Charges brought in Navajo Nation missing persons investigation
A New Mexico man was charged Tuesday in connection to the missing persons investigation of a Navajo Nation woman, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office District of Arizona.
Preston Henry Tolth, a 23-year-old from New Mexico, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Phoenix on suspicion of assault charges resulting in serious bodily injury and carjacking resulting in serious bodily injury, according to the U.S. Attorney's office.
The charges against Tolth are in relation to an incident that happened in June of 2021 in which the 23-year-old allegedly assaulted a woman of the Navajo Nation, causing her serious bodily injury, according to Diana Varela, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office.
The charges also allege that Tolth took the woman's Ford F150 pickup truck and transported it across state lines with the intent to cause death or serious injury to the woman, Varela said.
The woman was identified as 62-year-old Ella Mae Begay by her family's attorney in a Tuesday Facebook post. Begay lived in one of the most remote communities on the Navajo Nation, called Tolikan, prior to her disappearance in June 2021, according to previous reporting by The Republic.
Though rare for missing persons cases involving Indigenous women, Begay's case garnered national attention during the 21 months she remained missing. The attention was largely due to activism from her family and the attorney who represented them pro-bono for over a year, according to previous Republic coverage.
Begay's case served as a call to action on the issue of murdered and missing Indigenous women and relatives. The woman's niece, Seraphine Warren, grabbed headlines when she walked from her aunt's home in Tolikan to Washington, D.C. to bring attention to the case and meet with Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland on the issue.
Darlene Gomez, the attorney who represented Begay's family, said Tolth's arraignment was bittersweet for her relatives.
"The family wanted me to tell you how much they appreciate everyone who has shared their story, who has donated to their GoFundMe page and who has prayed for Ella Mae and for the family," Gomez said in a video posted to Facebook on Tuesday.
The family reportedly asked for time and privacy to be able to process the new developments and indictment in their mother's case.
“This indictment is an important first step in determining the truth about what happened to an elderly victim on the Navajo Nation,” said U.S. Attorney Gary Restaino. “The indictment charges the defendant with carjacking and assault, the investigation is ongoing.”
The Federal Bureau of Investigations offered a $5,000 reward for information that led to an arrest in Begay's case in November of 2022, following many requests from Gomez and Gerald Begay, Ella Mae's son. Getting the reward money was a hurdle the family faced while trying to get more information on their mother's disappearance, according to Gomez.
Tolth's charges are the latest development in the investigation led by the Department of Justice and the Navajo Nation Department of Criminal Investigations into the disappearance of Begay, according to the U.S. Attorney's office.
If convicted, Tolth could face between 10-25 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each charge, according to a Tuesday press release.
Tolth appeared in federal court in Flagstaff on Tuesday and is set to appear for a detention hearing and formal arraignment on Friday.
The investigation was part of the Department of Justice’s efforts to address cases involving missing and murdered Indigenous persons, according to Varela. The U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Arizona, in Phoenix, is handling Tolth's prosecution.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Charges brought in Ella Mae Begay missing persons investigation
