that anything was happening.
497
00:34:25,596 --> 00:34:30,726
As far as we knew, after Kaysera's body was identified...
498
00:34:33,236 --> 00:34:37,066
nothing else happened with her case.
499
00:34:38,736 --> 00:34:41,132
We were going every day to try to meet with
500
00:34:41,156 --> 00:34:42,626
the Sheriff's Department.
501
00:34:42,826 --> 00:34:43,956
We made every effort.
502
00:34:44,156 --> 00:34:48,126
Every day, we travelled 110 miles
503
00:34:48,326 --> 00:34:52,636
back and forth trying to meet with any official we could.
504
00:34:52,836 --> 00:34:55,926
And all the doors were closed to us.
505
00:34:56,636 --> 00:34:59,976
I got involved with Kaysera's case a couple weeks after she
506
00:35:00,176 --> 00:35:02,476
was murdered, and I got a call,
507
00:35:02,676 --> 00:35:04,822
and it was from one of Kaysera's family members and they
508
00:35:04,846 --> 00:35:06,316
said, "Can you help us?"
509
00:35:06,516 --> 00:35:09,156
Speaking as a lawyer and looking at the legal framework,
510
00:35:09,346 --> 00:35:11,492
it's very clear that what happened in August was a
511
00:35:11,516 --> 00:35:14,986
complete disregard for not only the rights of Kaysera but the
512
00:35:15,186 --> 00:35:18,996
rights of all Native women when local law enforcement failed to
513
00:35:19,196 --> 00:35:23,496
investigate her death and to take all steps necessary to look
514
00:35:23,696 --> 00:35:26,666
for her before finding her on August 29th.
515
00:35:26,866 --> 00:35:29,182
The family needed help with a Sheriff's Office that wouldn't
516
00:35:29,206 --> 00:35:31,506
even meet with them or talk to them,
517
00:35:31,706 --> 00:35:34,676
and an FBI agency who would not talk to them.
518
00:35:34,876 --> 00:35:38,506
They needed help getting someone to talk to them.
519
00:35:38,706 --> 00:35:41,516
Where she was found was within State jurisdiction,
520
00:35:41,716 --> 00:35:44,346
but the local law enforcement, Big Horn County,
521
00:35:44,546 --> 00:35:47,686
for a long time... ever since this was first reported to them
522
00:35:47,886 --> 00:35:50,766
at the end of August... has failed to take very basic
523
00:35:50,886 --> 00:35:53,856
steps to conduct an investigation looking into the
524
00:35:54,056 --> 00:35:56,146
causes surrounding her death.
525
00:35:56,646 --> 00:36:00,536
There are so many things about her case that are inexplicable.
526
00:36:00,736 --> 00:36:02,196
They also had her cell phone.
527
00:36:02,406 --> 00:36:05,536
It is very easy, as an investigative agency,
528
00:36:05,736 --> 00:36:08,382
to figure out who someone is based on the phone on the dead
529
00:36:08,406 --> 00:36:10,046
body when you find them.
530
00:36:12,416 --> 00:36:15,052
For two weeks, the family sat there and waited for
531
00:36:15,076 --> 00:36:18,676
results to see if it was her body or not.
532
00:36:18,876 --> 00:36:21,556
Why didn't they let the family know?
533
00:36:21,756 --> 00:36:23,636
Are they trying to cover something up?
534
00:36:23,756 --> 00:36:27,286
Did they have a complete disregard for the family?
535
00:36:27,486 --> 00:36:31,516
What's the reason for the lack of transparency there?
536
00:36:31,936 --> 00:36:36,566
The family has several different theories about what happened.
537
00:36:36,766 --> 00:36:40,236
One of their theories is that weeks before,
538
00:36:40,436 --> 00:36:44,746
during the annual Crow Fair pow celebration,
539
00:36:44,946 --> 00:36:48,416
Kaysera posted on her social media pages a fight that
540
00:36:48,616 --> 00:36:53,536
happened where police were called in and they started
541
00:36:53,746 --> 00:36:58,216
beating on one of the young boys who instigated the fight.
542
00:36:58,836 --> 00:37:04,216
The reason Kaysera did that was the boy that was beaten
543
00:37:04,506 --> 00:37:07,096
by the police was her brother.
544
00:37:07,296 --> 00:37:10,266
According to the police report, Kaysera's brother Esaias was
545
00:37:10,466 --> 00:37:14,106
acting aggressively and was resisting arrest.
