‘Lost on the Road to Fire’ Goes Inside the Disappearance of Mary Ellen Johnson-Davis

Days before Thanksgiving in 2020, family members of Mary Ellen Johnson-Davis received a call from her husband: Mary had gone missing.

Her husband asked family members to report her disappearance to the police, but according to family members, she left the state and changed her phone number.

Johnson-Davis, 39, a member of the Tulalip Tribe near Seattle, Washington, was last seen on November 25, 2020, on the Firetrail Trail on the Tulalip Reservation in Washington State. FBI. Nearly four years later, there is little information on his whereabouts.

Frustrated by the course of the investigation, his sisters Gerry Davis and Nona Blouin They set out to investigate his disappearance on their own. Their efforts were recorded Missing in Fire Road PathA documentary released on Friday, November 1.

“I have dreams about her every now and then, but I don’t think she’s gone,” Davis tells producers as he gushes about his sister. “And I wish he’d come home.”

Tulalip Tribe Police Chief Chris Sutter said investigators are treating Johnson-Davis’ disappearance as a kidnapping-murder case.

“I know it was stolen,” says Deborah Parker, former vice president of the Tulalip Tribe and executive producer of the documentary. “There is something very wrong. He deserves people to fight for him.”

Lynette (left), Nona Blouin (center) and Gerry Davis.

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Johnson-Davis is one of thousands of missing Indigenous women whose disappearance remains unsolved. According to research, four out of every five indigenous women are victims of violence Statistics from the United States Department of Justice. More than 50 percent of Indigenous women are victims of sexual violence.

Indigenous women are also more susceptible to violence by non-Indigenous men, according to a 2023 DoJ report.

“We found out through research that some men in prison said, ‘If you go and rape an Indian woman, you won’t get caught,'” says Parker, whose indigenous name is Cicayalc̓aʔ.

A scene from the movie Road to the Lost Fire.

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Her sister, Blouin, says Johnson-Davis was taken from her family’s home as a child and placed in the foster home of a non-Indigenous family.

Blouin and Johnson-Davis were placed in the same home, where the sisters allege they were sexually abused.

“Poor Mary…she did unspeakable things for that man,” Blouin says of his sister.

He says Johnson-Davis fell down the path of addiction. But the sisters won the lawsuit against child protective services and Washington state, receiving $400,000 each for the psychological damage they endured.

“Her husband stole her money, the agreement we got from the state,” Blouin claims. “He deposited it into an account… (and) left her with nothing. Then he moved to California.”

Johnson-Davis’ husband’s name is not included in the documentary and PEOPLE cannot reach him. Tulalip Tribal Police Detective. David Sallee I told PEOPLE before that he was a person of interest in her disappearance. Chief Sutter told producers that he was aware of the allegations of abuse against the husband, but authorities did not have enough to take him into custody.

Johnson-Davis’ sisters and cousin also consider the possibility that she was killed by someone who supplied her with drugs. They suspect that he may have been targeted because of the deal he won, but his family remains unanswered as there is not enough evidence pointing to either of these theories.

Deborah Parker (left), whose native name is Cicayalc̓aʔ; and aunt.

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The documentary explores Johnson-Davis’ story that hurts every Indigenous woman: They are either victims themselves, or the victims’ sisters, mothers, aunts and nieces.

Seeking answers for Johnson-Davis’ family, Parker also talks about her own aunt, who was raped and beaten beyond recognition by a group of men.

In the film, Parker stops his car at the scene of his aunt’s alleged attack.

“Every time I pass by him, I think about how scared he must have been,” Parker says. “And although he lived another day, he never lived again.”

Missing on Fire Road Path, Directed by Sabrina Van Tassel, the film will be available for purchase on: Amazon Prime VideoGooglePlay, AppleTV and Microsoft Movies starting Friday, November 1.

If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual abuse, text “POWER” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 to be connected to a certified crisis counselor.

If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or go to: thehotline.org. All calls are free and confidential. The helpline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.