858: How to Tell a Dumb American Story
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A quick warning, there are curse words that are unbearped in today's episode of the show. If you prefer a beeped version, you can find that at our website, thisamericanlife.org. Sarah Crane Murdoch's put on our show before. She reports on indigenous communities out west. Back in 2023, she got a call from a man in Montana. Kevin Howard. He said his daughter Micah had been killed in a hit and run. Local police were dragging their feet. He thought the driver might get away with it. The driver was white, Micah was native, a citizen of the Blackfeet Nation. Lots of native people are killed in hit and runs. And the drivers are rarely brought to justice. And Sierra thought she might be able to document why by diving into Micah's case, because Micah's parents had recordings of nearly all their interactions with law enforcement. Micah's parents did some other things too. They were very strategic. They did some extraordinary things other families had not tried to make sure Micah's case was one that the authorities could not ignore. That story and how it unfolded and what it's like to be a couple making that happen. That's going to be a whole show today. From WBE's East Chicago, it's this American life. I'm out of glass and with that, I handed over to Sierra. Micah's family lives on the Flathead Indian reservation. It's in a valley surrounded by big, toothy mountains. Micah was 22 years old the night she was killed. She'd been out with her younger brother. They'd gone to a bar to buy cigarettes. On their way home, Micah couldn't find her phone and thought she'd left it at the bar. She told her brother to let her out of the car. She'd go back to the bar to get it, and then she'd walk home. Hours later, around 4 a.m., a tribal police officer found her body on the side of the road, Highway 93. The officer, a friend of Kevin's, drove to his house and woke him up. You know, they told us Micah was deceased and then right away, I was like, "Did you guys get him?" And they were like, "Yeah, it was some tweaker from Butte." And in my mind, I was just like happy that they apprehended, you know. And I just, you know, I gave the cops a hug and I was like, "Thank you guys," or whatever. You know, I'm glad that you guys were there. Later that day, Kevin and his wife, Carissa Heavy Runner, Micah's mother, took a cross and a teddy bear to the roadside where she'd been found. When they got there, investigators from Montana Highway Patrol were flying a drone, photographing the scene. One of them was named Wayne Bieber. He asked Kevin and Carissa if they had Micah's phone. It had actually been in her brother's car that night, slipped between her seat and the console. Bieber said he needed it. Carissa couldn't understand why. He was adamant about following us home to get it and, you know, repeated.
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