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Searching for Savanna: The Murder of One Native American Woman and the Violence Against the Many
A gripping and illuminating investigation into the disappearance of Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind when she was eight months pregnant, highlighting the shocking epidemic of violence against Native American women in America and the societal ramifications of government inaction.
In the summer of 2017, twenty-two-year-old Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind vanished. A week after she disappeared, police arrested the white couple who lived upstairs from Savanna and emerged from their apartment carrying an infant girl. The baby was Savanna’s, but Savanna’s body would not be found for days.
The horrifying crime sent shock waves far beyond Fargo, North Dakota, where it occurred, and helped expose the sexual and physical violence Native American women and girls have endured since the country’s colonization.
With pathos and compassion, Searching for Savanna confronts this history of dehumanization toward Indigenous women and the government’s complicity in the crisis. Featuring in-depth interviews, personal accounts, and trial analysis, Searching for Savanna investigates these injustices and the decades-long struggle by Native American advocates for meaningful change.
In the summer of 2017, twenty-two-year-old Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind vanished. A week after she disappeared, police arrested the white couple who lived upstairs from Savanna and emerged from their apartment carrying an infant girl. The baby was Savanna’s, but Savanna’s body would not be found for days.
The horrifying crime sent shock waves far beyond Fargo, North Dakota, where it occurred, and helped expose the sexual and physical violence Native American women and girls have endured since the country’s colonization.
With pathos and compassion, Searching for Savanna confronts this history of dehumanization toward Indigenous women and the government’s complicity in the crisis. Featuring in-depth interviews, personal accounts, and trial analysis, Searching for Savanna investigates these injustices and the decades-long struggle by Native American advocates for meaningful change.
315 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 25, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 207 reviews
June 14, 2023
Perhaps the reason I am so angry with this book is that it feels disrespectful/careless given the importance of the subject matter: Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. (If anyone has book recommendations about the topic, please share.)
There is a lot I could say about the format... In short, it was disorganized and repetitive, constantly jumping back and forth between the murder (2017), present, and general information on the MMIW crisis and Native American history. It makes no sense to me that the book is titled "Searching for Savanna" yet the entirety of the murder takes place in the first ~30 pages. I guess the rest of the book is supposed to focus on the aftermath, but all the author does is jumble up the timeline and repeat the same evidence over and over again. Each time, these details are described as "shocking" etc.--but I don't know how any reader with half a brain could be surprised by things that have already been mentioned multiple times.
I am genuinely shocked Gable is a writer by trade because nothing in this book suggests to me that she has that skill. This book reads like a rough draft that went overlooked in the mountain of manuscripts on her editor's desk and somehow made it to print. If you read this book, prepare yourself for countless typos, terrible grammar, and more fragments than the Sappho papyrus rolls. I am not exaggerating when I say I would have gotten a C if I submitted something of this quality in my middle school English class.
But the reason why this book is actually aggravating me is the way it treats Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind, the book's protagonist and the victim of a murder/"womb robbing" in Fargo. Gable is profiting off of Greywind's name and story without making any real effort to humanize her. 95 percent of the information in the book is directly related to the murder and trial, while the other 5 percent is so basic/unremarkable that I could have found it within 10 minutes on Google. It says a lot that I just read 250 pages about Greywind yet do not feel like I know anything substantial about her--except for her murder. I'm sure Greywind had a full and interesting life, but Gable doesn't seem to care at all and merely reduces her to the moment of her death.
Do not support this book and do not support this writer. You're much better off giving your money to NIWRC.
There is a lot I could say about the format... In short, it was disorganized and repetitive, constantly jumping back and forth between the murder (2017), present, and general information on the MMIW crisis and Native American history. It makes no sense to me that the book is titled "Searching for Savanna" yet the entirety of the murder takes place in the first ~30 pages. I guess the rest of the book is supposed to focus on the aftermath, but all the author does is jumble up the timeline and repeat the same evidence over and over again. Each time, these details are described as "shocking" etc.--but I don't know how any reader with half a brain could be surprised by things that have already been mentioned multiple times.
I am genuinely shocked Gable is a writer by trade because nothing in this book suggests to me that she has that skill. This book reads like a rough draft that went overlooked in the mountain of manuscripts on her editor's desk and somehow made it to print. If you read this book, prepare yourself for countless typos, terrible grammar, and more fragments than the Sappho papyrus rolls. I am not exaggerating when I say I would have gotten a C if I submitted something of this quality in my middle school English class.
But the reason why this book is actually aggravating me is the way it treats Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind, the book's protagonist and the victim of a murder/"womb robbing" in Fargo. Gable is profiting off of Greywind's name and story without making any real effort to humanize her. 95 percent of the information in the book is directly related to the murder and trial, while the other 5 percent is so basic/unremarkable that I could have found it within 10 minutes on Google. It says a lot that I just read 250 pages about Greywind yet do not feel like I know anything substantial about her--except for her murder. I'm sure Greywind had a full and interesting life, but Gable doesn't seem to care at all and merely reduces her to the moment of her death.
