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October 6, 2023 18 mins

We're sharing the disturbing accounts of five Montana Indigenous people—Diane MedicineHorse, and Amy Marie Johnson, Jody Fern Howard, Leo Wagner, and Ashley HeavyRunner Loring, who were tragically ripped away from their families in the early 1980s. Their unresolved cases reveal uncomfortable truths about the efforts, or lack thereof, of authorities like the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Montana Department of Justice, leaving their families with more questions than answers. 

The alarming trend of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People in Montana is a chilling truth we all need to confront. By shedding light on these stories, we hope to draw attention to this ongoing issue. We encourage you to delve deeper into this reality—check out documentaries such as Murder in Bighorn and others like it to learn more about the severity of this crisis.

For images related to the cases, check out the Instagram.

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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hiya, this is Julia and murder is bad.
On this episode about missingand murdered Indigenous persons,

(00:23):
I'll be covering cases comingout of Montana.
Diane Medicine Horse was lastseen on September 28, 1981.
She was dropping off herdaughter, natasha Rondo, to her
father, henry Rondo, who hadbeen staying with his brother,
tim, in Crow Agency, montana.

(00:44):
She got into her white car andwas never seen again.
She was 26 years old.
Diane also had a son who wasliving with his grandmother in
Glendale, washington because shesaw the troubles in the
household.
Diane dealt with trauma andstresses, with drinking and not

(01:06):
staying put for too long.
Her disappearance was notimmediately reported because of
those kinds of behaviors but hersisters did report her missing.
When Diane didn't show up toher mother's funeral, the Bureau
of Indian Affairs looked into afew tips.

(01:29):
They checked a drug treatmentfacility in Glendale Washington.
They looked in for Birthold,north Dakota, and followed a tip
that she had been buried in abasement in Lodgrass, montana.
Those were all dead ends.
When Natasha was young she wastold that her mother had
wandered far and hadn't foundher way home yet.

(01:50):
Quote they say I'm just likeher, small, we're both small.
They call me tiny.
When my father heard that hegot watery eyes.
He said let me tell yousomething, girl.
Did you know your mother's namewas tiny?
If you have any informationabout Diane Medicine Horse, you

(02:13):
can contact Special Agent JoseFigueroa of the Bureau of Indian
Affairs at 406-638-2632.
24-year-old Amy Marie Johnsonwent missing on May 16, 1986.
She was last seen in downtownLivingston, montana.

(02:36):
Amy was born on the FlatheadReservation on September 4, 1961
and was adopted soon after byCliff and Peg Johnson.
Amy Marie was the fourth offive adopted children for the
Johnsons and four of the fivechildren were Indigenous.
They were raised in theCatholic Church in Livingston.

(03:00):
Her brother, chris, saidLivingston didn't like dark
people.
It was a very prejudiced townand still is.
When Amy was growing up she wasdescribed as reserved, shy,
caring and artistic.
One of her neighbors, agnesSchaefer, said I thought she was

(03:20):
one of the most beautiful girlsI had ever seen and she was so
sweet and shy.
And, sad to say, I don't thinkI ever told her so.
School was hard for Amy, assomeone who struggled with
confidence.
This would cause her grades tosuffer, which steeped her in
stress and lack of sleep.

(03:41):
She started to experiment withalcohol and drugs as a teenager.
After graduating high school,amy continued to spiral into
heavy drug use and was exploitedby people who preyed on the
downtrodden.
Her brother, chris, said Amymade some bad choices, but I
don't think she was mentallyprepared to understand what she

(04:04):
was choosing.
Amy had children with severalpeople, most of who were set to
prison for violent crimes.
She herself had been beaten byan ex-boyfriend who hit her in
the face with a shovel.
Amy permitted her children tobe removed and adopted out.
When she drank she would getaggressive and mean spirited.

(04:27):
At times she would take onanother persona she called JoJo,
but in the spring of 1986, theywere promising signs that Amy
was starting to make differentchoices for herself, which, if
you start making better choicesfor yourself or you retire or
something like that, just beprepared for terrible things to
happen to you, I guess, is thelessons we've learned.

