ALBUQUERQUE — The Bureau of Indian Affairs-Missing and Murdered Unit, assisted by the New Mexico Attorney General’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives Task Force, the BIA Law Enforcement Direct Service, other Tribal Law Enforcement agencies, and the U.S. Marshals Service located and safely recovered two missing girls on Aug. 16.
In early August, the U.S. Marshals Service began working with the Bureau of Indian Affairs to look for two missing juveniles, who had been reported missing July 2023. Both juveniles are members of one of New Mexico’s Pueblo communities. During the investigation, evidence showed the possibility the young girls may have been trafficked.
“When situations involving missing children arise, they quickly become our top priority,” Sonya K. Chavez, U.S. Marshal for the District of New Mexico, said.“Our joint efforts to locate these missing girls had a positive ending by bringing the young girls to safety and ties into our commitment to find missing and Indigenous women who have been lost or victimized in our communities.”