Do not support this book and do not support this writer. You're much better off giving your money to NIWRC.
December 25, 2024
The topic is important and it's the main reason why I wanted to read this, but I don't feel like it was presented in the best way, something was missing.
What I like is that Savanna was the focus of the book, and I appreciate how the author tried to tie her case to MMIW, but the timeline was very jumpy, and the perpetrators trial (and lives) got too much coverage. I would've preferred to have seen a bigger focus on the Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women instead.
Parts of the book were very repetitive, I listened to the audio, and noticed some things repeating word-for-word in a different chapter.
But I still commend the author for attempting to bring more attention to this issue, I can say that I learned something about it that I didn't know before reading this book.
3.5
What I like is that Savanna was the focus of the book, and I appreciate how the author tried to tie her case to MMIW, but the timeline was very jumpy, and the perpetrators trial (and lives) got too much coverage. I would've preferred to have seen a bigger focus on the Missing & Murdered Indigenous Women instead.
Parts of the book were very repetitive, I listened to the audio, and noticed some things repeating word-for-word in a different chapter.
But I still commend the author for attempting to bring more attention to this issue, I can say that I learned something about it that I didn't know before reading this book.
3.5
July 7, 2023
In the summer of 2017 twenty-two year old Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind vanished. She was 8 months pregnant and was about to move into an apartment with her boyfriend and the father of her unborn child, Ashton. A week later the couple who lived above Savanna's family appeared with an infant they couldn't explain and a few days later Savanna's body was found. This shocking case further highlighted statistics that show Native women often experience sexual violence and murder at much higher rates than other ethnicities. Mona Gable set out to tell Savanna's story and tie it to the MMIW (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women) movement.
I really wanted to like this book and I did in the beginning. Gable does a good job of setting up the scene for when Savanna goes missing. One thing that was different in Savanna's case was that the police DID investigate pretty quickly and her case got a lot more media attention than other missing Indigenous persons cases. But, once the murderers are caught and the baby is found alive the book just goes downhill. It's extremely repetitive and there are a lot of oddly written/quoted sections. Plus, later in the book you find out that Savanna's family didn't really speak to author much so I'm curious how she got all the background info if they weren't really speaking with her in depth. And there was very little tie in to other MMIW cases. There were a few sections on how Indigenous women were trying to get more funding and attention to MMIW issues, but that was definitely not a major focus of the book. Overall, after the killers were caught the book just seemed to rehash a lot of the same content over and over. I definitely think it could have been written in a better way to tell Savanna's story AND include more information on other MMIW cases/stories. It would have been extremely helpful to know how many more MMIW cases were there just in the timeframe from Savanna's disappearance to the conclusion of the murder trials. Overall, I wish it were better but I wouldn't recommend this one.
I really wanted to like this book and I did in the beginning. Gable does a good job of setting up the scene for when Savanna goes missing. One thing that was different in Savanna's case was that the police DID investigate pretty quickly and her case got a lot more media attention than other missing Indigenous persons cases. But, once the murderers are caught and the baby is found alive the book just goes downhill. It's extremely repetitive and there are a lot of oddly written/quoted sections. Plus, later in the book you find out that Savanna's family didn't really speak to author much so I'm curious how she got all the background info if they weren't really speaking with her in depth. And there was very little tie in to other MMIW cases. There were a few sections on how Indigenous women were trying to get more funding and attention to MMIW issues, but that was definitely not a major focus of the book. Overall, after the killers were caught the book just seemed to rehash a lot of the same content over and over. I definitely think it could have been written in a better way to tell Savanna's story AND include more information on other MMIW cases/stories. It would have been extremely helpful to know how many more MMIW cases were there just in the timeframe from Savanna's disappearance to the conclusion of the murder trials. Overall, I wish it were better but I wouldn't recommend this one.
September 29, 2023
Such a horrible thing to happen to this young woman but this book does not do her justice. This was not the right case to highlight the plight of indigenous women. I have read several other books on this topic that were much better than this. The author talks about how indigenous women are victims of violence and go missing more than any other group. The media don't report on them, the police don't investigate them, offenders are not prosecuted, etc. The author also says this is due to systemic racism. However, in this case the victim was found, the police did search, it was all over the media, and it was not a racial crime, they took her baby. Both of her murderers went to prison. She was not sexually assaulted (the author talks about cultural sexualization of indigenous women). I'm not sure why the author chose this case to highlight as it is the exception not the rule. The writing is also repetitive and poorly supported.
January 18, 2024
Two stars because the subject is important but I don't feel the author did the topic justice at all. Jumped ahead to read the epilogue but DNFed at 71%. Feels invasive and poorly researched for the majority of the book. Lots of information primarily taken from social media and too much time given to the back and forth of the perpetrators dialogue and feelings in the trial with not enough focus on Savanna or the murders of indigenous women. Or even really why/how this happened. Poorly written. Repetitive, disjointed, and confusing structure. The epilogue was probably one of the better parts. Wouldn't recommend this. Glad I know about Savanna's story though.
