Dateline Missing in America – Ep. 23: Through the Cracks

Summary

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Dateline Missing in America – Ep. 23: Through the Cracks

Podcast: Dateline Originals
Host: Josh Mankiewicz / NBC News
Date: September 5, 2025

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Overview of Episode Theme

This episode of Dateline’s Missing in America shines a spotlight on the disappearance of Tiffany Reed, a 16-year-old Navajo girl who vanished in 2004 while walking to school in Shiprock, New Mexico. The episode investigates how Tiffany’s case "fell through the cracks" due to law enforcement inaction, systemic neglect, and a lack of resources—failures that are heartbreakingly familiar in the stories of missing Indigenous women. Through emotional interviews with Tiffany’s sister, Deandra Reed, and community advocates, Dateline explores both the personal anguish and the broader crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people (MMIP).

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

Tiffany Reed’s Disappearance and Immediate Aftermath

• Tiffany’s Character and Family:

  • Tiffany was a creative, expressive teenager, close to her older sister, Deandra, who acted as her protector due to domestic turmoil at home. Their mother struggled with cancer, which forced Tiffany to mature quickly.
  • “She did her hair different every day. She was really into her style.”
    — Deandra Reed [01:06]

• The Day Tiffany Disappeared (May 17, 2004):

  • Tiffany left home on foot for school after Deandra, exhausted from a night shift, couldn’t give her a ride.
  • When Tiffany didn’t come home, initial concern morphed into dread. The family’s call to police was met with assumption: officers suggested Tiffany had run away and enforced a 72-hour wait before even taking a missing persons report.
  • “They just basically ran with that and said, okay, well, maybe she just ran away from home. So if she's not back in 72 hours, then you can report her missing.”
    — Deandra Reed [07:41]

• Delayed and Sloppy Police Response:

  • After the mandated waiting period, it took police four more days to enter Tiffany into the NCIC, the federal missing persons database—a full week lost. Tiffany’s family began their own search, distributing flyers and talking to friends.
  • “So that's a whole week of not even having her in the system. That's a lot of time loss.”
    — Deandra Reed [10:05]

• Discovery of Tiffany’s Belongings:

  • Tiffany’s purse and library card, and potentially her clothing, were found an hour away on a lonely highway near Sweetwater, Arizona—an area with no known connections to her.
  • “It just happened to be my sister’s purse and her library card.”
    — Deandra Reed [12:59]

The Years that Followed: Family’s Struggle & Police Failures

• Loss and Grief:

  • Deandra describes the destructive impact of her sister’s disappearance on her mental health and her family’s shifting focus to care for their mother during her cancer recurrence.
  • Deandra later finds purpose in criminal justice studies and advocacy for MMIP.
  • “I got in trouble for that, and me getting in trouble kind of like, jolted me back into reality.”
    — Deandra Reed [17:01]

• Law Enforcement Inaction and Systemic Issues:

  • Despite tips about Tiffany’s possible sightings, the family received minimal updates and no significant follow-up.
  • Notably, in 2018, a woman using Tiffany’s name was detained during a routine traffic stop. Family member Becky Johnson realized quickly it was not Tiffany, but made a distressing discovery: Tiffany’s name had been purged from the NCIC, apparently during a database transition, and authorities were unaware she was still missing.
  • “My biggest concern now is why isn't she entered in as a missing person?”
    — Becky Johnson [24:29]
  • “All the things that you can imagine going wrong in a case happened with her case.”
    — Deandra Reed [24:52]

• Ongoing Advocacy:

  • After her mother’s passing, Deandra continues the search and becomes active on New Mexico’s MMIP task force and at the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women.

Broader Systemic Problems

• Systemic Bias and Lack of Resources:

  • Tiffany Harone (Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women) and host Josh Mankiewicz discuss how Native families are often met with police skepticism or indifference, with cases presumed to be runaways rather than active disappearances.
  • “There's often a bias about Native American families that is often untrue... it's really unfair to state that a young Native girl... just decided to run away.”
    — Tiffany Harone [29:23]

• Staggering Statistics and New Efforts:

  • Over 80% of Indigenous women experience violence in their lifetime. New Mexico’s new "Turquoise Alert" system, enacted in July 2025, aims to bring faster awareness and action for missing Native Americans.

