In this episode, Garrett and Payton delve into the mysterious case of Jermain Charlo. After she goes missing, her final known moments are captured on camera, sparking a sluggish police investigation that ultimately leads to heartbreak.
DailyMail.com - https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13962375/video-missing-mom-jermain-charlo-missoula.html
Uncovered.com - https://uncovered.com/cases/jermain-charlo
KPax.com - https://www.kpax.com/news/mmip/missing-woman-jermain-charlos-family-pleased-with-national-spotlight-on-the-case#google_vignette
TheSun.com - https://www.the-sun.com/news/12656616/jermain-charlo-missing-48-hours-michael-defrance-mmiw/
CBSNews.com - https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jermain-charlo-search-michael-defrance-investigation-montana-timeline-48-hours/
DailyMontanan.com - https://dailymontanan.com/2023/05/02/judge-jermain-charlos-ex-boyfriend-guilty-of-illegal-firearms-possession-false-statements/
GreatFallsTribune.com - https://www.greatfallstribune.com/story/news/2021/08/05/ex-boyfriend-jermain-charlo-appears-federal-court/5499952001/
Oxygen.com - https://www.oxygen.com/true-crime-buzz/jermain-charlo-missing-person-case-focus-of-new-podcast-series
IndianLaw.org - https://indianlaw.org/issue/ending-violence-against-native-women#:~:text=More%20than%204%20in%205,2%20have%20experienced%20sexual%20violence
GBVLearningNetwork.ca - https://gbvlearningnetwork.ca/our-work/issuebased_newsletters/Issue-25/index.html
RollingStone.com - https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/stolen-jermain-podcast-connie-walker-interview-1157200/
NewYorker.com - https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-the-southwest/is-there-hope-for-the-missing-and-murdered-indigenous-women#:~:text=(The%20Bureau%20of%20Indian%20Affairs,Natives%20that%20have%20gone%20unsolved.)
KatieCouric.com - https://katiecouric.com/news/why-are-indigenous-women-going-missing-and-cases-ignored/
Vogue.com - https://www.vogue.com/article/connie-walker-stolen-the-search-for-jermain-podcast
NativeHope.org - https://www.nativehope.org/missing-and-murdered-indigenous-women-mmiw?utm_term=missing%20and%20murdered%20indigenous%20women&utm_campaign=MMIW+-+Search&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&hsa_tgt=kwd-499968175672&hsa_grp=144380966783&hsa_src=g&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_mt=b&hsa_ver=3&hsa_ad=646853914079&hsa_acc=3651624507&hsa_kw=missing%20and%20murdered%
You're listening to an Oh No Media podcast.
Hey everyone, welcome back to the podcast. This is Murder with My Husband.
I'm Payton Moreland.
And I'm Garrett Moreland.
He's the husband.
And I'm the husband.
If you're watching on YouTube, I feel like I look very corporate or professional with this coffee in my hand, one of my legs crossed. Don’t spill it! Cheers.
Thank you for being here. We love you all.
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You got your 10 seconds?
No, I don’t, but I’ll think of one right now.
Payton and I took pictures—basically for the first time together—since we got engaged.
Eight years? Eight and a half years? Nine years? Something like that. Somewhere between eight and nine years. We’re both on the same page about that, so no harm, no foul.
But yeah, it’s been a while since we took pictures. Payton and I went and took some, and we just got them back. We love them! They turned out really good. I’m sure Payton will post some of them.
It’s kind of crazy. It’s crazy how fast time can go, and all of a sudden, you’re like, Whoa, we haven’t taken pictures together in X amount of years. Time just flies by as you start working and real life hits you.
Payton and I don’t even have kids, so I can’t imagine how fast time flies when you do. I guess that’s my 10 seconds. It’s more of a chill 10 seconds, but I was just thinking about that the other day.
Our sources for this episode are:
• dailymail.com
• uncover.com
• kpax.com
• thesun.com
• CBS News
• dailymontanan.com
• greatfallstribune.com
• oxygen.com
• indianlaw.org
• gbvlearningnetwork.ca
• rollingstone.com
• newyorker.com
• krtv.com
• vogue.com
• nativehope.org
In 2016, the National Crime Information Center released a staggering statistic. That year, there were 5,712 missing women and girls from the American Indian and Alaska Native communities. However, only 116 of those cases were logged in the U.S. Department of Justice’s database.
