Overview of Ashley Loring HeavyRunner
According to WhenTheyWereHere.com, In Montana, indigenous women and girls make up only 3 - 4% of the population but they account for approximately 30% of those deemed missing by the Montana Department of Justice.
At the time of her disappearance, Ashley's sister, Kimberly was traveling abroad in Morocco. She was planning on moving into Ashley's apartment in Missoula, Montana when she returned from her trip, but when she arrived home to Montana, Kimberly was unable to get in touch with Ashley. Known to frequently lose her cell phone, Kimberly didn’t worry initially. Her family initially thought that she might have even gone out of town to visit a friend, which could explain why all calls to her phone were left unanswered. Both scenarios seemed possible so they didn’t worry.
Then Ashley’s father was hospitalized for liver failure and Ashley's family had still not heard from her. That is when they knew something was wrong.
Kimberly began reaching out to Ashley's friends on social media to see if anyone had seen or heard from her after June 5th, but to no avail. Kimberly then reported Ashley missing to Blackfeet Law Enforcement as well as tribal law enforcement, and an unsuccessful, three-day search of the reservation began. Two weeks after Ashley went missing, law enforcement received a tip from someone who had seen a young woman running away from a vehicle on U.S. Highway 89, a busy road on the reservation. An extensive search was conducted immediately, leading to a dump site where volunteers found a gray sweater which they believed to belong to Ashley. Ashley's family turned the sweater over to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) for testing, only to later learn that the sweater was never sent to a crime lab for testing. Instead, it had been sitting in a box in evidence.
During a later search, Ashley's family found a torn sweater and a pair of red stained boots , which appeared to be blood. Nine months after Ashley's disappearance, the FBI took over her case. On December 13th, 2019, human remains were found on the Blackfeet reservation, although the FBI Crime Lab concluded that the remains were not Ashley’s and instead belonged to a Native American man between the ages of 45 and 60.
There is currently a $15,000 reward for any information regarding Ashley's location.