Deandra’s Perspective: Hope, Regret, and Justice

• Hope and Unanswered Questions:

  • Deandra maintains hope for answers, caught between the possibility Tiffany is alive and the harsh passage of two decades. She dreams of her sister’s possible life and legacy.
  • “Until we find her, you know, good or bad, I'm gonna hang on to that hope that she's still alive.”
    — Deandra Reed [31:19]

• Demand for Accountability:

  • Deandra wants not only justice for whoever is responsible but also institutional accountability from law enforcement.
  • “What I really want is for the criminal investigators office and the Shiprock Police Department to be accountable for their actions and the failures that they have, you know, done with my sister's case.”
    — Deandra Reed [32:10]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Self-Blame and Guilt:
  “Yes, I have, and it's something that I'm trying to work through right now, you know, to. To learn to have compassion for myself and. And let go of that guilt.”
  — Deandra Reed, on skipping the drive to school [05:44]

• On Family’s Relentless Search:
  “We still went out and drove around looking for her, knocking on doors and stuff, like we weren't going to sit back and wait for the police to take the report.”
  — Deandra Reed [09:18]

• On the Emotional Toll:
  “I just have a lot of what if questions and I probably always will have those questions.”
  — Deandra Reed [32:43]

• On Institutional Failures:
  “All the cracks that you could think of for her case to fall through, her case fell through those cracks.”
  — Deandra Reed [25:12]

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Important Segment Timestamps

• Tiffany's Disappearance and Early Family Response: [00:49–02:22]
• Family's Recollections & Early Investigations: [02:59–04:50]
• Systemic Failures: Law Enforcement Delays: [07:41–10:13]
• Discovery of Belongings & Search Details: [12:29–15:34]
• Years Without Answers & Family’s Continued Pain: [16:10–18:45]
• Database Blunder and New Leads: [21:58–25:04]
• Advocacy, MMIP Context & Turquoise Alert: [27:29–30:40]
• Deandra’s Ongoing Fight and Reflections: [30:48–33:08]
• How Listeners Can Help: [33:08–34:46]

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Resources & Call-to-Action

Tiffany Reed would be 37 years old today.

• Height: 5'3", Weight: 115 lbs at disappearance
• Black hair, brown eyes
• Scar under right eye and on one arm

Anyone with information:
Call the Navajo Nation Police Department, Shiprock district: 505-368-1350

Age-progressed images and more info:
datelinemissinginamerica.com

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Episode Tone

This episode is heartfelt, raw, and unflinching. Through Deandra Reed’s voice, listeners feel both the pain of irreparable loss and the determination for justice. The program is empathetic yet urgent, exposing not only a single disappearance but a nationwide crisis of missing Indigenous people and the failing institutions meant to protect them.

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Transcript

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[Josh Mankiewicz]

Getting a 16 year old off to school on time is no easy job.

[Deandra Reed]

Tiffany was the type that really took care of herself.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

For a girl like Tiffany Reed, appearances mattered. From HA to makeup to picking the right outfit.

[Deandra Reed]

She did her hair different every day. She was really into her style.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Monday, May 17, 2004 was no different for Tiffany.

[Interviewer]

She asked you to take her to school that last day?

[Deandra Reed]

Yeah, she did. She was running late.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

That is Deandra Reed, Tiffany's older sister.

[Deandra Reed]

I had gone off working a graveyard shift, so I didn't have the energy to get up and drive her to school.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

That morning, Tiffany set out on foot for Shiprock Northwest High School in New Mexico.

[Interviewer]

Was it common for her to walk to school?

[Deandra Reed]

Yeah, it wasn't far.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

The school year was almost over. Summer nearly in Tiffany's reach. Except that day, Tiffany did not come home after school.

[Deandra Reed]

There are times that she would not come straight home from school, but she would still call my mom to let her know.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

That call never came and Tiffany never made it home. That was 21 years ago.

