News

Phoenix, Arizona— On May 8, 2026, U.S. District Judge Douglas Rayes accepted a plea deal between the United States and Preston Tolth, an individual who confessed to kidnapping, beating, and leaving Ella Mae Begay—a Navajo elder—for dead by the side of a road on the Navajo Reservation, although her body was never found. The plea deal stipulates that Tolth pleads guilty to theft (for stealing Ella Mae’s truck), and in exchange, the United States agreed it would never be able to come back and charge Tolth with any other crime associated with Ella Mae’s disappearance or murder. Tolth will serve a limited additional sentence before his release.

Meanwhile, Ella Mae has been missing for nearly five years, and her family is still looking for her. Ella Mae Begay is a mother, auntie, sister, daughter, friend, and matriarch of the Navajo Nation. Like far too many Native women, she was brutally assaulted, kidnapped, and taken from her own home on the Navajo reservation. 

Ella Mae’s son and niece both testified before the Court, most recently on May 8, 2026, asking the Court to reject the plea deal because it granted Tolth immunity without requiring him to disclose Ella Mae’s location. As Ella Mae’s niece, Seraphine Warren-Begay, stated to the Court:
 

Don't let this be the end of Ella Mae. Please don’t give up on her. We haven’t. We have already lost so much time and money because of Preston’s actions. No amount of restitution could ever repay that back. He took her truck. He took from her. He took her from us, and that is why we’re not asking for money. We don’t want his money. If he negotiated his freedom, can we negotiate something too? Forget the money. Just tell us where she is. 

I don’t think her family needs to know what happened to her. What we need is to bring her home and give her a resting place. Everyone who loves her needs her home. If he tells us where she is, it gives people hope that people can change, that people have good hearts. That is what we’re asking for. How can this decision bring us peace when somebody who could do this walks free?

In response, the U.S. Attorney’s Office (USAO) urged the Court to accept the plea deal, arguing that it could not win at trial. The office cited the Court's prior ruling excluding Tolth's confession as inadmissible, arguing that without it, insufficient evidence remained to prosecute. According to the USAO, the Court’s prior ruling finding Tolth’s confession inadmissible as evidence left nothing in the case file to prosecute him.

“This is far too often the case when a Native woman goes missing or is murdered. When it comes to prosecuting the perpetrator, the USAO determines that the FBI did not create a case file with sufficient evidence, and then the perpetrator is allowed to walk free,” states Mary Kathryn Nagle, counsel to Ella Mae’s family. 

“It is not an excuse to say the Court’s decision to exclude the admission means the plea deal is inevitable. Admissions are routinely thrown out of Court on Fourth Amendment grounds. That is a known contingency, and the problem here is that law enforcement did not adequately investigate the case. I have sat with countless families who have been told by the FBI and the USAO that there is not enough evidence to prosecute the homicide committed against their loved one, when everyone in the Tribal community knows who did it. These are not unsolved cases. They are not unsolvable cases. They are cases to which the FBI has failed to dedicate sufficient resources because the lives of our Native women and relatives are not sufficiently prioritized or valued.” 

“At a time when homicide rates on our reservations are ten times the national average, we should be seeing far more federal resources allocated to searching for missing Native women and relatives,” states Lucy Simpson, Chief Executive Officer of the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center. “Ella Mae’s case is heartbreaking, and our hearts go out to the family as they continue to search for their mother, auntie, sister, and grandmother.”

NIWRC will continue to advocate that all law enforcement agencies collaborate and dedicate sufficient resources to bring Ella Mae home.

#BringEllaMaeHome

About NIWRC

The National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center is a Native-led nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting safety for Native women and communities. NIWRC provides national leadership in Tribal communities by uplifting the collective voices of grassroots advocates and offering culturally grounded resources, technical assistance and training, and policy development to strengthen Tribal sovereignty. To learn more, visit niwrc.org.