MISSING: Ashley Loring HeavyRunner
When 20-year-old Ashley Loring HeavyRunner goes missing on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana, her older sister Kimberly is forced to pick up the slack of a system that’s designed to fail those it’s supposed to protect. Her investigation leads her to three people who may know what happened to her sister…but none will talk.
For our friends in the Deaf and Signing community, you can view an ASL version of this episode.
Kimberly is still seeking justice for her sister and all missing and murdered indigenous women.
Episode Information:
If you want a deeper dive into Ashley Loring HeavyRunner’s case, check out Season 3 of Up and Vanished.
To learn more about The National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center, you can visit niwrc.org. And if you’d like to donate to this amazing organization, you can visit niwrc.org/donate.
We’d love to speak with you and see how we can support.
If you’re a law enforcement agency or family member of one of the people we mentioned in this episode, or if you’re looking for more coverage on a case, please reach out. You can email us at:
Episode Source Material
- Justice For Native People: Ashley Loring/HeavyRunner, Missing from Montana since 2017 by Mak.
- Montana Right Now/ABC FOX Montana: Blackfoot woman still missing #MMIW.
- Cut Bank Pioneer Press (Cut Bank, MT): Search continues for Ashley Loring Heavy Runner by John McGill.
- Montana Right Now/ABC FOX Montana: Blackfoot woman still missing after 3 months.
- ABC News: A family’s desperate search for a missing young woman highlights questions about justice on tribal lands by Evan Simon.
- Montana Right Now/ABC FOX Montana: Reward increased for missing Browning woman.
- Montana Public Radio (Missoula, MT): FBI Joins Search For Missing Blackfeet Woman by Nicky Ouellet.
- Flathead Beacon (Kalispell, MT): A Family’s Resilience by Justin Franz.
- Missoulian (Missoula, MT): Human remains sent to FBI lab from Blackfeet Indian Reservation for analysis by Seaborn Larson.
- Montana Public Radio (Missoula, MT): Human Remains Found In December Aren’t Ashley Loring HeavyRunner’s, FBI Says by Edward F. O’Brien.
- The Guardian: A young woman vanishes. The police can’t help. Her desperate family won’t give up by Kate Hodal.
- ABC News: No answers 2 years after 20-year-old student vanishes – a single case in an epidemic in American Native communities by Evan Simon, Jessica Hopper, and Allie Yang.
- Up and Vanished (podcast): Season 3 (episodes 1-12).
- Paramount+: Never Seen Again: Ashley Loring HeavyRunner (episode). Directed by Christopher Landon.
- United States Census Bureau: Total Population in Browning, Montana. 2020 Decennial Census.
- United States Senate Committee On Indian Affairs: Kimberly Loring Heavy Runner Testimony To The Senate Committee On Indian Affairs.
- Montana Right Now: Browning man admits murder, kidnapping on Blackfeet Indian Reservation.
Suggested Episodes
WANTED: Justice for Rhys Pocan & MMIW Part 2
In 2021, we set out to cover the case of Rhys Pocan, a 35-year-old Indigenous woman who was murdered in Wisconsin in the ‘80s. In Part 2, we look into cases of two other female dismemberment victims in Wisconsin with striking similarities to Rhys Pocan’s.
WANTED: Justice for Rhys Pocan & MMIW Part 1
In 2021, we set out to cover the case of Rhys Pocan, a 35-year-old Indigenous woman who was murdered in Wisconsin in the ‘80s. But while we were in the field, we uncovered a disturbing pattern of murders with similarities to Rhys’ that were just too blatant to ignore. So, we spent the next three years working with local and federal law enforcement to try and get to the bottom of it.
WANTED: The Keddie Cabin Killer
A family’s brutal murder rocks a tiny California town and leaves behind too many unanswered questions.
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