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Special cold case unit for missing or murdered Indigenous people proposed in Washington Legislature

Before the start of the MMIW Bike/Run USA 2021 in 2021 in De Smet, Idaho, the gentle hands of Lovina Louie imprint the symbol of missing and murdered Indigenous women and children on the face of Amya Sines, 15. The event, founded by Duane Garvais-Lawrence, is visiting Native American reservations across the county to honor the growing list of Indigenous women and children who have gone missing or were murdered. (COLIN MULVANY/THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW)
By Elena Perry The Spokesman-Review

A special cold case unit could help solve cases of missing and murdered Indigenous people in Washington State if bipartisan support of the proposal continues.

A bill sponsored by Rep. Debra Lekanoff, D-Samish Island, stemmed from recommendations of a missing and murdered Indigenous women and people task force within the Office of the Attorney General. Lekanoff is the only Native woman serving in the state legislature.

The task force began meeting in 2021 to address the disproportionate number of missing and murdered Indigenous people, particularly women. They released their first report of 10 recommendations toward the Legislature, including this proposal, last year.

Local jurisdictions could ask the unit for help in solving cold cases with Indigenous victims. Assistance from the cold case unit would be voluntary, with the attorney general’s office offering help or jurisdictions asking for it themselves.

“It is 100% up to that jurisdiction whether or not they take that assistance,” said Annie Forsman-Adams, policy analyst on the attorney general’s office task force . “There has to be a collaborative relationship; we don’t have any authority to take over jurisdiction of the case at all.”

The unit would prioritize jurisdictions with limited resources that don’t have a designated cold case unit. Often, smaller and larger jurisdictions alike don’t prioritize cold cases because they’re understaffed or focusing on current cases, Forsman-Adams said.

Indigenous people experience violence disproportionately, she said. Indigenous women make up 5% of Washington’s unsolved homicides, but less than 2% of the state’s population, according to data from the attorney general’s office.

Spokane tribal member Dave BrownEagle has family ties to several tribes across the country. He knows numerous people who have gone missing, each case leaving lasting effects on their communities.

“I have an old relative hoping and wishing and praying that her daughter’s going to come home someday and it’s been years,” BrownEagle said. “But also it shows how strong they are.”

A lack of resolution in many of these cases inflicts further pain on missing peoples’ families.

“If somebody came to her and said, ‘We found your daughter,’ in our way, then they can have closure and say goodbye,” BrownEagle said. “Without that, it’s in the back of their head and the bottom of my heart every time – hoping.”

The legislature is taking steps to address this disparity. This year, with bills like the one establishing the cold case unit, and last session, with a bill to create a missing Indigenous persons alert system. Implemented by the Washington State Patrol similarly to Amber Alerts, the system spreads awareness to lead to the recovery of missing Indigenous people.

Currently, there are 128 Indigenous people reported missing in Washington, with six in Spokane County, according to the Washington State Patrol.

So far, WSP has sent out 47 alerts statewide, 39 resulting in the recovery of the missing person, while twice they were found dead. While they can’t be certain the alerts contributed to a person’s discovery, having a deliberate procedure to notify communities when someone is missing streamlined the process of finding them, Forsman-Adams said.

“What would take probably about four people and take a whole day, when the alert system came out, that process was accomplished in, like, 30 minutes,” Forsman-Adams said. “It’s much more efficient, it works much better and is easier for everyone.”

Often, the missing person is a runaway juvenile, sometimes, a tribal member who doesn’t know they’re missing, but contact family once they see the alert.

“I think we’re doing really good things for the community, we’re finding people, we are giving voices to family members who have never been listened to in some cases,” Forsman-Adams said. “We’re learning about ways that law enforcement and communities can work together.”

The cold case unit bill passed the House of Representatives unanimously with a vote 97-0, with 1 excused. The proposal is included in the House operating budget, which allocates over $2 million for the next two years, subject to the Legislature’s final approval.

Bipartisan support for the bill continues as it moves through the legislature, with unanimous votes out of each Senate committee. The bill still needs a vote off the Senate floor, which has not yet been scheduled, before it heads to Gov. Jay Inslee’s desk for a signature.