SHATTER THE SILENCE: MISSING AND MURDERED LUMBEE WOMEN

As long as my mother can remember, women from her tribe, the Lumbee tribe of North Carolina, had gone missing or been murdered in ways unimaginable, and the epidemic continues to plague our tribe today.

Today, the families of three women, Rhonda Jones, Christina Bennett, and Morgan Oxendine are still looking for justice for the girls who had been missing for almost four years.

Christina Bennett, 32, was the first to be found. Her body was naked and wrapped in a blanket and left inside a cabinet in an abandoned home. She was a friend, a daughter, and a mother of three.

Rhonda Jones, 36, was found the same day within a one minute walk from the house in which the body of Christina was discovered. She was left for dead in a trashcan. She too was a daughter, a niece, and a mother.

In June of 2017, 6 weeks after Christina and Rhonda disappeared, the body of Megan Oxendine was discovered just 500 feet from where the first two women were found.

Even more strange, both Megan and Rhonda knew one another, enough so that Megan spoke out about Rhonda’s death on the news stating ”.. I don’t understand how somebody could do somebody’s child, mother, niece, like that.”.

In September of 2018, over a year after the women had been found brutally murdered, the families were notified that the causes of their deaths were undetermined.

As if this wasn’t enough to be outraged over, it was released in April of 2019 that the rape kits preformed on the women hadn’t even been tested.

Many of the articles I’ve read mention drug use and seem to dehumanize the victims. Not one of them mentioned that they were mothers, daughters, and overall someone who had people who loved them.

It begs the question: Would the killer of these women have been found if she had not been indigenous? Would it be more urgent if these women were or a different socio economic status?

The answer is absolutely. There are thousands of women that have gone missing in tribes throughout the United States and Canada and their cases are not getting the attention they deserve.

Thank you so much to the Shatter The Silence Facebook for all the work they are doing to bring our Lumbee sisters and brothers justice. They are not just another case number, they are someone’s family.

If you’d like to help the Shatter The Silence Facebook group they can be found at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2071239679853025/?ref=share