August 6, 2023
A very important case and I’m glad that the author centered Savanna in the story. However, the structure and voice of this was all over the place and disorganized. I wish the author spent more time focusing on the larger issue of MMIW as this case is an example where the victim and murderers were found and convicted. The author spent about 10% of the book talking about the issue generally, but I wish more focus was put on this
May 22, 2023
Important topic. This one jumped around a bit between Savanna’s murder and the big picture issue of MMIW in a way that isn’t my fave. I’d recommend Red River Girl first, (or highway of tears!) but it’s still def worth reading.
May 15, 2024
I was a little disappointed how the book turned out. I chose it at the bookstore due to the title and wanting to educate myself and learn more about missing and murdered indigenous women (MMIW) I first off wasn’t sure why this author chose to write about Savanna’s story when her other work is on climate change and sustainability. I would have liked to have read it in the point of view of an indigenous person. It didn’t flow well. Sometimes I was confused about what time frame it was or when the event she was writing about was happening. I also would have liked to know more about Savanna herself and her story before she was killed.
November 30, 2024
#NonFictionNovember - Book 11
A powerful, moving book about one young, Native woman's horrible murder and about the greater horror of all the Missing and Murdered Indigeneous Women, MMIW.
The research is deep and will shock you.
A powerful, moving book about one young, Native woman's horrible murder and about the greater horror of all the Missing and Murdered Indigeneous Women, MMIW.
The research is deep and will shock you.
November 6, 2024
When talking to my son who read the book, and what we both thought about it. He expressed it so well, any book that brings attention about the issue of missing and murdered Native Americans is good!
May 5, 2024
This is a very interesting and insane story. I’m glad the author wrote it to increase awareness, I also hope the family is benefiting from this publication.
March 11, 2024
The aim of this book is well-intentioned, but misses the mark. It would have been more impactful if the book had two distinct parts or had been written as two separate books all together. The murder of Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind and the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women are connected, yes, but I don't think Savanna's case is emblematic of the greater issue. If the book had been structured to show how Savanna's murder led to more awareness of the MMIW movement and explored more from there, it would have had more impact. Instead, the argument doesn't back up the thesis and the narrative jumps around, leaving the timeline confusing and disorganized. The author name-drops a few other MMIW cases, but does nothing to highlight them or bring awareness to their cases.
November 9, 2023
This was so badly written. It was circular and repetitive and seemingly had no point other than to capitalize off of the horrific murder of a young indigenous woman. Also the title is extremely misleading because there is literally NO analysis of MMIW?
August 25, 2023
Too long and too many time switches.
November 20, 2023
I picked up this book from the library for Native American Heritage Month, and while I did find good meaning and purpose in it, this came from already knowing about the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women movement. If you didn't know about it, this would be a very confusing first foray into the movement. The book would be better if it was more clearly organized; perhaps if the first half focused on Savanna and the second half focused on the movement. What happened to Savanna was a true tragedy, but it was hard to focus on that when you randomly encountered a chapter about something happening in DC.
All in all, it's worth a read if you know about the MMIW movement, but I'd suggest learning more about the Highway of Tears and other facets of the movement before tackling this book.
All in all, it's worth a read if you know about the MMIW movement, but I'd suggest learning more about the Highway of Tears and other facets of the movement before tackling this book.
October 10, 2025
MMIW is extremely important to keep talking about, bring awareness on, and to keep fighting against a system that allows this to continue to happen. What happened to Savanna is devastating and horrific.
This book needs an entire rewrite; it is highly repetitive and at times feels like it uses the shock factor of what happened to Savanna over and over. Savanna as a person, before what happened to her is lost in this book, and it would have been better to have shared her life far before those monsters took it, but instead this book just repeats over and over what was done to her and is not very well organized.
The book needs major reconstruction, a lot of purging, and a focus on Savanna as a person and not just what was done to her repeated 47 times.
This book needs an entire rewrite; it is highly repetitive and at times feels like it uses the shock factor of what happened to Savanna over and over. Savanna as a person, before what happened to her is lost in this book, and it would have been better to have shared her life far before those monsters took it, but instead this book just repeats over and over what was done to her and is not very well organized.
The book needs major reconstruction, a lot of purging, and a focus on Savanna as a person and not just what was done to her repeated 47 times.
July 10, 2023
I received an ARC of this book via Adventures by the Book.
I wrote this review in collaboration with bookish event company Adventures By the Book based in Southern California, where I am interning. You can check out ABTB https://adventuresbythebook.com/
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Mona Gable intricately and informatively introduces us to the complete picture of the missing and murdered Indigenous women in America that we have overlooked for far too long. This story is one that should have been told already, making Gable’s book even more poignant. There are countless injustices that we push aside and treat as taboo, and Gable’s narrative successfully makes an effort at pulling one of those injustices out from under the rug.
