across the nation, it s heart wrenching. to really think about how we are invisible. i don t want another family to ever feel like how we felt. hello, and welcome to dateline. we carla yellow bird mmiw grew up surrounded by love on her north dakota indian reservation, when she vanished her family was frantic to find her, and believed authoritarians were not doing enough. it is a common feeling in native american circles. but the yellow birds had a secret weapon, carla s own aunt happened to be a no nonsense investigator determined to find the truth. here s andrea canning with the secrets of spirit lake. there s been a lot of sacrifice that went with this, on a personal level, you know. but you are never done? never done. her name is lisa yellow bird, her job defies description. investigator, interrogator, searcher of last result. the one people turn to in their very worst moments. this is backbreaking, this is 24/7. this is you living and breathing this. const
so they had stolen her money and her drugs? yes. why kill her? why not just steal it and leave her there? the intention was to rob her. it didn t go as planned. obviously. and when it happened the way it did, he claims that it was just as big of a shock to him. i didn t know that was going to happen, it shouldn t have happened. lissa called me. that s when she told me, you know, they know where she s at and i just said, you know, is she alive? she was like, no. so, you still had that little, tiny glimmer of hope? even though i knew, but still, when she told me no i was like, i started really crying. i mean, it s just something you don t ever want to hear in your life. this was your first born. yes. so, i didn t think, i mean, i didn t want it ever be true,. in mandan, detective bowman
mandan police were still running a parallel investigation but detective bowman said she wasn t hearing back from the bureau of indian affairs. you ve reached out, you re not getting calls back? yeah, i m not getting the information i need back. how frustrating is that? it s really frustrating. bowman documented her calls to the spirit lake bya office and her investigative report. however, when we contacted ebi a, we were told that the agent assigned to the case had no knowledge of detective moments attempts to reach its offices. lissa says, she also called the bia and left messages. why are you not searching for her, you know? and what are you guys doing? who s doing what? you didn t feel like they were doing enough. they weren t doing anything, to begin with, yeah. that s just kind of how they operate. the bia told us that in carla s case, bia agents assisted the fbi with search efforts on foot and with
had also spoken on the phone with suna that day. he told her he feared the man involved in carla s murder or now after him. he s absolutely convinced that he is being monitored. he s just very paranoid at this point. bowman thought suna could well be in danger. this is a monumental moment in this case and you need help. i know that the fbi can cover everything. they can go anywhere and so, i need the fbi. the fbi is responsible for investigating major crimes on reservations. special agent virtually had been in contact with detective bowman about carla s disappearance. on the day bowman found out that suna had turned, virtually as he was out on the reservation with ebi and a helicopter looking for carla. burchler thought they needed to bring suna in that night, but it turned out, that would not be so easy. suna was hiding and he even shut off his phone. his phone could not be located.
case. there was a report that she had been in, like, a silver car and she had been hanging out with soon a guy, dakota charben of, and dalen st-pierre. all three had lengthy criminal records. all three resided on the spirit lake reservation. bowman contacted tribal police. she says, they never put her through to the investigator on the case. just told her they had spoken to and he said he had not seen carla. if bowman wanted to interview sooner herself, she couldn t, because she had no jurisdiction to on the track travel police or fbi approval, which she had not received. for carlos and, lissa, it was time to step in. it wasn t even a question of if i was going to find her, it was just i was going to find her. as the search for karla continues, an unexpected phone call gives odd lissa her first big break. coming up,