Rosenda Strong.Photo: Cissy Strong Reyes
Days after her 31-year-old sisterRosenda Strongwent missing, Cissy Strong Reyes reached out to her sister’s friends to look for her.
Rosenda, a mother of four, was last seen on Sept. 30, 2018, leaving the Legends Casino on the Yakama Indian Reservation in Toppenish, Wash., with an acquaintance.
“It wasn’t a good energy,” says Cissy. “I’m glad I didn’t go alone, but I just wanted to know where my sister was. It was just as if evil was lingering through. Then as I pulled away from the house, that feeling gradually left.”
Cissy continued her search and even drove around the reservation in search of a freezer after receiving a tip. “I heard rumors in the beginning, ‘You need to look for a freezer,’” she tells PEOPLE. “I’m like, ‘That’s kind of sick. Why are you telling me this?’ They’re like, ‘No, that’s what we’ve been hearing on the streets.’ And I did. I drove around the back roads.”
Cissy’s worst fears came true on July 4, 2019. Two homeless men found Rosenda’s bullet-ridden remains inside an abandoned freezer at a dumpsite on the reservation.
Jedidah Moreno.Yakima Police Department
Yakima Police Department
Her killing became one of 4,200 unsolved cases of a murdered or missing Indigenous person.
After her death, Cissy became a voice for Rosenda, participating in marches and vigils to spread the word about the plight of Rosenda as well as other Indigenous women who met the same fate.
She was always fearful her sister’s case would never be solved.
But, last week, she got the answers she was so desperately seeking. Federal authorities made arrests in connection with her sister’s death.
“I am so relieved this is finally coming to light," she says. “And that being our sister’s voice, standing, marching, rallying for her justice has put the law enforcement where they needed to be to keep my sister’s case open and to keep investigating her case.”
Rosenda’s family.Amanda Ray/Yakima Herald-Repub
Federal authorities allege that after the shooting, Michael Lee Moody, Andrew Norris Zack and Wilson Louis Hunt disposed of Strong’s remains. They are each charged with being accessories after the fact in Rosenda’s death.
Uriel Badillo is charged with kidnapping Moreno from a home in Wapato the following day, taking her back to the House of Souls and then to another location where she was duct taped, forced inside a Chevrolet Impala and shot, the indictment alleges.
Rosenda’s body was found in a freezer at a dumpsite on the Yakima Indian Reservation.EMILY GOODELL/KAPP KVEW
Moreno’s remains were later found Nov. 28, 2018.
Estrada is charged with being an accessory after the fact in Moreno’s death.
Cissy says she was saddened to learn that her sister’s friends were involved in her death.
“My sister told me they were her friends,” she says. “She assured me over and over they would not do anything to her, they would not hurt her, they would have her back.”
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The U.S. Attorney’s Office released a statement after the arrest.
It is unclear if the suspects have entered pleas or retained attorneys.
source: people.com