546
00:37:14,306 --> 00:37:19,236
One of the officers that was accused of beating him was a
547
00:37:19,526 --> 00:37:23,236
deputy with the Big Horn County Sheriff's Office.
548
00:37:23,656 --> 00:37:26,786
The family alleges that one of the reasons that the Big Horn
549
00:37:26,986 --> 00:37:30,126
County Sheriff's Office treated Kaysera's case the way that they
550
00:37:30,326 --> 00:37:34,126
did was because they were embroiled in that altercation
551
00:37:34,326 --> 00:37:36,466
with her brother.
552
00:37:38,826 --> 00:37:41,966
There is a lot of very suspicious things about
553
00:37:42,166 --> 00:37:44,536
Kaysera's case and the way it was handled.
554
00:37:44,736 --> 00:37:47,312
The thing to know about Hardin is that it is a border town.
555
00:37:47,336 --> 00:37:49,856
The reservation arcs around a little bit and envelops the town.
556
00:37:50,596 --> 00:37:53,816
In fact, where Kaysera's body was found is right next to the
557
00:37:54,016 --> 00:37:56,376
border of the Crow Reservation.
558
00:37:56,576 --> 00:38:00,986
Hardin has a high population of Native people from the Crow and
559
00:38:01,186 --> 00:38:02,986
Northern Cheyenne Reservations.
560
00:38:03,186 --> 00:38:06,156
Also, a majority white population,
561
00:38:06,356 --> 00:38:10,496
so it makes for some difficult dynamics.
562
00:38:10,696 --> 00:38:12,842
There's a lot of non-Natives who have a lot of
563
00:38:12,866 --> 00:38:15,666
prejudice against Native people.
564
00:38:15,866 --> 00:38:19,336
And there's a significant devaluation of Native lives in
565
00:38:19,536 --> 00:38:20,536
these communities.
566
00:38:20,706 --> 00:38:24,006
And so, what ends up happening is
567
00:38:24,206 --> 00:38:27,516
you have a border town where violence against Native people
568
00:38:27,716 --> 00:38:30,346
is an accepted incorporated part of the culture,
569
00:38:30,546 --> 00:38:34,136
and no one in law enforcement bats an eye at it.
570
00:38:34,436 --> 00:38:37,356
The relationship between law enforcement and the
571
00:38:37,556 --> 00:38:41,476
Native community in Big Horn County is pretty tense.
572
00:38:41,686 --> 00:38:46,366
There's been complaints about our Sheriff's Office for years.
573
00:38:46,566 --> 00:38:48,036
There's an attitude.
574
00:38:48,236 --> 00:38:51,366
It's evident,
575
00:38:51,566 --> 00:38:53,036
tangible.
576
00:38:53,236 --> 00:38:56,546
When a tribal member goes missing off the reservation,
577
00:38:56,746 --> 00:39:00,876
County has to use their resources to either solve cases
578
00:39:01,076 --> 00:39:02,716
or fight crime...
579
00:39:02,916 --> 00:39:05,216
for "non-residents."
580
00:39:05,416 --> 00:39:09,886
And it really comes into play when we start looking at cases
581
00:39:10,086 --> 00:39:11,886
here in town.
582
00:39:13,636 --> 00:39:17,566
The Sheriff's Office refused to meet with Kaysera's family for
583
00:39:17,766 --> 00:39:21,236
several weeks, and finally met and said,
584
00:39:21,436 --> 00:39:26,356
"we think she walked over to this suburban yard and
585
00:39:26,646 --> 00:39:29,526
died and laid there for five days until we found her
586
00:39:29,606 --> 00:39:31,906
body on August 29th,"
587
00:39:32,106 --> 00:39:34,036
which is crazy.
588
00:39:34,446 --> 00:39:37,416
If you go to that intersection, there's a car driving by every 30 seconds.
589
00:39:39,786 --> 00:39:43,756
The odds of her body laying there for five days
590
00:39:43,956 --> 00:39:45,086
is pretty much zero.
591
00:39:45,286 --> 00:39:47,256
There's no way that...
592
00:39:47,456 --> 00:39:48,846
no one would have seen her body.
593
00:39:49,046 --> 00:39:51,602
It's very clear that this is a homicide
594
00:39:51,626 --> 00:39:53,216
and there's foul play involved.
595
00:39:55,226 --> 00:39:59,436
When the body of Kaysera Stops Pretty Places was first
596
00:39:59,636 --> 00:40:04,106
discovered, the remains were decomposed,
597
00:40:04,306 --> 00:40:06,946
meaning that there was significant...
