Gardener1850
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OR OR - Leona Kinsey, 45, La Grande, 25 Oct 1999
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Gardener1850
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[h=1]Leona Sharon Kinsey[/h]
[h=3]Details of Disappearance[/h] Kinsey was last seen at her home on Hall Street in La Grande, Oregon on October 25, 1999. She has never been heard from again. All of her possessions, including her purse, her cigarettes and lighter, her pager, and cherished pet cat and dog, were left behind at her trailer home, and food had been left out to rot.
Her light golden-brown 1980s model GMC Jimmy was found in the parking lot of an Albertson's store on the morning of October 29, four days after her disappearance. The store manager said he didn't believe the car had been there overnight. The steering column had been damaged and there was a box of rubber gloves behind the seat. There was no evidence of a struggle or any clues to Kinsey's disappearance.
Kinsey ran her own landscaping and yard care business in 1999, and was booked for a full week after she vanished. Her daughter stated she was happy with her life and wouldn't have walked away from it or abandoned her pets. Kinsey enjoys hunting, fishing, camping and other outdoor activities. Few details are available in her case.
http://charleyproject.org/case/leona-kinsey
- Missing Since 10/25/1999
- Missing From La Grande, Oregon
- Classification Endangered Missing
- Date of Birth 12/15/1953 (64)
- Age 45 years old
- Height and Weight 5'2 - 5'4, 110 pounds
- Distinguishing Characteristics Biracial (Caucasian/Native American) female. Brown hair, brown eyes. Kinsey is of Puyallup Indian heritage. She has a tattoo of a tomahawk and a peace pipe intersecting on her bicep. She wears eyeglasses. She has small scars on the outside of both feet and next to both her smallest toes and fingers.
[h=3]Details of Disappearance[/h] Kinsey was last seen at her home on Hall Street in La Grande, Oregon on October 25, 1999. She has never been heard from again. All of her possessions, including her purse, her cigarettes and lighter, her pager, and cherished pet cat and dog, were left behind at her trailer home, and food had been left out to rot.
Her light golden-brown 1980s model GMC Jimmy was found in the parking lot of an Albertson's store on the morning of October 29, four days after her disappearance. The store manager said he didn't believe the car had been there overnight. The steering column had been damaged and there was a box of rubber gloves behind the seat. There was no evidence of a struggle or any clues to Kinsey's disappearance.
Kinsey ran her own landscaping and yard care business in 1999, and was booked for a full week after she vanished. Her daughter stated she was happy with her life and wouldn't have walked away from it or abandoned her pets. Kinsey enjoys hunting, fishing, camping and other outdoor activities. Few details are available in her case.
http://charleyproject.org/case/leona-kinsey
folieadeuxnola
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Indigenous Women Have Been Disappearing for Generations. Politicians Are Finally Starting to Notice.
There’s a little bit of justice in the acknowledgement that there’s an injustice,” said Carolyn DeFord, whose mother, Leona LeClair Kinsey, a member of the Puyallup Tribe, disappeared 18 years ago. “It’s a slow boat to turn around, because it’s a 500-year-old problem.”
There’s a little bit of justice in the acknowledgement that there’s an injustice,” said Carolyn DeFord, whose mother, Leona LeClair Kinsey, a member of the Puyallup Tribe, disappeared 18 years ago. “It’s a slow boat to turn around, because it’s a 500-year-old problem.”
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Kinsey was 45 when she disappeared from La Grande in October 1999. Her daughter believes her mother was likely a victim of foul play at the hands of a man she was supposed to meet who reportedly was a drug dealer. His whereabouts are unknown all these years later. Kinsey had struggled with alcohol and drugs.
A member of the Puyallup Tribe, Kinsey worked as a landscaper, a janitor and a motel housekeeper. She had a quirky sense of humor but also "a very dark and real concept of life," her daughter recalls. "She knew there were bad men," and when her mother was in her early 20s, she had a physically abusive relationship.
Haunting stories behind missing posters of Native women
Haunting stories behind missing posters of Native women
A member of the Puyallup Tribe, Kinsey worked as a landscaper, a janitor and a motel housekeeper. She had a quirky sense of humor but also "a very dark and real concept of life," her daughter recalls. "She knew there were bad men," and when her mother was in her early 20s, she had a physically abusive relationship.
Haunting stories behind missing posters of Native women
Haunting stories behind missing posters of Native women
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Carolyn DeFord's mother, Leona LeClair Kinsey, a member of the Puyallup Tribe, vanished nearly 20 years ago in La Grande, Oregon. "There was no search party. There was no, 'Let's tear her house apart and find a clue,'" DeFord says. "I just felt hopeless and helpless." She ended up creating her own missing person's poster.
