Kristina Denise Carrillo was a 38-year-old Indigenous woman from Shiprock, New Mexico, whose disappearance began as a brief public notice and grew into one more deeply painful example of a family searching for answers within the wider crisis of missing Indigenous people. Public missing-person records identified her as an American Indian / Alaska Native woman with brown hair and brown eyes, approximately 5 feet to 5 feet 2 inches tall and about 125 to 135 pounds.
She had several distinctive features that could help identify her, including a disfigured left middle finger, a piercing near or under her left eye, a tattoo reading “LIJAH” on the right side of her neck, and wrist tattoos including “SOUTH” and “SIDE.” Her case was listed by NamUs as MP100694 and investigated by the Navajo Nation Police Department’s Shiprock District.
The last known sighting of Kristina was on September 24, 2022, in Shiprock, New Mexico. Public case summaries reported that she was last seen at the Flower Water Navajo Casino, located on U.S. Highway 64 in San Juan County, not far from the Arizona-New Mexico border. After that day, she was not publicly reported to have been seen or heard from again, and the circumstances surrounding her disappearance remained unclear. The available public information did not describe what she may have been doing at the casino, who she may have been with, how she may have left, or what happened in the hours afterward. That absence of detail left her family and community with an especially difficult kind of uncertainty: a last known place, a last known date, and then silence.
As Kristina’s case circulated publicly, it became part of the broader and urgent conversation surrounding Missing and Murdered Indigenous People, particularly on and around Navajo Nation land. Her disappearance was not only a police matter; it was a family tragedy carried by those who knew and loved her. Later public remembrance described Kristina as a beloved daughter, sister, mother, and friend, someone remembered for her bright smile, warmth, kindness, and deep love for her children and family. Her obituary described her as having been born and raised in Shiprock, where she remained closely connected to her family and grandparents, and it named her children and siblings among those who survived her.
Public updates later indicated that Kristina was found deceased. The exact date she was located is not clear from the available public information, and the wording of the update was vague, stating that she had been found before Christmas while further information was still awaited. Because of that, the most compassionate and accurate way to describe the resolution is that Kristina is no longer considered an active missing-person case, and she was sadly located deceased, though the precise timing and circumstances publicly available remain limited. Her obituary also confirms her passing and shows that a celebration of life was scheduled in Farmington, New Mexico, on June 26, 2025.
Kristina Carrillo’s case began with a last known sighting at Flower Water Navajo Casino in Shiprock on September 24, 2022, followed by a long period of unanswered questions as her family and community sought information about where she had gone and what had happened to her. She was a mother, daughter, sister, and friend whose life was remembered for love, family, and a smile that stayed with the people who knew her. The public record now reflects a heartbreaking resolution: Kristina was found deceased, although the exact date and full circumstances have not been clearly made public. The overview of the case is that Kristina Denise Carrillo disappeared from Shiprock, New Mexico, in 2022; her disappearance was investigated by the Navajo Nation Police Department’s Shiprock District; public sources later reported that she had been found deceased; and what remains is the memory of a woman deeply loved by her family, along with the lingering need for clarity, compassion, and accountability in how cases like hers are remembered and understood.Last Seen: Sep 24, 2022