I wrote this review in collaboration with bookish event company Adventures By the Book based in Southern California, where I am interning. You can check out ABTB https://adventuresbythebook.com/
___________________________________________________________
Mona Gable intricately and informatively introduces us to the complete picture of the missing and murdered Indigenous women in America that we have overlooked for far too long. This story is one that should have been told already, making Gable’s book even more poignant. There are countless injustices that we push aside and treat as taboo, and Gable’s narrative successfully makes an effort at pulling one of those injustices out from under the rug.
May 16, 2024
At 8 months pregnant, twenty-year-old Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind goes missing, last seen at her neighbors’ apartment. Despite multiple consensual searches through that apartment by police, Savanna’s family is convinced something more is going on and that police aren’t taking their daughter’s disappearance seriously. As Gable explores the horrific story of what happened to Savanna, she also delves into the oft overlooked epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women. She shares some of the progress and setbacks in the movement, while simultaneously sharing Savanna’s story.
While Savanna’s story is devastating and certainly should be told, as well as attention shed on the MMIW movement, this book didn’t do as great a job as I would have hoped. I believe Gable’s aims were honorable and she does share a lot of important information; however, the way she organized the book detracted from it for me. What happened to Savanna is pretty much immediately covered, followed by many side storylines involving MMIW activists before returning to discuss Savanna’s family and then her case, both of which are frequently interrupted by more MMIW information. It makes the story lack cohesion, and the investment in Savanna’s case falters as a result; whereas, I believe following Savanna’s case completely before delving into wider implications of her story might have made a greater impact overall.
While Savanna’s story is devastating and certainly should be told, as well as attention shed on the MMIW movement, this book didn’t do as great a job as I would have hoped. I believe Gable’s aims were honorable and she does share a lot of important information; however, the way she organized the book detracted from it for me. What happened to Savanna is pretty much immediately covered, followed by many side storylines involving MMIW activists before returning to discuss Savanna’s family and then her case, both of which are frequently interrupted by more MMIW information. It makes the story lack cohesion, and the investment in Savanna’s case falters as a result; whereas, I believe following Savanna’s case completely before delving into wider implications of her story might have made a greater impact overall.
August 11, 2023
A gripping and illuminating investigation into the disappearance of Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind when she was eight months pregnant, highlighting the shocking epidemic of violence against Native American women in America and the societal ramifications of government inaction.
September 1, 2023
I really really wanted to like this one... but I really didn't have any feelings about this book besides meh. I picked up this book for Savanna's story, not the author going in to great detail about happenings in congress about bills that didn't get passed. Don't get me wrong, I think understanding the crisis of MMIW is incredibly important, but it seemed like the author was using Savanna's name and story to talk about how shitty senators are.
March 22, 2025
Very interesting True Crime story with a lot of historical information all wrapped into one book! However, the chapters bounce around between different events throughout Savanna’s life, her disappearance, and the sentencing of the suspects. This makes the story a little confusing to follow.
December 3, 2025
I'm sorry so many women and girls have to go through similar things to Savanna and the story hit a nerve and reminded me of another case I've heard about recently. I hope the American government and the world make a step in making the world a safer place (for women).
May 25, 2023
Searching for Savanna is a sobering true crime account that highlights the missing and murdered Indigenous women (MMIW) crisis through the case of 22-year old Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind, a member of the Spirit Lake Tribe of North Dakota who disappeared while 8-months pregnant.
True crime so often focuses on the perpetrator of the crime and glosses over the victim. Mona Gable did an excellent job centering this story on Savanna. Rather than glorifying Savanna’s death or the crimes against her, Gable gives readers a factual account of events while focusing on Savanna as a person. I was able to gain an understanding of Savanna’s personality and life as well as those around her. Of course, this also served Gable’s purpose of tying this case to the larger MMIW epidemic.
What did not work as well for me was how Gable structured the book. The story is front-loaded. Except for the trial, Savanna’s disappearance and the investigation is told quickly at the beginning. The rest of the narrative is details about Savanna and her life, the court case against her assailants, and the context of MMIW and government inaction. I found this structure to be strange and to do a disservice to the content.
While I am familiar with the MMIW crisis, I am less knowledgeable about its legal and political history in the U.S. I had hoped that reading Searching for Savanna would provide me more background about and context to the issue. While Gable does discuss the MMIW movement among Indigenous women, she did not provide much detail about the broader issue or how it impacts Native women and families. I also thought Gable’s attempt to discuss the government’s neglect of MMIW and the legal landscape to be rudimentary. For example, she discusses the reauthorization struggles of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) at the time of Savanna’s disappearance but fails to provide the background and history of the law.
