Ella Mae Begay missing: Preston Henry Tolth charged in case of Navajo Nation woman who disappeared in 2021

A federal grand jury has indicted a New Mexico guy on attack and carjacking fees in reference to the 2021 disappearance of a Native American woman whose case has helped to boost consciousness about lacking other people and unsolved slayings in Indian Country.

The indictment naming Preston Henry Tolth, 23, was once unsealed Tuesday. He is scheduled to seem ahead of a federal Justice of the Peace Friday in northern Arizona for a detention listening to and formal arraignment.

Federal prosecutors alleged that Tolth assaulted Ella Mae Begay, a Navajo woman who was once 62 on the time, took her pickup truck and drove it throughout state traces. Begay has no longer been discovered.

“This indictment is an important first step in determining the truth about what happened to an elderly victim on the Navajo Nation,” U.S. Attorney Gary Restaino of Arizona said in a statement, stressing that the investigation was once ongoing.

Begay’s truck was once observed the morning of June 15, 2021, leaving her house in the far off group of Sweetwater at the Navajo Nation, no longer some distance from the place Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado meet.

The FBI offered a $5,000 reward for “information leading to the identification, arrest, and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the disappearance of Ella Mae Begay.” The FBI mentioned Begay was once riding a grey 2005 Ford F-150 with a damaged tailgate when she went lacking.

A yr after Begay disappeared, her niece started strolling from the Navajo Nation to Washington D.C. to deliver consideration to a decades-long epidemic of violence that has disproportionately affected Indigenous other people.

Attorney Darlene Gomez, who is representing Begay’s circle of relatives, mentioned in a social media post that the indictment marked a bittersweet construction for members of the family. Gomez mentioned the circle of relatives appreciates the prayers and strengthen from the ones who have adopted Begay’s case and shared her tale in hopes of bringing her house.

The investigation into Begay’s disappearance is a part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s efforts to handle instances involving lacking and slain Native Americans. Navajo Nation government had up to now recognized Tolth as an individual of passion in the case.

Luke Mulligan, a federal public defender for Tolth, declined to remark at the case Tuesday.

New Mexico court docket information display Tolth has a felony historical past that comes with fees of annoyed battery, resisting arrest, residential housebreaking and drug ownership that date again to 2019. He already was once in custody pending the end result of a 2022 case in which he was once accused of stealing a person’s pockets whilst armed with some sort of sharp weapon, court docket information display.

Begay’s members of the family have met with U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, who just lately joined Justice Department officers in internet hosting the primary in-person consultation of the Not Invisible Act Commission in Washington. The fee will likely be retaining box hearings around the U.S. this yr because it develops suggestions for combating and responding to violence affecting tribal communities.

There are more or less 1,500 American Indian and Alaska Native missing persons incorporated in the National Crime Information Center Database, in step with the Department of the Interior.