Ella Mae Begay’s… Truck?

Ella Mae Begay was 62 years old when she vanished. A Diné (Navajo) rug weaver, artist, mother, and grandmother. She lived in Sweetwater, Arizona—a speck of a town on the Navajo Nation, the kind of place where everyone knows each other’s dogs by name. On June 15, 2021, sometime between 2 and 3 a.m., Ella Mae—and her silver Ford F-150—disappeared from her home.

Her house showed signs of a struggle. No one just leaves in the middle of the night without their phone, without their things, without waking someone up. We’ve all seen enough true crime documentaries to know that. Her family reported her missing immediately. Law enforcement responded like someone had lost a sandwich, not a person.

It took months for the FBI to even offer a reward. And when they did, it was laughable. Ten grand. Ten thousand dollars to return a woman whose rugs were woven with the kind of care and cultural knowledge that can’t be faked. A woman whose presence mattered to her community. A woman whose absence still leaves an aching space.

They eventually arrested a man named Preston Tolth in connection with her disappearance. Not for murder. Not even kidnapping. Just for stealing her truck. Her truck. And even now—years later—her body still hasn’t been found. No answers. No justice. Just echoes and silence on red dirt roads.

If Ella Mae were white, this wouldn’t be a blog post on a true crime baking site. It would be a Netflix special with a haunting score and a carefully curated reenactment. But she’s not. She’s Indigenous. And Indigenous women go missing and get murdered at ten times the national average—and law enforcement barely blinks.

Ella Mae deserves better. Her family deserves better. Say her name. Share her story. Don’t let her fade.

If you have any information about the disappearance of Ella Mae Begay, please contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI or submit a tip at tips.fbi.gov.

She’s not just a case file. She’s a person. And she’s still missing.