‘Someone knows something’ FBI raises rewards in dozens of haunting Native American cases
The FBI has established a minimum reward of $25,000 for help in solving some cold cases where people went missing or were killed in Indian Country
The FBI is offering rewards of at least $25,000 in dozens of unsolved killings and missing-person cases in Native American communities, hoping more money will persuade people to come forward with information.
The new minimum applies to more than 50 cases in Indian Country. Most are less than a decade old, but an Associated Press analysis found about a dozen have remained unsolved for more than 20 years.
For families who have spent years waiting for answers, however, money alone may not break through longstanding fear and distrust of federal authorities.
“Everybody’s scared in Oglala,” said Lisa Carlow, whose father, Patrick Carlow Sr., was found dead in his home on South Dakota's Pine Ridge Reservation in 2023.
The FBI investigates federal crimes on nearly 200 Native American reservations alongside the Bureau of Indian Affairs. At the end of 2025, the FBI's National Crime Information Center listed nearly 1,500 active missing-person cases involving Native Americans, although not all fall under federal jurisdiction.
Among the cases highlighted by the FBI are 8-year-old Maleeka Boone, who investigators believe was struck by a vehicle on the Navajo Nation, and Emily Pike, a San Carlos Apache teenager whose body was found after she disappeared from an Arizona group home.
Mary Kathryn Nagle, a Cherokee Nation citizen and attorney who advocates for families of missing Native Americans, said investigators can struggle to gain trust in tight-knit communities where witnesses may fear retaliation or distrust the criminal justice system.
Still, she believes larger rewards could encourage some people to talk.
“We have people in Indian Country who know what happened to our relatives,” Nagle said.
That hope is shared by Lisa Foster, whose longtime friend Mona Renee Vallo was found dead after a suspected hit-and-run along historic Route 66 in Laguna Pueblo, New Mexico, in 2022.
“Someone knows something there,” Foster said. “They have to.”
For the Carlow family, the reward for information about Patrick's death increased from $10,000 to $25,000 in July. His family said more calls followed, but they are still waiting for a breakthrough.
“It’s so hard to get your hopes up like that and think, ‘This is it, we finally got dad’s killer.’ And then nothing comes of it,” Lisa Carlow said.
The FBI declined to provide the AP with an update on the investigation.
Other families question whether even $25,000 is enough.
Brothers Matthew and Philip Reagan of Ohio were killed on the Navajo Nation while traveling to California. Investigators believe their SUV became stuck in mud after GPS directed them off course near Sawmill. Authorities say the brothers were shot multiple times while walking to find help.
The FBI initially offered $5,000 for information, then raised the reward to $10,000. It will now increase to $25,000.
Matthew Reagan's wife, Faye Wurstner-Reagan, doubts the additional money will persuade someone in the small community to speak.
“You would have to promise someone, like, actual protection,” she said.
She would rather see additional resources devoted to investigators and family liaisons to prevent cases from fading from public attention.
FBI spokesperson Brooke Brennan said investigations in Indian Country can be complicated by remote locations, limited resources and heavy caseloads.
For Wurstner-Reagan and other families, the overriding fear is that as the years pass, their loved ones will simply be forgotten.
“We're just getting forgotten, like no one is remembering any of us,” she said. “And we're just told it's an active investigation.”
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