Hello Friends!
Welcome to our new series of videos where we start a new journey into the seemingly
overlooked cases of missing and murdered Indigenous men, women, and children, from around the globe.
In the United States, there are 574 recognized Native American Tribes, alone.
Reservations are known to be vast expanses of rugged, untamed wilderness covering thousands of miles.
Jurisdictional issues and lack of manpower, often cause slow response times and issues
for investigators as they try to establish the agency in charge of each case.
Cases that usually never see mainstream media coverage.
They are...the forgotten.
This new segment of Missing Persons Mysteries we're calling Spirited Away is for the families
that are seeking help and dedicated to each missing/murdered Indigenous man, woman, and child.
We will not let them be forgotten.
It’s no secret that there’s an epidemic of missing Native Americans across the nation and around the world.
There are thousands of these cases and yet, we rarely hear about them.
They are scarcely picked up by local media and almost never nationally.
We, as a society, need to do better.
No one human life is worth any more or less than another.
Reservations are often very isolated places with an at-risk society.
One of the largest Reservations in the United States, is the Navajo Nation Reservation.
There are plenty of cases and not enough police to respond to calls, nor investigators to cover the cases.
This is where the story of the missing/murdered Indigenous begins.
The first Native American Reservation was established in Southern New Jersey, August 29th, 1758.
Native Americans were well established in areas on the East Coast, but after the Indian Removal Act was signed in
1830 by President Andrew Jackson, the Natives were exiled to the liminal lands of the West.
Today, Reservations dot the West more than any other area of the United States
This is where the Navajo Nation Reservation can be found.
As stated, the Navajo Nation Reservation is the largest Reservation in the United States.
Situated in the Four Corners area, where Utah, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico meet,
the NNR covers three of the four states, Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.
The vast expanse is mostly desert, rural, barren, and isolated, covering over 27,400
square miles and home to over 399 thousand Natives.
The Navajo or Dine’ are very prideful in their traditions and arguably make some of
the most beautiful pottery, jewelry, paintings, sand art, baskets, and rugs of any Tribe.
Their work can be seen in many venues and museums around the Four Corners area.
Much of the art that is made, comes from “masters” of the craft.
Usually, they are the elders of their community, and they are usually women.
These “women” also make up the majority of the missing/murdered.
Currently, there are 61 active missing persons cases on the Navajo Nation Reservation,
and of those, over half are missing/murdered women and children.
There are many more inactive/cold cases.
It’s an epidemic where the causation can stem from domestic violence and/or battery.
Which are also both underreported and under investigated, on Reservations.
Some cases are reported and investigated.
However, circumstances from world events over the last couple of years, has forced the governing
parties of the NNR to close the correctional facility and there is also a shortage of police officers and investigators.
Response times to reported crimes can take hours and even days.
This can cause issues when someone goes missing as their case is already at least hours cold by the time police take the report.
This poses the question, what can be done?
What can we do to bring more information to this epidemic and help the families of the missing and murdered?
We can write about it.
We can talk about it.
We can present a platform for the families and friends to have a place to reach the public.
Without making people aware that this is a problem and that it’s not being addressed, the public can’t help.
There are popular T.V. shows, that for years, aired mysteries that were either unsolved, or cold cases.
Many were solved by people that had tips or knowledge that aided in the cases.
The more people that know about these cases, the better chances the police have of solving them.
We have the opportunity, through this platform, to help the families of the missing/murdered,
those that just want to bring their loved one's home or know what happened to them, at the very least.
It’s heartbreaking and horrifying that there are so many cases, and none are getting the attention they deserve.
For example, the recent Gabby Petito case took the internet and the world by storm.
Yet, in the area of the Tetons where searchers were looking for her, there have been over
700 indigenous women disappear in the same area in the last decade.
Where was the public outcry, the international seemingly non-stop media coverage for these women?
Sadly, there was none...
In this spotlight video, the first in the series, we'll be examining a missing person’s case
on the Navajo Nation Reservation.
33-year-old mother of two, Ranelle Rose Bennett was last seen on June 15th, 2021, by her mother in Hogback, New Mexico.
