OR OR - Leona Kinsey, 45, La Grande, 25 Oct 1999

[theshadow45]

Leona has been missing for 24 years today.

 

[LucyOso]

Her nose is distinct. I can't find the UID right now, but remember seeing a UID with a very narrow nose as an identifying feature. I can visualize it, but can't see to find her in my searches.

 

[theshadow45]

Bumping, today is Leona’s birthday.

 

[Hestia's Fire]

I just finished listening to both parts of the Vanished podcast about Leona, and they made me so sad for her and her poor daughter. This case seems so solvable. I'm only a few hours away from La Grande, and putting it on my list of places to do some exploring this summer.

 

[Pennysmom1]

April 12, 2024

https://www.newsnationnow.com/missing/leona-kinsey-missing-cartel-ties/

<<Pena-Llamas was her drug dealer, police say, with ties to a Mexican cartel.

There was also at least one rumor around town that Kinsey was an informant or that she had a drug debt, possibly owed to a cartel. Carolyn DeFord, Kinsey’s daughter, said there had been a previous incident of vandalism.

“A couple weeks before she went missing, someone spray-painted the word ‘narc’ on the front of her home,” she said. “I just want the truth. Was it a drug debt? Was she an informant? What happened, how and why?”

Pena-Llamas spoke to police but denied harming Kinsey. He failed to show up later for a voluntary polygraph. Police said he was arrested on sex abuse charges in 2006, sent to prison and then deported to Mexico.

Days after Kinsey went missing, her vehicle was found at the Albertson’s parking lot. But the store manager told police it may have been moved to that location.

Ties to a Mexican cartel​

Now, police have revealed exclusively to NewsNation there’s another person they’re looking for.

“Leona’s best friend Nancy said that Leona got her drugs also from a person named Jose,” Hays told NewsNation. “Everybody that we talk to doesn’t know who Jose is. If he, too, is another drug supplier for her, it’s also reasonable to think he may have something to do with it. What I don’t know is, did Juan and Jose know each other?”


Pena-Llamas’ ex-wife told police that he had boasted that although he didn’t kill Kinsey, he had somebody do it. Police, search-and-rescue teams and cadaver dogs combed a hillside and pond about 35 miles from town and also searched a place where Pena-Llamas had sexually abused another woman, but they found nothing.

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  Leona Kinsey was involved with selling drugs, possibly in connection with a Mexican cartel. (Shayna Richard)Read More »
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  Leona Kinsey with her daughter, Carolyn DeFord, and her granddaughter. (Shayna Richard)Read More »
• 

Recently, the FBI was able to get proof that Pena-Llamas was alive and living in Manzanillo, Mexico. But because he is only a person of interest in the case, police can’t question him unless he crosses back into the U.S.

“If Leona’s disappearance has anything to do with the Mexican cartel, that is very problematic to me,” Hays said. “They do horrific things to make people disappear, like put them in acid vats and liquify their body and flush them down the drain.”

Leona Kinsey’s legacy​

DeFord said when she was just a little girl, she and her mother talked about how Kinsey wanted to be buried when she was gone.

“She said, I just want to go out to the woods and die naturally and let the beetles and the bugs and the coyotes feed their babies with my body,” DeFord said. “I was just disgusted, like no.”

But now, that memory is what gives her comfort as she continues to search for her mother.

“She’s likely on this hillside out there, according to rumors around town,” she said. “And there’s nowhere else she’d rather be. There are these beautiful mountains.”

Kinsey’s disappearance has left a profound influence on her daughter’s life. DeFord is a national advocate for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and People and a founder of Missing and Murdered Native Americans.>>

 

[Pennysmom1]

June 16, 2024

4-year-old Oregon report identifies missing Native American women as an ‘emergency’ — but progress has been limited

Main recommendations remain unfinished, governor has not read the report, and critics say Indigenous voices have been left out.

www.opb.org

LEONA KINSEY | Light the Way

MISSING: Leona Kinsey was last seen at her home on Hall Street in La Grande, Oregon on October 25, 1999.

www.lightthewaymissing.com

Leona Kinsey - Oregon Missing Person Directory

Details and Pictures of Leona Kinsey, Missing since October 1999

www.missingin.org

 

[Caring1]

No speculation as to whom the remains may belong to, only posting here to keep Leona’s post active and a reminder to follow up for results of DNA on these remains.

October 21, 2024

UNION COUNTY — Union County's Major Crimes Team is investigating the discovery of weathered human skeletal remains found outside La Grande on Sunday, Oct. 20.

Human remains found outside La Grande; county's Major Crimes Team investigates - La Grande Observer

UNION COUNTY — Union County’s Major Crimes Team is investigating the discovery of weathered human skeletal remains found outside La Grande on Sunday, Oct. 20. TrendingMembership-only sporting goods store opens in La GrandeLa Grande mom raising funds to replace son’s specialty bikeThe remains...

www.lagrandeobserver.com

 

[theshadow45]

Leona has been missing for 25 years today.

 

[butterfly69]

25 Years later there are still no answers regarding the disappearance of Leona Kinsey of La Grande - Elkhorn Media Group

LA GRANDE – Today marks the 25th Anniversary of the disappearance of Leona Kinsey of ...Read More

elkhornmediagroup.com

 

[victoriarobinson642]

She has very distinctive teeth.

 

[theshadow45]

Today is Leona’s birthday.

 

[Caring1]

No speculation as to whom the remains may belong to, only posting here to keep Leona’s post active and a reminder to follow up for results of DNA on these remains.

October 21, 2024

UNION COUNTY — Union County's Major Crimes Team is investigating the discovery of weathered human skeletal remains found outside La Grande on Sunday, Oct. 20.

Human remains found outside La Grande; county's Major Crimes Team investigates - La Grande Observer

UNION COUNTY — Union County’s Major Crimes Team is investigating the discovery of weathered human skeletal remains found outside La Grande on Sunday, Oct. 20. TrendingMembership-only sporting goods store opens in La GrandeLa Grande mom raising funds to replace son’s specialty bikeThe remains...

www.lagrandeobserver.com

According to Elkhorn Media article dated 2/26/25, the remains found in October outside of La Grande belong to an adult male between 25 and 45 years of age with an undetermined ethnicity, not yet identified.

Remains are not that of Leona Kinsey.

 

[Pennysmom1]

Leona Kinsey, Missing from Oregon since 1999.

A blog about the many missing, murdered, and unidentified Native/Indigenous/Aboriginal women of the United States and Canada. Say Their Names!

www.justicefornativepeople.com

Tribal information: Leona is described as "bi-racial/native american" and is a member of the Pallyup tribe. The tribe resides along the shores of the Puget Sound in Washington.