I would have liked for Savanna’s case to be compared and contrasted against the norm for MMIW cases. From what I know, there were aspects that deviated from the norm and using her case to discuss the broader issue fails to recognition what went better and worse than other MMIW cases. I also think if Searching for Savanna better integrated the broader context with the personal story the narrative would be more interesting and less repetitive.
Overall, I enjoyed reading Searching for Savanna. It is an excellent example of a true crime book that focuses on the victim and does not glorify the crime or others’ pain. If you are unfamiliar with the MMIW crisis, I think this is a good introduction that also frames the case of one woman.
True crime so often focuses on the perpetrator of the crime and glosses over the victim. Mona Gable did an excellent job centering this story on Savanna. Rather than glorifying Savanna’s death or the crimes against her, Gable gives readers a factual account of events while focusing on Savanna as a person. I was able to gain an understanding of Savanna’s personality and life as well as those around her. Of course, this also served Gable’s purpose of tying this case to the larger MMIW epidemic.
What did not work as well for me was how Gable structured the book. The story is front-loaded. Except for the trial, Savanna’s disappearance and the investigation is told quickly at the beginning. The rest of the narrative is details about Savanna and her life, the court case against her assailants, and the context of MMIW and government inaction. I found this structure to be strange and to do a disservice to the content.
While I am familiar with the MMIW crisis, I am less knowledgeable about its legal and political history in the U.S. I had hoped that reading Searching for Savanna would provide me more background about and context to the issue. While Gable does discuss the MMIW movement among Indigenous women, she did not provide much detail about the broader issue or how it impacts Native women and families. I also thought Gable’s attempt to discuss the government’s neglect of MMIW and the legal landscape to be rudimentary. For example, she discusses the reauthorization struggles of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) at the time of Savanna’s disappearance but fails to provide the background and history of the law.
I would have liked for Savanna’s case to be compared and contrasted against the norm for MMIW cases. From what I know, there were aspects that deviated from the norm and using her case to discuss the broader issue fails to recognition what went better and worse than other MMIW cases. I also think if Searching for Savanna better integrated the broader context with the personal story the narrative would be more interesting and less repetitive.
Overall, I enjoyed reading Searching for Savanna. It is an excellent example of a true crime book that focuses on the victim and does not glorify the crime or others’ pain. If you are unfamiliar with the MMIW crisis, I think this is a good introduction that also frames the case of one woman.
December 16, 2023
A terrible tragic end for another indigenous woman, this true crime book treats Savanna's case with care but as the book continues too much attention is given to the trial of the perpetrators and not enough on 'the violence against the many'.
August 26, 2024
This book looked deeply into Savannah’s case, but I wish it would have focused more on the bigger theme of the issue of murdered and missing Indigenous women.
December 12, 2023
The story is horrible. The way the book tells the story could have been more straightforward. While the author does try and tie the murder into the larger issue of violence against indigenous women, it seems like the focus shifts bring down the book.
May 21, 2023
Savanna's case is tragic, but sadly not an anamoly. This book gives a close look at Savanna's case while also bringing attention to how the protection of Native American women has been neglected.
December 10, 2024
This was okay not the best.
May 22, 2023
Extremely powerful and important book on an issue not enough people know about. Could have been 4 or 5 stars with better editing…the booked jumped around a lot and didn’t love the writing style. Still recommend though
August 19, 2023
The primary substance of this book recounts a shocking crime which occurred in North Dakota in August, 2017. The secondary purpose is to highlight the tragic phenomenon of missing and murdered Native women, but this unimaginable crime was beyond the pale even for that terrible trend. In an all-too-common occurrence, 22-year-old, eight-month-pregnant nurse's aide and Spirit Lake Nation tribal member Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind was first reported missing by her family after stopping by a neighbor's one afternoon, reportedly to help her with some sewing. Considering it another commonplace disappearance of a Native woman, police performed only a cursory search of the neighbor's apartment after Savanna was reported missing, as it was the last place she was seen alive, but reportedly found nothing. Family members blanketed the area with fliers, and dozens of volunteers began combing the area for her, to no avail.
A week later, Savanna's mutilated body was found by kayakers in the Red River, heavily wrapped in plastic trash bags with duct tape. Items found at an abandoned farmstead led to the discovery of her body a short distance away in the river. The most horrifying realization came when it was discovered that Savanna apparently had been the victim of a "womb-raider" crime (I don't like this term, as it's so disrespectful to the victims, but it's becoming a commonly-used one, and it's the one used in the book), whereby a pregnant woman is murdered and her fetus cut from her body by unimaginably sick, twisted killers for the purpose of stealing the baby.
Savanna's preemie daughter was found in the apartment of the two killers a few days after she was reported missing, and before her body was found. The infant was gravely ill, jaundiced from the premature birth, and in need of immediate medical treatment. She almost certainly would have died had police not found the little girl when they did. The sick freak who cut her out of her still-alive mother then attempted to lie to police about how she came by the baby, initially claiming that Savanna had left her apartment, but then returned a few days later, gave her the newborn, and disappeared again. The truth, of course, was that she had mercilessly slaughtered the pregnant 22-year-old to steal her child to raise as her own, along with her boyfriend, who disposed of Savanna's mutilated body like trash, dumping her in a river in the hopes that she would never be found.