“The last day my mother talked to Ranelle, she hugged her tight and took a long time to say good-bye.
It was like she knew she wouldn’t see us again”, said Ranelle’s sister, Jeanelle Bennett.
Ranelle had made plans with her family to visit them in Farmington, New Mexico that weekend
because of an upcoming birthday party for her daughter.
After days of unanswered texts and phone calls from the family to Ranelle, she was reported missing.
“It doesn’t make any sense” said Jeanelle Bennett, Ranelle’s sister.
“Her kids were everything to her and she would never miss a chance to see them.”
The last persons to see Ranelle Rose Bennett was her mother and the boyfriend, “KJ” Kendall Johnson.
The Boyfriend Kendall Johnson had been dating Ranelle Rose Benette for about a month when
she went missing and he was soon after arrested for unrelated charges stemming from a car
theft ring, a federal weapons charge, and a rash of home invasions on the Reservation.
A local newspaper story reads, “Girlfriend of Shiprock alleged auto thief missing.”
Police has described Johnson as “dangerous and no good."
After the arrest, Mr. Johnson was questioned in connection to Ranelle’s disappearance,
but didn’t provide investigators with any information as to her whereabouts.
He has not been officially named as a person of interest.
It’s been said that Johnson would sometimes take his girlfriends into the deep desert,
where he would take their clothes and shoes and leave them to find their way back home,
as a form of punishment when he became upset with them.
No evidence was recovered by police during the initial search where Benette was last reported as being seen.
Ranelle’s Background Ranelle Rose Bennett is a lifelong resident of the Shiprock/Hogback
area and has strong ties to her community.
Her whole family lives in the area, including her two children which now reside with her mother and sister in Farmington.
“She is loved and missed by her family”, Jeanelle Bennett stated.
“Her son still sends his mom texts messages asking her when she’s coming home and letting
her know that he and his sister love and miss her”
Jeanelle went on to say.
We also spoke with Ranelle’s brother, Jerald Bennett.
“We just want her home. Our family needs closure, one way or the other.
We have been searching for her since day one and we are coming upon the Holidays’.
This will be our first Holidays without her.
I miss her smile, her laugh, and the funny stories she would tell.
We need closure for us and for her children.
I quit my job to help search for her, in June.
We were out here (in Shiprock) every day, even the hottest days of Summer.
I’d be wondering if she was too hot or at night, too cold.
The unknowns are unbearable.
If KJ knows anything, we wish he would just tell us or the police, where she is, so we can bring her home.”
Jerold Bennett stated in an interview.
After Ranelle Rose Benette was reported missing, the Navajo police, along with a search and rescue team
initially searched for her, with the family.
After the first month, police scaled back their search their search and focused on details on the administrative side.
Ranelle’s family picked up where the Navajo Police left off and asked a few search and
rescue teams to help search the desert area where she was last seen, on horse and four-wheel ATVs.
These searches started out every day, in June, by her family and went on for several months.
Her brother, Jerold Harrison, even quit his job to focus more time on searching.
“I just wanted to find her... or something that would help us figure out what happened”,
he said during an interview.
“This is such a big area and a lot of the places we can’t get vehicles, so we needed
ATVs and/or horses to get to the most remote areas.
This is a big area and there’s a lot of ground to cover.
At the very least, you need to have a truck with four-wheel drive because of the washes,
rocks, and sandstone that likes to become slick during monsoon season that typically
hits this area around July, lasting until September”, another search member said.
The search area, as viewers can see in the photos’, is so barren and sometimes, the
roads are little more than sheep trails that are rareley used, making them treacherous and sometimes, dangerous.
It’s easy to get a vehicle stuck or high centered, wasting precious time because you
have to dig your vehicle out.
Aside from terrain issues, there is the size of the search area, and because of the last
sighting area being a conflicting story, the actual area that must be searched, is hundreds of square miles.
You don’t understand just how big of an area this is, until you’ve lost something or someone out here.
Also making the search difficult was the weather at the time.
