It was Elara who saw the flash of red near the creek bed—the hem of Maya’s favorite ribbon skirt. She didn't scream; the air was too cold for sound. Maya was there, just two hundred yards from the last place she’d been seen, hidden in plain sight while the world looked away.

Elara gripped the railing. She knew the statistics, but she never thought Maya would become one. In Big Horn, Indigenous people make up a small fraction of the population but a staggering 26% of missing persons cases .

The next morning, Elara didn't call the police. She called her cousins. They met at the edge of the interstate—the same I-90 that activists say offers a quick exit for predators.