The Federal Bureau of Investigation is offering up to $10,000 for information leading to the identification, arrest and conviction of anyone who might be responsible for the disappearance of an Indigenous woman in Washington state. Mary Johnson, who also goes by the last name Davis, was last seen traveling to a friend’s house last year.
The FBI said in its missing person flyer that Johnson, 40, was last seen walking along Firetrail Road on the Tulalip Reservation on November 25, 2020. She never made it to her destination, and she was not reported missing until December 9.
Johnson was a member of the Tulalip Tribes, her sister told CBS News. Her family put up a billboard on a local interstate following her disappearance, asking people to contact the Tulalip Tribal Police with any information, KING-TV reported.
“We don’t know where she’s at, if she’s dead or alive,” one of Johnson’s sisters, Gerry Davis, told KING-TV. “It’d just be nice to have her back.”
Johnson’s sisters were only made aware of her disappearance after Johnson’s estranged husband told them she had been gone longer than usual.
Tulalip Tribal Police Chief Chris Sutter told the outlet that the department knows of three people who saw Johnson on Firetrail Road the day she disappeared. The department’s phone record searches indicate she may have been transported to Oso, Washington, which is about 30 miles northeast of the reservation.
“But she never made it to her final destination,” Sutter told KING-5. “She was attempting to go visit some people who she knew in that area.”
Johnson’s missing person’s case, Sutter told the outlet, is not the only one in his department.
“You can talk to anybody who lives on a reservation and they know somebody who’s gone missing,” he said. “Unfortunately, too many of them are abused, exploited and murdered.”
CBS News has reached out to Tulalip Tribal Police for comment.
There are roughly 1,500 American Indian and Alaska Native missing persons included in the National Crime Information Center Database, according to the Department of the Interior.
In April, U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced the creation of a new Missing and Murdered Unit within the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office to help put the “full weight of the federal government into investigating these cases.”
“Violence against Indigenous peoples is a crisis that has been underfunded for decades. Far too often, murders and missing persons cases in Indian country go unsolved and unaddressed, leaving families and communities devastated,” she said in a press release. “The new MMU unit will provide the resources and leadership to prioritize these cases and coordinate resources to hold people accountable, keep our communities safe, and provide closure for families.”
