Kit Mora, who disappeared in 2022, would have graduated this year

YAKIMA – As her high school graduation approached, Amythist McCart, a senior at Yakima’s East Valley High School, checked responsibilities off her list – paperwork completed, cap and gown purchased, schedule sent to family and friends.

Throughout the process, Amythist thought about her friend, Esmeralda “Kit” Mora. They met the first day of kindergarten at Terrace Heights Elementary School. Amythist moved away for a while and when she returned in second grade, she and Kit reconnected like she had never left.

Their birthdays are two days apart. They bonded over music and art. Kit enjoyed drawing horses, dragons and fantastical creatures.

“Me and Kit were friends through everything,” Amythist said. So when she realized late in the fall 2021 that she hadn’t heard from Kit, not even a quick text, she was worried.

Kit is a nonbinary Indigenous person who has been missing since April 15, 2022, according to the Washington State Patrol’s latest list of active cases of missing Indigenous women and people. Kit, who uses the pronoun they, lived in the Yakima area for most of their life, growing up with the Groo family and attending East Valley schools before going to Omak with plans to spend a week there in June 2021 with relatives.

Weeks turned into months and Kit started attending Omak High School that fall. Texts to Amythist came less frequently before stopping altogether. Though the date of disappearance is officially listed as April 2022, Kit’s friends and family in the Yakima Valley haven’t seen or heard from Kit since November 2021.

Kit’s disappearance is considered suspicious, according to the Omak Police Department. Omak is investigating and working with the Colville Tribal Police Department and the FBI. A $10,000 reward is offered for information leading to those responsible for Kit’s disappearance, the recovery of Kit’s body or Kit’s safe return.

Though Kit had settled in as a student at Omak High and was going to be a teacher’s assistant in art class, Kit was disenrolled there in January 2022 after missing school, according to Kit’s family. But they say Kit wouldn’t have quit going to school, especially considering Kit’s role as a teacher’s assistant in a favorite subject.

East Valley High seniors graduated June 10 in a ceremony at the Yakima Valley SunDome in Yakima. Friends and family believe if Kit would have stayed in the East Valley School District – the schools they attended most of their life – Kit would have graduated Saturday, too.

Amythist put a smiling photo of Kit on her cap and surrounded it with flowers. Amythist hoped that Kit would have graduated with her.

“You should be here with us, walking at graduation alongside us, being excited over the stupid cliche moments and sayings, and knowing everything you worked so hard towards is finally paying off,” she posted on Facebook the day before graduation with a photo of her cap. “But you will never get that moment. You will never get to wear your cap and gown, or hear your name called and your family scream in pride for you.

“This was all taken from you, this along with every other milestone that was bound for your future.”

Kit helped Amythist get to that point and she wanted to honor that. “They should graduate in some way,” she said.

Many risk factors

As an Indigenous person born female, Kit faces a higher risk of harm. Indigenous women and men experience violent crime at higher rates than the national average, and Native women and girls experience disproportionately high rates of sexual and gender-based violence, including intimate partner violence, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Kit also is at higher risk as a nonbinary person and member of the LGBTQ+ community. LGBTQ+ and two-spirit people in tribal communities are also often targets of violence, the Department of Justice said. Two-spirit people traditionally are male, female and sometimes intersexed individuals who combined activities of men and women with traits unique to their status as two-spirit people, according to the Indian Health Service.

And as a juvenile, Kit would be at higher risk of becoming a victim of human trafficking and other potentially deadly predators who target teens and children.

As the centurieslong international crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women has received greater attention in the last several years, families and advocates have spoken out for missing and murdered Indigenous people and LGBTQ+ and two-spirit people, who can be victims of homophobia and transphobia.

Charlotte Groo, Kit’s sister, is one of the administrators of the Finding Kit Facebook page and has been a strong advocate. Like Amythist, Charlotte has been thinking about the East Valley High graduation and wishing Kit had been there, walking with their friends and celebrating with their Yakima Valley family.

June is also Pride Month. Kit is nonbinary and “was asexual and aromantic last we knew, and very much a member of the LGBTQ+ community,” Charlotte said in a recent post on the Facebook page.

“Non-binary is a gender identity that falls under the ‘Trans’ umbrella (as a non-binary person doesn’t completely identify with their assigned at birth gender, but can be both femme and masc, on a deeper level than just clothing),” she wrote.

“While not all of you particularly agree with this, and not all of you fully understand what it means, I hope you can find it within yourselves to celebrate a little for Kit. To love those in your LGBTQ+ (circle) around you a little harder.”

