Floodlights

42-year-old Melissa Montoya endured years of abuse at the hands of her partner. But in 2001, she vanished during a night out with friends in Dulce, New Mexico. In this episode, we interview Darlene Gomez, a relative, friend and lawyer who is fighting to find out what happened to Melissa -- and many other Indigenous people who are missing on Tribal lands.

Do you have a story you'd like to see covered on Floodlights? Follow us on Instagram @floodlightspod and send us a message.

CONNECT WITH FLOODLIGHTS!

You can follow Laura @lauraelizabethfrater

You can follow On Native Ground @onnativegroundmedia

You can follow Blue Thistle Media @bluethistlepodcasts

For a full list of episode sources, please reach out to [email protected].

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Ask anyone in Hoopa, California, about Hoopa Tribal member Barbara Jean McNeil and they'll tell you the same thing: She was the sweetest woman. So, what exactly happened on the night she was beaten to death? What drove a person to murder her in such a violent way? And is the person responsible still walking around Hoopa to this day?

Do you have a story you'd like to see covered on Floodlights? Follow us on Instagram @floodlightspod and send us a message.

CONNECT WITH FLOODLIGHTS!

You can follow Laura @lauraelizabethfrater

You can follow On Native Ground @onnativegroundmedia

You can follow Blue Thistle Media @bluethistlepodcasts

For a full list of episode sources, please reach out to [email protected].

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In October 2021, Hoopa Tribe member, Emmilee Risling, vanished from an isolated part of the Yurok Reservation in Northern California. But her story is not just about being a missing person, it’s about an entire system that failed to protect her when she needed help.

What you should also know is that Emmilee is the cousin of our Floodlights producer, Jack Kohler. When we describe this podcast as a personal project, we mean it. Jack, like many Native Americans, knows at least one missing or murdered relative. This crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people is real – and too often it’s up to Native people to fight the good fight alone. 

Do you have a story you'd like to see covered on Floodlights? Follow us on Instagram @floodlightspod and send us a message.

CONNECT WITH FLOODLIGHTS!

You can follow Laura @lauraelizabethfrater

You can follow On Native Ground @onnativegroundmedia

You can follow Blue Thistle Media @bluethistlepodcasts

For a full list of episode sources, please reach out to [email protected].

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In December 2023, Trey Allen Glass, a member of the United Keetoowah Band in Oklahoma, leaves his family home with two friends. This is the last time anyone in his family will see him alive. For months, no one sees or hears from Trey but, in April 2024, a former police chief discovers Trey in a well on his property after briefly interacting with Trey on the last night his family sees him.

Today, Trey's cousin, Emma Lee Sanders, sits down with us for an interview. Emma walks us through the timeline of Trey's case and why, all these months later, she and her family still have concerns about the outcome of Trey's open case.

Do you have a story you'd like to see covered on Floodlights? Follow us on Instagram @floodlightspod and send us a message.

CONNECT WITH FLOODLIGHTS!

You can follow Laura @lauraelizabethfrater

You can follow On Native Ground @onnativegroundmedia

You can follow Blue Thistle Media @bluethistlepodcasts

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Former police officer, Mark Pooley, found his life changed forever when a serious illness stopped him in his tracks. Now, he's finding missing people through revolutionary technology.

Listen to how Mark is leading the way for not just Native families with missing loved ones, but non-Natives who are going through the same trauma.

Do you have a story you'd like to see covered on Floodlights? Follow us on Instagram @floodlightspod and send us a message.

CONNECT WITH FLOODLIGHTS!

You can follow Laura @lauraelizabethfrater

You can follow On Native Ground @onnativegroundmedia

You can follow Blue Thistle Media @bluethistlepodcasts

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This episode was originally released on 07/08/2024. We're re-releasing it today in the hopes that someone, somewhere, knows information about Terri Lynn McCloskey's unsolved murder.

