Funny, smart and at times feisty -- that’s how Kimberly Loring HeavyRunner described her younger sister, Ashley, who went missing from the Blackfeet Indian Rese
nbcmontana.com
Vanished in Montana: Ashley HeavyRunner's family without closure nearly 8 years later
Funny, smart and at times feisty -- that’s how Kimberly Loring HeavyRunner described her younger sister, Ashley, who went missing from the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in 2017.
Nearly eight years since the 20-year-old disappeared in June 2017, NBC Montana spoke with family about the girl whose absence still lingers today. Ashley’s story is the latest NBC Montana is highlighting in May for Missing and Murdered Indigenous People Awareness Month. MMIP is a crisis impacting tribal communities across Montana.
“It’s just constantly going through all the cycle of grief, but there’s no acceptance . . . it’s like going through the cycle, but there’s no end,” Loring HeavyRunner said.
Ashley planned to leave the reservation and start fresh with her sister in Missoula in 2017, but those plans faded once Kimberly Loring HeavyRunner returned from a trip in June and the family had not heard from Ashley.
Now, Kimberly Loring Heavyrunner thinks Ashley passed away before she landed. She told NBC Montana her younger sister was pregnant when she vanished, and the family found it too painful to talk about previously.
The former father is a “good man” and a friend, Kimberly Loring HeavyRunner said.
She suspects other people were involved in Ashley's disappearance, including a relative. Ashley’s older sister said she trusts God more than law enforcement.
“From the beginning we had a hard time getting in contact with the law enforcement,” she said. “We spoke to them during the first search, and then after a while we weren't able to contact them.”
Jonathan HeavyRunner refers to missing and murdered people on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation as a “basket of names.” He said NBC Montana’s interview with him was the first of any kind he’s done since Ashley vanished.
“It’s like I'm going through something, it's like we’re going through some kind of storm,” he said. “You just have to have tunnel vision to get through the storm, like emotions and all that.”
Jonathan HeavyRunner recalls Ashley as “all smiles,” brightening his day when she’d come by to check in. Then one day that stopped.
He's still searching for her.
Ashley's lingering absence is why Kimberly Loring HeavyRunner no longer lives in Montana. She moved in late 2018 at the request of her late father.
“He didn't want to worry about another daughter and that he knew that if I was to go over there, that I could take care of myself,” she told NBC Montana.
She said her family will do one more search for Ashley and then, as she puts it, they’ll “leave it in God’s hands.”
Anyone with information about Ashley Loring HeavyRunner’s disappearance is encouraged to contact the FBI.
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