In the small, remote community of Nome, Alaska, the disappearance of 45-year-old Justina Beatrice Kunayak in the autumn of 1990 has left a void in her family and community that has endured for decades. A mother from Little Diomede, Kunayak was in Nome on November 18, 1990, having traveled there for a doctor's appointment in Anchorage. She was last seen walking down Front Street, near the Nome Nugget Inn, wearing a light-colored parka with a distinctive polar bear ruff. After that sighting, Justina Kunayak was never heard from again, leaving her loved ones to wonder what became of her.
Her daughter, Etta Tall, has spoken about the painful experience of searching for her mother with little to no initial support from law enforcement. Tall recounted how she and her sister tirelessly went around Nome, showing photographs of their mother in her parka, desperate for any information. She recalled an encounter with the police where they were questioned about what they were doing, to which they replied they were searching for their mother who had been missing for a week. According to Tall, although the police took her mother's picture and said they would assist, the family felt a profound lack of support. This feeling was compounded when the FBI later became involved and allegedly could not find the photograph in the Nome Police Department's file. The years that followed were filled with sorrow for the family, with Tall describing the heartbreak of returning home to her mother's absence and the sound of her father's cries.
The case of Justina Kunayak is one of many unsolved disappearances and deaths that have troubled the Nome area for years, particularly affecting the Alaska Native community. While authorities have investigated these cases, they have not publicly concluded that a serial predator was involved. For families like the Kunayaks, the lack of answers has been a long and painful journey. Despite the passage of over three decades, Etta Tall has said she has never given up hope that she will one day find out what happened to her mother. The disappearance of Justina Kunayak remains an open wound for her family and a somber reminder of the ongoing crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons.
Last Seen: Nov 18, 1990