"There's no way to process the kind of loss that doesn't stop," says DeFord, who lives outside Tacoma, Washington. "Somebody asked me awhile back, 'What would you do if you found her? What would that mean?'... It would mean she can come home. She's a human being who deserves to be honored and have her children and her grandchildren get to remember her and celebrate her life."
Montana woman's disappearance 1 of many Native American women missing or dead
"There's no way to process the kind of loss that doesn't stop," says DeFord, who lives outside Tacoma, Washington. "Somebody asked me awhile back, 'What would you do if you found her? What would that mean?'... It would mean she can come home. She's a human being who deserves to be honored and have her children and her grandchildren get to remember her and celebrate her life."
Montana woman's disappearance 1 of many Native American women missing or dead
theshadow45
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Leona has been missing for 20 years today.
theshadow45
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Leona has been missing for 20 years today.
CastlesBurning
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An Uncertain Future for a Key Missing Persons Program
For families of the missing, some advocates said, NamUs can also offer hope — and a way to take a more active role in their own searches.
After Carolyn DeFord’s mother, Leona Kinsey, went missing from a small town in northeastern Oregon in 1999, DeFord expected a public search. “I had so much faith that law enforcement would do all this stuff, that they would make me a poster and that it would be everywhere — like, magically it would be everywhere,” DeFord said. Officers did take the missing person report. But, she recalled in a recent conversation, “I was told, ‘Thank you, give us a call if you hear anything’” — and little more.
Around 2007, DeFord received a call from the detective assigned to her mother’s case. They had not spoken, she said, “in probably three years.” The detective told her about NamUs. Soon, she sent in DNA samples through the program, to potentially help find a match. Her mother has a profile there, too, with key personal information.
“For me that was the first solid step that had ever been taken in my mom’s case,” said DeFord. “And this was a major acknowledgment and hope — it was the first big hope that, gosh, maybe she’s unidentified somewhere.”
Today, DeFord’s mother remains one of the long-term missing. A member of the Puyallup Tribe, DeFord started Missing and Murdered Native Americans, a small group that supports families with missing loved ones, a few years ago.
NamUs, she said, “has been a valuable tool for me as an advocate and as a resource as a family member.”
For families of the missing, some advocates said, NamUs can also offer hope — and a way to take a more active role in their own searches.
After Carolyn DeFord’s mother, Leona Kinsey, went missing from a small town in northeastern Oregon in 1999, DeFord expected a public search. “I had so much faith that law enforcement would do all this stuff, that they would make me a poster and that it would be everywhere — like, magically it would be everywhere,” DeFord said. Officers did take the missing person report. But, she recalled in a recent conversation, “I was told, ‘Thank you, give us a call if you hear anything’” — and little more.
Around 2007, DeFord received a call from the detective assigned to her mother’s case. They had not spoken, she said, “in probably three years.” The detective told her about NamUs. Soon, she sent in DNA samples through the program, to potentially help find a match. Her mother has a profile there, too, with key personal information.
“For me that was the first solid step that had ever been taken in my mom’s case,” said DeFord. “And this was a major acknowledgment and hope — it was the first big hope that, gosh, maybe she’s unidentified somewhere.”
Today, DeFord’s mother remains one of the long-term missing. A member of the Puyallup Tribe, DeFord started Missing and Murdered Native Americans, a small group that supports families with missing loved ones, a few years ago.
NamUs, she said, “has been a valuable tool for me as an advocate and as a resource as a family member.”
CastlesBurning
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Daughter of missing indigenous person in Oregon speaks out
EUGENE, Ore.-- Carolyn DeFord is the daughter of Leona Sharon Kinsey, a Native American woman who has been missing since October 25, 1999.
"My mother was misclassified for 18 years as white," DeFord said. "She was over 18 years old when she went missing so she had a right to privacy."
DeFord said this right prevented law enforcement from investigating more into this unsolved case.
A report released by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Oregon on Friday marks a milestone in the nation's relatively new effort to compile and investigate reports of missing and murdered Native Americans. One of the ways they plan to address this issue is through an action plan where they will schedule virtual consultations with federally recognized tribes.
"They're saying only federally recognized but they're not even considering Chinook and it's the largest tribe in the Midwest," Shipman said.
Anthropologist David G. Lewis also said the federal government is still not doing enough to address this crisis.
"They've never given enough money or attention to these tribes or tribal problems. In fact, they've tried to wipe out tribes by imposing policies of assimilation," Lewis said.