This community of women is 12 times more likely to be murdered or go missing than any other demographic in the U.S. and Canada.
Think about that. That is a scary number.
And while we’ve covered murdered and missing Indigenous women’s cases in the past, today’s story is a perfect example of why we have a lot of progress to make as a nation. Over 4,000 of these cases have gone cold—even when officials have a pretty good lead on a primary suspect.
Which is why Jermain Charlo’s case is one that will leave you asking, What do we have to do to start getting justice for these MMIW women?
So today, we’re headed to Montana, to the Flathead Reservation. This is about 40 miles outside of Missoula.
This is where Jermain Charlo, a member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribe, grew up.
On the reservation, the phrase "It takes a village" was taken quite literally. When Jermain was born on April 23, 1995, everyone—from her grandparents to her cousins, aunts, and uncles—was there to lend a hand in raising her.
This was especially important because Jermain’s parents were no longer together, and she was primarily being raised by her single mother.
It was clear early on that Jermain was incredibly artistic. When she wasn’t drawing or knitting, she was thriving in the great outdoors—fishing, hunting, or taking care of her many, many pets. These ranged from squirrels to dogs to pigs.
As she got older, Jermain dreamed of attending the Institute of American Indian Arts in New Mexico. She hoped to find ways to blend her heritage and culture with her incredible artistic talent.
But life had other plans.
When Jermain was just 14 years old, she met a boy she fell hard for: 16-year-old Michael DeFrance, a non-tribal citizen. The two began a relationship, but before Jermain even turned 20, she became pregnant with her first son and then had her second son soon after.
A cultural question: For any listeners who are Native American, is this situation—dating a non-tribal citizen—something that is culturally frowned upon or considered a "no-no"? If you have insight, we’d love to know, as it’s an interesting question.
Over the years, Jermain and Michael’s relationship was hot and cold, but Jermain always put on a strong face for her kids. She was eager to teach them about their heritage, including skills like fishing and hunting.
Unfortunately, parenthood derailed her dreams of attending art school. Instead, Jermain worked a variety of odd jobs around the reservation, including at the Big River Cantina and as a tree planter with the Tribal Forest Services. At one point, she even expressed interest in becoming a firefighter.
This shows how passionate Jermain was about her community and her people. She stayed close to home and deeply connected to her roots—something that Michael, who could be controlling at times, could never take away from her.
By 2017, Michael appeared to move on. He became engaged to a new girlfriend, and Jermain also updated her Facebook status to indicate she was in a new relationship.
Despite their separate lives, their two young boys kept Michael and Jermain tied together. They continued to see each other occasionally—up until June of 2018.
On June 14, 2018, Jermain and Michael attended a monster truck rally together. The next day, June 15, Jermain spent the first half of her day doing what many 23-year-olds loved to do at the time: making lip-syncing videos for TikTok.
Jermain was very active on TikTok, according to her friends and family. It’s worth noting that this was 2018, so she was using TikTok before it fully exploded in popularity. By then, the platform had already transitioned from Musical.ly to TikTok, but the change was still fresh.
Jermain was posting on TikTok that day, and she appeared to be in great spirits. In her posts, she seemed happy and full of life. Later that evening, she went out to the bars in downtown Missoula.
Her first stop was the Dark Horse Bar, where she stayed until about 10:00 p.m. From there, she moved next door to two more places: the Golden Rose and, later, the Badlander.
Jermain had a few drinks, played pool, hit the dance floor, and generally seemed to be having a great time. Everyone who saw her that night said she looked happy and in good spirits.
At the Badlander, a bartender noticed that Jermain was on her phone a lot. Now, in 2018, it wasn’t unusual for a 23-year-old to be glued to their phone, so this wasn’t particularly strange. However, what did catch the bartender's attention was a man who was with Jermain.
This man seemed to be following her around the bar, trying to get her attention. The bartender described him as acting like a "little puppy" trailing after her. Neither Jermain nor this man appeared overly intoxicated, which stood out as well.
It’s worth mentioning that bartenders witness a variety of unusual behaviors daily, whether people are sober or drunk. They often recall key details about the people they served, likely because they’re sober and interacting with so many customers.
The bartender also noted that Jermain wasn’t just hanging out with this man. She was socializing with multiple groups throughout the night, moving around and chatting with different people.
Jermain left the bar sometime after midnight with one of these groups. Security footage shows her talking with them outside the bar before walking off. However, the man who had been following her earlier is seen trailing behind her as she leaves.