The twisted freak who killed a woman to steal her baby was a delusional 38-year-old wack job who had already lost custody of SEVEN CHILDREN by at least FIVE different men. So, she had already lost more than a six-pack of kids before she decided to murder an innocent woman to steal hers. She had engaged in a short custody battle with the sire of two of them, who fortunately was awarded physical custody, because mommie dearest apparently had the frequent habit of abandoning subsequent kids to run like cheap mascara to avoid child support payments - to as far as Australia, on one occasion, which wisely booted her useless, deranged butt out, denying her a work visa.
After wacko returned to the US, she shacked up with another worthless abuser, who had previously been convicted five years earlier of child abuse for fracturing the skull of his three-month-old son. Why this child beater wasn't charged with attempted murder and locked up for decades is beyond me, and we all see the result of being soft on crime and child-abusing criminals: the death of an innocent girl, one with her whole life ahead of her, who had her baby cut from her body, while she was apparently still alive.
He then reportedly strangled her with a piece of rope to make sure she was dead, after she had been violated in every way a person can be violated, even though she may have possibly survived had he immediately called for help if he had indeed just walked in on wacko cleaning up blood on the floor. Instead, he chose to participate in the crime, possibly ultimately causing Savanna's death, and certainly disposing of her body to avoid detection. He pathetically claimed, of course, that he had nothing to do with the crime, and came home the day of the killing to find wacko cleaning up a pool of blood in their bathroom with Savanna's bleeding body lying on the floor. The baby had apparently been laid out on a towel in the bathtub like afterthought, with her dead or dying mother still on the bathroom floor while the killer was trying to clean up the crime scene to avoid detection.
Enough said about these two pathetic worms. I won't even use their names, as they don't deserve to be remembered. They deserve to die in cages. Hopefully they will, as wacko was sentenced to the maximum term of life without parole (unfortunately, North Dakota doesn't have the death penalty). Her f*** buddy was sentenced to life in prison for conspiring to kidnap the baby, to which he had pleaded guilty, along with providing false information to police. Unfortunately, he wasn't convicted of conspiracy to commit murder, but was sentenced to life anyway for the kidnapping charge. Unlike his insignificant-other co-conspirator, he may not actually die in a cage, but at least the sentence should keep him locked up for decades. He will also have to run the gauntlet of parole board hearings for the rest of his life, although that's no guarantee of anything, now that a septuagenarian Tate/LaBianca hippie cult murderer is apparently walking free after a half-century behind bars.
When are We the American People going to grow the spine we need to put these monsters down like the rabid dogs they are? I volunteer as Tribute, and I'd do it for free; euthanasia's too good for them, but it is effective and "humane," and not all that difficult to perform, which is more than they deserve.
That said, I also wonder why this crime in particular garnered so much public attention, when so many others don't even earn a passing mention by the local, let alone national press. News coverage resulting in many volunteers working tirelessly to bring Savanna home was probably the reason why she was found so quickly, and maybe even at all. Perhaps it was the shocking savagery and horror of this particular crime, which sadly lends well to mainstream news coverage with its "if it bleeds, it leads" mentality. However, hundreds of Native women have gone missing or have been found murdered over the last several decades, with very little attention given to finding them, to the degree that there's now a national movement to bring awareness to the issue.
In 2017, US Senators Steve Daines and Jon Tester from Montana introduced a resolution recognizing May 5 as a National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Native Women and Girls (the acronym MMIW - Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women - was created by Indigenous journalist Sheila North Wilson in 2012), primarily in response to the murder of Hanna Harris on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation. May 5 has now become the official MMIW Day. Marchers wear red, most prominently a red dress and a hand print painted across the mouth, and attend marches and rallies and host fundraisers to raise awareness. Likewise the color red has become a de facto symbol of the movement. Artist Jaime Black even made red dresses a part of an ongoing art series, entitled "The REDress Project."
One of the primary problems is under-reporting: the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) states that in 2016 there were 5,712 reports of missing American Indian and Alaska Native women and girls, but the US Department of Justice’s federal missing person database, NamUs, only logged 116 cases. Worse, the Urban Indian Health Institute reports that murder is now the third leading cause of death for Native women aged TEN to 24, with the youngest MMIW victim a baby less than a year old and the oldest an 83-year-old. According to the DOJ, Native women are victims of murder more than 10 times the national average. This is a shocking statistic, as Native people comprise less than two percent of the US population. Worse, a Canadian government National Inquiry found that Indigenous women are seven times more likely to be murdered by serial killers. (!!)