There were a few days that the heat was in the triple digits and the rest of the time, it was in the high 90’s.
There is no shade in that particular area and getting dehydrated can happen fast.
After searching for months with no clues and help dwindling, Ranelle’s family decided
to start searching on the weekends.
Her brother had to go back to work and her sister as well as her mother, had to get temporary
custody of her children so they could have guardianship.
Searches are still ongoing.
The GoFundMe link will be listed in the description.
Janelle Benette, was the first family member interviewed and that allowed us a chance to get to know her (Ranelle) a little better.
Her sister spoke highly of her.
“Ranelle is a bright and woman”, Jeanelle said.
“She was always the funny one, making us laugh at her animated stories and making funny voices to go along with them.
We miss her.
Her children miss her.
Every time her son texts her, it breaks my heart.
This is what makes me sad.
Watching her children wonder when or if she’s ever coming home.”
As we turned down a few rutty, dirt roads and just minutes outside of, it felt like
we were a world away from civilization.
There are no homes in the area, vegetation sparse, and the desert goes on for miles.
The task of looking for a missing loved one in this area, is daunting to say the least.
As we spoke with Ranelle’s family where we met up, I could tell she was very much loved and missed.
The patriarch of the family was suspicious of why we had taken interest in his daughter’s case.
So many Native women, children, and men go and remain missing without much coverage on the cases.
Historically, most missing Indigenous cases never see national or even local coverage.
They are a very vulnerable population, and most Reservations are isolated, with police
response times, hours and sometimes days away.
We explained the missing Indigenous cases seem to be treated differently by the media
and we wanted to help bring awareness and change for the missing/murdered Indigenous,
not just for his daughter, but for all victims and their families.
Mr. Benette agreed that these cases aren’t taken seriously and even stated that the police
suggested that maybe Ranelle just “needed some time away,
because as an adult, she had a right to be missing.”
“But that’s not my daughter, Mr. Benette stated.
“She is a responsible mother and never went more than a couple of days without calling
a family member or coming by our house”, he went on to say.
The area where Janelle Rose Benette was last reported being seen in is an area 2 miles
North of Shiprock, New Mexico, off highway 491, former Route 666.
This area is a desolate and vast desert, with little vegetation and a sparse population once away from the main road.
Even in the day, it’s mysterious and easy to see how daunting of a task searching for a missing person, would be.
Nevertheless, Ranelle’s family searched every day for three months, hoping to find
anything that would point them in the right direction in finding her or help them understand what happened to her.
Ranelle has not been seen nor contacted anyone in her family since June 15th, 2021.
Ranelle Rose Benette is a 33-year-old female with black hair and brown eyes.
She weighs 125 lbs. and is 5’.2”.
She also has a tattoo on her Right inner forearm with the name “Treasten” and the letter “B” behind her Left ear.
Ranelle was last seen wearing an orange tank top, with black jogger or sweatpants by her
mother on the morning of June 15th, 2021, at her residence in Hogback, New Mexico.
She goes by the nickname “Tiny”.
This case has been turned over to the FBI and was entered into the National Crime Information
Center (NCIC) as a missing person and is continuing to be investigated as an open missing person’s case.
If you have any information about Ranelle Rose Benette’s case or know her whereabouts,
Please contact the Navajo Police Department Shiprock District (505) 368-1350 or (505) 368-1251
or contact the FBI (505) 889-1300. Reference: Renelle Rose Benette Hogback, New Mexico Missing Persons Case
You can also leave tips at tips.fbi.gov.
If you would like to donate to the family, they have a GoFundMe set up for the continued search and to help care for the children.
Well folks, there you have it.
Sad tale of just one of the missing Indigenous.
Please join us in the future as we present the cases of the missing Indigenous on reservations while bringing awareness to the global issue.
The case you have just heard, is one in many of the cases that will be presented here, for this series.
The missing/murdered Indigenous deserve justice and their families deserve answers.
Justice delayed, should never mean justice denied.
Until we meet again, be good to yourselves and each other, and I’ll see you a little further down the trail.
I’m Steve Stockton and I'll talk to you next time.