By the middle of the next day, Jermain’s family began to worry. She hadn’t contacted anyone, which was highly unusual for her. Jermain was known for regularly checking in with her family and posting on social media, but since the night before, she had gone completely silent.
Jermain’s grandmother was the first to notice something was wrong. She called Jermain’s aunts for help, and after hours of no contact, the family began calling hospitals, shelters, and anywhere else they could think of to find her.
By June 17, two days after Jermain was last seen, her family was overwhelmed with worry. She still hadn’t come home, answered her phone, or contacted anyone. They decided to report her disappearance to the Tribal Police Department on the Flathead Reservation.
Here’s where things got complicated. The Tribal Police told Jermain’s family that they couldn’t do much because her disappearance occurred off the reservation.
It was in Missoula, at the bars, so then it had to be—yes—the family needed to go to the Missoula police and file with them.
The family called the Missoula police, who said, "Oh, you're going to have to come down to the station in person to file this missing person’s report."
Is that normal?
I mean, yeah, I think they probably do want to meet with you in person. But honestly, they probably just didn’t believe them.
So, on June 19th, the family made the hour and 15-minute drive down to Missoula to do exactly that.
When they got there and actually filed the missing person’s report with Missoula police, they immediately got the feeling that there was zero sense of urgency. The family didn’t know if that was because Jermain was over 18—so, legally, she could disappear without telling anyone—or because she had been bar hopping that night and drinking, so the police weren’t taking it seriously. Or, probably more likely, because she was an Indigenous woman from the reservation.
While speaking with Missoula police on June 19th, the police didn’t actually file the report until the 20th. Then, they didn’t assign a detective to her case until the 21st.
Which, if you know anything about missing person’s cases, the first 48 hours are the most crucial. Just to file the report and assign a detective taking that long is insane. And then—get this—the detective who was assigned went on vacation. He’s in charge of her case, and then he leaves on vacation. So her case just sat there with no one investigating it for another five days until a different detective realized, "Hey, we have this missing person report, and, like, literally none of us have looked into it."
It’s interesting. I don’t know. I just—if I were a detective, someone in law enforcement—wouldn’t you feel... I don’t know. Look, I’m aware of the amount of fluff that comes through departments, right? I get that. But there’s also a lot of real stuff, serious stuff, that needs to be taken seriously. Wouldn’t you feel guilty? Like, wouldn’t you think, "Dang, I should probably check on this?"
I think the average person would. But I also think this is an epidemic. This kind of thing happens often.
It’s so insane to me.
It is insane. So it’s not actually until June 26th—almost 10 days after she was last seen—that the Missoula police finally started questioning things about Jermain.
Ten days.
It’s too late. I mean, I know that sounds horrible, but it’s too late. If there was any chance—if there’s any chance—it’s gone now. It’s so slim now.
Yeah, it’s messed up.
But the family didn’t lose hope during all of this. In the meantime, during those 10 days, they took matters into their own hands. They put up pictures, handed out flyers—anything to get the word out around the reservation, which is devastating. They also organized volunteer searches.
But the reservation is 1.3 million acres of land, with a lot of mountains and flowing rivers. Plus, the last time Jermain was seen was actually off the reservation. So the community her family was reaching out to was an hour away from where she was last seen.
So, where do you search?
Unfortunately, this wasn’t the first time a Native woman had gone missing from the Flathead Reservation. Presumably, many of the people searching had actually combed these lands before.
Also, just to clarify, we’re in 2018. Yeah, this isn’t the 1980s. It’s not the 1990s.
We should know better by now. This is insane.
The search doesn’t produce any results. There is still no sign of Jermain, but the police have already been working on some theories about what happened—10 days later, when they finally decided to start looking into it.
For starters, they feel pretty confident this wasn’t a runaway situation, especially since, as we know, Jermain is a mother. She left two little boys back at home.
So, they jump to other possibilities. Either Jermain disappeared due to some drug-related crime, someone she knows is involved in her disappearance, or maybe she was trafficked.
At first, police say they have good reason to investigate the human trafficking angle because Detective Guy Baker, the one who officially took on Jermain's case, says they have some information about people coming from out of state into Missoula to traffic girls.
Holy crap.
From what I can tell, this was something they had come across before at the Missoula police station. It’s particularly concerning because there’s a major interstate that runs through the area near downtown Missoula. As the Missoula County Deputy Attorney put it, someone could be "swept away in an instant," which is why trafficking is a problem here.