[Deandra Reed]

I just want to know where she is.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

I'm Josh Mankiewicz and this is Missing in America, a podcast from Dateline. This episode is through the cracks. Please listen closely because you or someone you know might hold the key to finding Tiffany and bringing her home. Shiprock is a small community located on the Navajo Reservation in San Juan County.

[Deandra Reed]

So Shiprock is a really small town. You know, it's a little more developed than it was back then when we were growing up there. But it was a small town. Tiffany and I grew up on a farm. We grew up, you know, exploring the outdoors and picking on frogs and prairie dogs and running through the fields.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

And Deandra is the big sister by four years.

[Interviewer]

A lot of sisters who are four years apart, you know, fight like cats and dogs. It doesn't feel like that happened here.

[Deandra Reed]

No. I think I took on more of the protective role because of the. The kind of environment we were growing up in. So I think, if anything, we clung together more than we fought.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Deandra says she took on the role of protector because of their parents rocky marriage.

[Deandra Reed]

There was a lot of violence in our home when we were younger. You know, being the older sister, I always tried to shield my little sister from that, just so she didn't. Wasn't too exposed to it.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Deandra and Tiffany's parents divorced when Tiffany was about 8 years old.

[Deandra Reed]

And we were just kind of, you know, caught up in the middle of it.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Deandra saw it affect her younger sister.

[Deandra Reed]

When Tiffany was a child, you know, she was really quiet. And so when she was growing up, I did a lot of the talking for her.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Eventually, Deandra moved out and Tiffany had to step up.

[Deandra Reed]

Our mom was battling cancer, so I think she. She took on a lot of responsibility when I left, and my mom was going through chemo, and it. You know, chemo can be really aggressive sometimes. So I think it was hard for her to see our mom going through that.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

As Tiffany became a teenager, she started to find her voice.

[Deandra Reed]

She was really talented and creative. She wrote a lot of poetry. She wrote her songs. She used to sing. She used to like dancing. You know, she was just a teen girl going to school, finding her way, her individuality.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Tiffany Reed's story was still being written until that day in May 2004, when all the pages suddenly went blank.

[Deandra Reed]

She wanted me to take her to school that morning. I was just tired, you know, I had gotten off working a graveyard shift, so I didn't have the energy to get up and drive her to school.

[Interviewer]

You've been beating yourself up about that since then?

[Deandra Reed]

Yes, I have. And it's something that I'm trying to work through right now, you know, to. To learn to have compassion for myself and. And let go of that guilt.

[Interviewer]

But it is something, because this is not your fault.

[Deandra Reed]

Yes. And it's still hard. It's still hard to say that out loud.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

It's also a hard moment to have to remember. Late in the day, on May 17, 2004, Deandra got a call from her mother.

[Deandra Reed]

She's like, your sister didn't come home. I haven't heard from her. And I just told her, you know, maybe she's hanging out with her friend. She'll be back. You know, just. Just trying to keep that positivity.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

When Tiffany did not make it back that night, her mom Became anxious. By the next morning, that anxiety reached a whole new level. She called Deandra again.

[Deandra Reed]

She asked if I heard from her. Tiffany and I, you know, we were still pretty much in contact every day up until the point she went missing. Those were the days of the pagers. And she would page me all the time, wanting to talk and stuff, But I hadn't heard from her. I got a little worried. Just the tone of my mom's voice and the panic that she had, it was different. I feel like maybe it was a mother's intuition telling her that something was wrong.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

So her mother, Deidre, picked up the phone again.

[Deandra Reed]

She called the school to see if Tiffany had made it to school that day. They said she had not. Alarm bells went off.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Deidre also contacted the Shiprock district of the Navajo Nation Police Department and tried to file a missing persons report.

[Deandra Reed]

They came out, talked to her, asked her if my sister had taken off from home before. And my mom said, yeah, she has. And they just basically ran with that and said, okay, well, maybe she just ran away from home. So if she's not back in 72 hours, then you can report her missing.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Deandra says Tiffany had never actually run away before. If she did leave the house, it would be to go hang out with friends.

