Zoë Buchli
Missoulian
Two missing-person cases on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation are now in the hands of federal agents specializing in solving missing and murdered Indigenous persons incidents.
Arden Pepion and Leo Wagner both disappeared from Blackfeet in April 2021. In the almost two years they’ve been missing, both of their cases have yielded little in the way of answers. In July of 2022, Blackfeet Law Enforcement formally requested that the Bureau of Indian Affairs Missing and Murdered Unit take the lead for Pepion and Wagner’s cases, according to a BIA spokesperson.
What happened to Leo and Arden?
On April 27, 2021, Leo Wagner, who was 26 at the time, went missing. Details around his case are murky. On June 1, 2021, Blackfeet officers said in an update that Wagner was last seen by family and friends near the St. Mary and Babb areas, just east of Glacier National Park. On May 1, law enforcement searched those areas.
Blackfeet officials said a cabin at Big Nose Bay was burglarized on May 2, and that clothing and items thought to belong to Wagner were found. It also looked like an injury occurred, the Great Falls Tribune reported. A spokesperson for Blackfeet Law Enforcement said the recovered clothing items “indicate (Wagner) was severely injured.” Search efforts were scaled back on May 9.
“Our family literally fell apart,” Mikala Wagner, Leo’s sister, said in an interview with the Missoulian.
Mikala and her father Bill Wagner described Leo as a well-loved man who was a father of five. He helped out at the family ranch outside of Browning and was also a boxer.
“He was the jokester of the family and always had everybody laughing,” Bill said.
Bill and other family members of Leo’s looked for him and also recruited a private searcher to look through Saint Mary Lake. Bill said he and his other son found a shoe and some blood evidence around the cabin. He added that Leo’s case is a long story.
“We’re wanting justice and we don’t have no answers,” he said. “We as the family was up there from day one.”
Arden’s case started just days before Leo’s. The 3-year-old vanished on April 22, 2021, from the Two Medicine River area.
One man was sentenced to nine months of house arrest for negligent endangerment and not exercising the appropriate care for someone of Arden’s age. Her family and friends have spent hundreds of hours combing through the thick Two Medicine River corridor looking for any evidence of what might have happened to the child.
As of Nov. 28, 2022, 27 percent (52 individuals) of Montana’s total 192 missing persons were Indigenous. Indigenous people comprise about 6.7 percent of Montana’s population, according to an update from the Montana Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Task Force.
Nineteen of those 52 people have been missing for more than a year. Leo and Arden are part of that number.
Cases transferred
BIA took over last summer, about 15 months after Arden and Leo went missing. Because of federal law, jurisdiction for felonies on tribal land is shared between federal and tribal agencies.
“Among their reasoning for requesting the case transfers were because MMU Agents are specifically dedicated to analyzing and solving missing and murdered cases involving American Indians and Alaska Natives,” the BIA spokesperson said of why Blackfeet tribal officers asked for federal assistance.
The spokesperson said the reassignment frees up limited tribal law enforcement resources. Blackfeet officers are still involved in the cases. BIA can’t comment on ongoing investigations, but said both cases are active and being worked.
Federal agents can present evidence and refer cases to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for possible criminal prosecution. In Arden and Leo’s cases, that hasn’t happened yet, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office Spokesperson Clair Howard.
Mikala Wagner said investigators told the family Leo’s case is ongoing, but they haven’t heard from BIA investigators in about six months.
“They care, but it’s not their top priority,” Mikala said.
Diana Burd, who’s helped lead Arden’s community search team, “Holding Hope,” said she learned about BIA taking over the law enforcement investigation into Arden’s case a few months ago, but hasn’t seen agents on the ground and hasn’t been contacted by BIA investigators.
“No one is looking except for us,” Burd said.
Burd thinks BIA’s involvement might help on the investigative end of things, but she said she’s not entirely sure about their role because Holding Hope searchers haven’t seen any agents in the Two Medicine area.
A BIA spokesperson said the agency uses victim specialists as a bridge between agents and the U.S. Attorney’s Office “to provide the family with the available information that won’t harm a case.” Specialists also break down the criminal justice process for families.
“In both the Leo Wagner and Arden Pepion’s cases, legal circumstances exist that prevent us from speaking about the case management thus far,” they said.
Not uncommon
Several agencies worked on coordination and response efforts for the searches of Arden and Leo.
They included local Border Patrol agents, Glacier County Sheriff’s Office, Pondera County Sheriff’s Office, Toole County Sheriff’s Office, FBI, Flathead County Sheriff Dive & K-9 Teams, Blackfeet law enforcement and other tribal resources, and BIA Missing and Murdered Unit agents, according to the spokesperson.
“The Blackfeet Law Enforcement Services program exercises self-determination for their law enforcement programs while BIA OJS provides technical assistance when requested,” they said.
Blackfeet’s tribal law enforcement is understaffed, something that prompted a resolution getting passed in June of 2022 to bolster resources for Blackfeet tribal officers.
Former Blackfeet Tribal Business Council Secretary Mark Pollock said about 18 tribal police officers patrol the reservation, which spans 1.5 million acres. But because officers must take time off between shifts, Pollock said sometimes two officers may be responsible for patrolling the entire reservation, which is home to more than 10,000 residents and larger than Delaware.
U.S. Attorney Jesse Laslovich said conversations about jurisdictions happen regardless of crime, but especially on Missing and Murdered Indigenous People work.
“We want to be collaborative partners,” he said in an interview with the Missoulian. Generally, they try to find balance and decide how to delegate investigative resources by discussing if the U.S. attorney’s office will work jointly with tribal partners, or if they’ll let tribal law enforcement take the lead.
For Arden and Leo’s cases, Blackfeet Law Enforcement took the lead initially.
“The BIA is investigating both of the cases,” Laslovich said. “And what that leads to, whether it’s a criminal referral or not, is to be determined based on the investigation.”
Still searching
The remains of both Arden and Leo haven’t been recovered, making it challenging for their loved ones to find closure.
Holding Hope still looks for Arden year-round. Earlier this year, Burd shared her story about what community searches for Arden have been like at the state Legislature. She spoke in support of House Bill 18, which would establish a missing persons response team training grant program administered through the Department of Justice.
Browning resident Rhonda Grant-Connelly also spoke to Montana lawmakers and alluded to Leo Wagner’s case, along with Ashley Loring HeavyRunner, who has been missing since 2017.
Harsh winter conditions suspended searches for Leo, but his family has plans to go back and look for Leo come springtime. Mikala said having any part of her brother laid to rest would help their family have a sense of justice and peace.
“We all miss him so much,” she said.
This article was originally published in the Missoulian.