In the early morning hours of March 9, 2019, 25-year-old Aubrey Dameron, a transgender woman from the Cherokee Nation, was last seen leaving her mother's home in Grove, Oklahoma. She told her family she was going to meet someone and would be back later. At the time, she was wearing a black shirt, a black thigh-high miniskirt, black hose, and black leather boots with heels.
Aubrey, who also used the nickname 'Shorty,' had recently moved back to the area from New Mexico after a breakup. She left her home that night without her purse or the medication she needed to control her epilepsy, suggesting she did not intend to be gone for an extended period. Her cell phone last pinged at approximately 3:42 a.m. not far from her mother's house before it was either turned off or the battery died.
The initial days of the investigation into Aubrey's disappearance were marked by a lack of urgency from law enforcement and a confusing, fabricated lead. A former friend of Aubrey's contacted her ex-boyfriend, claiming Aubrey was being held for ransom over a drug debt, a story she later admitted was a hoax, leading to her being charged with extortion. This false claim unfortunately distracted from the crucial early stages of the search. Despite the family's pleas, the first organized search did not occur until two weeks after she vanished. Over the following months and years, numerous searches were conducted by various law enforcement agencies, including the Delaware County Sheriff's Office, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation, the Cherokee Nation Marshal Service, and the FBI. These efforts uncovered potential clues, such as a white sock with possible bloodstains and a leather jacket similar to the one Aubrey was wearing, but forensic testing on these items proved inconclusive.
Tragically, after nearly six years of searching and advocacy by her family, particularly her aunt and uncle, Aubrey's case came to a heartbreaking conclusion. In January 2025, human remains were discovered in a rural area of Ottawa County, north of Commerce, Oklahoma. On February 5, 2025, the Oklahoma Medical Examiner's Office confirmed the remains belonged to Aubrey Dameron. Following the identification, the FBI, which had taken over the case, classified her death as a homicide. The investigation into who is responsible for Aubrey's death is ongoing, led by the Quapaw Nation Marshal Service in collaboration with the Cherokee Nation Marshal Service, the Bureau of Indian Affairs Missing and Murdered Unit, and the FBI. The discovery of her remains brought a painful end to her family's search, highlighting the ongoing crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people.Last Seen: Mar 9, 2019
