Family Seeks Answers In Case Of Missing Indigenous Washington Woman

In November 2020, an Indigenous woman in Washington State disappeared, and her family and law enforcement are still trying to find out what happened to her.

Mary E. Johnson, then 39, was last seen on Nov. 24, 2020, walking along Firetrail Road on the Tulalip Reservation, according to the FBI’s Seattle Field Office.

Johnson’s estranged husband contacted police and reported her missing on Dec. 9. “He said that she has been gone for a couple of weeks and that she is not normally gone that long,” Johnson’s sister, Gerry Davis, told KING-TV.

“It's like she just vanished,” said a second sister, Nona Blouin, according to CBS News. “You think you would be able to get some leads, but after almost a year it's just frustrating and heartbreaking.”

Three people reported seeing Johnson, also known as Mary E. Davis, the day she went missing, Tulalip Tribal Police Chief Chris Sutter noted.

Sutter told KING-TV that a phone record search indicated Johnson, a citizen of the Tulalip Tribes, “may have been transported to the area of Oso, Washington,” a town 30 miles from the reservation, “but she never made it to her final destination.”

Blouin explained to the station that she believes Johnson was headed to the area because “she has a family there that she goes to and stays with and gets sober and clean,” and she now fears her sister may have fallen prey to human traffickers.

“You can talk to anybody who lives on a reservation and they know somebody who's gone missing,” Chief Sutter explained. “Unfortunately, too many of them are abused, exploited and murdered.”

Tulalip Tribal Police Department Detective David Sallee told CNN there are “a lot of maybes” in the case.

“We don't know if she was kidnapped, held against her will, if she has been murdered,” he said. “It could be argued maybe she just wandered off in the woods and got lost. Maybe she overdosed and passed away somewhere in a remote area and we don't know where she's at. Maybe she's just hiding, maybe she's in treatment.”

“It's really hard not knowing,” Blouin said. “We love her so much, and we're just wishing and praying every day that we get some news.”

“There are tough days and then there's better days,” Blouin said about the absence of her sister she called a loveable jokester who’s “just a good person to be around.”

She added, “We just miss her a lot.”

The FBI is offering a reward up to $10,000 for information leading to the identification, arrest and conviction of anyone who might be responsible for Johnson’s disappearance.

Johnson stands 5 feet, 6 inches tall and weighed 115 pounds at the time of her disappearance. She has black hair, brown eyes and a "sunburst-type tattoo on her upper right arm," according to the FBI. She also has a scar across her nose and a birthmark on the back of her neck.

If you have any information concerning the location of Mary Johnson (Davis), please call the FBI's Seattle Field Office at (206) 622-0460. You may also contact your local FBI office, the nearest American Embassy or Consulate, or you can submit a tip online at tips.fbi.gov.