[Deandra Reed]

She had snuck out a couple of times, but it was. It was on the weekend when she did that it was a little unusual that it was a school night and she hadn't come home.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

And what's more, Deandra says when she last saw Tiffany, it did not look as if she would be gone for.

[Deandra Reed]

Long when she left, she left with her. Her school bag, like she really intended on going to school. I didn't see her carrying an additional bag or anything with her to indicate that she wasn't going to be coming.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Home when she disappeared. Tiffany was doing well in school and had a tight friend group. So the question became, was there something else going on in her life?

[Interviewer]

Around the time she disappeared, did Tiffany ever report having trouble with anyone? Was there anyone she was afraid of? Anyone she was worried about?

[Deandra Reed]

She never mentioned any concern or mentioned that she was scared.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

While they waited out the 72 hours, Tiffany's family combed their town of Shiprock for any sign of her.

[Deandra Reed]

We still went out and drove around looking for her, Knocking on doors and stuff, like we weren't going to sit back and wait for the police to take the report.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

They distributed flyers and spoke with Tiffany's friends. They could not find anyone who had seen her.

[Interviewer]

You must have thought about that delay.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

A lot in the last 20 years I have.

[Deandra Reed]

And even after the 72 hours went by and my mom reported her missing, they still waited another four days before they entered her into ncic.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

NCIC is the National Crime Information Center. It's a database used by law enforcement agencies nationwide and is frequently used to help find missing persons.

[Deandra Reed]

And so that's a whole week of not even having her in the system. That's a lot of time lost.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

It is time that could have been vital in the search for Tiffany. Still, the family did not give up hope, and just days after Deandra last laid eyes on her sister, they received their first bit of news.

[Deandra Reed]

Her belongings were found right off the highway, maybe about an hour outside of Shiprock, going west.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Why would Tiffany be on that lonely stretch of highway so far from home? And could that be the first stop on the road to finding her foreign.

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[Deandra Reed]

4.

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[Deandra Reed]

Are you.

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[Josh Mankiewicz]

C mint mobile.com when you're driving down Route 64, the desert stretches for miles in all directions. Somewhere along the way, Route 64 intersects with Highway 160. The landscape is orange and dusty as far as the eye can see. So it was surprising when a driver noticed some things littering the side of the road. Even more remarkable was the decision to pull over.

[Deandra Reed]

It just happened to be my sister's purse and her library card. Those were the only two things that we could identify as being hers.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

And that is not all that was found.

[Deandra Reed]

There was clothing also found alongside of the road.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

It is clothing that may have belonged to Tiffany. No one is sure.

[Deandra Reed]

I'm not real familiar with the area, but it was past the New Mexico Arizona border going west, then a small reservation community called Sweetwater, Arizona. If you look it up on like Google Maps, you wouldn't find it.

[Interviewer]

This was how far from Shiprock?

[Deandra Reed]

Maybe about an hour outside of Shiprock, going west.

[Interviewer]

Tiffany ever mention that area or having.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Any connection to it?

[Deandra Reed]

I don't remember her mentioning that area.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

A team of volunteers later searched along that highway hoping to find more breadcrumbs to follow. They turned up nothing. Tiffany's family wondered why Tiffany would be out that way. One possible explanation. Some locals have described the area as a frequent party spot for kids. Deandra says that's not entirely accurate and she does not believe Tiffany was going to party there.

[Deandra Reed]

I think the part that they're referring to as the party spot, it's up the mountain kind of. And her stuff wasn't found up the mountain. It was found alongside the highway.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

It sounds as if the idea that.

[Interviewer]

Tiffany had any connection to the party spot is really pretty far fetched.

[Deandra Reed]

Yes, that's the way I see it.

[Interviewer]

This feels like another step on the continuum of, well, she ran away from home and then they find her stuff and they're like, well, there's a party spot near there. That's probably what this was. It feels like police were pretty far off base with both of those ideas.

[Deandra Reed]

Yeah, I would say so.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Whatever their theories, police back then also did not have the technological tools you might use to track someone today.

[Interviewer]

Did she have a cell phone?

