Minnesota teen last seen in 2021 subject of renewed search this week near Bemidji
Efforts have resumed in Minnesota to locate an indigenous teen who vanished nearly two years ago when she was 15 years old.
Beginning Monday, search teams planned to spend two days combing through the northern Minnesota city of Bemidji to find any trace of Nevaeh Kingbird, as well as other missing Native Americans. Kingbird was last seen Oct. 22, 2021, and detectives with the Bemidji Police Department have spent two years following up on several leads — but to no avail.
"There are still no answers. The hope is that this search will lead to new developments," the police department said in a post on Facebook. "For nearly two years, Nevaeh Kingbird’s loved ones have lived with the pain of not knowing what happened to their beloved daughter, sister, niece and friend."
Kingbird was last seen leaving a party
More than 100 volunteers and law enforcement officers planned to spend Monday and Tuesday conducting a grid search of more than 150 acres in Bemidji, according to police.
While the the Bemidji Police Department is leading the investigation, other agencies are also involved in the search efforts, including the Minnesota Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Office, a division of the state's Department of Public Safety; and the federal Missing and Murdered Unit of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, an agency within the Department of the Interior.
On the day she went missing in 2021, Kingbird was seen leaving a party around 1 a.m. near the southern end of Bemidji, according to Crime Stoppers of Minnesota. About an hour later, the girl was seen leaving a second residence alone in a mobile home park before losing contact with family and friends.
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Searchers also looking for two missing men
Kingbird isn't the only missing indigenous person search teams in Minnesota hope to find this week.
Jeremy Jourdain, who would now be 24, disappeared in 2016 after leaving a relative's home on Halloween night, according to a bulletin from the state's department of public safety.
Damon Boyd, who would now be 38, vanished two years earlier in 2014 from East Grand Forks, more than 100 miles northwest of Bemidji, according to a bulletin.
Anyone with information about Kingbird's disappearance can call the Bemidji Police Department at 218-333-9111 or submit an anonymous tip to Crime Stoppers at crimestoppersmn.org or 800-222-8477.
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Eric Lagatta covers breaking and trending news for USA TODAY. Reach him at elagatta@gannett.com
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Missing indigenous teen Nevaeh Kingbird subject of Minnesota search
