City staffers credited for drastically reducing unsolved Missing and Murdered Indigenous People cases - By Bethany Raja, City Desk ABQ
The City of Albuquerque is one of the top five cities in the United States where Indigenous people go missing or are murdered, according to a report by the Urban Indian Health Institute in Seattle.
But, the city says, over the last two years Dawn Begay, the city’s Native American Affairs Coordinator and Commander Gerard Bartlett of the Albuquerque Police Department have worked with local law enforcement agencies and other jurisdictions to bring the number of unsolved cases down from 500 in 2019 to 78 in 2023.
The city says the two are part of a larger initiative to address MMIP and “have not specifically brought the numbers of cases down, they have helped internally organize and have built partnerships collaborating with law enforcement and public safety throughout the state.”
Begay and Bartlett recently won the national Attorney General’s Award for Outstanding Contributions to Community Partnerships for Public Safety because of their work coordinating agencies for a massive Missing or Murdered Indigenous Persons Initiative. They went to Washington D.C. late last month to receive the award.
The Albuquerque field office of the FBI has also played a big role in this initiative. FBI representatives joined Begay and Bartlett in accepting the award, along with the Indian Affairs Department, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
But, the FBI, said it’s unclear how these missing people cases were resolved.
“It is difficult to understand the genesis of the 500 unsolved cases statistics cited in 2019 because we do not know or have access to the underlying source of data,” a spokesperson for the FBI said. “However, it appears that the 500 unsolved cases reflects the number of missing Indigenous persons reported to law enforcement over the course of the entire year and not the total number missing on any given day.”
How it began and how it’s going
Michelle Melendez, director of the city’s Office of Equity and Inclusion, said the FBI was able to start a pilot program in New Mexico because of the groundwork Begay has done in the last two years to bring 50 jurisdictions together in New Mexico.
In 2022, the Albuquerque FBI field office began looking into cases of MMIP in New Mexico by working with the Criminal Justice Information Center in Virginia, which provided weekly reports from the NCIC on missing Indigenous people.
The project wrapped up in July 2022 and resulted in the publication of a list to give the public an opportunity to verify missing Indigenous people in the NCIC.
“We saw that initial list increase from 177 to the current number of 207 as the list became more accurate. Only then did we have the confidence to begin to cite our numbers to the media and speak publicly about the data,” an FBI spokesperson told City Desk ABQ in an emailed statement.
The FBI said this project not only looked at missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, but also men. It found that roughly 60% of missing person cases involved Native American men, while 40% involved women.
One thing the FBI said that complicated matters, is that it is possible for someone to be reported missing in a calendar year more than once.
“Over an 18-month period, July 2022 – January 2024, there were approximately 1,400 Indigenous Persons reported as missing to law enforcement,” FBI officials said.
But 91% of those cases have been resolved and the individual is no longer included in the NCIC as a missing person.
“Unfortunately, we don’t always know why or how the cases were resolved because that information remains with the law enforcement entity responsible for that case and is not captured in NCIC,” the FBI said.
The FBI said this work provides an accurate picture of who is missing in New Mexico and the city.
“As of mid-January 2024, there are 207 individuals missing in New Mexico and the Navajo Nation,” the FBI said. “As of February 2024, there were 23 Indigenous persons listed as missing in the greater Albuquerque area by APD, BCSO, Bernalillo PD, and NM State Police – Albuquerque District.”
The city of Albuquerque’s efforts
The FBI said it credits the City of Albuquerque with establishing its Office of Equity and Inclusion, the Tribal and Metro Public Safety Meetings, and the NM Indian Affairs Department’s production of the State Response Plan, so law enforcement agencies and the public understand the importance of investigating these cases and reporting loves ones missing as quickly as possible.
“Both the City of Albuquerque and Albuquerque Police Department are key partners in our investigative and outreach efforts to Native communities,” the FBI said.
Since the start of their work, the FBI said they continue to assess their progress.
“We cannot speculate on the numbers in 2019 because it was prior to our work,” it said. “However, one thing we can point to with pride is the decrease in the length of time for a family to report a missing female to law enforcement—a 43% decrease between July 2022 and January 2024.”
Editor’s Note: this story has been updated to clarify the role of Dawn Begay and Cmdr. Gerard Bartlett.
This story was originally published by City Desk ABQ.
