Found Deceased ND - Olivia Lone Bear, 32, New Town, 24 Oct 2017

[worldwatcher]

Thank you @KaaBoom

 

[worldwatcher]

Lone Bear family reacts to addition of BIA officer

 

[JerseyGirl]

On the Trail of Missing American Indian Women - The Atlantic

 

[worldwatcher]

On the Trail of Missing American Indian Women - The Atlantic

I hope a good protocol will be made,bounded with meetings,bringing awareness,sharing experiences on the search and that they will use /train search dogs
This is aweful what family's /loved ones have to endure...sad and heartbreaking

 

[JerseyGirl]

Native American Festival Raises Awareness of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women - KVRR Local News

 

[iulia]

No answers 1 year later in American Indian woman's death

[...]
On April 4, 2019, the office of Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem ruled that medical examiners acted properly in withholding medical records, since the case remains active.

A spokesperson for the FBI says that the investigation is still ongoing, and investigators do not want to jeopardize the case by releasing anything at this time.

They say they're doing this not only for the integrity of the case, but for the Lone Bear family so they can eventually find closure.

“Because it's ongoing, any comment about it could cause a chilling effect on future developments in this case, and additionally, any details made public now could significantly inhibit the family's pursuit of justice for Olivia,” said Kevin Smith, with FBI Public Affairs.
[...]

 

[mrz]

Native American woman, 32, found in submerged truck was strapped into passenger seat, court docs reveal Native American woman, 32, found in submerged truck was strapped into passenger seat, court docs reveal

 

[Force Ten]

Native American woman, 32, found in submerged truck was strapped into passenger seat, court docs reveal Native American woman, 32, found in submerged truck was strapped into passenger seat, court docs reveal

It's strange they held that detail back. I also didn't realize how far out the truck was. Either the truck was really flying or the water was a lot lower when it went in.

 

[Tippy Lynn]

Native American woman, 32, found in submerged truck was strapped into passenger seat, court docs reveal Native American woman, 32, found in submerged truck was strapped into passenger seat, court docs reveal

Has it been determined who's truck it was? Is there another body in the lake?
RIP Olivia

 

[Gardener1850]

Has it been determined who's truck it was? Is there another body in the lake?
RIP Olivia

I'm going by my memory of this case but I believe it was Olivia's truck (someone correct me if that is wrong). I'm going to read back in the thread and see if I can confirm that. When they first found her in her truck in the lake I thought it would be ruled an accident. But we didn't hear anything for so long... It's really quite surprising to find out she was belted into the passenger's seat. No one else is missing from the area from around the same time, as far as I know. This looks like foul play to me. MOO.

 

[Gardener1850]

Bringing forward some key pieces of MSM posted earlier in this thread:

Search for missing ND woman continues: 'The Bakken is a big place'

Two weeks after Olivia Lone Bear's disappearance, investigators handling the case are interviewing and re-interviewing people recorded on a video with the woman.

Three Affiliated Tribes Police Detective Sam Lincoln said there is one man in particular that he would like to talk with again.

"We talked to him on the phone late last week, but there's some information that's been brought to light so we want to visit with this individual in person and go through some detailed information," he said, declining to elaborate.

Authorities also will interview Lone Bear's family.

News | INFORUM

Updated Information in search for Olivia Lone Bear:

Updated information in search for Olivia Lone Bear

Family frustrated by lack of search efforts in Native America woman Olivia Lone Bear's disappearance

Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in New Town, North Dakota, her brother Matthew Lone Bear told Dateline. Olivia had five kids under the age of 14, after all, and they were her primary responsibility.

She was in-between jobs, so that’s all she did – take care of them,” Matthew told Dateline. “She stayed at the house and cooked dinner at night and got the kids to school in the morning.”

Matthew said Olivia, 32, loved being with her kids. Tragically, her youngest child, an infant, passed away. Matthew said Olivia didn’t seem depressed anymore, though, and didn’t show signs of obvious stress.

“The last time we saw Olivia, she was just herself,” Matthew told Dateline. “She was acting really outgoing and cooked dinner for the family. Just everyday things.”

Life was back to normal. But life was about to drastically change.

