SPD marks National Missing Children’s Day with tribute to 1979 case
May 25, 2020, 12:44 PM | Updated: 12:59 pm
In addition to Memorial Day, Monday is also National Missing Children’s Day. Seattle Police Chief Carmen Best said it’s a day to remember children who remain missing and those who work to protect children and bring their abusers to justice.
Best wrote on the Seattle police website that she hopes shining a light on a case from 1979 of two missing cousins will trigger a tip. Carlota Sanchez and Elsie Luscier, from the Quinault reservation, were reportedly last seen in downtown Seattle 40 years ago.
“These girls were just 12 and 13 when they vanished,” Chief Best said. “Their families will never forget them, and neither will our department – their cases remain open and unsolved.”
Best said the department is working with the Seattle Indian Health Board and Seattle City Councilmember Debora Juarez to build relationships between Seattle police officers and Native American communities. She expects the relationship will improve how the city collects data and creates policies around missing and murdered indigenous women and girls.
“The Seattle Police Department wants to ensure the safety of indigenous women and girls,” Best said. “We need to stop the violence and end the trend we’ve seen nationally involving missing or murdered indigenous women and girls.”
The department is asking anyone with information about any missing person’s case to call 911 or the non-emergency line at 206-625-5011.
“Seattle was the first in the nation to pass legislation and fund concrete, measurable steps to combat the MMIWG [Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls] epidemic,” Councilmember Juarez wrote on SPD’s website. “The legislation was the first of many steps the City took as well. On November 25, 2019, the Seattle City Council passed the 2020 budget which allocated: $87,500 to the Seattle Police Department to contract with an indigenous-led organization and $161,000 for a strategic advisor to work on MMIWG casework in the Data Division.”
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