This is the second episode in a two-part series and the first story in a larger season.

This season covers Cases in New Mexico.

All season we're supporting the New Mexico nonprofit Angels Voices Silence No More.

Please, be sure to listen through the end of the episode for information.

This series discusses violence, homicide, crime scenes, autopsy, drug use, and suicide.

If you or a loved one is struggling with suicidal thoughts, please call the National

Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800, 273, 8255, or 911 if there is an immediate emergency or crisis. This is the fall line.

Last time we introduced you to Vanji Randall Shorty, who works on behalf of many

families of missing and murdered indigenous women and relatives in New Mexico and across the United States.

She became involved with other activists after her son

Zachariah Juan Shorty disappeared on July 21st, 2020. Zach was a lifelong resident of Kirtland, New Mexico,

but spent time in nearby Farmington

and on the Navajo Reservation.

When his family began their search for him,

they looked everywhere, covering miles of city territory and their cars and rougher terrain crossed on four-wheelers.

They worked in shifts and kept in contact with the local Farmington police, but though they heard rumors, there was no sign of Zach.

Four days later, his body was found on the Navajo Nation Reservation in an area the Daily Times describes as, quote,

on a dirt path in a field west of the Nanajazad Chapter House.

A chapter is part of the governmental structure of the Navajo Nation and its most local form.

But as Vanji tells it, several more days passed before she was informed of Zach's death, and it's

that it's that excruciating passage of time that she still struggles to understand.

Though Tivangi's understanding, a number of agencies were either informed or involved,

...