Family frustrated by lack of search efforts in Native America woman Olivia Lone Bear’s disappearance

From 11/29/17:

"We look at the case of Olivia Lone Bear, yet another Native American woman who has gone missing in the oil fields of North Dakota. We speak with her brother, Matthew Lone Bear, who is part of a daily search to look for his sister since she went missing on October 25 in New Town, North Dakota. Olivia Lone Bear is the mother of five children. We also speak with Mary Kathryn Nagle, a Cherokee writer and lawyer.

Transcript

This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: You’re talking about violence against women, and we’re joined now via Democracy Now! video stream by Matthew Lone Bear, brother of Olivia Lone Bear, who went missing October 25th in New Town, North Dakota. She’s the mother of five. Matthew is part of the daily ground search for his sister. The Bismarck Tribune reports Three Affiliated Tribes Chairman Mark Fox is talking to federal, state and tribal leaders about getting more support for the search. In addition to Mary Kathryn Nagle, we are joined now by Matt Lone Bear.

Can you tell us what you know about your sister?

MATTHEW LONE BEAR: She was outgoing, and, yeah, she liked to hang out at casinos and bars, and she also, you know, really cared for her children.

AMY GOODMAN: And do you know where she is?

MATTHEW LONE BEAR: No clue. We have been searching—this would be our 29th day. Yeah, we’ve—the last known video that we found, she’s going west on Main Street in New Town. It was taken off a bank camera. So that’s the most updated version that we have. And she still has a vehicle.

AMY GOODMAN: When you hear this story, Mary Kathryn Nagle, your thoughts? Certainly, Olivia Lone Bear is not the first Native American woman who has gone missing in North Dakota.

MARY KATHRYN NAGLE: No. And I just want to say, first and foremost, that, Matthew, my thoughts and prayers are with you and your entire family, and that no one should have to go through this. But, unfortunately, as you point out, Amy, this is all too common. And we have the highest rates across the United States, again, in Indian country, of violence, but in particular in North Dakota, where the rates of oil extraction have skyrocketed since 2005 in the Bakken oil boom.

As a result of that, over 100,000 men from outside of the state of North Dakota have moved to the state of North Dakota to live in man camps that the oil companies have set up. And, unfortunately, as Senator Heidi Heitkamp has noted, as the former U.S. attorney for the state of North Dakota has noted, the resulting rates of violence, drug, of course, and crime and burglary have skyrocketed, but also, in particular, domestic violence and sexual assault, including rape and sex trafficking.

And numerous leaders, both at the state and federal level, have now noticed that North Dakota—some of the towns in North Dakota within the Bakken boom and some within the Fort Berthold Reservation, where Olivia is from, now have some of the highest rates of sex trafficking in the United States.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Matthew Lone Bear, could you talk about how local authorities have been dealing with the disappearance of your sister? Do you feel that they are making this a priority?

MATTHEW LONE BEAR: Uh, no. I think there definitely needs to be a policy put into place here, definitely. We’re kind of all learning together right now. And, I mean, we still haven’t gotten any like water support from the local PD. But I think it’s all new to us altogether. So, there definitely needs to be a policy put into place.

AMY GOODMAN: And what are your—what is your family calling for now, Matthew?

MATTHEW LONE BEAR: We do still need water support. We do need people on the ground, definitely, because the Fort Berthold Reservation is over a million—or just about a million acres. So that’s a lot of ground to cover. The more people we can get in before the snow falls and before the lake freezes—you know, we want to get as much done as possible before then.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, I want to thank you both for being with us. Matthew Lone Bear, brother of Olivia Lone Bear, missing from New Town, North Dakota. We’ll continue to follow Olivia’s story. And Mary Kathryn Nagle, joining us from Oklahoma, a citizen of Cherokee Nation and a partner at the Pipestem law firm, dedicated to the restoration of tribal sovereignty and jurisdiction."

"On October 24, 2017, Olivia went to the local Sportsman’s Bar with friends. According to a release by the Three Affiliated Tribes Police Department (TATPD), Olivia was last seen leaving the bar in a teal Chevy Silverado 2500 HD LT with the North Dakota license plate 839-BRC; Matthew said he was asked not to comment on whether she was alone when she left, because it’s an open and active investigation.

Matthew says it seems that Olivia did come home after leaving Sportsman’s, though. He told Dateline that family members later found her cell phone, wallet, and money at her home on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. In the home, family also found the items of clothing Olivia was last seen wearing."

