Long after tragic mysteries are solved, families of Native American victims are kept in the dark
It was the winter of 2021 when Philbert Shorty’s family found his abandoned car stuck in the mud outside the small community of Tsaile near the Arizona-New Mexico state line. “We knew something happened from the get-go," said his uncle, Ben Shorty. “We couldn’t find any answers.”
Family members reported the 44-year-old man missing. And for the next two years, they searched — hiking through remote canyons on the Navajo Nation, placing advertisements on the radio and posting across social media in hopes of unearthing any clues.
The efforts produced nothing. They had no way of knowing he’d been killed more than a week before they reported him missing.
They remained unaware even as U.S. prosecutors finalized a plea deal last summer with Shiloh Aaron Oldrock, who was charged in connection with Shorty's death as a result of a separate investigation into the