Advocates for family and children say budget provides benefits for children - By Susan Dunlap, New Mexico Political Report
The legislature passed a budget of $10.2 billion this year. The budget now awaits the governor’s signature.
Some highlights from the budget that will benefit children include an increase in Medicaid reimbursement rates, Bill Jordan, interim co-director and government relations officer for New Mexico Voices for Children, told NM Political Report.
Jordan said increasing the reimbursement rates for Medicaid both encourages more providers to accept Medicaid patients and it also helps to attract more providers to the state.
Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said during a press conference held after the legislative session that the budget passed by the legislature contains $100 million for Medicaid.
Jordan said this is of particular importance since nearly half of the state’s population relies on Medicaid. Between 70 to 80 percent of all births in New Mexico are covered by Medicaid, as well.
Jordan said the legislature also passed some progressive tax policy. He said the tax omnibus bill, HB 252, sponsored by state Rep. Derrick Lente, D-Sandia Pueblo, contains a restructuring of personal income tax rates that mostly lowers rates for lower and middle income families. At the same time, the tax omnibus bill trimmed back a state tax break on capital gains earnings.
Related: Tax omnibus passes Senate
Jordan said the capital gains tax break affects individuals who earn investment income.
“They paid 40 percent less taxes just for making money on investments. We work for our money. They let their money work for them and they get a 40 percent discount on their taxes. It’s not fair and it doesn’t provide any economic benefit to the state,” Jordan said.
By reducing the tax credit, “that made our tax system more fair,” he said.
Jordan said one disappointment was that the legislature did not address taxes on alcohol or tobacco products. He said one of the primary disincentives for young people taking up vaping is when they pay a higher price for the product.
“New Mexico has a particularly high rate of vaping use among young and a higher tax would have helped discourage that. The price point is a big factor,” he said.
In addition to the budget, this legislative session priority included public safety. Jordan said that the two public safety bills that await the governor’s signature – one a seven-day waiting period to buy a gun and the other to prohibit guns in polling places – are “steps in the right direction.”
He said the seven-day waiting period bill, HB 129, sponsored by state Rep. Andrea Romero, D-Santa Fe, can help to reduce suicide among youth. New Mexico has a high rate of suicide. Jordan said that when youth attempt death by suicide and use a gun, completion is almost certain.
But when youth use a different method, they will complete the suicide less than half of the time, he said.
He said the hope is that when that happens, the youth are more likely to get the help they need to process through the stress that led them to contemplate suicide.
Jordan said the bill passed by the legislature that prohibits guns in polling places “is an acknowledgment that guns are not the way we want to solve problems.”
That bill, SB 5, was co-sponsored by House Majority Whip Reena Szczepanski, D-Santa Fe.
“Guns are a problem, not a solution. That’s the kind of message we need to be sending to the public and we think that bill helps to do that,” Jordan said.
Reporter Nicole Maxwell contributed to this story.
Sandia Tram to Reopen in March – By Elizabeth Mccall, City Desk ABQ
This story was originally published by City Desk ABQ.
The Sandia Peak Tramway will reopen on March 14 after a temporary maintenance closure.
On January 9, the Sandia Peak Tramway—which transports riders to the 10,378-foot crest of the Sandia Mountains—announced it would close to upgrade to a more energy-efficient system, since its current system has been used since 1966. This project, Tram 2024 Modernizing for the Future, includes renovations and new additions.
“Over the last 57 years, the tram has taken over 12 million passengers up the frontside of the Sandia Mountains and with these updates and upgrades that the tram is going to be experiencing in the beginning of 2024, is going to help us continue taking passengers up the mountain for the next 50 plus years,” said Jessica Fox, Sandia Peak Tramway’s marketing and communications director.
Upgrades include a new brake system, updating the drive and control system, renovating the lower and upper terminal’s tram consoles, adding solar-powered cameras and weather stations on both towers and replacing the old DC motor with a new AC motor that has higher efficiency and stronger durability.
The TEN 3 Restaurant will also reopen next month. To see the behind the scenes of the modernization, visit the Sandia Peak Tramway’s website.
Here are the crime bills NM lawmakers passed in the 2024 regular session - Austin Fisher, Source New Mexico
In this year’s budget-focused session, both chambers of the 2024 New Mexico Legislature passed 17 bills related to crime, policing, prisons and public safety.
Majorities of lawmakers in both the House of Representatives and the Senate voted to increase police and judicial branch budgets across the board, to restrict guns, to create new crimes and to raise some criminal penalties.