Matthew Lone Bear spent nine months looking for his older sister, Olivia — using drones and four-wheelers, fending off snakes and crisscrossing nearly a million acres, often on foot. The 32-year-old mother of five had last been seen driving a Chevy Silverado on Oct. 25, 2017, in downtown New Town, on the oil-rich terrain of North Dakota's Fort Berthold Reservation.

On July 31, volunteers using sonar found the truck with Olivia inside submerged in a lake less than a mile from her home. It's a body of water that had been searched before, her brother says, but "obviously not as thoroughly, or they would have found it a long time ago."

Lone Bear says authorities were slow in launching their search — it took days to get underway — and didn't get boats in the water until December, despite his frequent pleas. He's working to develop a protocol for missing person cases for North Dakota's tribes "that gets the red tape and bureaucracy out of the way," he says.

The FBI is investigating Olivia's death.


Montana woman's disappearance 1 of many Native American women missing or dead

From the above MSM posts we learn:
- There were people recorded on video with Olivia the last time she was seen.
- There was a man they wanted to talk to again early on in the case.
- Olivia had 5 kids under the age of 14.
- She was between jobs but stayed home to take care of her family and had cooked dinner for family when last seen.
- She had lost one of her children, an infant, recently but was not showing signs of depression over it.
- She was outgoing and she liked to hang out at casinos and bars.
- The last known video of Olivia found, she's going west (in the truck) on Main Street in New Town. It was taken off a bank camera.
- Olivia went to the local Sportsman's Bar with friends.
- Olivia was last seen leaving the bar in a teal Chevy Silverado 2500 HD LT with the North Dakota license plate 839-BRC.
- Her brother said he was asked not to comment on whether she was alone when she left the bar, because it's an open and active investigation.
- It seems that Olivia did come home after leaving Sportsman's bar; family members later found her cell phone, wallet, and money at her home on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation.
- In the home, family also found the items of clothing Olivia was last seen wearing.
- She was last seen driving the truck
- Volunteers using sonar found the truck with Olivia inside submerged in a lake less than a mile from her home. It's a body of water that had been searched before.
- The FBI is investigating Olivia's death.

(I did not find confirmation that it was her truck but she was said to be driving it).

 

[Tippy Lynn]

Bringing forward some key pieces of MSM posted earlier in this thread:













From the above MSM posts we learn:
- There were people recorded on video with Olivia the last time she was seen.
- There was a man they wanted to talk to again early on in the case.
- Olivia had 5 kids under the age of 14.
- She was between jobs but stayed home to take care of her family and had cooked dinner for family when last seen.
- She had lost one of her children, an infant, recently but was not showing signs of depression over it.
- She was outgoing and she liked to hang out at casinos and bars.
- The last known video of Olivia found, she's going west (in the truck) on Main Street in New Town. It was taken off a bank camera.
- Olivia went to the local Sportsman's Bar with friends.
- Olivia was last seen leaving the bar in a teal Chevy Silverado 2500 HD LT with the North Dakota license plate 839-BRC.
- Her brother said he was asked not to comment on whether she was alone when she left the bar, because it's an open and active investigation.
- It seems that Olivia did come home after leaving Sportsman's bar; family members later found her cell phone, wallet, and money at her home on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation.
- In the home, family also found the items of clothing Olivia was last seen wearing.
- She was last seen driving the truck
- Volunteers using sonar found the truck with Olivia inside submerged in a lake less than a mile from her home. It's a body of water that had been searched before.
- The FBI is investigating Olivia's death.

(I did not find confirmation that it was her truck but she was said to be driving it).

Thanks for all the info. Seems odd that an autopsy failed to determine the cause of death. If Olivia was found seat belted into a submerged truck I would think that an autopsy would reveal drowning as a cause of death.

 

[Tripod]

This certainly IS surprising new info. Why do you think it's taken so long for LE to release it? I'm sure the standard answer would be that investigations can take a very long time.

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Countless women have been victims of similar, less high-profile cases, but Lonebear’s death exposed the reality in which Native American women and girls live – what the former North Dakota senator Heidi Heitkamp called a “hidden epidemic”. The facts are dire. Native American women and girls are sexually assaulted and targeted at rates far greater than other American women, and they are 10 times more likely to be murdered.

