Vanished Without a Trace: The Chilling Case of Ashley Loring HeavyRunner and the Crisis Ignored
On a quiet summer night in June 2017, 20-year-old Ashley Loring HeavyRunner attended a party on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Montana. It was the last time she was ever seen alive. Her disappearance is not just a heartbreaking mystery—it’s a glaring example of the alarming crisis plaguing Indigenous women across the United States.
A Sister’s Worst Nightmare
At first, Ashley’s family wasn’t alarmed. They assumed she was off visiting a friend, as she often did. But when she failed to show up at the hospital to see her father, their worry turned into full-blown panic. Desperate for answers, her sister Kimberly reached out to friends—only to discover no one had seen or heard from Ashley since June 5.
The family immediately reported her missing to Blackfeet Law Enforcement and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). But what they got in response was indifference. “No one took it seriously,” Kimberly later revealed. Authorities brushed off their concerns, saying Ashley was an adult and had the right to disappear if she wanted to.
Clues Ignored, Time Wasted
Weeks later, a chilling tip surfaced: a young woman had been seen running from a vehicle on U.S. Highway 89, the same night Ashley vanished.
With fewer than 20 officers responsible for patrolling the vast 1.5-million-acre reservation, tribal law enforcement had limited resources to investigate. A brief three-day search was conducted—but it was Ashley’s family who made a startling discovery.
Kimberly found a sweater and boots with red stains near the search area. Believing the items belonged to Ashley, they handed them over to authorities, expecting swift action. Instead, the evidence was misplaced for months. By the time it resurfaced, crucial DNA test results were still nowhere to be found.
Justice Denied: The Legal Loophole That Leaves Indigenous Women Vulnerable
Ashley’s case is not an anomaly—it’s part of a national crisis. In 2020 alone, 5,295 cases of missing Indigenous women and girls were reported. Some counties have murder rates for Indigenous women that are over ten times the national average.
Why is justice so elusive? Legal loopholes and jurisdictional nightmares create a perfect storm of inaction. According to legal expert Jordan Gross, the 1978 Supreme Court ruling in Oliphant v. Suquamish Indian Tribe stripped tribes of the power to prosecute non-Indigenous perpetrators of crimes committed on reservations. The result? A legal black hole where violent criminals operate with near impunity.
“Reservations have become pockets of lawlessness,” Gross explains. “Non-Indians know they can go there, commit crimes, and no one will show up to investigate.”
Suspicious Figures & Lingering Questions
As the investigation dragged on, more disturbing details emerged. A man named Sam McDonald claimed he had spent time with Ashley after the party. According to McDonald, he last saw her on June 11, when he dropped her off to meet a man known as “V-Dog”—later identified as Paul Valenzuela, a convicted criminal.
What happened next remains unknown. Ashley was never seen again, and neither McDonald nor Valenzuela have been charged in connection with her disappearance.
A Plea for Justice
More than a year after Ashley vanished, her sister Kimberly took their fight for answers to Congress. In a powerful testimony, she exposed the authorities’ negligence, stating, “From the very beginning, both Blackfeet Law Enforcement and the BIA ignored the dire situation that Ashley was in.”
Years later, her words still ring true. The FBI and BIA insist the case is “active and open,” but Ashley’s family remains trapped in a nightmare of unanswered questions.
Ashley Loring HeavyRunner was just 5-foot-2 and weighed 90 pounds when she disappeared. She had dreams, plans, and a future—until someone took it all away. Her case is a haunting reminder of the thousands of Indigenous women whose disappearances go unsolved, their families left to fight for justice in a system that refuses to listen.
If you have any information about Ashley’s case, please contact the BIA at 1-833-560-2065 or the FBI at (801) 579-1400.
Indigenous women deserve more than silence. They deserve justice.
