Hi, Crime Junkies. I'm your host Ashley Flowers, and I'm Brett.

In the story I have for you today is about a young woman who vanishes without a trace

in the middle of the Blackfeet reservation in Montana. May 5th is missing and murdered

Indigenous persons awareness day. And this month we want to highlight a young woman

whose family, especially her older sister, have been figures in the fight for justice.

Despite all signs pointing to someone knowing what happened to her, everyone stays silent

as her family is forced to pick up the pieces. This is the story of Ashley Loring Heavy

When Kimberly Loring heavyrunner lands back in Montana after a three-month trip to Morocco,

she expects her younger sister Ashley to call or text her. The two are super close. They're

pretty much constantly talking in person over the phone through Facebook Messenger, whatever.

And in fact, they were literally messaging like hours ago. But as the night goes on,

her sister's radio silent. Kimberly thinks it's a little weird, but she's not immediately

panicked. You know, I mean, Ashley's 20. She's got her own life. Plus, she has a habit of losing

her phone. Must be an Ashley thing. I was going to say, quite literally, I left my phone at home

this morning. I do not have it at work today. I was like, sounds familiar. Weird. Yeah. Yeah.

But by the next day, which is June 9th, she still hasn't heard from her sister. So Kimberly

gets on Facebook Messenger and looks at the last exchange that she had with her. And next to Ashley's

name, it says last active 18 hours ago. And that's when Kimberly starts to get a little worried.

You see, it's 2017. Ashley had never gone that long without checking her social media.

So Kimberly tries messaging her, but she doesn't get a reply. And then she tries calling,

but the call goes straight to voicemail. She keeps trying over the next few days, but when almost

a week goes by with no word, that is when she is full on panicking. And she isn't the only one.

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