They also passed bills that would sweeten retirement for police and firefighters, make it harder for people to get out of jail in some circumstances, and to require more public sector workers to go through background checks.
Bills are listed below in the order lawmakers introduced them.
Most of the bills listed are not laws. As of Monday afternoon, Gov. Michelle Lujan had not signed any bills beyond the three she signed during the session.
Before the 30-day session began, there were 20 bills that Lujan Grisham identified as crime and public safety priorities. The 17 bills lawmakers did pass were not all part of her priorities, and she said she is considering a special session focused on public safety.
CORE STATE FUNCTIONS
House Bill 2, the state budget for the upcoming fiscal year, includes $372.8 million for prisons, $294.7 million for courts, $240.3 million for police and military, $147.8 million for prosecutors and $87.2 million for public defenders and family advocates. These are all larger budgets than the previous year.
According to House Democrats, the budget bill includes $500 million in behavioral health investments through federal and state funds, $25 million for recruiting local police and corrections officers, $10 million for an Officer Pay Plan and a $3.5 million special appropriation for law enforcement vehicle equipment.
House Bill 141, signed by Lujan Grisham on Feb. 10, increases salaries for New Mexico Supreme Court justices, Court of Appeals judges, and District Court judges.
House Bill 193 would expand which police officers can receive tenure-based bonuses from the Law Enforcement Retention Fund, to now include those officers who transfer between departments and those who work for more than 21 years.
House Bill 308 would allow the state to raise $10 million for the Department of Information Technology to build a public safety radio communications system.
Senate Bill 151 would divert 5% of the revenue from taxes on health insurance premiums from the General Fund to the Emergency Medical Services Fund, with the intent of increasing emergency medical services across the state and decreasing response times.
Senate Bill 175 would set aside $35 million to recruit state and local police officers, prison guards and probation and parole officers.
HEARING REQUIRED ON ACCUSATION OF SECOND FELONY
Senate Bill 271 would set new detainment requirements when someone is convicted of a felony, gets released and then is accused of violating their release conditions by committing a new felony. If signed into the law, that person must be held in jail without bond for three to five days when they can get a hearing.
The bill came after years of debate around holding people accused of crimes in jail before trial, and the so-called “revolving door.” The governor pushed for “rebuttable presumptions” in pretrial detention hearings. That proposal fell flat, as critics said it would be unconstitutional.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Joseph Cervantes (D-Las Cruces) said he believes SB 271, passed in the final week of the session, strikes “the right balance.”
“New Mexico knows we’re suffering from a crime problem, and my colleagues and I have spent this entire legislative session conducting hearings to find common-sense and constitutional legislative solutions,” Cervantes said.
POLICE AND FIREFIGHTER RETIREMENT
House Bill 236 would allow state and local police officers, sheriff’s deputies, court security, prison and jail guards, some state investigators, paramedics, firefighters, dispatchers who have retired to return to work and keep their pension payments.
Outgoing House Majority Leader Gail Chasey (D-Albuquerque) said the bill would “help fill important public safety roles by allowing certain retired professionals to return to work without losing their benefits.”
Senate Bill 128 would boost pension benefits for non-volunteer firefighters.
GUN LEGISLATION
House Bill 129 would require gun buyers to wait 7 days after purchase to actually receive a gun. The waiting period was initially proposed to be 14 days, but that was shortened in a committee with a bipartisan amendment.
Senate Bill 5 would make it a petty misdemeanor to carry a firearm within 100 feet of a polling place or within 50 feet of a ballot drop box during early voting or on election day. This was also another priority for the governor that was altered in the legislative process. One late amendment provides an exception for people with concealed carry weapon permits.
NEW CRIMES
House Bill 182 would create a new crime of publishing an intentionally deceptive political advertisement created in whole or in part with artificial intelligence. This bill allows the state to prosecute political campaigns if they refuse to disclose if any material is created with AI.
House Bill 239 would make non-prescribed cannabis contraband in state prisons and local jails.
HARSHER CRIMINAL PENALTIES
Senate Bill 6 would increase the penalty for a second or any subsequent conviction of trafficking cannabis from a fourth-degree felony to a third-degree felony. The bill would also give more administrative powers to the Cannabis Control Division.
Senate Bill 96, co-sponsored by Sen. Antonio Maestas (D-Albuquerque), would increase the penalty for attempted second-degree murder from three years to nine years, and would increase the penalty for second-degree murder from 15 years to 18 years.
