Niece of missing Navajo woman is charged in a kidnapping case in New Mexico
Seraphine Warren gained attention for her cross-country walk from the Navajo Nation to Washington, D.C., to raise awareness about her missing aunt. Now newly unsealed federal court documents show that she and three other people were arrested and charged in connection with a 2021 kidnapping case.
The unnamed victim was released by the group in Farmington, New Mexico, records say.
According to the documents, filed in New Mexico District Court, Warren, along with three other people, were indicted by a grand jury for kidnapping, defined in the indictment as "unlawfully kidnapping, abducting, inveigling, decoying, seizing, confining, and carrying away the victim," and holding that victim for ransom.
The victim was transported from Arizona to New Mexico, records say.
The indictment includes a count of conspiracy to kidnap, alleging that from about March 29, 2021, to around April 1, 2021, Warren, Orlando Begay, Nelson Alex Begay and Josephine Begay collaborated to kidnap the victim and hold him for ransom.
The alleged kidnapping occurred before Warren's aunt, Ella Mae Begay, was reported missing on June 15, 2021.
Initial court appearances began this week for some of the defendants, with an arraignment scheduled for Thursday.
According to court documents, the group had researched the victim through Facebook, determined his location and confronted him. They had with them handcuffs, two paintball guns, a metal baton, pepper spray and a Glock handgun, which the documents allege they intended to use in the kidnapping.
The group entered the victim's home in Arizona, physically confronted him, handcuffed him, and then took him from Arizona to New Mexico.
Court documents say Warren hit the victim on top of the head with a blunt object. The group shot him with the paintball guns they brought, handcuffed him and then put him in the back of their truck.
The Ella Mae Begay missing persons case
Warren gained public attention in June 2022, when she started her cross-country walk a year after her aunt, Ella Mae Begay, disappeared from her home in Sweetwater. The missing persons case had become nationally known through media coverage Warren and her family were able to garner.
On April 3, Preston Henry Tolth was arrested on charges in the disappearance of Begay.
Tolth was charged with assault resulting in bodily injury and carjacking resulting in serious bodily injury. Authorities say he had only recently met Begay before he allegedly assaulted her and stole her Ford F-150 pickup truck.
“I really didn’t think that my aunt being missing would correlate with everything that I am doing,” said Warren in a previous interview. “When I was leaving, I was trying to think what to bring along the way. It was my son who said, ‘What are you doing? You don't need anything.’ And then I instantly thought, 'I don’t need anything.' My aunt was forced to leave her house with nothing.”
Although Tolth was arrested, Begay’s remains have never been recovered. She is still listed as missing, one of 79 people on the Navajo Nation on that list, including 24 females and 55 males, according to Navajo Nation Police.
“Losing my dad was the worst, but losing my mom is the worst to deal with,” said Gerald Begay, Ella Mae Begay's son, in a previous phone interview. “I am close to my mom. It’s a lot. I’m still here. Still looking forward to getting at least some type of closure, if anything. If not, then at least get the people responsible for this whole situation, and not let it happen again to somebody else because it’s hard.”
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Seraphine Warren, niece of missing Navajo woman, faces kidnapping case
