Missing: Ranelle Rose Bennett

A 33-year-old Navajo mom went missing from Hogback, New Mexico, on June 15, 2021. The day she vanished, she spent time with her mother planning her daughter’s 10th birthday party. According to her mom, when Ranelle left that day, she was crying for reasons we still don’t know.

Ranelle was also known as “Tiny”, a nickname used by those who loved her. She was in constant contact with her family, calling and texting every day. Then poof—she never showed up to her own daughter’s birthday party, and despite her family filing a report on June  21, nothing happened for days because law enforcement lost it in their systems. You read that right: the authorities lost a missing persons report so those critical first few hours slipped through their fingers. Three months later marked what should have been the first big clues in her case, her shoes and sweater were found in North Shiprock. Her family turned them over to police, and then… silence. No updates, no press conferences, just a void.

Meanwhile, her partner “KJ” Johnson ends up arrested in a car theft ring. But we still don’t know if he’s even a suspect in her disappearance. The cops had him in detention, sitting right there, and we still don’t have any details. Meanwhile, people gather in Shiprock, walking miles with cedar and sage, demanding answers—but tribal law enforcement is stretched thin, and federal support is a joke.

Ranelle's name isn’t a trending topic, but it should be. Her kids miss her—her brother quit his life in Colorado to search the streets. We demand more. We want action, transparency, justice—for her community, for her children, for Tiny. She has brown eyes and had black hair when she went missing. She also has a tattoo of the letter B behind her left ear and “Treaston” on her right forearm.