“Far too many New Mexican families, including my own, are on a path to healing after losing loved ones to violent crime,” Maestas said. “No family can be made whole again after tragedy unexpectedly strikes, but Senate Bill 96 sends a strong message that the Roundhouse is listening, and we are acting.”
BACKGROUND CHECKS
Senate Bill 152 would allow the FBI to cooperate with background checks started by the Early Childhood Education and Care Department and would allow the Children Youth and Families Department to conduct background checks on a broader range of people.
Senate Bill 241 would require all workers, volunteers and people applying to work for the Aging and Long-Term Services Department to undergo criminal background checks.
UNM analysis: Santolina development numbers don’t add up - Damon Scott, City Desk ABQ
This story was originally published by City Desk ABQ.
The Bernalillo County Commission is scheduled to hear Tuesday from the author of a report that disputes the housing, population and job projections of the massive Santolina development planned for west of Albuquerque.
An analysis by the University of New Mexico’s Bureau of Business & Economic Research (BBER), commissioned by the New Mexico Legislature, found that projection data used from 2013 was “unrealistic” and “highly unlikely.” An initial development agreement with owner Western Albuquerque Land Holdings was approved by the county in 2015.
Santolina consists of 13,700 acres of undeveloped land — largely sand dunes and sagebrush — located west of the city in unincorporated Bernalillo County. It is near Interstate 40 and 98th Street, not far from the Metropolitan Detention Center and Sandia Speedway racing facility.
Albuquerque’s Consensus Planning, the developer, describes it as a future “mixed-use, self-sufficient community with a series of village areas planned for residential development, an urban center, a town center, and business and employment areas.” One of Santolina’s key selling points to the county was its potential to generate future employment and housing in an area that is lacking in both.
However, to meet a 50-year full buildout goal, the project would need to annually generate 761 new housing units, 1,866 additional residents and 1,500 new jobs. The BBER analysis said more probable annual targets are far lower: 154 new housing units, 374 additional residents, and 240 new jobs.
“These data tell a story that statewide and local economic, employment, population, and housing growth has not exactly been robust, especially when compared to New Mexico peers in neighboring states,” BBER senior research scientist and author of the report, Julian Baca, said in a statement.
Santolina’s projections are important as the county calculates its potential tax revenue against likely costs to taxpayers. The Santolina tax increment development district (TIDD) allocates a portion of future tax revenues for reimbursement to developers for the cost of infrastructure. Further, commissioners are scheduled to discuss updates to the Albuquerque/Bernalillo County comprehensive plan March 19 – one that relies in part on Santolina’s projections. The plan seeks ways to incentivize economic development and job creation, streamline development reviews and approvals and promote sustainable development, among other goals.
‘WE DON’T SUPPORT SPRAWL’
The project has been controversial from the beginning. The Contra Santolina Working Group, New Mexico Environmental Law Center (NMELC) and others say it will put pressure on an already fragile environment with a scarce water supply. Opponents also worry it will threaten traditional farming methods and the unique culture of Albuquerque’s South Valley.
“Santolina, the massive sprawl development still looming in our backyards, was a faulty Bernalillo County Commission decision back in 2015,” Virginia Necochea, NMELC executive director, said in a statement last week. “We urge the current commissioners to reanalyze Santolina keeping the recent BBER study in mind and make an informed decision based on current data that is more accurate and unbiased.”
Marcia Fernandez, a longtime member of Contra Santolina who said she’s been following the project for 10 years, said she’s not against the idea of development in general.
“‘Leave the sand dunes alone’ has never been our cry,” Fernandez told City Desk ABQ on Monday. “We just don’t support sprawl development and wish the county would revisit the master plan and development agreements that were based on old information.”
Fernandez said she’s hopeful the current slate of commissioners, many who weren’t involved in the 2015 development agreement, will consider the BBER’s findings.
“There seems to be a new process, a new feeling among these commissioners that they take data and facts seriously,” she said. “There’s a lot more transparency and willingness to involve the community. I sense there’s a new day at the county.”
The full BBER report — “Potential Impacts from Santolina Development” — is available here. A one-page executive summary is available here. More details about Santolina from Consensus Planning are here.
Los Lunas Village Council approves controversial deal with water bottling company – Valencia County News-Bulletin, KUNM News
The Niagara Bottling Company is about to significantly increase its water use in Los Lunas.