So: I'm glad that this book is bringing attention to this very pressing issue, one which has not received its due by mainstream media or government agencies. Despite its great potential to shed some much-needed light on a very tragic phenomenon among Native communities, one which has gone overlooked for far too long, I was unfortunately sorely disappointed by its quality, or lack thereof. In short, it's just very badly written. Thus, the three-star rating is primarily for the organization and writing, NOT the content, which does at least bring some much-needed attention to a highly pressing issue. This book is one of the most badly-organized and poorly-proofed non-fiction books I've ever read - at least, one that was issued by a professional publisher, in this case, Simon & Schuster/Atria books, so there's no excuse for the poor quality. In short, it just needed a capable editor to clean things up.
First, It's HIGHLY repetitive, to the point that some of the passages are repeated nearly verbatim throughout the text. Example: the author cites the infuriating statistic regarding the Crime Victims Fund, which, "amounting to billions of dollars, stems from fines and penalties incurred by offenders. But tribes have to fight for their share.... state governments passed only 0.5 percent of the available funds to programs serving tribal victims..." This passage, nearly word-for-word, appears in the prologue, and then again 70 pages later. I may not have the best memory these days, for a number of reasons, but even I remembered something I read scarcely 70 pages ago. That's only one example; there are multiple others.
Additional organizational problems: some "chapters" are little more than a page long. The book constantly jumps back and forth in time, from the present to the past crime, making the whole very disjointed and difficult to follow. There are multiple typos and misspellings throughout, which is really inexcusable in a book issued by a reputable publisher... and for one they want to charge $28.99 for.
I really wanted to like this book, whose content is of critical and timely import. I incidentally came across it while browsing new books at the library recently, having read the superb "Killers of the Flower Moon" a few months ago, which is now a major motion picture. Perhaps I was expecting something of that caliber, but this one unfortunately missed the mark. It's too bad, really, because as much light and attention as possible is needed regarding the sheer volume of missing and murdered Native women in the US, whose treatment of indigenous peoples, now in the THIRD decade of the 21st century, still remains a national disgrace.
A week later, Savanna's mutilated body was found by kayakers in the Red River, heavily wrapped in plastic trash bags with duct tape. Items found at an abandoned farmstead led to the discovery of her body a short distance away in the river. The most horrifying realization came when it was discovered that Savanna apparently had been the victim of a "womb-raider" crime (I don't like this term, as it's so disrespectful to the victims, but it's becoming a commonly-used one, and it's the one used in the book), whereby a pregnant woman is murdered and her fetus cut from her body by unimaginably sick, twisted killers for the purpose of stealing the baby.
Savanna's preemie daughter was found in the apartment of the two killers a few days after she was reported missing, and before her body was found. The infant was gravely ill, jaundiced from the premature birth, and in need of immediate medical treatment. She almost certainly would have died had police not found the little girl when they did. The sick freak who cut her out of her still-alive mother then attempted to lie to police about how she came by the baby, initially claiming that Savanna had left her apartment, but then returned a few days later, gave her the newborn, and disappeared again. The truth, of course, was that she had mercilessly slaughtered the pregnant 22-year-old to steal her child to raise as her own, along with her boyfriend, who disposed of Savanna's mutilated body like trash, dumping her in a river in the hopes that she would never be found.
The twisted freak who killed a woman to steal her baby was a delusional 38-year-old wack job who had already lost custody of SEVEN CHILDREN by at least FIVE different men. So, she had already lost more than a six-pack of kids before she decided to murder an innocent woman to steal hers. She had engaged in a short custody battle with the sire of two of them, who fortunately was awarded physical custody, because mommie dearest apparently had the frequent habit of abandoning subsequent kids to run like cheap mascara to avoid child support payments - to as far as Australia, on one occasion, which wisely booted her useless, deranged butt out, denying her a work visa.
After wacko returned to the US, she shacked up with another worthless abuser, who had previously been convicted five years earlier of child abuse for fracturing the skull of his three-month-old son. Why this child beater wasn't charged with attempted murder and locked up for decades is beyond me, and we all see the result of being soft on crime and child-abusing criminals: the death of an innocent girl, one with her whole life ahead of her, who had her baby cut from her body, while she was apparently still alive.
He then reportedly strangled her with a piece of rope to make sure she was dead, after she had been violated in every way a person can be violated, even though she may have possibly survived had he immediately called for help if he had indeed just walked in on wacko cleaning up blood on the floor. Instead, he chose to participate in the crime, possibly ultimately causing Savanna's death, and certainly disposing of her body to avoid detection. He pathetically claimed, of course, that he had nothing to do with the crime, and came home the day of the killing to find wacko cleaning up a pool of blood in their bathroom with Savanna's bleeding body lying on the floor. The baby had apparently been laid out on a towel in the bathtub like afterthought, with her dead or dying mother still on the bathroom floor while the killer was trying to clean up the crime scene to avoid detection.
