A North Dakota woman who disappeared on October 24. is still missing, and law enforcement is running out of ideas about where to search.
The missing woman’s friends and family are still doggedly looking for the mother of five.
Her brother Matthew Lone Bear told NBC he believes Olivia came home that night. Family members found her cell phone and wallet, at her home on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, as well as the clothes she had been wearing at the bar. There was no sign of struggle.
The Three Affiliated Tribes Tribal Police Department searched on land for the truck and through the many waterways in the area but after several weeks came up with nothing—nobody, no evidence, and no sign of the truck, even though the authorities had a license plate number.
The owner of the truck, James Hofhenke, has been cooperating with the police all along. He is a friend of Olivia Lone Bear and often lent her his truck.
“Without finding the vehicle or Olivia herself, there comes a point in time when I‘ll assign a detective to the case and then he’ll be the focal point or the hub for the family and stuff and then I suppose resources will be diminished,” Lincoln said, on Nov. 14.
Family Keeps Searching
Since December, Olivia’s family and friends have been driving the search, frustrated with the police department efforts, but determined to keep going, reported the Bismark Tribune.“We’re not going to quit,” said Olivia’s father, Texx Lone Bear. “Whatever it takes, we’re going to bring her home.”
Matthew Lone Bear said he and the family would continue searching despite North Dakota’s cold and often snowy winter approaching.
A couple whose own daughter disappeared while eight months pregnant has joined in the search.
Joe Greywind and Norberta LaFontaine-Greywind joined the effort in early December.
“There’s a lot of land, water out there that needs to be searched, and our hope being here today is to bring Olivia home to her family,” Norberta LaFontaine-Greywind said at a press conference on December 2, according to the Tribune.
Their daughter, Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind, disappeared in August 2016. Her body was found eight days later.
“We’ve been there,” Norberta LaFontaine-Greywind said. “We know how hard it is go through this.”
Some of Olivia’s family think the Three Tribes police should have acted sooner and made more of an effort to coordinate with national law enforcement.
“There’s just so much we could have done earlier, and we couldn’t because we didn’t know,” Texx Lone Bear said. “That’s the frustrating part about it. Every day I find out something new we should have done three days ago.”
Chairman Mark Fox of the Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation said he was talking to federal, state and tribal leaders about getting more assistance in the search
“I believe it’s very critical that we get the assistance of others,” Fox said. “I mean state, federal agencies, everybody. This is getting to a point where we need that kind of help to find her.”
Sam Lincoln, lead detective for Three Affiliated Tribes police department admitted that the response had been slow—in part because there was no sign of a crime.
“We have no proof or probable cause that she was abducted,” he said, according to the Tribune. “Until we can prove a crime has been committed, then they would be in full force.”
Another part of the problem is the size of the search area: the reservation spans almost one million acres.
People of all sorts, ranging from contingents from other tribes to a group of local drone pilots, have cooperated in the search. A $20,000 reward has been offered, and the local TV station, KFYR, has set up an anonymous tip line.
Anyone with information about her disappearance may call the tip line at 701-627-6141 or 701-627-3617.
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