In 2015, the Canadian government announced a national inquiry into the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls (MMIWG). In June, the commissioners found the state responsible for “a race-based genocide”. The treatment of Indigenous women is no less alarming across the border: while Canada collects some data, the US federal government does not track how many people like Lonebear go missing or turn up murdered.

Twenty-three-year-old Heather Belgrade, Lonebear’s cousin who lives across the border in north-eastern Montana, has also been grieving the death of her best friend Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind, who was brutally murdered in 2017. The case helped to bring about Savanna’s Act, which enacted a set of reforms in how law enforcement agencies deal with cases of missing and murdered Native Americans.
A well of grief: the relatives of murdered Native women speak out

 

[CastlesBurning]

A look at the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women featured in Dateline NBC’s Missing in America and Cold Case Spotlight

Olivia Lone Bear, a 32-year-old mother of five, vanished from the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, in New Town, North Dakota, on October 24, 2017. She had been out with friends at the Sportsman’s Bar, and was last seen leaving the bar in a teal Chevy Silverado 2500 HD LT.

Her brother, Matthew, told Dateline in 2018, that it did appear Olivia came home after leaving Sportsman’s, adding that family members later found her cell phone, wallet, and money at her home on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. In the home, family also found the items of clothing Olivia was last seen wearing.

After Olivia hadn’t responded to phone calls for two days, her family reported her missing to authorities, which sparked several widespread searches of the reservation and much of western North Dakota. On July 31, 2018, Olivia’s truck was discovered submerged in Lake Sakakawea on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation. Her body was in the passenger seat, with the seat belt securing her in place. An autopsy was conducted and a cause of death was ruled undetermined.

The FBI is seeking more information in this case and is offering a reward of up to $10,000 for information that leads to the identification of those responsible for Olivia’s disappearance and death. Anyone with information is urged to call 800-CALLFBI (800-225-5324) or file tips at https://tips.fbi.gov.

 

[evilwise]

I'm happy to see more appropriate amounts of scrutiny in these cases of missing indigenous women but this strikes me as an accident. An accident in which the person responsible did not want to come forward with details but an accident none the less. Fleeing the scene of drunk driving accidents is a common MO in many indigenous communities.

 

[MsMarple]

I'm following Kiely Rodni's case and while I'm glad to see the attention it garnered from LE and the community the sharp contrast of Olivia's case where her family had to fight for searching for her makes me so sad. And now it's 2022 and still no answers to what happened to Olivia. How did she end up in the passenger seat?

After months of basically ignoring Olivia's disappearance it finally took some guy and his little boat equipped with sonar to spot her truck and get LE interested enough to investigate. Is it too little too late?

Don't indigenous women deserve the same attention from LE and the community when they go missing as Kiely received? Where are the updates? Nothing since 2021. Accident or foul play her family deserves to know what happened. Sigh.

MEDIA ADVISORY - U.S. Attorney and FBI Leadership Brief Family of Olivia Lone Bear on Death Investigation

www.justice.gov

 

[cnmccarthy]

https://kfgo.com/2023/07/30/860502/

“Recently unsealed court records show that in May of 2022, FBI agents applied for and were granted a search warrant for Google location history data, for any pings from electronic devices that may have been in the area of the boat landing and shoreline near where Lone Bear’s body was found the night she disappeared “to investigate the disappearance and possible homicide of Olivia Lone Bear.”

 

[MsMarple]

https://kfgo.com/2023/07/30/860502/

“Recently unsealed court records show that in May of 2022, FBI agents applied for and were granted a search warrant for Google location history data, for any pings from electronic devices that may have been in the area of the boat landing and shoreline near where Lone Bear’s body was found the night she disappeared “to investigate the disappearance and possible homicide of Olivia Lone Bear.”

It’s about time.

 

[Force Ten]

https://kfgo.com/2023/07/30/860502/

“Recently unsealed court records show that in May of 2022, FBI agents applied for and were granted a search warrant for Google location history data, for any pings from electronic devices that may have been in the area of the boat landing and shoreline near where Lone Bear’s body was found the night she disappeared “to investigate the disappearance and possible homicide of Olivia Lone Bear.”

Even by that time it’s far too long time gone. This should have been done when they found her.