[Deandra Reed]

No.

[Interviewer]

Was there ever any video of her from anywhere?

[Deandra Reed]

We never heard of any footage of her anywhere. That was back in 2004. So there weren't ring cameras or cameras on the street? I don't even know if there were cameras on the school at that time.

[Interviewer]

And she didn't have a credit card?

[Deandra Reed]

No.

[Interviewer]

Or a debit card?

[Deandra Reed]

No.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Tiffany Reed had become an untraceable ghost.

[Interviewer]

Following the discovery of her purse and her library card. There is then a very long period of time when it feels like nothing's.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Happening in the case.

[Interviewer]

Did you get any updates? Your family get any updates from police?

[Deandra Reed]

No, my mom was the one calling to the police department to ask for any updates. And, you know, they were just telling her, we're looking into it. We got some leads, and we're looking into it.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Days became months. Months became years. Tiffany's family kept doing everything they could to find her until they faced another devastating blow. It had been about five years since Tiffany vanished when Deidre Reed, whose cancer had been in remission, learned that it had returned.

[Deandra Reed]

And so we kind of shifted our focus to keeping my mom healthy.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

The family had to trust that police were looking for Tiffany while they could not.

[Deandra Reed]

We thought law enforcement really was doing their job and trying to help us locate my sister.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

The unknowns kept Tiffany's loved ones on edge.

[Deandra Reed]

I was in a really. In a really bad place for a lot of years after she went missing. And I ended up having my own addiction to alcohol. And so that was kind of the path that I took, because I didn't know how to deal with my emotions. I didn't know how to talk about it. And I got in trouble for that. And me getting in trouble kind of like jolted me back into reality.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

For Deandra, that jolt launched her in a new direction.

[Deandra Reed]

I eventually ended up going back to school, studying criminal justice, Graduated with my associate degree. And so, you know, essentially, I wanted to be a juvenile probation officer to kind of help with prevention and stuff. And I took on an internship, and that internship led me to advocacy. It just sparked something inside of me. I joined a webinar one day about violence in tribal communities. And the person that was giving the presentation on the other end brought up my sister's case.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

And not even.

[Interviewer]

Not even knowing that you were there?

[Deandra Reed]

No. He brought up my sister's case. And just seeing her face on that screen, it really touched me to know that there are people who know about her story, and they're talking about all the failures that happened in her case.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Deandra believes those failures lie primarily with police.

[Interviewer]

Did anybody look into or wonder whether your sister was trafficked?

[Deandra Reed]

I don't think they did. I don't think trafficking was a big thing back then like it is today. I'm not saying that it wasn't happening, which I'm sure it was, But I don't think anybody ever looked into that. I don't think they even looked into, like, sex offenders living in the area, if they even have that data. There's just a lot of things that I feel they. They didn't do she knows.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Navajo Nation police had been receiving tips about her sister over the years. The question is whether investigators followed up.

[Deandra Reed]

I believe one of those tips that came in was she was spotted in somewhere on the east coast. We never got any word back saying that, no, it wasn't her or them contacting the police department in that area or anything like that.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Still, another lead was about to come, and it was a Whopper. In 2018, 14 years after Tiffany Reed vanished, police stopped a car full of people outside Shiprock and Deandra's cousin happened to hear the incident unfold over a police radio.

[Deandra Reed]

They were taking their names. And that's when she heard my sister's name over the scanner.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Could it really be Tiffany? After all those years, I didn't know what to think.

[Becky Johnson]

I wanted to go see for myself.

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[Deandra Reed]

Are you.

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[Josh Mankiewicz]

Had passed since Tiffany Reed vanished. On the way to school in New Mexico in 2018, Tiffany's family heard something they Thought could be the answer to their prayers.

[Deandra Reed]

So Shiprock is a border town to Farmington. So we have a cousin who was working with the Farmington Police Department at the time as a community officer. And she just happened to be on duty the night that a car full of people got pulled over. And they were being questioned.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Here's that cousin, Becky Johnson.

