BEMIDJI — Each year, October brings a somber reminder about the children who disappeared from Bemidji.
Jeremy Jourdain, 17, was last seen Oct. 31, 2016. Nevaeh Kingbird, 15, was last seen Oct. 22, 2021.
Family members and organizers with MMIW 218, or Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, gathered at Paul Bunyan Park on Tuesday, Oct. 22, for a candlelight vigil.
Valahlena Steeprock is Nevaeh’s cousin and an organizer with MMIW 218. While the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relative issue is gaining national media attention, she said she still feels anger that Nevaeh’s and Jeremy’s cases aren’t recognized nationally.
“I feel invisible. I feel invisible in media, and it’s so scary to think if I were to go missing today, I would literally just disappear in media,” Steeprock said. “ ... And it’s something I sit with and something that needs to change because we all matter. All human beings matter— we all matter. We deserve justice. We deserve answers.”
During the vigil, Nevaeh’s mother Teddi Wind shared how she searches for her daughter on social media, in crowds and while she travels. She said she wouldn’t wish this torment on anyone and that she often feels dead inside.
“I try not to feel that way. I try to find something to be grateful for every day, even if it's just waking up and being at work on time. I put a smile on my face if I'm having a bad day,” Wind said.
“Today was not a good day. Yesterday wasn't a good day. Yesterday was three years ago, the last day that I got to talk to my daughter, got to hug her, got to hear her tell me she loved me.”
With emotion cracking her voice, Jeremy’s mother Theresa called on the people who know something about these disappearances to step forward with answers.
“I hate to always be mad, but sometimes, that’s the only way people will listen,” she said.
Although American Indian women make up just 1% of the state’s population, more than 8% of missing and murdered women and girls in Minnesota were American Indian. Between 27 and 54 American Indian women and girls in the state were missing in any given month between 2012 and 2020, according to the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Office.
In a news release, Bemidji Police Chief Mike Mastin stated the department has investigated hundreds of leads in both cases, conducting interviews, searching vehicles, private properties and public lands.
“We have utilized airplanes, helicopters, drones, search dogs, boats, canoes, large and small scale ground searches, excavations and drained bodies of water to find answers for their families,” Mastin wrote.
The Leech Lake and Red Lake police departments, the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the Beltrami and Cass County sheriff’s offices and the Minnesota Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives Office are some of the agencies assisting with these investigations.
As hunters return to their cabins, hunting lands and deer stands, the Bemidji Police Department asks them and other landowners to check their properties and buildings for any signs of Jeremy or Nevaeh, such as clothing items they were wearing the night of their disappearances.
Jeremy was last seen wearing a blue and gray hooded sweatshirt, blue jeans and black and white Air Jordan shoes.
Nevaeh was last seen wearing either a black zip-up hooded sweatshirt or a red sweatshirt with a bull logo on the back, with blue skinny jeans, a white undershirt and black and red Nike slides.
Anyone with information about these disappearances is encouraged to contact the Bemidji Police Department at 218-333-9111 or submit a tip anonymously through CrimeStoppers of Minnesota.