(04:48):
She was working as a certifiednursing assistant at Livingston
Health Care and had a newbornchild at home that she was
determined to keep and support.
At the time Amy was roommateswith her childhood friend, mary
Guana.
Mary said she was a good personwho was full of laughter.
She could make up a story justlike that when we were not

(05:13):
everyone's cup of tea.
We would be considered whatmost people would call lower
class people.
But you know what?
We didn't care.
Amy was tribal and dark-skinnedand I'm Mexican, and I guess
that's why we fell intofriendship with each other.
On the night of Friday, may 16th1986, amy was excited about a

(05:33):
date.
Mary had agreed to babysit forAmy as long as she was back by
the next morning.
Mary was a little concernedbecause she had never met the
guy Amy was going out with, butshe agreed anyways.
That was the last time shespoke to or saw Amy.
Amy left her baby girl and allof her belongings, including an

(05:58):
uncashed welfare check.
She was supposed to have dinnerthe next night with her parents
, but she never showed up.
Authorities suspected that shehad been murdered.
Livingston Police Captain SteveMcCann confirmed that Amy was
seen with a former boyfriend,ron Phillips, the evening of her

(06:19):
disappearance.
Phillips said that he haddropped her off downtown that
night after they had drivenaround a while.
A sighting was reported sixdays later in a bar at Gardner,
which was 50 miles to the south,but it was never verified to be
her.
But the lead soon went cold.
The Johnsons eventually turnedAmy's child over to Child

(06:42):
Protective Services to beadopted before moving to be
closer to Amy's siblings.
Both parents have since passedaway.
In the early 2000s a manadmitted to police that he knew
where Amy's body was.
He took them to a craggymountainous area where he
claimed her remains had beenstored.

(07:02):
The man denied having beeninvolved in her murder but said
he was forced to participate inthe disposal of her body.
They didn't find Amy and nocharges were filed.
Phillips said the Department ofJustice and Helena is supposed
to be the overseer and auditingall of these people.

(07:23):
Why does Livingston have somany unsolved homicides and
suspicious deaths and most otherplaces don't have any?
Amy wasn't one of Livingston'smodel residents, but doesn't her
family have the right to learnof her whereabouts?
If you have any informationabout Amy Marie Johnson, you can

(07:45):
contact AJ Leonard Knudsen ofthe Montana Department of
Justice at 406-444-3874.
Jody Fern Howard was 28 yearsold when she went missing after
being seen at a gas station onthe Fort Peck Reservation in

(08:06):
Wolf Point, montana.
Jody was last seen at the TownPump gas station on October 7,
1991.
Jodi was a mother of four boysand was extremely close to her
family, especially her threebrothers and her sister.
She was always in contact withfamily members and saw them
almost every other day.

(08:27):
They described her as outgoingand friendly.
The original investigatorassigned to Jodi's case, nelson
Hart, had always suspected foulplay for the simple fact that
the funds in her tribal bankaccount had never been touched.
Others followed leads andsightings but never found Jodi.

(08:47):
A rumor had started tocirculate that Jodi had been
murdered and dumped into theBrockton Lagoon near Poplar
Montana, and in 1995, the lagoonwas drained, but they didn't
find Jodi.
If you have any informationabout Jodi Fern Howard, please
contact under Sheriff JohnSummers at 406-653-6230.

(09:17):
Leo Wagner went missing on April27, 2021, at the age of 26.
He was last seen by family andfriends near the St Mary and Bab
areas east of Glacier NationalPark.
Authorities have received acall about a possibly
intoxicated man walking near thebanks of St Mary Lake and in a

(09:41):
second call the same man wasseen walking north on West Shore
Road with an injured arm.
They couldn't find that manbelieved to be Leo when they
checked that area.
Those areas were searched againon May 1 of that year.
The next day, a cabin wasburglarized.

(10:02):
When the scene was searched,clothes and items thought to
belong to Leo were found.
On the clothes.
There was evidence that Leo hadbeen severely injured.
Search efforts were scaled backa week later.
Leo's sister, mikaela, said ourfamily literally fell apart.

(10:22):
Leo was described as awell-loved father of five.
He helped at the family ranchoutside of Browning and was also
a boxer.
His father, bill, said he wasthe jokester of the family and
always had everybody laughing.
The family conducted their ownsearches and hired a

(10:42):
professional to search St MaryLake.
They were able to find a shoeand some more blood evidence
around the same cabin.
Bill said that they wantedjustice but haven't gotten any
answers.
The cases were transferred tothe BIA in the summer of 2022.
They told the family that hiscase was ongoing, but the family

(11:05):
hadn't heard anything in abouta year.
Mikaela said they care, butit's not their top priority.
If you know anything about LeoWagner, please contact the
Blackfeet Tribal Law EnforcementAgency at 406-338-400.