[Becky Johnson]

I did hear on the scanner they were running. The officers had made a traffic stop. And so I heard the dispatcher running names of the people in the vehicle. And so one of the names caught my ear because I said, tiffany Reed. And then the date of birth was close to what hers was.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Becky tried to keep her excitement in check. After all, it had been so long since her younger cousin had vanished.

[Becky Johnson]

I didn't know what to think. All I thought was, we'll see what it is. I wanted to go see. I wanted to go see for myself.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

She hurried to the scene to see what was going on.

[Becky Johnson]

When I got to where the area was, and I went to the cars, you know, and I asked the officer, I said, who. Who's using the name Tiffany? And then they pointed to her, to a girl in the backseat. And they said to her, do you know her? And I looked, and that person wouldn't look up. And I kept saying, look at me. Look at me. And then when she looked, I was just like, that's not Tiffany.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

A crushing disappointment.

[Becky Johnson]

She never gave her name. And I want to say when they took her to jail, that's when they finally identified her, you know, and it wasn't Tiffany. But I always questioned, you know, why was she using her name?

[Josh Mankiewicz]

That is still unclear. And the whole incident was about to raise another disturbing question. Becky says an officer asked her how she knew Tiffany Reed.

[Becky Johnson]

I was like, that's my little cousin, and she's missing. And then they're like, why? I said, she's been missing for a long time.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

She says the officers had no idea Tiffany had been missing. Missing because when they ran her name in the NCIC database, nothing came up. Becky couldn't believe it.

[Becky Johnson]

I said, my biggest concern now is, why isn't she entered in as a missing person?

[Josh Mankiewicz]

The family says that's how they learned Tiffany had been purged from ncic. Tiffany's older sister Deandra, said she was told authorities switched over to a new database and Tiffany must not have been added back.

[Deandra Reed]

All the things that you can imagine going wrong in a case happened with her case.

[Interviewer]

You thought authorities were looking for her.

[Deandra Reed]

They weren't exactly. It's just failure all around.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Deandra says it took more than a year to get Tiffany relisted.

[Interviewer]

This just gets worse and worse. Doesn't.

[Deandra Reed]

Sure does. All the cracks that you could think of for her case to fall through, her case fell through those cracks.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

For Tiffany's family, it felt like a never ending ordeal. That is until the next tragedy hit. In 2019, Tiffany and Deandra's mother Deidre died from cancer.

[Interviewer]

You sort of took this over from your mom after she passed away?

[Deandra Reed]

I did. Before she passed, she told me not to give up on my sister and she asked me to take over and bring her home.

[Interviewer]

I think your mom would be really proud of what you've done.

[Deandra Reed]

I think so too. Even after everything that I've done so far, you know, it just still doesn't feel like enough.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

One thing Deandra has tried to do is bring more attention to Tiffany's story. In July 2024, she reached out to DATELINE with a simple plea. Please help me. In August, we featured Tiffany's story in our Missing in America digital series. That was the first time we reached out to police to see if they could comment on Tiffany's case. At the time, the criminal investigation supervisor said the department could not speak about Tiffany's disappearance as they are not allowed to comment on active cases. We attempted to contact them again for this podcast and sent them a list of questions about the investigation and the family's accusations. They did not respond. DATELINE also requested the police records in Tiffany's case and we have not received those either. Today, Deandra sits on the New Mexico Department of Justice MMIP Task force that's missing and murdered Indigenous people. She also works for the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women. Tiffany Harone is the executive director of the coalition.

[Tiffany Harone]

Our organization was developed by three Native women who come from the pueblos that reside here in New Mexico and Wendana women.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

The coalition's mission is to raise awareness about violence against Native women in their tribal communities, about the missing and murdered indigenous women crisis, about human trafficking, and about violence against children.

[Tiffany Harone]

We support the 23 Tribal nations of New Mexico with policy, advocacy, work, training and education.

[Interviewer]

This is a giant hill to climb, isn't is?

[Tiffany Harone]

And most of the staff who come to do this work at the organization find themselves being impacted by domestic or sexual violence. By being victims themselves, we know that the violence impacts our communities so much more than we see in statistics.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Those statistics are as eye opening as they are depressing. According to a 2016 study by the National Institute of Justice, more than 80% of indigenous women will be assaulted or experience violence in their lifetime.