‘Never really wanted to talk about it’

When Kit was 4 years old, they and two siblings were removed from their mother’s care and Kit joined the family of Bonnie and Charles Groo, Kit’s great-grandparents. Kit spent the next 12 years with the Groos, relishing visits to Burger King – one of Kit’s favorite places – and Mel’s Diner, a Groo family favorite. There were trips to Miner’s and time spent at Sarg Hubbard and Randall parks. Kit loves root beer.

Amythist and Kit liked hanging out at Yakima Sportsman State Park and exploring the trails behind Amythist’s house. Kit met another good friend, Kayla Shelton, in fourth grade. Inspired by anime and fantasy, Kit filled pages of notebooks with pencil drawings of favorite familiar animals along with creatures of their own making.

Kit didn’t remember much from their life before joining the Groo family, Amythist said, but “never really wanted to talk about it,” she added. “They were very nervous about anything that included physical touch,” she said.

After dating on and off for two years, Amythist and Kit broke up in their freshman year, Amythist said. Kit chose then to be asexual and aromantic, but the pair stayed “really good friends,” she added. That continued when Amythist began attending online school shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic began, and through the pandemic. They texted daily and kept up with each other’s lives in lengthy phone calls.

Back at East Valley High her junior year, Amythist still thought Omak was a temporary home for Kit. Though Kit was a junior at Omak High that fall, they had said they wanted to come back to East Valley High for their senior year. “They were like, ‘for sure I will be back for my senior year,’ ” Amythist said.

“School was really hard for them. Social situations made them anxious. But they were so passionate about school. They loved it.”

The last time Amythist talked to Kit was in September 2021 and their last social media communication was Nov. 5, 2021, she said. After that Amythist was getting no response from Kit on Facebook, she said.

Amythist tried to message Kit on Instagram. “I figured maybe they wanted to distance themselves from Yakima. I was getting a little worried,” she said. Her concern increased when Kayla asked, “You haven’t heard from them either?” She reached out to Charlotte and Bonnie.

In late November 2022, after Kit’s Yakima Valley family and friends had intensified their efforts to find them, a relative created a petition to have the FBI investigate Kit’s disappearance. The petition says the last social media post featuring a new photo of Kit was shared in Christmas 2021.

“This is the last proof of life we have,” the petition says.

Champions for Kit

Charlotte and her parents were there when Kit was born in Spokane and Bonnie got to hold Kit, Charlotte said. Kit is a descendant of the Penticton Indian Band, which is a First Nations government located near the city of Penticton in British Columbia, Canada, according to its website.

When Kit joined Charlotte and her parents at age 4, they bonded despite their six-year age difference. Charlotte looked out for Kit and tried to be a good role model. She and the extended Groo family welcomed and supported them and loved them unconditionally.

That continues stronger than ever. Her dad put up the $10,000 reward for information about Kit’s location or those responsible for Kit’s disappearance, Charlotte said.

Kit was reported as missing to the Omak Police Department in late September 2022. After requests for wellness checks and continuing questions for Omak law enforcement and school officials, the Groos and Amythist intensified their efforts to find Kit.

Amythist and her grandmother drove to Omak that month to ask around and stopped in the Omak Police Department, where they were told Kit was reported to have run away. They were skeptical.

“I told police I was worried they killed themself. Police were like, we can’t tell you much,” Amythist said. Police said they were told Kit ran off with an online girlfriend. “They were aromantic and asexual. They had no attraction to anyone,” she said.

As with many family and friends of missing people, Kit’s loved ones in the Yakima Valley were extremely concerned that authorities hadn’t done enough to investigate. They held a public vigil for Kit in Omak in late October 2022. They had the chance to meet and speak with the Omak and Colville Tribal Police chiefs about Kit’s disappearance.

The situation changed dramatically since then. Along with collaborating with Colville Tribal Police and the FBI, the Omak Police Department has shared Kit’s missing person flyer, with updated information about the reward. A detective has spoken with family and friends and keeps in regular contact with them, providing occasional updates.

“I was relieved that somebody was finally taking us seriously,” Amythist said.

She and others fear the worst but will never stop looking for Kit. A Missing Indigenous Person Alert was issued by Washington State Patrol for Kit and family and friends hope to see more funds added to the reward for information.

They will never stop loving Kit.

On April 22, Charlotte and other Finding Kit Facebook page administrators hosted an 18th birthday party for Kit. The day before, Kit’s biological father posted a poignant message to his child on social media.

“Kit if you see this please reach out,” he wrote. “We want to celebrate you and will come get you. Love Dad.”

Reach Tammy Ayer at tayer@yakimaherald.com.