Found Deceased SD - Michelle Elbow Shield, 26, Rapid City, Oct 2023

[citizen_sleuth]

Police seek Pine Ridge woman missing since October

Pine Ridge woman has been missing since October and several law enforcement agencies are involved in the investigation.

www.kotatv.com

Rapid City police ask for the public’s help in finding a 26-year-old woman from Pine Ridge.

Michelle Elbow Shield was last seen in the Rapid City area sometime in early October. In mid-December, the Oglala Sioux Tribe Department of Public Safety notified the Rapid City Police Department of their investigation into Elbow Shield’s disappearance.

According to a Rapid City Police Department release, numerous leads have been worked to locate Elbow Shield. Detectives are working with the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ specialized Missing and Murdered Unit, the OST Department of Public Safety, and the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office.

Anyone with any information about her whereabouts should contact Det. Mackenzie Armstrong at 605-394-4134 or BIA Special Agent Savannah Peterson at 505-221-0974. An anonymous tip can also be submitted by texting the letters ‘RCPD’ and the information to 847411.

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

By bringing people, information, forensic science and technology together, NamUs helps resolve cases.

www.namus.gov

 

[PommyMommy]

OCT 31, 2024

https://www.keloland.com/news/local-news/5000-reward-in-missing-woman-case/

The $5,000 reward is for identification, arrest and conviction of the individuals involved.

“We know somebody out there knows what happened, where she’s at or the circumstances on why she’s disappeared. And we’re hoping that the $5,000 is some incentive to come forward with the information,” Sigel said.

 

[truthfinder2019]

Michelle Elbow Shield

Remains were recovered and the case remains an ongoing investigation.

www.bia.gov

Michelle Jade Elbow Shield, dob 09/27/1997

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[truthfinder2019]

She goes by Shelly Jade

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[mlhenn]

Michelle Jade Elbow Shield – The Charley Project

Michelle Jade Elbow Shield​

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Details of Disappearance​

Elbow Shield was last seen in Rapid City, South Dakota on October 6, 2023. She has never been heard from again. She was not reported missing until December 10, two months after her disappearance. Few details are available in her case.

 

[GraceG]

In 2020 she was sentenced to prison time with 2 years supervised release afterward for lying to FBI agents in regards to an assault investigation (and the FBI usually doesn't get involved in assault cases unless something else deeper is involved , such as drug trafficking or violent crime related to gangs, IMO). Rapid City Woman Sentenced for False Statement She was turned over to the US Marshalls at that time, probably where there isn't anything in local/county government records as it was done at the federal level. If she lied, she was either protecting herself or protecting a criminal(s), both of which could have put her at risk on her release.

 

[truthfinder2019]

No news…

Reward offered for information in missing persons case

The Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Rapid City Police Department offer a $5,000 reward for information that aids in finding Michelle Elbow Shield.

www.sdpb.org

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Elbow Shield's body was discovered on the state's Pine Ridge Reservation in January, according to the forensics laboratory that helped solve her case and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The Sioux woman from Pine Ridge went missing in September 2023 and the BIA created a profile for Elbow Shield in the wake of her disappearance.

Sioux woman found dead on South Dakota reservation more than a year after going missing

Sioux woman Michelle Elbow Shield's remains were identified using advanced DNA tests, more than a year after she went missing in South Dakota.

www.cbsnews.com

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Investigators with the Rapid City Police Department recovered a woman’s remains in January but she could not be immediately identified, forensics lab Othram, Inc. said in a news release. Rapid City police partnered with the BIA’s missing and murdered unit to determine whether advanced DNA testing, which Othram performs to assist law enforcement agencies around the U.S. with unsolved cases, would lead somewhere.

The lab said its scientists were able to locate a potential relative of Elbow Shield using an analysis technique called forensic-grade genome sequencing, where DNA profiles are built out from a sample of crime scene evidence. A direct DNA sample later provided by the relative allowed investigators to confirm the biological match and confirm Elbow Shield’s identity, according to Othram.

https://www.wsgw.com/missing-woman-found-dead-on-south-dakota-reservation-after-over-a-year/

 

[jillolantern]

and the FBI usually doesn't get involved in assault cases unless something else deeper is involved

Is this true if the crime occurred on a reservation?

 

[GraceG]

Is this true if the crime occurred on a reservation?

Yes, and I should have clarified earlier that they don't investigate the average assault (which statisfically are often misdomeaners). If it's a violent assault (felony) the FBI can investigate a crime if asked by local LE to assist. As to your question, under federal law, the FBI has primary jurisdiction to investigate major crimes on nearly 200 reservations, like murders, kidnappings, physical and sexual abuse of children, and violent assaults. www.fbi.gov

 

[bluestsocks]

Investigators with the Rapid City Police Department recovered a woman’s remains in January but she could not be immediately identified, forensics lab Othram, Inc. said in a news release. Rapid City police partnered with the BIA’s missing and murdered unit to determine whether advanced DNA testing, which Othram performs to assist law enforcement agencies around the U.S. with unsolved cases, would lead somewhere.