598
00:40:07,146 --> 00:40:09,116
change after death.
599
00:40:09,316 --> 00:40:11,946
We looked at everything pretty exhaustively.
600
00:40:12,146 --> 00:40:15,456
We don't have a cause of death that we can state confidently,
601
00:40:15,656 --> 00:40:18,626
and that's because of the decomposition change.
602
00:40:18,826 --> 00:40:21,956
So there are certainly possibilities that exist as a
603
00:40:22,156 --> 00:40:24,466
cause that I'm not at liberty to discuss,
604
00:40:24,666 --> 00:40:27,796
however some of those...
605
00:40:27,996 --> 00:40:31,966
would fall under the realm, in terms of the manner,
606
00:40:32,166 --> 00:40:35,266
as being classified as homicide.
607
00:40:35,556 --> 00:40:39,146
After her body was identified,
608
00:40:39,346 --> 00:40:43,986
they brought the remains back to Big Horn County to the coroner,
609
00:40:44,186 --> 00:40:49,106
Terry Bullis, who happens to be the only mortician in town.
610
00:40:50,606 --> 00:40:53,826
Terry Bullis is a non-Native white man business owner who
611
00:40:54,026 --> 00:40:57,826
owns a funeral home in Big Horn County,
612
00:40:58,026 --> 00:41:01,666
and he also, for a significant period of time,
613
00:41:01,866 --> 00:41:04,626
was the county coroner for Big Horn County.
614
00:41:04,916 --> 00:41:08,126
He cremated Kaysera's body.
615
00:41:08,416 --> 00:41:11,506
The family claims that he cremated her body against the family's wishes.
616
00:41:14,006 --> 00:41:16,522
And as their attorney, I filed a complaint against him to have
617
00:41:16,546 --> 00:41:19,136
his mortuary license removed.
618
00:41:19,766 --> 00:41:24,976
And the Montana commissioner decided not to do it.
619
00:41:25,266 --> 00:41:28,196
The Montana Funeral Service Board found that in the
620
00:41:28,396 --> 00:41:31,696
Kaysera case, Terry Bullis didn't do anything unlawful,
621
00:41:31,896 --> 00:41:34,372
but he didn't ask for authorization in the best way possible.
622
00:41:38,736 --> 00:41:40,856
But if Terry Bullis cremates your loved one,
623
00:41:40,906 --> 00:41:43,046
that's a pretty big slap in the face,
624
00:41:43,246 --> 00:41:47,376
because Crow people don't believe in cremating the body.
625
00:41:47,576 --> 00:41:52,216
If you're cremated, you're not gonna move into the next life.
626
00:41:52,416 --> 00:41:55,556
Imagine if you don't believe in cremation as a form
627
00:41:55,756 --> 00:41:58,886
of burial and you're forced to do that for your loved one.
628
00:41:59,086 --> 00:42:01,556
That is horrifically traumatic.
629
00:42:03,346 --> 00:42:07,236
I think the reason there has not been ice in this case is
630
00:42:07,436 --> 00:42:10,686
that Kaysera is a Native girl.
631
00:42:17,366 --> 00:42:18,922
Little information surrounds the
632
00:42:18,946 --> 00:42:21,076
passing of Kaysera Stops Pretty Places.
633
00:42:21,276 --> 00:42:24,416
She was reported missing by her family August 27th and her body
634
00:42:24,616 --> 00:42:27,086
was found two days later, August 29th.
635
00:42:27,286 --> 00:42:29,262
According to coordinators of the march,
636
00:42:29,286 --> 00:42:32,256
she is the 27th missing or murdered indigenous woman or
637
00:42:32,456 --> 00:42:34,096
girl in Big Horn County.
638
00:42:34,296 --> 00:42:35,096
Say her name!
639
00:42:35,296 --> 00:42:36,596
Kaysera!
640
00:42:36,796 --> 00:42:37,942
Say her name!
641
00:42:37,966 --> 00:42:39,266
Kaysera!
642
00:42:39,466 --> 00:42:41,436
I went to the ice march.
643
00:42:41,636 --> 00:42:43,106
Everyone dressed in red.
644
00:42:43,306 --> 00:42:46,436
They marched from the site where her body was found,
645
00:42:46,636 --> 00:42:48,952
down Mitchell Avenue, and they stopped in front of the Big Horn
646
00:42:48,976 --> 00:42:50,726
County courthouse.