The Valencia County News-Bulletin reports the Village Council approved a new deal with the company in a 3-2 vote.
The company already exceeded its water usage under the previous contract. Many locals say the village can’t afford to let the company use more of its water.
Leaders of surrounding communities that share an aquifer with Los Lunas – including the Pueblo of Isleta, Peralta and Bosque Farms – have voiced concern about the deal.
A hydrologist gave a presentation on the health of the aquifer at the village council meeting. He said that it’s doing well and will continue to as long as it’s properly regulated.
He also expressed skepticism about the deal, pointing to Niagara’s poor track record in complying with the existing agreement.
Local watchdog group Valencia County Water Watchers vowed to keep fighting the deal.
Debbie O’Malley throws hat in the ring for state Senate - Carolyn Carlson,City Desk ABQ
This story was originally published by City Desk ABQ.
Former Bernalillo County Commissioner and Albuquerque City Councilor Debbie O’Malleyhas thrown her hat into the ring for State Senate District 13.
O’Malley has been in local government since 2003, serving on the Albuquerque City Council until 2012. She then ran for the North Valley seat on the Bernalillo County Commission where she served until December 2022.
Due to recent redistricting changes in 2020, many district boundaries changed significantly and over half of District 13 is “new.” It still includes parts of the North Valley, but now incorporates Wells Park, Downtown, and Barelas, as well as the South Broadway and San Jose neighborhoods.
“These are the communities that I know well,” O’Malley said in a press release announcing her candidacy. “What we need most in Santa Fe are progressive fighters — leaders who are unafraid to stand up for the needs of our families and our environment, and leaders who are unafraid to stand up to the corporate lobbyists and their outsized influence on policy.”
“Now, I am running for State Senate District 13 to use my skills and experience to further uplift families, women, and children while serving in the New Mexico state legislature,” she said.
The District 13 seat is currently held by Bill O’Neill who has held the Senate seat since 2013. O’Neill served in the House of Representatives representing District 15 from 2009 to 2012. It is not known if he will run again when his term ends on December 31, 2024.
Long after tragic mysteries are solved, families of Native American victims are kept in the dark - By Scott Sonner, Associated Press
It was the winter of 2021 when Philbert Shorty's family found his abandoned car stuck in the mud outside the small community of Tsaile near the Arizona-New Mexico state line. "We knew something happened from the get-go," said his uncle, Ben Shorty. "We couldn't find any answers."
Family members reported the 44-year-old man missing. And for the next two years, they searched — hiking through remote canyons on the Navajo Nation, placing advertisements on the radio and posting across social media in hopes of unearthing any clues.
The efforts produced nothing. They had no way of knowing he'd been killed more than a week before they reported him missing.
They remained unaware 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 a result of a separate investigation into the killing and beheading of Oldrock's uncle. The 30-year-old Fargo, North Dakota, man told authorities his uncle had threatened to kill him during an alcohol-fueled fight that came eight months after the pair conspired to cover up Shorty's death by dismembering and burning his body on Jan. 29, 2021.
In both cases, Oldrock told investigators, a night of heavy drinking and fighting ended in death at his uncle's home near Navajo, New Mexico.
The details of this tale are more gruesome than most. Yet to those living in Indian Country, the elements underlying the tragedy are all too familiar. Generations of unaddressed trauma combine with substance abuse to create a dangerous recipe that often ends in violence, and law enforcement resources and social support programs are too sparse to offer much help.
DEATHS AND DISAPPEARANCES ARE GETTING NOTICED. WILL IT HELP?
Shorty's story is one of many across the United States and Canada, where high rates of missing persons and unsolved killings involving Indigenous people have captured the attention of policymakers at the highest levels.
In 2019, former President Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing a task force. Congress followed in 2020 by passing two key pieces of legislation aimed at addressing the crisis. U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, who had championed legislation as a congresswoman, has been working under the Biden administration to solve some of the systemic problems and jurisdictional challenges that have left victims' families feeling invisible.
The Interior Department is nearly three weeks passed a deadline for responding to a set of recommendations from a special commission that spent months traveling the country, speaking with family members, advocates and police officials about how best to tackle the epidemic.
Commission members heard hours of heartbreaking testimony from family members who have fought to keep their cases in the spotlight, often memorializing those lost with prayer vigils, special blankets and buttons, traditional ribbon skirts and red handprints painted on sidewalks and buildings.