Some of the missing people in the report are in our viewing area, including Jerome Clements Charles who went missing in Eugene in 1984 and Zachary Porter who went missing in North Bend in 2013.
“For generations, American Indians and Alaskan Natives have suffered from disproportionately high levels of violence. Tragically, this is not a crisis of the past; it’s a crisis of the present,” said U.S. Attorney Billy J. Williams. “In this report, we look back and forward, summarizing what is known about missing and murdered Indigenous people in Oregon and outlining our plans and goals for the year ahead. While we won’t solve this problem overnight, our office is working closely with Oregon law enforcement partners, other U.S. Attorney’s Offices, and the U.S. Department of Justice to end endemic violence in Indian Country.”
The Justice Department launched the "Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons" initiative in November of 2019 — the culmination of a grassroots effort to bring more attention to the phenomenon of unsolved cases among Native American communities in the U.S. Oregon's report is the first in the nation to be produced.
The report notes that investigation of missing person or murder cases in Indian Country has traditionally been hampered by issues of jurisdiction, lack of coordination, and inadequate resources.
One of the primary purposes of this first report was to compile unsolved cases of missing or murdered people from Oregon Tribes, combining data previously held separately by Oregon State Police, the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs), and the FBI's National Crime Information Center (NCIC).
The data drawn from those different databases produced 19 unsolved cases tied to Oregon — 11 missing (six women and five men) and 8 murdered (five women and three men). All are Indigenous persons, most of them members of an Oregon Tribe. Some held Tribal affiliation in different areas of the country, but were last seen in Oregon.
EUGENE, Ore.-- Carolyn DeFord is the daughter of Leona Sharon Kinsey, a Native American woman who has been missing since October 25, 1999.
"My mother was misclassified for 18 years as white," DeFord said. "She was over 18 years old when she went missing so she had a right to privacy."
DeFord said this right prevented law enforcement from investigating more into this unsolved case.
A report released by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Oregon on Friday marks a milestone in the nation's relatively new effort to compile and investigate reports of missing and murdered Native Americans. One of the ways they plan to address this issue is through an action plan where they will schedule virtual consultations with federally recognized tribes.
"They're saying only federally recognized but they're not even considering Chinook and it's the largest tribe in the Midwest," Shipman said.
Anthropologist David G. Lewis also said the federal government is still not doing enough to address this crisis.
"They've never given enough money or attention to these tribes or tribal problems. In fact, they've tried to wipe out tribes by imposing policies of assimilation," Lewis said.
Some of the missing people in the report are in our viewing area, including Jerome Clements Charles who went missing in Eugene in 1984 and Zachary Porter who went missing in North Bend in 2013.
“For generations, American Indians and Alaskan Natives have suffered from disproportionately high levels of violence. Tragically, this is not a crisis of the past; it’s a crisis of the present,” said U.S. Attorney Billy J. Williams. “In this report, we look back and forward, summarizing what is known about missing and murdered Indigenous people in Oregon and outlining our plans and goals for the year ahead. While we won’t solve this problem overnight, our office is working closely with Oregon law enforcement partners, other U.S. Attorney’s Offices, and the U.S. Department of Justice to end endemic violence in Indian Country.”
The Justice Department launched the "Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons" initiative in November of 2019 — the culmination of a grassroots effort to bring more attention to the phenomenon of unsolved cases among Native American communities in the U.S. Oregon's report is the first in the nation to be produced.
The report notes that investigation of missing person or murder cases in Indian Country has traditionally been hampered by issues of jurisdiction, lack of coordination, and inadequate resources.
One of the primary purposes of this first report was to compile unsolved cases of missing or murdered people from Oregon Tribes, combining data previously held separately by Oregon State Police, the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs), and the FBI's National Crime Information Center (NCIC).
The data drawn from those different databases produced 19 unsolved cases tied to Oregon — 11 missing (six women and five men) and 8 murdered (five women and three men). All are Indigenous persons, most of them members of an Oregon Tribe. Some held Tribal affiliation in different areas of the country, but were last seen in Oregon.
CastlesBurning
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Vail
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Leona's case is featured on the Vanished podcast today and tomorrow. There is a lot to this story and a very obvious POI. I think this can be solved. EPISODE 274: Leona Kinsey Part 1 — The Vanished Podcast
theshadow45
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The 22nd anniversary of Leona’s disappearance passed recently.
sds71
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ChatteringBirds
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My heart goes out to Leona's daughter and other relatives for their loss. Whomever caused her disappearance was/is a very dangerous individual and needs to be closely watched by LE, if he's still walking free. IMO.
