Feds launch multi-agency surge to solve cold cases across Arizona’s tribal nations

PHOENIX — The FBI has deployed more than a dozen agents to Arizona as part of an expanded federal effort to solve cold cases and target violent crime across the state’s 22 Native American reservations.

The operation combines two initiatives: Operation Not Forgotten, which is now in its fourth year, and the new Operation Steadfast Promise, bringing together agents from the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

“We’re force multiplying, so to speak, to really push forward to not only solve a lot of these missing persons cases, but also crimes against children cases and bring violent offenders to justice,” Matt Schaeffer, FBI assistant special agent in charge of the Phoenix office, told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Arizona Morning News on Thursday.

The effort targets not only decades-old disappearances of Native American women but also fugitives and gang members operating on reservations.

“We will never accept the high rates of violence suffered by American Indian and Alaska Native people,” said Attorney General Pamela Bondi in a news release. “This surge will comprehensively address Indian Country violent crime.”

The challenges in investigating remote tribal areas

Schaeffer said the remote geography of Indian country presents persistent challenges for investigators.

“It’s not uncommon for agents to drive one way, sometimes three hours, to get to a crime scene,” Schaeffer said. “It’s not uncommon for agents not to have communication, cell service in different areas. So we have to work on the fly and use things like Starlink and all that kind of stuff so we have connectivity.”

The additional personnel will also help offset the logistical burden of working in remote areas.

Schaeffer said paired agents can divide labor during long drives, with one behind the wheel and the other completing reports.

“It really maximizes the amount of investigative resources and the time spent in furthering these investigations,” he explained.

Arizona is unique among FBI field offices in the volume of its Indian country caseload, Schaeffer said, with agents working around the clock across all 22 reservations.

“A large portion of the Phoenix field office’s area of responsibility consists of Indian country,” he said. “That is very different from other parts of the country.”

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