Like others, Shorty's family now knows the suffering will linger despite the increased emphasis on solving such crimes.
Shorty's family "had been left in the dark about what happened," U.S. Attorney for the District of New Mexico Alexander Uballez acknowledged in a November sentencing memo that referred to Shorty by only his initials — PS. Wrote Uballez: "They are just beginning to grieve as they were only informed recently that PS was deceased, rather than missing."
Uballez expressed hope that putting Oldrock behind bars would bring some closure, saying that Shorty's elderly aunt could stop looking down the driveway in hopes her nephew might one day return.
Uballez said Oldrock's convictions were part of the U.S. Justice Department's duty to bring answers to tribal communities. While no amount of investigation or prosecution will bring back a loved one, he said, law enforcement partners will meet each case "with urgency, transparency and coordination."
PROMISES THAT MAY OR MAY NOT LEAD SOMEWHERE
That vow of transparency is what has Native American families frustrated. Many say authorities regularly fail to communicate about the status of pending cases. In Shorty's case, unanswered questions about whether there were any remains recovered have left his family guessing as to whether they can ever have a burial for him.
"The investigators never called me. They were supposed to but never did," Ben Shorty said in a recent interview. "It was all done behind closed doors."
The FBI's most recent list of missing people from the Navajo Nation still included Philbert Shorty. That's despite investigators having had reason to believe he was dead as early as October 2021 with Oldrock's confession. A medical investigator's report issued the following spring said that while it couldn't be confirmed conclusively, communications with law enforcement suggested that charred remains found at the home of Oldrock's uncle likely were those of Shorty.
Darlene Gomez, an Albuquerque attorney, has represented dozens of Native American families. The handling of Shorty's case doesn't surprise her.
"The FBI does this all the time," she said. "They don't even talk to the family until there is an indictment. And very often they don't say anything at all."
While there is a need to keep confidential certain details as investigations move forward, federal authorities did not immediately respond to questions by The Associated Press about the process for sharing information with families and whether people were assigned to serve as liaisons to help families as cases move through the system.
The federal Not Invisible Act Commission devoted part of its 212-page report to related concerns and recommendations. The report references stories shared by families about difficulties in accessing police and autopsy reports: "Families are often kept waiting, not knowing if the person identified is their family member or not knowing the cause and circumstances of death nor how the body of their family member was handled."
It all rings true for Bernadine Beyale, the daughter of retired Navajo police officers who founded the non-profit 4 Corners K-9 Search and Rescue in Farmington, New Mexico, in 2022. Her group has conducted dozens of individual searches, and she has helped to build bridges between families and law enforcement to help families avoid feeling like their cases are falling through cracks.
"Even if (law enforcement) would just talk to the families, say, `We don't have anything yet but we're still working on it,' it would help," she said.
'I TRY TO BE AS TRANSPARENT AS POSSIBLE'
Records obtained by the AP show that a witness gave a ride to Oldrock in October 2021. He had cuts on his face and blood on his hands and clothes. He told the driver he had just killed his uncle, identified as Erwin Beach. He said he believed Beach had killed his grandmother a year earlier and was going to kill him, too.
Oldrock told the FBI he stabbed Beach repeatedly after Beach swung an axe at him during a drunken fight. Oldrock said the chain of violent events that October day began much the same way as when Shorty was killed months earlier — with heavy drinking. Oldrock was sentenced in November to 35 years in prison for second-degree murder in the killing of Beach and involuntary manslaughter in Shorty's death.
Whether details are unveiled through court documents or they come from investigators in the field, Beyale acknowledges it can be difficult to decide how to share information with victims' families.
"If we find a body or remains, I don't give a lot of details," she said. "But I try to be as transparent as possible and tell them we don't have a positive ID but we found remains in this area."
Beyale tries to persuade families who want to conduct their own search to let her do it instead. "I always ask them if they are not only physically ready to do a search like that, but also mentally ready to find something," she said. "They always say, `Yeah, yeah.' But they are not. I've not found one family that was mentally ready."
Shorty's family still hopes to have a funeral. They're ready for closure but are — still — waiting on investigators.
"What are we supposed to bury? Just nothing? At least some ashes or something," Ben Shorty said. "We got nothing still."
___
Sonner reported from Reno, Nevada. Associated Press reporter Susan Montoya Bryan contributed to this report from Albuquerque, New Mexico