The lab said its scientists were able to locate a potential relative of Elbow Shield using an analysis technique called forensic-grade genome sequencing, where DNA profiles are built out from a sample of crime scene evidence. A direct DNA sample later provided by the relative allowed investigators to confirm the biological match and confirm Elbow Shield’s identity, according to Othram.

https://www.wsgw.com/missing-woman-found-dead-on-south-dakota-reservation-after-over-a-year/

I’m having trouble following this. If they knew they had a missing woman reported by the tribal police in December to them, and they found remains, why didn’t they just immediately do a direct DNA comparison? That seems like it would have been easier. I’m sure I’m missing something though because a lot of these terms are over my head!

 

[GraceG]

I’m having trouble following this. If they knew they had a missing woman reported by the tribal police in December to them, and they found remains, why didn’t they just immediately do a direct DNA comparison? That seems like it would have been easier. I’m sure I’m missing something though because a lot of these terms are over my head!

Likely because they didn't have a direct DNA sample. Contrary to what you see on TV, you can't just take a hair from someone's hairbrush (assuming they left one at home or in a purse) and get a DNA match quickly.
Human hair contains two types of DNA. Nuclear DNA is found in the tissue at the root of a strand of hair while mitochondrial DNA is found in the shaft of hair itself. I'll try and explain (but if you are a science geek this is a good reference: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1872497314001689

Nuclear DNA analysis can be a great identifying tool, but it doesn't work great when you are screening through a ton of evidence to identify hairs of interest. That's where forensic scientists get into microscopic analysis as it is much better suited to distinguishing between a hair or, for example, a fabric (textile) fiber, an animal hair or a human hair, a head hair or a pubic hair, a hair from differing racial groupings, and a forcibly removed hair or a naturally shed hair.

Microscopic examination also may contribute contextual information regarding the hair in question that may be vitally importing in solving a case. For example (NOT a real life example, just a "what if") in a case where a husband is accused of bludgeoning his wife with a hammer, finding a hair on the hammer that can be microscopically linked with the victim would likely be of limited significance. BUT - if the hair also exhibits microscopic characteristics of being damaged and how so (crushing for example), the significance of that link increases greatly. Similarly, finding hairs that can be microscopically associated with a victim in the trunk of her spouse’s car would not be unusual unless these hairs also exhibited signs of decomposition, showing that they were deposited AFTER the victim’s death.

One of the limiting factors with performing STR analysis (that stands for Short Tandem Repeat (STR) analysis of hair which can identify a person by analyzing the DNA in hair roots) on hairs recovered in an active case rests in the fact that most of the hairs obtained are shed naturally and contain little nuclear DNA-containing tissue. Naturally shed hairs typically do not provide sufficient amounts of nuclear DNA for analysis.

So just having a hairbrush or comb with hair(s) in it doesn't mean you'll get a DNA match quickly.

 

[imstilla.grandma]

The remains of Michelle Elbow Shield were found in the town of Interior on the Pine Ridge Reservation in January, forensics lab Othram said in a statement.

Human Remains Found on South Dakota Reservation Identified as Sioux Woman Who Disappeared Over 1 Year Ago

Michelle Elbow Shield was last seen in Rapid City in October 2023, officials said

www.yahoo.com

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Othram has already helped bring some answers to the family of Michelle Elbow Shield after she went missing from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota in September 2023. Her relatives were informed last week that remains recently recovered belong to the young woman known to her loved ones as “Shelly.”

“My sister was the kindest, gentlest person to all who knew her. She was our spark of sunshine in our lives,” family member Rena Returns From Scout said in a February 14 social media post shared by the Oglala Sioux Tribe Victim Services Program.

The BIA turned to Othram in order to identify the remains of a Native woman that were discovered on the reservation in January. Due to the condition of the body, additional work was needed to confirm who they belonged to. According to Kristen Mittelman, Chief Business Development Officer at Othram, the company utilized advanced technology to develop a genetic profile of the woman. During the course of the investigation, a potential relative was identified — and that person provided a DNA sample that was used to confirm Elbow Shield’s identity.

“We have built methods that are more sensitive and allow us to be able to get an answer on someone’s identity even when other methods have failed,” Mittelman, who has a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology, said in an interview on Thursday. “That’s really important to us because we feel like everyone deserves their name back and their identity back.”

“No one should be left nameless because they were the victim of a crime,” said Mittleman, whose company launched in late 2018.

“When we first started, we worked mostly cold cases and now we’re working a lot of contemporary cases,” Mittleman told Indianz.Com.

“And we’re able to, you know, help identify these perpetrators and get them off the street before they commit that next crime, which is huge because you’re protecting that next victim from from becoming a victim,” Mittleman sai

Bureau of Indian Affairs turns to new technology to help solve missing and murdered cases

Amid widespread terminations of its employees, the Bureau of Indian Affairs is trying to put the focus back on a critical issue facing tribes and their communities.

indianz.com

 

[Darling136]

Do we have any information on the remains that could indicate what happened to her?