(11:31):
On June 5th 2017, 20-year-oldAshley Mariah, heavy runner
luring, went missing afterattending a party on the
Blackfeet Reservation inNorthwest Montana.
She had packed a change ofclothes in her blue pool string
backpack before a friend pickedher up to take her into Browning

(11:51):
for a party.
That night.
Ashley texted her 25-year-oldsister, kimberly, to ask for
some money.
She responded that she couldn'tbecause she was in Africa.
She was visiting her fiance inMorocco.
Kimberly didn't immediatelyhear from Ashley when she
returned to Montana, but itwasn't unusual for Ashley to

(12:12):
lose track of her phone.
After a week passed and theirill father was hospitalized for
liver failure.
Kimberly immediately started topanic.
Kimberly and Ashley had plansto move to Missoula together.
They were extremely close toeach other and their family, and
that made it even moredifficult.

(12:32):
When Ashley was reportedmissing to the Tribal Police
Force, which included federalagents from the BIA, kimberly
said no one took it seriously.
They just said she's of age,she can leave when she wants to.
When we talk to other familieswhose girls went missing, they
say that's what they got fromlaw enforcement too.
It's not a proper response.

(12:56):
Two weeks after Ashley was lastseen, a tip came in.
A young woman was seen runningfrom a car on an empty stretch
of Route 89.
All that was around that areawere swamps on either side, some
dense forest and an occasionaltrailer or two.
A three-day search wasorganized but didn't turn up

(13:18):
anything.
A grey sweater, believed to beAshley's, was found in a dump,
but before any testing could bedone it was misplaced by
authorities.
According to Kimberly, it tookthose same authorities two
months to start their officialinvestigation and by then the
lead investigator had started arelationship with one of the

(13:41):
main suspects.
Quote it was ridiculous.
One of the officers actuallyapologized to me.
He said he's sorry about mysister and that he was working
overtime on the case, but thatnobody was taking it seriously.
People in Browning know exactlywhat happened to my sister and

(14:01):
where she's at, but they're notspeaking up because law
enforcement ruined her case.
This was when Kimberly tookthings into her own hands.
She started to scour mountainsand ravines.
She dug up freshly moved dirtpiles.
She studied bones and talked toanyone who had anything to say,
no matter how implausible orgruesome.

(14:24):
There's also a story about howshe basically had to fend off a
bear during one of her searches.
Kimberly said every day is anightmare.
We don't know what reallyhappened to her.
There's rumors about her beinghurt and her body put places,
being all cut up and scatteredon the mountain.

(14:44):
That's why I search for her.
That's why I go out in themountains and look.
I don't want my baby sisterlaying out there alone.
Ashley's childhood friend, ericaDenny, described her as strong
spiritually, emotionally,mentally, physically.
Erica said she'd stick up forpeople.

(15:05):
If someone was getting bulliedor if she saw something that was
wrong, she would come out andtell you Ashley's father, a
former firefighter who was inthe hospital when she initially
went missing.
Roy Heavy Runner said thatwhoever had a hand in her
disappearance is likely still onthe reservation.

(15:26):
Several leads kept takinginvestigators off the
reservation and even out of thestate, so the FBI eventually
took over Ashley's case.
After this transition, ashley'sgrey sweater was located and
sent off for testing, but thatwas in 2019.

(15:46):
There hasn't been any movementin her case.
Erica said all of a suddenshe's just missing.
She didn't even get to see her21st birthday.
She had plans, she had goalsand someone took that from her.
Kimberly agreed.
She said my sister is abeautiful, intelligent young

(16:06):
woman who has goals and dreams.
A missing and murderedIndigenous woman was not one of
them.
If you have any informationabout Ashley's disappearance,
please contact Blackfeet TribalAgent Josh Byrd at 406-338-400.
There's not much else to say.

(16:32):
It's just horrendous that anentire population has basically
been kept silent.
There's this crazy statisticthat I'm sure is echoed in a lot
of states, but of Montana'spopulation, indigenous people

(16:52):
make up about 6%, but Indigenouspeople make up 22% of the
murders.
That is just mathematicallyunacceptable, not to mention all
these stories coming out.
I know there's a series thatrecently came out, I think, on

(17:16):
Showtime, called Murder inBighorn takes place in Montana
and they cover three cases ofmissing or murdered women and
definitely give that a watch.
There's a similar one ondifferent channels like
Investigation, discovery andstuff.
Thank you for listening.

(17:37):
Take care of each other andremember murder is bad.
Amentideorg.
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