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It was the winter of 2021 when Philbert Shorty’s family found their abandoned car stuck in the mud outside the small community of Tsaile, near the Arizona-New Mexico state line. “We knew something had happened from the beginning,” said his uncle, Ben Shorty. “We couldn’t find any answers.”
Relatives reported the disappearance of the 44-year-old man. And for the next two years, they searched, trekking through remote canyons in the Navajo Nation, placing ads on the radio and posting on social media in hopes of uncovering some clues.
The efforts produced nothing. They had no way of knowing that he had been killed more than a week before they reported him missing.
They remained unconscious even as U.S. prosecutors finalized a plea deal last summer with Shiloh Aaron Oldrock, who was charged in connection with Shorty’s death as a result of a separate investigation into the murder and beheading of Oldrock’s uncle. The 30-year-old Fargo, North Dakota, man told authorities that his uncle had threatened to kill him during an alcohol-fueled fight that occurred eight months after the couple conspired to cover up Shorty’s death by dismembering and burning his body on January 29. , 2021.
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In both cases, Oldrock told investigators, a night of heavy drinking and fighting ended in death at his uncle’s home near Navajo, New Mexico.
The details of this story are more gruesome than most. However, for those living in Indian Country, the underlying elements of the tragedy are all too familiar. Generations of unaddressed trauma combine with substance abuse to create a dangerous recipe that often ends in violence, and police resources and social support programs are too scarce to offer much help.
Shorty’s story is one of many in the United States and Canada, where high rates of missing people and unsolved murders involving Indigenous people have captured the attention of policymakers at the highest levels.
In 2019, former President Donald Trump signed an executive order establishing a task force. Congress followed in 2020 by passing two key laws aimed at addressing the crisis. US Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, who had championed the legislation when she was a congresswoman, has been working under the Biden administration to resolve some of the systemic problems and jurisdictional challenges that have made victims’ families feel invisible.
The Interior Department missed its deadline by nearly three weeks to respond to a series of recommendations from a special commission that spent months traveling the country, speaking to family members, advocates and police officials about how best to address the epidemic.
Commission members heard hours of heartbreaking testimony from family members who have fought to keep their cases in the spotlight, often commemorating the lost with prayer vigils, special blankets and buttons, traditional ribbon skirts and red handprints. painted on sidewalks and buildings.
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Like others, Shorty’s family now knows that suffering will persist despite the increasing emphasis on solving such crimes.
Shorty’s family “didn’t know anything about what happened,” U.S. Attorney for the District of New Mexico Alexander Uballez acknowledged in a November sentencing memorandum that referred to Shorty only by his initials: PS. Wrote Uballez: “They are beginning to grieve because they were recently informed that PS had died, instead of being missing.”
Uballez expressed hope that putting Oldrock behind bars would bring some closure, saying Shorty’s elderly aunt might stop staring at the driveway in the hope that her nephew will one day return.
Uballez said Oldrock’s convictions were part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s duty to provide answers to tribal communities. While no investigation or prosecution will bring back a loved one, she said, law enforcement partners will approach each case “with urgency, transparency and coordination.”
That vote for transparency is what has frustrated Native American families. Many say authorities regularly fail to communicate the status of pending cases. In Shorty’s case, unanswered questions about whether remains were recovered have left his family doubting whether they will ever be able to have a burial for him.
“The investigators never called me. They were supposed to, but they never did,” Ben Shorty said in a recent interview. “Everything was done behind closed doors.”
The FBI’s most recent list of missing persons from the Navajo Nation still included Philbert Shorty. This despite investigators having reason to believe he was dead as early as October 2021 with Oldrock’s confession. A medical investigator’s report issued the following spring said that, while it could not be conclusively confirmed, communications with authorities suggested that the charred remains found in Oldrock’s uncle’s home were likely those of Shorty.
Albuquerque attorney Darlene Gomez has represented dozens of Native American families. The handling of Shorty’s case doesn’t surprise her.
“The FBI does this all the time,” he said. “They don’t even talk to the family until there is an accusation. And very often they don’t say anything at all.”
While certain details need to be kept confidential as investigations progress, federal authorities did not immediately respond to questions from The Associated Press about the process for sharing information with families and whether people have been assigned to serve as liaisons to help families as cases progress. through the system.
The Federal Non-Invisible Law Commission devoted part of its 212-page report to related concerns and recommendations. The report refers to stories shared by families about difficulties accessing police and autopsy reports: “Families are often made to wait, not knowing whether the person identified is their relative or without knowing the cause and circumstances of death nor how the body of his relative was found. was handled.”
It all rings true for Bernadine Beyale, daughter of retired Navajo police officers who founded the nonprofit 4 Corners K-9 Search and Rescue in Farmington, New Mexico, in 2022. Her group has conducted dozens of individual searches and she has helped build bridges between families and authorities to help families avoid feeling that their cases are being forgotten.
“Even if (law enforcement) just talked to the families and said, ‘We don’t have anything yet, but we’re still working on it,’ it would help,” he said.
Records obtained by the AP show Oldrock was brought in by a witness in October 2021. He had cuts on his face and blood on his hands and clothing. He told the driver that he had just killed his uncle, identified as Erwin Beach. He said he believed Beach had killed his grandmother a year earlier and was going to kill him too.
Oldrock told the FBI that he stabbed Beach repeatedly after Beach threw an ax at him during a drunken fight. Oldrock said the chain of violent events that October day began the same way as when Shorty was murdered months earlier: with excessive alcohol consumption. Oldrock was sentenced in November to 35 years in prison for second-degree murder in Beach’s killing and involuntary manslaughter in Shorty’s death.
Whether the details are revealed through court documents or come from investigators in the field, Beyale acknowledges that it can be difficult to decide how to share information with victims’ families.
“If we find a body or remains, I don’t give many details,” he said. “But I try to be as transparent as possible and tell them that we don’t have a positive identification but we found remains in this area.”
Beyale tries to persuade families who want to conduct their own search to let her do it. “I always ask them if they are not only physically prepared to do a search like that, but also mentally prepared to find something,” she said. “They always say, ‘Yes, yes.’ But they’re not. I haven’t found a single family that was mentally prepared.”
Shorty’s family is still hoping to have a funeral. They are ready for closure but are still waiting for investigators.
“What are we supposed to bury? Just nothing? At least some ashes or something,” Ben Shorty said. “We don’t have anything yet.”
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