647
00:42:52,066 --> 00:42:54,276
They were rallying people, they were...
648
00:42:54,476 --> 00:42:56,946
crying out for this ice.
649
00:42:57,146 --> 00:43:00,286
I still can't believe that this happened.
650
00:43:00,486 --> 00:43:02,456
We love our daughter so much.
651
00:43:02,656 --> 00:43:04,956
They're our family members...
652
00:43:05,156 --> 00:43:07,956
and we need to find out what happened to them.
653
00:43:08,156 --> 00:43:12,466
We all still had Henny Scott in the back of our minds.
654
00:43:13,996 --> 00:43:15,972
We all still had our sisters, our mothers,
655
00:43:15,996 --> 00:43:19,136
our aunts, our grandmothers in the back of our minds.
656
00:43:19,336 --> 00:43:21,896
Somebody knows something!
657
00:43:22,006 --> 00:43:25,146
People wanted to know what happened to this girl.
658
00:43:25,346 --> 00:43:28,476
What is the County gonna do to protect young women?
659
00:43:37,776 --> 00:43:42,786
With regard to the death of Kaysera Stops Pretty Places...
660
00:43:44,116 --> 00:43:47,666
this one is one of those cases
661
00:43:47,866 --> 00:43:52,336
where it deserves a complete, thorough investigation,
662
00:43:52,536 --> 00:43:57,466
because the findings in this case don't exclude homicide.
663
00:44:00,296 --> 00:44:03,806
I don't have a cause of death for Kaysera.
664
00:44:11,146 --> 00:44:14,696
What the hell is going on in this community that
665
00:44:14,896 --> 00:44:19,816
allows it to be so easy to disappear...
666
00:44:20,026 --> 00:44:22,036
over and over and over?
667
00:44:24,066 --> 00:44:27,706
Girls missing for two weeks, girls missing for five days,
668
00:44:27,906 --> 00:44:29,876
girls missing for seven days.
669
00:44:30,076 --> 00:44:31,706
Girl gets found.
670
00:44:31,906 --> 00:44:36,506
Unexplained injuries, unexplained disappearance.
671
00:44:37,836 --> 00:44:39,556
No questions are answered.
672
00:44:39,756 --> 00:44:41,676
"Hypothermia."
673
00:44:42,846 --> 00:44:44,726
"Undetermined."
674
00:44:44,926 --> 00:44:46,726
Every single time.
675
00:44:46,926 --> 00:44:48,056
Really, what the fuck?
676
00:44:48,256 --> 00:44:50,066
What the fuck is going on?
677
00:45:02,196 --> 00:45:06,536
Living on the reservation is like a perfect storm, right?
678
00:45:07,696 --> 00:45:11,916
That state that Natives were put in
679
00:45:12,116 --> 00:45:14,586
when they were put on reservations,
680
00:45:14,786 --> 00:45:17,376
that emotional state...
681
00:45:17,586 --> 00:45:22,386
it is alive and well on reservations today,
682
00:45:22,586 --> 00:45:26,936
because of the poverty, because of the joblessness,
683
00:45:27,136 --> 00:45:30,766
because of the drug addictions, the alcohol abuse.
684
00:45:30,966 --> 00:45:35,276
And on top of all of that dysfunction,
685
00:45:35,476 --> 00:45:37,776
put in a major highway
686
00:45:37,976 --> 00:45:41,776
with truckers going God-knows-where,
687
00:45:41,976 --> 00:45:46,616
with traffic from across this country going God-knows-where,
688
00:45:46,816 --> 00:45:49,786
put in close proximity to Canada,
689
00:45:49,986 --> 00:45:53,796
where we have opioids and meth coming in...
690
00:45:53,996 --> 00:45:57,966
Washington and Oregon, where we have drug cartels coming in.
691
00:45:58,166 --> 00:46:01,136
And drug cartels, they're not trafficking drugs,
692
00:46:01,336 --> 00:46:03,426
they're trafficking people.
693
00:46:04,636 --> 00:46:08,766
All of that is concentrated in this area.
694
00:46:08,966 --> 00:46:13,816
Sex trafficking is, something that we have to look
695
00:46:14,016 --> 00:46:17,146
at with regard to missing and murdered Indian women.
696
00:46:17,346 --> 00:46:19,322
Native American woman and girls are
697
00:46:19,346 --> 00:46:22,486
over three percent of the population here in Montana.
698
00:46:22,686 --> 00:46:26,946
They make up 30 to 40 percent of trafficking victims.