The Charley Project updated her case today, 3 April. Details of Disappearance added.
Leona Sharon Kinsey – The Charley Project
Leona Sharon Kinsey – The Charley Project
theshadow45
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Leona has been missing for 23 years today.
theshadow45
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Bumping, Leona’s birthday passed recently.
Pennysmom1
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Finding Leona Kinsey
Finding Leona Kinsey. 995 likes · 2 talking about this. This page to remember Leona Kinsey. It is our hope that the people who have any information about what happened to Leona Kinsey will help us...
www.facebook.com
Here are some photos from Charley Project, and more below. We can only post 5 at a time.
Pennysmom1
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- Missing Since 10/25/1999
- Missing From La Grande, Oregon
- Classification Endangered Missing
- Sex Female
- Race Biracial, Native American, White
- Date of Birth 12/15/1953 (69)
- Age 45 years old
- Height and Weight 5'2 - 5'4, 110 pounds
- Associated Vehicle(s) Light golden-brown 1980s model GMC Jimmy (accounted for)
- Distinguishing Characteristics Biracial (Caucasian/Native American) female. Brown hair, brown eyes. Kinsey is of Puyallup Indian heritage. She has a tattoo of a tomahawk and a peace pipe intersecting on her bicep. She wears eyeglasses. She has small scars on the outside of both feet and next to both her smallest toes and fingers.
Details of Disappearance
Kinsey was last seen at her home on Hall Street in La Grande, Oregon on October 25, 1999. She has never been heard from again. All of her possessions, including her purse, her cigarettes and lighter, her pager, and cherished pet cat and two dogs, were left behind at her trailer home. There was coffee in the coffeepot, and groceries had been left out and were rotting.Her light golden-brown 1980s model GMC Jimmy was found in the parking lot of an Albertson's store on the morning of October 29, four days after her disappearance. The store manager said he didn't believe the car had been there overnight. The steering column had been damaged and there was a box of rubber gloves behind the seat. There was no evidence of a struggle or any clues to Kinsey's disappearance.
Kinsey's loved ones believe a man they knew as Juan "John" Pena-Llamas may have been involved in her disappearance, as Kinsey was planning to meet him on the night she went missing. Police also consider him to be a person of interest, but very little is known about him. He was arrested for theft in 2006 and deported to his native Mexico, as he was undocumented.
Photos of Pena-Llamas are posted with this case summary. He is described as Hispanic, with black hair and brown eyes, 5'5 tall and 135 pounds. He was in his mid-thirties at the time of Kinsey's disappearance. He lived in the La Grande area in 1999, in Salem, Oregon in 1998, in Los Angeles County, California in 1996, and in San Bernardino County, California in 1990.
Prior to his deportation, Pena-Llamas had been convicted of multiple crimes, including physical assault, third-degree rape, and third-degree sodomy, and he may have been connected to a Mexican drug cartel. He may use the following aliases: Juan Pena, Juan "John" Pena Ruiz Llamas, Juan P. Llamas, John M. Llamas, John J. Pena, Juan F. Alejandro, Juan F. Pena, Juan F. Pena-Alejandre, Juan F. Pena-Banada, Juan F. Pena-Aldjandre, Juan F. Pena-Alejandro, Juan Alejandre, Juan Pena-Lamas, Juan M Penallamasm, Juan M Pena-Llamas, John Pena and/or John Pena-Llamas.
Kinsey ran her own landscaping and yard care business in 1999, and was booked for a full week after she vanished. Her daughter stated she was happy with her life and wouldn't have walked away from it or abandoned her pets. Kinsey enjoys hunting, fishing, camping and other outdoor activities. Her case remains unsolved.
Investigating Agency
- La Grande Police Department 541-963-1017
Source Information
Updated 8 times since October 12, 2004. Last updated April 3, 2022; picture added, details of disappearance updated.
Pennysmom1
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May 15, 2023
elkhornmediagroup.com
nativenewsonline.net
The search for Leona Kinsey, missing for 23 years, continues - Elkhorn Media Group
LA GRANDE – May is dedicated Missing & Unidentified Persons Awareness Month and the La Grande ...Read More
elkhornmediagroup.com
‘We have the knowledge’: Survivors of Washington’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous People Crisis Lead the Fight for Justice | Health
On an October morning in Washington state in 1999, Puyallup tribal member Carolyn DeFord woke up and started to cry. DeFord, then 25, didn’t know why she was crying.
nativenewsonline.net