[Tiffany Harone]

That is a really hard number to deal with. I'm a survivor myself coming to this work, so I know exactly the experiences of women going through violence. We lack a lot of support even when we are trying to report a missing loved one. There's a strong sense that law enforcement doesn't take this necessarily serious.

[Interviewer]

Tiffany was originally labeled a runaway. Now, how does that happen? Nobody called and said she's run away. How did it go from her being missed by her family to law enforcement labeling her a runaway?

[Tiffany Harone]

And that's often what we hear from law enforcement. There's often a bias about Native American families that is often untrue. And it's really unfair to state that a young Native girl, you know, just was dealing with a lot of things and decided to run away. I know that my coworker, her sister Deandra Reed, has never given up on trying to find justice and also trying to find answers for her sister. And this was the work that her and her mother were doing all on their own.

[Interviewer]

Because if you're counting on law enforcement, you're probably making a mistake in that case.

[Tiffany Harone]

Oftentimes, that's the way we feel, yes.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

The state of New Mexico recently took a step in a new direction. Earlier this year, the legislature passed a bill to create something called a turquoise alert, like an Amber alert, but for when Native Americans go missing. It went into effect on July 1, 2025.

[Interviewer]

So if you'd had the turquoise alert back in 2004, do you think things with Tiffany would have ended differently?

[Tiffany Harone]

Absolutely. I think this is going to be life changing and even life saving for Native American people.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Despite all the challenges she has faced over the last two decades, Deandra remains more determined than ever.

[Deandra Reed]

I hope to eventually take my sister's case over. I'm still going to school for criminal justice, and one of the things that will help me is taking the bar exam for the Navajo Nation. I want to know what's going on with my sister's case. So I'm working my way to actually be a part of that system.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Deandra still tries to hold on to hope whenever she can.

[Interviewer]

Do you think your sister's still alive?

[Deandra Reed]

This is a question that could go both ways for me, depending on what kind of a day I'm having. I would like to hang on to that hope because we haven't found anything so far indicating that she's not here anymore. And then I also know that a lot of time has passed with no word, and it just. It's a hard question. It really is. And until we find her, you know, good or bad, I'm gonna hang on to that hope that she's still alive.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

And if Deandra's worst fears are confirmed.

[Interviewer]

What does justice look like in this for you?

[Deandra Reed]

Holding the person or people accountable for what they've done or what they did or what they're doing.

[Interviewer]

Whoever they are, whoever they are.

[Deandra Reed]

All I really want is for my sister to be home. I just want to know where she is. And what I really want is for the criminal investigators office and the Shiprock Police Department to be accountable for their actions and the failures that they have, you know, done with my sister's case.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Deandra sometimes lets her mind wander. If Tiffany were alive, what would she be like?

[Deandra Reed]

What she would be doing today? What kind of impact she would make, what kind of person she would be, what kind of relationship we would have had, what kind of auntie she would have been to my kids if she would have had her own kids? You know, I just have a lot of what if questions and I probably always will have those questions.

[Josh Mankiewicz]

Here is how you can help. Tiffany reed would be 37 years old today. She was 5 foot 3 and 115 pounds at the time of her disappearance. She had dark black hair and brown eyes. She has a scar under her right eye and a scar on one of her arms. Anyone with information about Tiffany's disappearance should call the Navajo Nation Police Department, ShipRock district at 505-368-1350 to look at pictures of Tiffany and age progressed images created by the national center for Missing and Exploited Children and to learn about other people we've covered in our Missing in America series. Go to datelinemissinginarica.com you will also be able to submit cases there you think we should cover in the future. Thanks for listening. See you Fridays on Dateline on NBC. Missing in America is a production of Dateline and NBC News. Veronica Mazeka is the producer and editor of this episode. Bradley Davis is senior producer. Paul Ryan is executive producer and Liz Cole is senior executive producer from NBC News. Audio sound mixing by Robert Siciliano Bryson Barnes is head of Audio production.

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