FBI seeks information on 1979 disappearances with renewed interest on WA reservations
For years after cousins Elsie Eldora Luscier and Carlotta Maria Sanchez disappeared from the Quinault Nation Indian Reservation in August 1979, authorities thought they were runaways.
But with more recent information prompting the FBI Seattle to open an investigation, that’s no longer the case. The FBI investigates the most serious crimes involving Indigenous people on reservations.
FBI Seattle released missing persons posters for Carlotta and Elsie in September after getting additional information. The cousins were last seen in Taholah on Aug. 30, 1979. Taholah is on the Quinault Reservation, in Grays Harbor County, and is home to Quinault Nation headquarters.
Carlotta was 12 when she disappeared; Elsie was 13. Both weighed about 110 pounds but Carlotta was a few inches taller than Elsie. The FBI seeks information about the disappearance of the girls, and about those responsible for their disappearance.
Those with any information concerning this case are asked to contact tips.fbi.gov.
“The reason we are putting the posters out now is initially they were thought to have run away. We have reason to believe one or both may be victims of a crime,” said Special Agent in Charge Richard Collodi of the FBI office in Seattle.
The posters “may trigger memories of people,” he added. “Things they thought may not be important” could make a crucial difference.
“We also have new technology and resources that were not available years ago. We recognize over time that people, their loyalties, their perspective changes,” Collodi said.
Federal authorities hope the posters draw interest “in a case that’s many years old and might now encourage folks to come forward so that we can seek justice for these victims,” he said.
Among oldest active cases
Though an age-progressed photo of Carlotta was created around 2012 and has been shared by missing persons sites such as The Charley Project, the FBI did not age-progress images of the girls. There are two photos of Carlotta and one blurry photo of Elsie, which the FBI enhanced for a second, clearer image.
There is little information available publicly about the disappearances of the cousins. Their cases are among the oldest on the Washington State Patrol’s latest list of active cases of missing Indigenous people. The list is updated every two weeks with data from the National Crime Information Center, a computerized index of missing persons and criminal information available to criminal justice agencies.
The oldest active case of a missing Indigenous person in Washington is that of Janice Marie Hannigan, a Yakama Nation citizen who was a sophomore at White Swan High School when she disappeared. Janice was 16 years old when she disappeared after being discharged from the hospital on Christmas Eve 1971 for treatment of numerous bruises on her chest and head. She would be 68 today.
The epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous people is a historic crisis throughout the United States and internationally. Native women and girls suffer sexual and physical violence at alarming rates.
In recent years the crisis has received greater attention from law enforcement, lawmakers and community members as advocates for missing and murdered Indigenous people have worked to search for people, support families and raise awareness.
This summer, as court cases involving suspects in the homicides of four Indigenous women on the Yakama Reservation — Gail Teo, Anita Lucei and Maria Martinez and Shante Barney — continued, several suspects in two other homicides were indicted.
Seven men have been indicted in connection with the 2018 death of Rosenda Sophia Strong and her accused killer, Jedidah Moreno, with trial at U.S. District Court in Yakima scheduled for March. Two people have been indicted in connection with the 2017 homicide of Destiny Lloyd, with a motion hearing set for 1:30 p.m. Oct. 17 at federal court in Yakima.
Operation Not Forgotten
In late September, the FBI announced results of Operation Not Forgotten. It dedicated more than 40 FBI special agents, intelligence analysts, staff operations specialists and victim specialists to 10 FBI field offices whose designated regions support women and children in Indigenous communities, according to a news release.
Investigators handled more than 220 cases during the effort, the release said. Investigative personnel and victim specialists headed to tribal areas to examine cases and focus on seeking justice for women and children who have been victims of crime.
Seattle was among the FBI field offices that received dedicated personnel. A video highlights one, Special Agent Derek Kay. The former Chicago police officer worked a range of investigations on the Yakama Reservation, including those related to homicide, missing persons, gangs and crimes against children, the FBI said.
Kay spent six weeks in Washington and worked at three reservations, with the majority of that time at the Yakama Reservation. He says in the video that many of the cases he worked on in Washington were similar to those he worked as a police office in the northern suburbs of Chicago.
“I’ve also helped out on some cold case incidents where people have gone missing for several years and the trail has run dry on that,” Kay says in the video, which shows him driving in the Lower Yakima Valley and talking to tribal and federal authorities.
“It’s just a fresh eyes look at this case, see if there’s anything that’s been missed,” he says.
Concerning missing people, Collodi said the FBI’s goal is “to recover as many people as we possibly can.” And in cases where someone is a victim of a crime, investigators will work for resolution as long as the case remains open, he said.
“One of the things I’m proud of — the FBI, we don’t have cold cases,” Collodi said. “If we have a case that’s open — I would highlight these as an example — it’s still something we’ll continue to investigate.
“Both the FBI and our federal partners are incredibly persistent in investigations so that we can bring justice in each of these cases.”