When 26 year-old Yurok Tribal Member Terri Lynn goes missing, no one could understand why anyone would have wanted to hurt this bright young woman. But nearly 40 years later, many questions remain. Where is the police file on Terri Lynn? Who allegedly confessed to her killing? And what do 17 nearby murders possibly have to do with Terri Lynn's case?

Episode sources:

Frater, Laura. "Who Killed Terri Lynn McCloskey?" Two Rivers Tribune, March 2023.

Frater, Laura. Interview with Allen McCloskey Senior, February 2023.

Frater, Laura. Interview with Allen McCloskey Junior, February 2023.

Unknown journalist. "Unsolved." Redding Record Searchlight archives, August 13th, 1989.

Unknown journalist. "Bones Identified as Those of Missing Hoopa Woman." Two Rivers Tribune archives, unknown date.

https://kobi5.com/news/yurok-tribe-investigator-rescues-woman-from-potential-human-trafficking-223415/

https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/americas-greatest-detective-finalist-detective-julia-oliveira/

Do you have a story you'd like to see covered on Floodlights? Follow us on Instagram @floodlightspod and send us a message. We'll get back to you.

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What exactly happened to Trey Allen Glass, Cole Brings Plenty and Noah Presgrove? In this episode, we take you through the mysterious deaths of three young men which remain shrouded in mystery, from a well in rural Oklahoma, to a dark empty road on the Chickasaw Nation. Trey, Cole and Noah were all at the beginning of adulthood before they died. Today, we ask our listeners this question: Who knows what happened to each man? And why aren't they coming forward?

If you'd like to get to know the team behind Floodlights and share cases you'd like to see covered, you can follow and direct message us on any of the following Instagram accounts:

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On Canada's Highway 16, a long, desolate stretch of road is dubbed The Highway of Tears. Dozens of women, many of whom are Indigenous, have gone missing or turned up dead on this highway. Today, we walk you through some of the road's most tragic cases and how the First Nations surrounding the highway are doing their part to protect vulnerable women.

You can follow the show on Instagram @floodlightspod.

Link to E-Pana site: E-PANA

Sources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=xz63Vppw3gE

https://www.thenorthernview.com/news/prince-rupert-ranks-in-top-20-of-magazines-canadas-most-dangerous-places-list-5970333

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/highway-of-tears-bus-year-one-1.4517211

https://tearstohopesociety.com/signs/jill-stuchenko/

https://tearstohopesociety.com/signs/natasha-montgomery/

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/cody-legebokoff-sentenced-to-life-on-4-counts-of-1st-degree-murder-1.2768118

https://indianz.com/News/2011/10/17/murder-charge-laid-over-2010-d.asp

https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/serial-killer-highway-tears/

https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/what-is-bc-highway-of-tears#:~:text=It's%20known%20as%20the%20Highway,murdered%20Indigenous%20women%20and%20girls. 

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In 2012, Faith Hedgepeth (Haliwa Saponi) was murdered in her off campus apartment in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. At the time, she was a promising student at UNC. In 2021, almost a decade after Faith's death, Miguel Enrique Salguero-Olivares was arrested and charged with her murder. But in 2024, he is still awaiting trial.

In this interview episode, Consuela Richardson, Faith's cousin, discusses who Faith was as a person, as well as why Olivares might have been charged with her murder.

You can listen to our case episode on Faith's story by searching "Faith" in our feed.

Follow the show on Instagram @floodlightspod.

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In our first ever update episode, we discuss where Terri Lynn McCloskey (Yurok) may have headed shortly before her death. Thanks to members of law enforcement tuning in to Floodlights and providing thoughtful insights to our team, we offer some potential clarity on this unsolved murder.

If you haven't listened to Terri Lynn's story yet, please search "Terri Lynn" in our feed -- her case is our first ever episode. Terri Lynn was in her 20s when she died and her family are still waiting for justice to be served. Please share her episode AND this update episode across your social media. You never know who might hear it.

You can follow the show on Instagram @floodlightspod.

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