Families share stories of missing loved ones during Yakama Nation event

TOPPENISH — An Albuquerque attorney, Darlene Gomez, is working with a Yakama Nation family to get answers and justice for their loved one, Mona Renee Vallo. She was killed in a hit-and-run in New Mexico on March 9, 2022.

Gomez also advocates pro bono for more than two dozen other families of missing and murdered Indigenous women and people throughout the United States. And she continues to speak out for her friend, Melissa Montoya. A citizen of the Jicarilla Apache Nation, Montoya has been missing since March 9, 2001, after arguing and then leaving with her boyfriend. He died soon after she disappeared.

“The first search for her didn’t take place until November of 2024, and that only came only after ‘Dateline’ did a story on their podcast on her,” Gomez said Monday during the missing and murdered Indigenous persons symposium at the Legends Casino Event Center. “And until about a year and a half ago, she was faceless in NamUs and all the missing person sites. … This is the only picture I have of her.”

Yakama Nation Awtni Shix̱witpamá hosted the daylong symposium. It was the third annual event and took place May 5, which is recognized as a national day of awareness for missing and murdered Indigenous people. Organizers Robyn Raya and Hailey Bass, the Yakama Nation’s family liaison for missing and murdered Indigenous people, included several speakers and breakout sessions.

Vallo reward

Gomez spoke in a breakout session on MMIP work within the legal field. As she talked about her friend and searches for her remains, Jhene Jackson stood at a podium behind her. At times she held a poster with photos of Vallo, her grandmother, and the words “Justice for T’til’ish,” Vallo’s Indian name.

“We don’t get any notifications or updates from the federal government, the FBI or the special agent that does handle our mother’s case,” said Adrian Jackson, Jhene’s father and Vallo’s son. “It’s going on three years and our third agent taking on my mother’s case and the toughest thing is, we don’t get notified about anything with any agents transferring the case to another agent.”

Having Gomez in New Mexico has been helpful since most of the family is in Washington state, Jackson said. There’s a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible.

Family members are still waiting for federal officials to rent a billboard “between Acoma and Laguna … right where my mom was hit,” Jackson said before pausing briefly, overcome. “There’s a house and there’s a billboard there — that’s the billboard we asked for” reward information to be posted, he added.

“Somebody knows something but nobody is saying anything,” he said. Their next step is checking into hiring a private detective.

“As we lose time in this case, we are losing witnesses,” Gomez said.

Jackson and Gomez spoke on the radio show “Native America Calling” on Monday as part of coverage on the day of awareness. They hope that spurs action in Vallo’s case.

More cases

Vallo’s hit-and-run death is among dozens of cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women and people on or from the Yakama Reservation. Several of the unsolved cases are women and men who were hit and killed. They include Angela Marie Heath, 41, who was struck as she tried to cross the street in the intersection of U.S. 97 and South Wapato Road on April 5, 2019.

Sixteen-year-old Jeremiah John Whitefoot II of Wapato was killed in the early morning hours of Oct. 17, 2017, while walking in the 3500 block of South Wapato Road. And in August 2023, the body of Clifford Jermaine “Cliff” Umtuch Sr., 40, was found in a ditch after Yakima County sheriff’s deputies were called to Yost Road near U.S. Highway 97, about a mile and a half outside Toppenish.

An autopsy determined that Umtuch suffered crushing injuries to his head and torso. The cause of death is blunt force injuries to the head and body from a presumed motor vehicle collision, the coroner said. Umtuch, who had been reported missing, was walking in the area when he was hit.

Late in the symposium, family members spoke about their relatives in an open mic session in the main event center. Bessie Blackeagle was murdered in Idaho by her boyfriend, her aunt said. Another niece was run over by a Yakima County sheriff’s deputy the same night, she said.

Aggie Bautista spoke about her mother, Gail Teo of White Swan. Her killer was sentenced nearly a year ago, in late May 2024, to 30 years in prison. Teo was murdered on Aug. 7, 2019.

“Even with all the evidence, it took so long,” Bautista said.