Larissa Lonehill - missing since 2016



Larissa Lonehill grew up on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, one of the largest native reservations in the United States. Her family described her as beautiful, caring and funny- and a girl with a smile that everyone noticed.

She was part of a large family and was the 6th of 8 children and Larissa herself would become a young mother at age 19. Although her baby’s father and his family had custody, Larissa was a devoted mom. Often hitchhiking or walking just to see her baby.

Life on the reservation was hard, and at one point, Larissa moved 100 miles away to live with her sister in Rapid City.

On October 2, 2016, after visiting her mother, she was picked up by her boyfriend to go to a nearby mall. She texted her cousin the next day about going to a party.

Larissa would never be seen or heard from again.

Where is Larissa Lonehill?

Let’s talk about the life of Larissa Lonehill and what might have happened in October of 2016.

Larissa was born and raised on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. Her mom Lisa describes Larissa as a funny, cute, and caring child- traits her family said she carried with her into adulthood.

Larissa was one of eight children in the family. The family was close, but life on the reservation wasn’t always easy.

The Pine Ridge Reservation is located almost solely in the state of South Dakota and consists of over 2 million acres. It is one of the largest in the United States.

It sits in the Southwestern part of South Dakota and borders right up to the state of Nebraska.

Larissa would attend school on the reservation but would drop out before graduating high school. That’s not that uncommon on the reservation- for many reasons- as almost 35% of high school students will drop out.

I did a little research on this particular reservation, and the statistics aren’t great. It seems a part of the country that has been left behind, with subpar resources, which includes education and healthcare. Jobs are scarce as well, and the Pine Ridge Reservation has the lowest per capita income of all the tribal reservations- at just $8,768 per person. The reservation belongs to the Oglala Lakota tribe and was established over 100 years ago. The reservations healthcare is so poor in fact, there are organized groups of volunteers that travel there annually to help.

At age 19, Larissa had a daughter and was excited to become a mom. She would encounter some trouble, however, getting mixed up with the wrong people and dabbling in the drug scene. Her daughter would go live with the father’s family. Larissa was determined to still be a large part of her daughter’s life and would do whatever it took to find rides to go see her daughter. She would go as far as hitchhiking or even walking the several miles just so she could see her.

At some point, Larissa decided to move in with her older sister, Carol, in Rapid City, South Dakota. Rapid City is located about 100 miles from the reservation.

Larissa loved Carol’s children and would read books to them all the time. Larissa was great with the children, and Carol appreciated the help. Larissa would even do household chores and help out around the home without being asked.

Larissa’s mother said that was just the type of person Larissa was. Sometimes Larissa would come over to her place and cook for her, or take care of her when she wasn’t feeling good. She had a chronic illness, and Larissa was a great caretaker for her. Larissa, according to family, was the type of person who would just start doing things, without being asked or expected to. She genuinely just wanted to help.

In October of 2016, Larissa and Carol had an argument and Carol asked Larissa to move out. She had heard that Larissa was getting involved in drugs again, and wasn’t going to put up with it.

On October 2, Larissa went to her mom’s house for a visit and to talk about the fight she had had with Carol. Lisa Lonehill remembers that she and her daughter were outside on the patio of her townhome when she advised Larissa to go back to Carol and talk it over with it and make amends.

For some reason during that conversation, Lisa started to get a dreaded feeling in the pit of her stomach. Larissa had her boyfriend and a female friend pick her up at the townhome and they were going to head to Rushmore Mall and do some shopping and hang out.

When Larissa walked out the door that day, Lisa had a feeling that would be the last time she would see her daughter. And she was right.

On October 3, the very next day, one of Larissa’s cousins received a text message from her saying that she was with two male friends and they were going to a party.

A few days would go by, and Larissa’s boyfriend started to become concerned because he couldn’t reach her. He contacted Larissa’s brother for help, and it would be her brother who would officially report her missing.

Search efforts were virtually nonexistent at first. After all, Larissa was a young adult woman, and she had a little bit of a troubled history. A very recent troubled history.

Police did eventually talk to the boyfriend, who told them that on October 3rd, two men had come to the house that knew Larissa. Larissa had introduced one of the men as her ‘cousin’, however, Larissa’s family said he was not related. Larissa left with them.

Police next went to talk to the two men that she reported left with that day.

One man denied having seen Larissa at all. The other young man said that he did take Larissa to a party that night, but he dropped her off and left and hadn’t talked to her since.

Police did offer up a reward of $5000 for any information regarding her disappearance, however, they had little to go on and her case would go cold.

