Washington State Patrol has issued a Missing Indigenous Person Alert for Slighte in Thurston County.
Missing Indigenous Person Alert in Thurston County
The alert was announced in a post by WSP Missing Person Alerts.
Missing Indigenous Person Alerts, known as MIPAs, are issued by Washington State Patrol only at the request of local law enforcement. The alert system was created specifically to help find missing Native American and Indigenous residents, a population that state troopers have said is disproportionately represented in missing-person cases statewide, according to OPB. That outlet reported that Native Americans make up nearly 2% of Washington's population but nearly 6% of its missing-person cases.
A Pattern of Local Alerts in Thurston County
This is not the first time this year that Thurston County deputies have turned to the MIPA system. In August, deputies sought public help locating 14-year-old Nayleea Shelton-Eddy, who was last seen off Old Highway 99 Southwest in Centralia around 3:30 p.m., as reported by The Olympian. That alert, like the one for Slighte, directed the public to call 911 and listed a case number for tips.
Statewide data on the alert system shows most subjects are eventually found. By the end of August 2024, Washington State Patrol had issued 114 Missing Indigenous Persons Alerts, with subjects located in all but 13 of those cases, per the same OPB report. A state patrol official told the outlet that juvenile runaways make up the majority of the alerts issued.
