Mom remains strong 'voice' for slain Native American daughter

More than three years have passed since Angela McConnell and her boyfriend were found slain in a wooded area in the northern outskirts of Shasta Lake.

The double homicide remains unsolved but not forgotten. 

A billboard on Shasta Dam Boulevard about a mile from where the murders took place prominently displays a smiling photo of McConnell with information about a $30,000 reward. The signboard carries the phone number to report anonymous tips to Secret Witness of Shasta County.

The community also is being reminded of the 26-year-old woman's death with a prayer walk this Saturday morning in Shasta Lake that's not just for her but as an event representing the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls movement.

"Maybe if we walk, she's not forgotten," said McConnell's mother, Tammy Carpenter of Arcata. "I'm her voice. ... I have to go out there. It's a hard, hard walk. People can't understand what a mother goes through, losing their only daughter."

Carpenter pushed to have the billboard, located near From the Hearth Express, put up in February with financial help from the Hoopa Valley Tribe. McConnell, a tribal member, was raised by Carpenter in Hoopa with her younger brother, Richie.

The tribal council also matched the original $15,000 reward offered by Secret Witness to raise the total to $30,000, Secret Witness president Della Humble said.

The Shasta County Sheriff's Office identified the Sept. 7, 2018, gunshot victims as McConnell and 31-year-old Michael Thomas Bingham Jr. Deputies said they went to 500 Black Canyon Road just after noon that day where they found the pair dead in a homeless camp. 

Carpenter said she's not aware of the billboard generating any tips but wants the sign to stay up for a while in case it does.

McConnell's bright personality, aspirations

"She didn't deserve what happened to her," Carpenter said, describing her daughter as "a gem" who was caring and loving toward her family.

"She could light up a room. She would say, 'Hey, hi everybody,' and ask what's going on. If you were down, she would cheer you up," Carpenter said.

Not only a Hoopa tribal member, McConnell also was of Mohave, Yurok and Karuk descent.  

She was a 2010 graduate of Hoopa Valley High School and took several classes at College of the Redwoods in Eureka with the intention of re-enrolling there for general education courses to get into the nursing program.

Carpenter said her daughter also had aspirations of becoming a writer and author. McConnell liked to write birthday poems for her and on Mother's Day.

McConnell's headstone at her grave at her aunt's property in Hoopa contains a poem from her Facebook wall.

"Overall, the thing that she really wanted to do beside becoming a nurse was, she wanted to be a journalist," Carpenter said.

Movement brings focus

Carpenter said her daughter's death brought an awareness of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls movement to the Hoopa reservation. Carpenter said she's not only an advocate for her daughter but for other women who've been killed or gone missing in Northern California.

MMIW, also known as Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Two Spirit People, has chronicled McConnell's murder, along with other cases in Northern California, in two reports containing interviews with Carpenter.

Statistics are kept by the Sovereign Bodies Institute in Eureka, whose role is to house a comprehensive database of the crimes, said Mox Alvarnaz, the institute's outreach coordinator.

"Part of that is because the information and numbers are poorly tracked," Alvarnaz said. "Really the name of missing and murdered people is a shorthand for a gendered experience of racial genocide that indigenous peoples have been experiencing in real-time."

Carpenter was quoted in one report about how she endures her daughter's death daily.

"I pray every day ... pray to the Lord and ask him to have somebody speak, say something. Because it's difficult every day, every day is a hard day."

Walk on Saturday

Saturday's prayer walk is set to start at 9:30 a.m. from the Wintu Cultural Center at 4755 Shasta Dam Boulevard and go to the nearby Clair Engle Park.

Organizers ask participants to wear red and say the event is to honor missing and murdered indigenous peoples of all genders.

"I'm going to be there rain or shine," Carpenter said. She plans to be there with her family carrying umbrellas and rain jackets if it's raining.

"I want that community where she was murdered to know that I'm not giving up on Angela and I want to find out who did this to her," she said.

Investigation ongoing

Shasta County sheriff's Sgt. Kyle Wallace of the Major Crimes Unit said the case "is still open and ongoing" and is not a cold case.

"We still have a detective assigned and we're still following up. When tips do come in, there's detectives that follow up," Wallace said.

So far, three different detectives have worked on the investigation over time.

"If anybody has any information, please give us a call," Wallace said.

The Major Crimes Unit can be reached at 530-245-6135 or by email at MCU@co.shasta.ca.us.

Mike Chapman is an award-winning reporter and photographer for the Record Searchlight in Redding, Calif. His newspaper career spans Yreka and Eureka in Northern California and Bellingham, Wash. Support local journalism by subscribing today.