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KSJB’s Payton Gall interviewed Payton Haug, a reporter from Inforum, on August 21st about a concerning rise in missing children in North Dakota. Hear the full interview Sunday, August 24th at 11 a.m.
In the meantime, here’s a rundown of the topic at hand:
Fourteen North Dakota children and teens have gone missing in August, raising concerns about a troubling trend across the state. As of August 21st at 6 p.m., eight of those missing have been reported in the seven days.
Few have pictures attached to their names on the state’s missing persons database. Peyton Haug, Bismarck correspondent for The Forum first broke the story, and she says the sharp uptick became noticeable in early August when tracking the state’s Missing Persons website. “I track the Missing Persons website pretty regularly almost on a daily basis. And after a couple of days of tracking it in early August, I kind of threw my hands up and said, this is getting to be. . . significant,” Haug said.
Eighteen of 30 missing persons in North Dakota – 60% – are children or teens. Chief agent Steven Harstad with the Bureau of Criminal Investigation told Haug “that feels like a lot when you say it out loud” but told her that cases aren’t systematically tracked for connections. When it comes to the lack of pictures on the missing persons database, the onus falls on local law enforcement. “All this really has to do with local law enforcement. There seems to not be a centralized platform aside from the website itself. So I don’t think [he] even really knew that there was that many in such little amount of time.”
This points out some gaps in reporting missing persons statewide, despite the recent implementation of the Feather and Missing Endangered Adult alert systems on Aug. 1. These alerts have not been used yet, as none of the adolescents were reportedly abducted. An Amber alert has not gone out either. “It originally was supposed to be for all missing indigenous people in the state, not just those who are thought to have been abducted,” Haug said. “After complaints and opposing testimony from the Highway Patrol, and the complaints coming from lawmakers that were not tribal affiliated, they sort of distilled it down to just people who are thought to have been abducted – and the pushback from tribal communities, and a lot of people with that is: how do you prove someone’s been abducted? And how does that address the situation of kids who are thought to have run away?”
As of August 21st, four of the eighteen total missing children are American Indian, which is 22%. Of the individuals under 18-years-old in North Dakota, American Indian children account for 7.9% of that population.
Jurisdictional boundaries and communication between tribes and outside law enforcement is an area of disconnect in missing persons cases, according to Haug. Broken trust between tribes and the state contributes to the difficulty of being in a rural area, as there seems to be a “a lack of coordination between everyone.” Community members and relatives of the missing person seem to be the main drivers of search and rescue when it comes to these cases. “It goes back to the lack of pictures. . . local law enforcement entities not uploading pictures when, at the same time, they’re plastered across these tribal Facebook groups and any sort of Facebook page, any social media. So it just kind of begs the question of why are these families doing a lot of the heavy lifting?”
North Dakota ranks third in the country for most missing Indigenous children with 373 reported cases between 2012 and 2021, according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. The number could be greater, as some cases classified as “runaways” may not be reported. According to the NCMEC, 89% of Indigenous children reported missing during this period were endangered runaways, meaning they have some form of ailment, whether it be drug/alcohol use, mental illness, suicidality, etc. This emphasizes the extreme risk these kids are subject to, regardless of whether they left on their own volition or not.
Despite the sharp increase of missing child cases of all ethnic backgrounds, law enforcement officials do not currently believe the cases are connected. If you have any information regarding a missing persons case, please contact your local law enforcement.
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