– Long-standing unanswered questions surrounding Native American victims
– Families left in the dark about the resolution of tragic mysteries.

Accident – Death – Obituary News :

Tragic Tale Unfolds as Family Discovers Abandoned Car of Missing Man

It was in the chilly winter of 2021 when Philbert Shorty’s family stumbled upon his deserted car stuck in the mud near the small community of Tsaile, close to the Arizona-New Mexico border. “We knew something had gone wrong right from the start,” revealed his uncle, Ben Shorty. “We were left with no answers.”

Following the discovery, family members reported the 44-year-old man missing. Over the subsequent two years, they embarked on an exhaustive search – scouring remote canyons on the Navajo Nation, broadcasting advertisements on the radio, and leveraging social media in a bid to unearth any clues.

Unfortunately, their efforts yielded no results. Little did they know that he had met his demise more than a week before they reported him missing.

The family was kept in the dark even as U.S. prosecutors finalized a plea deal last summer with Shiloh Aaron Oldrock, who was charged in connection with Shorty’s death as part of a separate investigation into the killing and beheading of Oldrock’s uncle. The 30-year-old Fargo, North Dakota resident informed authorities that his uncle had threatened to kill him during a drunken altercation that occurred eight months after the duo conspired to conceal Shorty’s death by dismembering and cremating his body on January 29, 2021.

Gruesome Details Unfold in Tragic Story

The narrative that unfolded was more macabre than most. Yet, to those residing in Indian Country, the underlying elements of the tragedy are all too common. Generations of untreated trauma combine with substance abuse to create a perilous concoction that frequently culminates in violence, with law enforcement resources and social support programs being woefully inadequate.

Shorty’s account is just one of many across the United States and Canada, where high levels of missing persons and unsolved homicides involving Indigenous individuals have attracted the attention of policymakers at the highest echelons.

In 2019, former President Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing a task force. Congress subsequently passed two key pieces of legislation in 2020 aimed at addressing the crisis. U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a staunch advocate of the legislation during her tenure as a congresswoman, has been working under the Biden administration to rectify some of the systemic issues and jurisdictional challenges that have left victims’ families feeling neglected.

Justice Department Aims to Bring Answers to Tribal Communities

The Interior Department is nearly three weeks past a deadline for responding to a set of recommendations from a special commission that traveled the nation for months, conversing with family members, advocates, and law enforcement officials on how best to combat the epidemic.

Commission members listened to hours of heart-wrenching testimonies from family members who have fought to keep their cases in the public eye, often commemorating the departed with prayer vigils, special blankets and buttons, traditional ribbon skirts, and red handprints adorning sidewalks and structures.

Like others, Shorty’s family now comprehends that the anguish will persist despite the heightened emphasis on solving such crimes.

U.S. Attorney for the District of New Mexico Alexander Uballez conceded in a November sentencing memorandum that referred to Shorty by just his initials – PS. Uballez acknowledged, “They are only just starting to mourn as they were just informed recently that PS was deceased, rather than missing.”

Uballez expressed optimism that incarcerating Oldrock would provide some closure, indicating that Shorty’s elderly aunt could cease peering down the driveway in the hope that her nephew might one day return.

Uballez emphasized that Oldrock’s convictions were part of the U.S. Justice Department’s duty to furnish answers to tribal communities. While no amount of investigation or prosecution can resurrect a loved one, law enforcement partners will approach each case “with urgency, transparency, and coordination,” he remarked.

Transparency Remains a Major Issue for Native American Families

That promise of transparency is what leaves Native American families exasperated. Many allege that authorities frequently fail to communicate about the status of pending cases. In Shorty’s case, unanswered questions about whether any remains were recovered have left his family pondering if they will ever be able to conduct a burial for him.

“The investigators never reached out to me. They were supposed to but never did,” Ben Shorty disclosed in a recent interview. “It was all shrouded in secrecy.”

The FBI’s most recent list of missing individuals from the Navajo Nation still featured Philbert Shorty. This is notwithstanding investigators having reason to believe he was deceased as early as October 2021, following Oldrock’s confession. A medical examiner’s report issued the subsequent spring indicated that, although it couldn’t be definitively confirmed, communications with law enforcement suggested that charred remains discovered at Oldrock’s uncle’s residence were likely those of Shorty.

Albuquerque attorney Darlene Gomez, who has represented numerous Native American families, wasn’t surprised by the handling of Shorty’s case.

“The FBI does this on a regular basis,” she remarked. “They don’t even reach out to the family until there is an indictment. And more often than not, they don’t communicate at all.”

While there is a need to maintain the confidentiality of certain details as investigations progress, federal authorities did not immediately respond to inquiries by The Associated Press regarding the process for disseminating information to families and whether individuals were designated to serve as liaisons to assist families as cases navigate the system.

Recommendations and Concerns Highlighted in Commission Report

The federal Not Invisible Act Commission devoted a section of its 212-page report to related concerns and recommendations. The report cites narratives shared by families about the challenges in accessing police and autopsy reports: “Families are often left waiting, unsure if the individual identified is their family member or unaware of the cause and circumstances of death or how the body of their family member was handled.”

All of this resonates with Bernadine Beyale, the daughter of retired Navajo police officers who established the non-profit 4 Corners K-9 Search and Rescue in Farmington, New Mexico in 2022. Her organization has conducted numerous individual searches, and she has helped forge connections between families and law enforcement to prevent families from feeling like their cases are slipping through the cracks.

“Even if (law enforcement) would just communicate with the families, say, ‘We don’t have anything yet but we’re still working on it,’ it would make a difference,” she remarked.

Records obtained by the AP show that a witness gave Oldrock a ride in October 2021. He had cuts on his face and blood on his hands and attire. He informed the driver that he had just slain his uncle, identified as Erwin Beach. He alleged that he believed Beach had murdered his grandmother a year earlier and was planning to kill him as well.

Oldrock informed the FBI that he stabbed Beach multiple times after Beach swung an axe at him during an inebriated scuffle. Oldrock stated that the chain of violent events that October day commenced in a similar fashion to Shorty’s killing months earlier – with heavy drinking. Oldrock was sentenced in November to 35 years in prison for second-degree murder in Beach’s killing and involuntary manslaughter in Shorty’s demise.

Whether details are disclosed through court documents or from investigators in the field, Beyale acknowledges that it can be challenging to determine how to share information with victims’ families.

“If we find a body or remains, I don’t divulge many details,” she commented. “But I strive to be as transparent as possible and inform them that we don’t have a positive ID but we located remains in this area.”

Beyale endeavors to persuade families who wish to conduct their own search to let her handle it instead. “I always ask them if they are not only physically prepared to conduct a search like that, but also mentally prepared to find something,” she said. “They always say, ‘Yeah, yeah.’ But they aren’t. I’ve not encountered a single family that was mentally prepared.”

Family Clings to Hope of Closure Amidst Lingering Uncertainty

Shorty’s family remains hopeful of holding a funeral. They are prepared for closure but are still awaiting word from investigators.

“What are we supposed to bury? Just nothing? At least some ashes or something,” Ben Shorty lamented. “We still have nothing.”

Sonner reported from Reno, Nevada. Associated Press reporter Susan Montoya Bryan contributed to this report from Albuquerque, New Mexico.

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– Tragic mysteries solved families Native American victims kept dark
– Families Native American victims left in dark after tragic mysteries solved.