Enough said about these two pathetic worms. I won't even use their names, as they don't deserve to be remembered. They deserve to die in cages. Hopefully they will, as wacko was sentenced to the maximum term of life without parole (unfortunately, North Dakota doesn't have the death penalty). Her f*** buddy was sentenced to life in prison for conspiring to kidnap the baby, to which he had pleaded guilty, along with providing false information to police. Unfortunately, he wasn't convicted of conspiracy to commit murder, but was sentenced to life anyway for the kidnapping charge. Unlike his insignificant-other co-conspirator, he may not actually die in a cage, but at least the sentence should keep him locked up for decades. He will also have to run the gauntlet of parole board hearings for the rest of his life, although that's no guarantee of anything, now that a septuagenarian Tate/LaBianca hippie cult murderer is apparently walking free after a half-century behind bars.
When are We the American People going to grow the spine we need to put these monsters down like the rabid dogs they are? I volunteer as Tribute, and I'd do it for free; euthanasia's too good for them, but it is effective and "humane," and not all that difficult to perform, which is more than they deserve.
That said, I also wonder why this crime in particular garnered so much public attention, when so many others don't even earn a passing mention by the local, let alone national press. News coverage resulting in many volunteers working tirelessly to bring Savanna home was probably the reason why she was found so quickly, and maybe even at all. Perhaps it was the shocking savagery and horror of this particular crime, which sadly lends well to mainstream news coverage with its "if it bleeds, it leads" mentality. However, hundreds of Native women have gone missing or have been found murdered over the last several decades, with very little attention given to finding them, to the degree that there's now a national movement to bring awareness to the issue.
In 2017, US Senators Steve Daines and Jon Tester from Montana introduced a resolution recognizing May 5 as a National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Native Women and Girls (the acronym MMIW - Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women - was created by Indigenous journalist Sheila North Wilson in 2012), primarily in response to the murder of Hanna Harris on the Northern Cheyenne Reservation. May 5 has now become the official MMIW Day. Marchers wear red, most prominently a red dress and a hand print painted across the mouth, and attend marches and rallies and host fundraisers to raise awareness. Likewise the color red has become a de facto symbol of the movement. Artist Jaime Black even made red dresses a part of an ongoing art series, entitled "The REDress Project."
One of the primary problems is under-reporting: the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) states that in 2016 there were 5,712 reports of missing American Indian and Alaska Native women and girls, but the US Department of Justice’s federal missing person database, NamUs, only logged 116 cases. Worse, the Urban Indian Health Institute reports that murder is now the third leading cause of death for Native women aged TEN to 24, with the youngest MMIW victim a baby less than a year old and the oldest an 83-year-old. According to the DOJ, Native women are victims of murder more than 10 times the national average. This is a shocking statistic, as Native people comprise less than two percent of the US population. Worse, a Canadian government National Inquiry found that Indigenous women are seven times more likely to be murdered by serial killers. (!!)
So: I'm glad that this book is bringing attention to this very pressing issue, one which has not received its due by mainstream media or government agencies. Despite its great potential to shed some much-needed light on a very tragic phenomenon among Native communities, one which has gone overlooked for far too long, I was unfortunately sorely disappointed by its quality, or lack thereof. In short, it's just very badly written. Thus, the three-star rating is primarily for the organization and writing, NOT the content, which does at least bring some much-needed attention to a highly pressing issue. This book is one of the most badly-organized and poorly-proofed non-fiction books I've ever read - at least, one that was issued by a professional publisher, in this case, Simon & Schuster/Atria books, so there's no excuse for the poor quality. In short, it just needed a capable editor to clean things up.
First, It's HIGHLY repetitive, to the point that some of the passages are repeated nearly verbatim throughout the text. Example: the author cites the infuriating statistic regarding the Crime Victims Fund, which, "amounting to billions of dollars, stems from fines and penalties incurred by offenders. But tribes have to fight for their share.... state governments passed only 0.5 percent of the available funds to programs serving tribal victims..." This passage, nearly word-for-word, appears in the prologue, and then again 70 pages later. I may not have the best memory these days, for a number of reasons, but even I remembered something I read scarcely 70 pages ago. That's only one example; there are multiple others.
Additional organizational problems: some "chapters" are little more than a page long. The book constantly jumps back and forth in time, from the present to the past crime, making the whole very disjointed and difficult to follow. There are multiple typos and misspellings throughout, which is really inexcusable in a book issued by a reputable publisher... and for one they want to charge $28.99 for.
I really wanted to like this book, whose content is of critical and timely import. I incidentally came across it while browsing new books at the library recently, having read the superb "Killers of the Flower Moon" a few months ago, which is now a major motion picture. Perhaps I was expecting something of that caliber, but this one unfortunately missed the mark. It's too bad, really, because as much light and attention as possible is needed regarding the sheer volume of missing and murdered Native women in the US, whose treatment of indigenous peoples, now in the THIRD decade of the 21st century, still remains a national disgrace.
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