699
00:46:27,236 --> 00:46:30,166
And that's where we come into non-Native people
700
00:46:30,366 --> 00:46:33,896
coming in and seeing an opportunity to be predatory.
701
00:46:34,096 --> 00:46:39,126
The idea that white men in particular are the villain,
702
00:46:39,336 --> 00:46:43,676
is pretty pervasive in our community.
703
00:46:43,876 --> 00:46:46,846
Pioneers or people moving westward were not the most moral
704
00:46:47,046 --> 00:46:50,016
or ethical people, and Native people were the target of a lot of that.
705
00:46:50,926 --> 00:46:53,856
There is this idea that there's this white boogeyman,
706
00:46:54,056 --> 00:46:56,856
that there's someone from the outside that's coming in to harm
707
00:46:56,886 --> 00:47:00,196
us, that people from outside our community can come in and take
708
00:47:00,396 --> 00:47:02,856
what they want; they can take the resources,
709
00:47:03,066 --> 00:47:06,366
they can take our women, and nothing will happen.
710
00:47:06,566 --> 00:47:11,486
And it's this feeling of Native women's lives are disposable.
711
00:47:15,576 --> 00:47:20,496
As a Crow woman, that nurturing and protecting is engrained in
712
00:47:20,706 --> 00:47:25,546
who I am, and it's exacerbated when we add in a murdered and
713
00:47:25,746 --> 00:47:29,506
missing persons crisis in Big Horn County.
714
00:47:31,096 --> 00:47:34,896
Not enough people are worrying, and not enough people
715
00:47:35,096 --> 00:47:36,846
are taking action.
716
00:47:40,516 --> 00:47:43,066
In covering Kaysera, it was hard.
717
00:47:43,266 --> 00:47:47,576
The Sheriff's Office has been quiet about this case...
718
00:47:47,776 --> 00:47:50,196
Abnormally quiet.
719
00:47:50,826 --> 00:47:53,786
There are so many questions surrounding the cause
720
00:47:53,946 --> 00:47:55,536
of her death.
721
00:47:55,746 --> 00:47:59,916
I wanna know who else was there the night that she died
722
00:48:00,116 --> 00:48:01,416
and what they know.
723
00:48:01,616 --> 00:48:05,756
I wanna know if they were questioned by Big Horn County.
724
00:48:05,956 --> 00:48:10,046
And I wanna know why she was in that yard.
725
00:48:10,466 --> 00:48:14,386
I find it odd that she laid down and died.
726
00:48:14,676 --> 00:48:17,266
It makes no sense to me.
727
00:48:20,806 --> 00:48:25,106
My job is to inform the community of what's going on,
728
00:48:25,306 --> 00:48:28,616
and to try my best to...
729
00:48:28,816 --> 00:48:33,736
maybe not bring ice, but to at least give them answers.
730
00:48:34,406 --> 00:48:36,246
That's my goal.
731
00:48:37,746 --> 00:48:40,746
I'm still trying to get information.
732
00:48:41,376 --> 00:48:44,966
And then, all of a sudden, we're into the new year.
733
00:48:45,166 --> 00:48:48,926
First day of the new year, we have a missing girl.
734
00:48:49,586 --> 00:48:51,256
And...
735
00:48:52,756 --> 00:48:56,306
it was a girl I knew.
736
00:48:58,476 --> 00:49:03,266
It was Selena Not Afraid, 16 years old.
737
00:49:03,686 --> 00:49:08,656
She was last seen on eastbound Interstate 90.
738
00:49:12,186 --> 00:49:14,002
A missing endangered person advisory has
739
00:49:14,026 --> 00:49:18,166
been issued for a 16-year-old girl in Big Horn County.
740
00:49:18,366 --> 00:49:22,456
It blew my mind that she was gone that fast.
741
00:49:23,126 --> 00:49:25,236
Disappeared.
742
00:49:25,436 --> 00:49:27,176
Into thin air.
743
00:49:30,876 --> 00:49:35,246
There is the frenzy to find her.
744
00:49:35,446 --> 00:49:40,416
I've never seen a reaction like that to a missing person.
745
00:49:40,616 --> 00:49:42,856
They had everything out there.
746
00:49:43,056 --> 00:49:45,476
You name it, they had it.
747
00:49:45,896 --> 00:49:49,486
If anybody has a chance of surviving...
748
00:49:51,316 --> 00:49:53,696
it's Selena Not Afraid.
59956
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