Remains of Indigenous woman missing since 2020 found in Washington state, police say
By Nicquel Terry Ellis, CNN
(CNN) — Human remains discovered earlier this year in a remote area of northwestern Washington state are those of an Indigenous woman who had been missing since 2020, police say.
Authorities announced Friday they used DNA analysis to confirm the remains matched Mary Johnson. Johnson, an enrolled citizen of the Tulalip Tribes who was 39 at the time of her disappearance, was last reported to have been seen on November 25, 2020, on the Tulalip Reservation in Washington.
She was walking on Fire Trail Road on the reservation on her way to a friend’s house but never arrived, and she was reported missing on December 9, 2020, the FBI had said.
Remains that ultimately were matched to Johnson were found by authorities in a remote part of northwestern Washington’s Snohomish County on June 13, 2025, the FBI said Friday, without elaborating about the location. That county is where the reservation is situated.
Johnson’s disappearance and death remain under investigation, authorities say. The cause and manner of death are not yet known, Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office Operations Manager Nicole Krueger said in a statement released by the FBI.
“We recognize that the past five years have been incredibly difficult and painful for Mary’s family as well as our neighbors and partners at the Tulalip Police Department, the entire community, and the staff who have worked tirelessly to find her,” Snohomish County Sheriff Susanna Johnson said in the FBI release. “We hope the recovery brings us one step closer to finding the truth about what happened to Mary.”
The FBI and Tulalip Tribes are offering a reward of up to $60,000 “for information leading to the identification, arrest, and conviction of person(s) responsible for Mary Johnson’s disappearance,” the FBI’s release reads.
Johnson’s disappearance nearly five years ago put the spotlight on the many cases involving missing and murdered Indigenous women that families and activists argued were getting overlooked and dismissed.
A documentary about Johnson’s case, “Missing from Fire Trail Road,” was released last year.
Activists’ calls for more attention on the cases led to federal officials from former President Joe Biden’s administration dedicating more resources and initiatives to addressing missing and killed Indigenous people.
Earlier this year, the President Donald Trump’s Justice Department announced it was surging “FBI assets across the country to address unresolved violent crimes in Indian Country, including crimes relating to missing and murdered indigenous persons.”
“Crime rates in American Indian and Alaska Native communities are unacceptably high,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a news release. “By surging FBI resources and collaborating closely with US Attorneys and Tribal law enforcement to prosecute cases, the Department of Justice will help deliver the accountability that these communities deserve.”
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