MISSING PERSON
CASE #: 2018-63
Jermain Charlo
Also Known As:
Morigeau
Status:
Open
Date of Last Contact:
Date of Last Contact:
Jurisdiction:
Missing From:
Missoula, Montana
Summary:
Jermain Austin Charlo was a 23-year-old Native American woman from Dixon who was last confirmed alive in the alley behind the Badlander Bar in Missoula on June 16, 2018. She was a mother of two and a member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes. Her case remains open and active.
Vital Statistics
Circumstances of Disappearance:
On June 15, 2018, Jermain spent the evening with friends in Missoula. Surveillance footage captured her outside The Badlander bar, accompanied by Michael DeFrance, her ex-boyfriend and father of her children. She was last seen on security camera footage from the Missoula Housing Authority which showed her near the Badlander, a downtown Missoula bar, about 1 a.m. June 16. The video shows her walking down the alley, heading towards Higgins Avenue. Witnesses reported seeing Jermain leave with DeFrance. He later claimed he dropped her off near a food market at 1 a.m., where she intended to meet a friend. Investigators could not verify this claim. Phone data placed Jermain's phone in the Evaro Hill area between 2 a.m. and [cut off in source]. Charlo was never heard from again and all of her social media activity stopped.
Additional Details:
Since Jermain's disappearance in 2018, a number of resources and guidelines have been generated to address the MMIP crisis. Montana's Missing Indigenous Persons Task Force was created in 2019 to help administer grant money and improve interagency collaboration. The lead investigator, Missoula Police Det. Guy Baker, said there are three leads officials have been following since the beginning of the investigation: sex trafficking, drug activity or that what happened to Charlo involves someone she previously had a relationship with. New evidence from the night she disappeared has emerged, but no arrests have been made. DeFrance is the ex-boyfriend of Jermain Charlo, an Indigenous woman missing since 2018. DeFrance has never been named a suspect in her disappearance. In May 2023, a federal judge convicted Michael B. DeFrance, 30, of all four charges in the case indictments, including one count of prohibited possession of firearms and ammunition and three counts of making false statements during a firearms transaction. Jermain Charlo's former boyfriend was sentenced to 21 months for four federal firearms violations on Thursday in Missoula. While the firearms case isn't directly related to Charlo's disappearance, the indictments stemmed from two searches authorities executed on DeFrance's Evaro Hill home in June and October for 2018, shortly after Charlo's disappearance. The CBS program 48 Hours aired a special on Charlo's disappearance, titled "Where Is Jermain Charlo?", scheduled for broadcast on October 12 [2024]. No arrest has ever been made in the high-profile case, but promising new progress documented in the Nov. 15 season eight finale of Oxygen's Cold Justice could finally give her family answers.
Case Last Updated:
Timeline of Events
In October of 2024, Jermain's case was featured on the CBS program 48 Hours. For the first time, the Missoula Police Department released the last known footage of Jermain Charlo as she left the Badlander bar in the early morning hours of June 16, 2018.
Jermain Charlo's former boyfriend was sentenced to 21 months for four federal firearms violations.
In May, a federal judge convicted Michael B. DeFrance, 30, of all four charges in the case indictments, including one count of prohibited possession of firearms and ammunition and three counts of making false statements during a firearms transaction.
Michael DeFrance pleaded not guilty to three new federal indictments on Thursday in federal court.
Michael B. DeFrance was indicted in July 2021 on a prohibited possession of a firearm charge.
In doing so, CSKT was able to increase a reward regarding Jermain's disappearance to $15,000.
The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Council voted unanimously to increase the reward money to $10,000 for any information that leads to solving the case for missing CSKT tribal member Jermain Charlo.
The family made the drive down there on June 20 to formally file a missing person's report.
After 48 long hours as well as a few independent searches on their own, they contacted the authorities for help in both Missoula and the Flathead Reservation on Monday, June 18, 2018.
She was last seen on security camera footage from the Missoula Housing Authority which showed her near the Badlander, a downtown Missoula bar, about 1 a.m. June 16.
On the night of Friday, June 15, 2018, Jermain was in downtown Missoula, about 40 miles south of Dixon. She and some friends had planned to hit up a few bars in the city for a night of fun.
Late night before, she went to the Badlander, Golden Rose and Dark Horse bars. Between midnight and 1:00 a.m. on June 16, she was dropped off on Fifth Street between Russell and Orange streets, and was last seen walking east.
Associated Persons
Valenda M. (Aunt) - Living
Michael D. (Ex-boyfriend, person of interest) - Living
Guy B. (Lead detective) - Living
Family Tree
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Missing Person
Missing Person
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