Human stays found earlier this yr in a distant space of northwestern Washington state are these of an Indigenous woman who had been missing since 2020, police say.
Authorities announced Friday they used DNA evaluation to verify the stays matched Mary Johnson. Johnson, an enrolled citizen of the Tulalip Tribes who was 39 on the time of her disappearance, was last reported to have been seen on November 25, 2020, on the Tulalip Reservation in Washington.
She was strolling on Fire Trail Road on the reservation on her strategy to a pal’s home however by no means arrived, and she or he was reported missing on December 9, 2020, the FBI had said.
Remains that finally had been matched to Johnson had been found by authorities in a distant half of northwestern Washington’s Snohomish County on June 13, 2025, the FBI said Friday, with out elaborating in regards to the location. That county is the place the reservation is located.
Johnson’s disappearance and loss of life stay underneath investigation, authorities say. The trigger and method of loss of life aren’t but identified, Snohomish County Medical Examiner’s Office Operations Manager Nicole Krueger stated 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 stated in the FBI launch. “We hope the recovery brings us one step closer to finding the truth about what happened to Mary.”
The FBI and Tulalip Tribes are providing a reward of as much as $60,000 “for information leading to the identification, arrest, and conviction of person(s) responsible for Mary Johnson’s disappearance,” the FBI’s launch reads.
Johnson’s disappearance practically 5 years in the past put the spotlight on the various circumstances involving missing and murdered Indigenous ladies that households and activists argued had been getting ignored and dismissed.
A documentary about Johnson’s case, “Missing from Fire Trial Road,” was launched final yr.
Activists’ requires extra consideration on the circumstances led to federal officers from former President Joe Biden’s administration dedicating more resources and initiatives to addressing missing and killed Indigenous individuals.
Earlier this yr, 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 stated in a information launch. “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.”