Wyoming MMIP task force reports measurable progress — faster resolutions and youth prevention work — but disparities persist

The governor’s Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons (MMIP) task force told the Select Committee on Tribal Relations on June 16 that multi‑year, data‑driven work has begun to change outcomes for Indigenous victims in Wyoming, while emphasizing that significant disparities remain.

"We are finally being seen," said Dr. Emily Grant, a senior research scientist at the University of Wyoming who provides data support to the task force. She told the committee the task force compiled 15–25 years of missing‑person and homicide records and now produces annual public reports that make trends transparent and trackable.

The task force said two headline measures show progress since the program began: the proportion of Indigenous missing‑person cases resolved within seven days rose from 61% in the first report to 81% in 2025, and the homicide rate disparity for Indigenous women — initially reported as eight times the rate for white residents in the earliest analysis — has decreased to about six times in more recent years. Task force leaders cautioned these improvements, while important, do not eliminate the underlying disparities.

Cara Chambers, who chairs the governor’s MMIP task force, reviewed policy steps since 2019: the multi‑agency collaboration statute (2020), creation of a statewide cold‑case database and a forensic genetic genealogy pilot program funded by the Legislature (2024), and the Ashanti adult missing‑person alert (2023) and the 2025 missing‑person reporting requirement law that clarified officers must accept missing‑person reports. Task force leaders also described prevention work focused on teen dating violence: curricula and outreach reached more than 1,000 students in Fremont County in February.

Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation officials gave a separate update on cold‑case work: legislative funds were used to build a public and a law‑enforcement searchable cold‑case database, to sponsor specialized training for investigators, and to fund targeted laboratory analyses (MVAC sampling, hair isotope testing and ground‑penetrating radar) in selected cases. DCI said a separate pot for forensic genetic genealogy remains available through mid‑2029 and that some recent cases have been advanced using that technique.

Law enforcement and task‑force leaders said the work is now more visible and coordinated than it was prior to 2019. "We can now answer questions with data instead of uncertainty," Dr. Grant said. Still, officials told the committee the work requires continued funding, cross‑agency cooperation and a focus on prevention to reduce victimization before it occurs.

No formal votes or new statutory proposals were adopted at the meeting; taskforce members asked the committee to sustain attention to funding and to keep building data and prevention capacity.