PHOENIX — In an update on an Arizona cold case, this week marks five years since Navajo elder Ella Mae Begay vanished from her home. Her family says they’re waiting for answers, and a new development is adding heartbreak to an already painful anniversary.
For Gerald Begay, five years without his mother has felt like a lifetime.
“It's been a long journey trying to find her, she is still missing to this day,” Begay said.
The 62-year-old grandmother and renowned Navajo rug weaver vanished from Sweetwater on June 15, 2021.
“We just want to bring her home, to the have the burial, and you know that will be closure, at least some type of closure,” Begay said.
On Monday, the fifth anniversary of Begay’s disappearance, the family learned Preston Tolth was released from federal prison.
Court documents show Tolth accepted a plea agreement for robbery this spring. In the plea, he acknowledged beating Begay, stealing her truck, and leaving her on the roadside.
“For something like that to happen on the same day, it definitely is a stab in the heart,” Begay said. “I cannot understand why no one even reached out to let me know ahead of time.”
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The Federal Bureau of Prisons says Tolth was released early due to good conduct. His public defender confirmed the conditions but had no other comment.
“The system can explain the statutes, it can explain the sentencing credits, and it can explain the release calculations. But what it still can't explain is where is Ella Mae?” Bernadine Beyale, 4Corners K-9 Search and Rescue, said.
Beyale, who has organized searches for Ella Mae, says a bigger question remains.
“If one of the most profiled indigenous missing person cases in the country can end with a family still waiting for answers, then we need to ask ourselves a hard question. Are we learning enough from these cases to make sure this doesn't happen to the next family?” Beyale said.
For Begay, the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples crisis isn’t abstract. He says that years before his mother disappeared, his father was killed violently.
“Losing two parents, a mom and a dad, to violence, I cannot explain to you how that feels,” Begay said. “This system, they're aiding to this crisis, this pandemic that's going on.”
Now Begay says he will keep pushing for systemic change, and speaking out until his mother is found.
“We need to keep her name alive,” Begay said. “At the end of the day, that's all we have as victims, and we cannot just let their names and their stories disappear.”
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