Her family fought for media attention but didn’t get much. A Facebook page was created for her in January of 2017 and has just over 2500 followers. I urge you to check it out and like her page to show your support to her family- the page is titled SEARCHING FOR LARISSA LONEHILL. They also post information about what is happening with missing people from the Indigenous community and try to keep everyone updated.

While police did investigate Larissa’s case, it’s unclear how deep the searches went. In fact, South Dakota acknowledged they didn’t have any policies and procedures to record data of missing indigenous women and procedures for searching for them. In July of 2019, the state of South Dakota passed a law that would require the state Division of Criminal Investigation to collect data on missing and murdered indigenous people and create procedures and training for investigating cases involving women and children.

So the state acknowledged there was a problem and that they didn’t understand how to deal with it- but they seemed to be taking steps to fix that.

The goal was also to help non-tribal law enforcement and tribal law enforcement to work together better to find these missing people.

A domino effect would take place, and the states of Montana, North Dakota, and Minnesota would follow suit.

As for Larissa Lonehill, what did her search look like? We can’t be 100% sure, as it was never talked about in the media.

The police did come forward in 2020 and renew the $5,000 reward in Larissa’s case, but, this time, they said they believed she was deceased and the reward was for someone to lead them to her body. They also stated her body was likely somewhere within a 100-mile radius of South Dakota. But, they never said why they believed that.

Is it likely they know something we don’t? Absolutely. Does it involve the two men that allegedly saw her on October 3? We also don’t know- there have been no arrests or charges, or even people of interest announced publicly.

So what do we know?

We know that Larissa was struggling. We know that she saw her boyfriend on October 3 — according to him- and that she texted a cousin that same day, telling her who she was with. We know at least one of those men denied being with her.

So, was Larissa’s text incorrect or possibly misunderstood? Or is this guy lying?

And without a body, and additional information from detectives, we do have a few possibilities in Larissa’s case.

Theory #1. Larissa walked away from her life. She was struggling. She had recently had a fight with her sister and didn’t really have a stable place to live. She didn’t have custody of her daughter. If Larissa was involved with drugs, maybe she made the decision to leave and start over somewhere else. Maybe even one or both of the men who allegedly took her to the party dropped her off somewhere else.

And if the physical searches and her name and photo weren’t broadcast over media, she could have left the state and went somewhere where no one knew her. Possibly even another reservation in the United States, where law enforcement and tracking don’t happen as proactively.

Now, it’s important to note, that no one who knew Larissa does believe this happened. They don’t think she would leave her family, and especially her daughter.

But, without any evidence, the theory can’t be ruled out completely.

Theory #2. Larissa overdosed. There was chatter that Larissa was involved with drugs again. Could she have possibly overdosed at the party? And partygoers in a panic buried her body somewhere? Or took her somewhere?

Police did say they believe she is buried within 100 miles of Rapid City, but they haven’t told us why.

Theory #3: Foul play. No one is quite sure why this might have happened, but if her body is indeed buried somewhere, someone had to do that. And why? What was the motive? Or, was it an accident?

As of right now, this is all we know. And South Dakota is a pretty vast state and has a lot of remote areas.

Police need the public’s help in finding Larissa, and most importantly, the family needs answers.

If Larissa is out there, she just needs to let her family know she is okay.

If she isn’t, there needs to be justice for Larissa.

Larissa has a now 7-year-old daughter who doesn’t know her mother.

And heartbreakingly, one of Larissa’s brothers passed away just 3 weeks after Larissa disappeared.

Some interesting facts about South Dakota missing persons.

  • About ⅓ of missing persons reported in South Dakota are Indigenous women
  • The total population of indigenous people is just 8.8%, with women being less than half of that- so you can see the disparity.
  • Law Enforcement on reservations is handled locally, but the BIA- Bureau of Indian Affairs- oversees crime over tribal land across the United States

Larissa is described as a Native American female with brown hair and brown eyes. She is 5’3” tall and weighed about 130 pounds at the time of her disappearance. Lonehill is a member of the Lakota Indian tribe. Her nickname is Rissa and she may use the first name, Lisa. She has the following tattoos: a paw print on her hand and the words “Mom”, “Lisa” and “Luda” elsewhere on her body.

If you have any information regarding Larissa Lonehill’s disappearance, please contact the Rapid City Police Department at 605–394–4134 or the Tribal Police at 605–867–5111. You can also text RCPD to 847411 for anonymous tips as well.

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