Especially with the lack of GPS signals and cell towers in the area, it makes it easy for people to kidnap someone and get them out of state before they can even make a phone call.
Now, this is really all the information I have on the human trafficking theory. I know the police don’t have much more, either, because they rule it out pretty early in the investigation. So, it’s the first thing they jump to, but they end up ruling it out—especially when they get a piece of evidence that shows what Jermain was doing and who she was with on the night of her disappearance.
Remember how I mentioned the last bar Jermain was at? The Badlander Bar had security cameras set up outside. One was basically pointed at an alleyway next to the bar. On the night Jermain went missing, she was seen talking to a group of people out there.
And obviously, we know that one unidentified man, the one confirmed to have been following her around all night, is there.
And I assume—I guess we’ll get to it—did the bar have cameras? Let’s find out.
In this footage, if you’re just basing it off body language, it’s almost as if Jermain is trying to shake off that man who’s following her. She seems to be inserting herself into other groups of people, almost hoping he’ll get the message that she doesn’t want to be with him.
They’re walking quickly behind her, but they can’t really catch up with her pace.
Luckily, what the footage shows is a large group of people who saw Jermain the night before she vanished. These are people who might know what conversations she was having and who this mysterious guy was.
Detectives head down to the Badlander and start questioning anyone who might have seen Jermain that night. They find out that the person seen following Jermain around was her ex-boyfriend—surprise—and the father of her two kids, Michael.
From what I can tell, they don’t get much context from these witness interviews other than confirming Michael's identity. But that’s enough for them to call him into the station for an interview.
Michael admits that, yes, he was out with Jermain that night. After they left the bars, they got into his Dodge pickup truck. This is the first time police learn where Jermain went after she left the view of the cameras—information they now have only because of Michael. He says he drove her three minutes down the street to a little grocery store called the Orange Street Food Farm, just before 1:00 a.m.
According to Michael, Jermain told him she was meeting a friend named Cassidy who lived right around the corner and planned to spend the night at Cassidy’s house. Michael says he dropped her off, she hopped out, and that was the last time he saw her.
But when police look into this "Cassidy," they can’t find anyone by that name who Jermain knew. This is extremely suspicious for one very good reason: Michael and Jermain had a dark and abusive past.
When police begin digging into their relationship, they uncover an old report from April 14, 2013, filed in Sanders County, which is on the reservation just outside Missoula. According to the report, Michael punched Jermain three times on that night.
My gosh.
Michael pled guilty to the assault but didn’t serve any jail time. Instead, he was fined and given 40 hours of domestic violence treatment.
I have to say, domestic violence is horrible. The other day, I was watching road rage moments, and the number of people who can’t control their anger and go straight to violence is shocking. There are so many people who, the moment they get upset, immediately resort to hitting or punching. It’s just horrible.
Teaching emotional regulation is one of the most important things. Violence isn’t the answer. Full stop.
As part of Michael’s sentence, he was also told he wasn’t allowed to possess any firearms. But this was just the tip of the iceberg. With such few consequences, the abuse continued.
The following year, in June or July 2014, it happened again. This time, Jermain and Michael fought at her aunt’s house. Michael threw her on the hood of a van, hit her four times in the face and head, tossed her onto the ground, and spit on her.
Michael was arrested again, but from what I can tell, there were no real consequences. Then, in November of that year, Jermain called the police again. She reported that Michael had grabbed her, stolen her phone, and tossed it into some water. Damaging the phone when someone is trying to call for help is actually illegal and falls under the category of assault. But the police dismissed it, saying it was "civil, not criminal."
We’re obviously seeing a pattern here, and it kept getting worse. By May 2017, Jermain wasn’t even trying to hide it anymore. She posted a YouTube video about her relationship with Michael, where she described his abuse and talked about how he continued to pressure her to stay with him. He threatened that if she didn’t, he would go to court and try to get full custody of their kids.
She says the last time she refused a kiss from him, Michael threw her against a pull-up bar and choked her.
What in the world is happening right now?
The worst incident might have been the one shortly after that. Jermain and Michael were driving home from a concert when, apparently, he pushed Jermain out of his moving vehicle on Interstate 90.
Michael is arrested again, and nothing happens. The charges are dismissed. According to some sources, the couple does break up for good after this in 2017. However, in early 2018, just a few months before Jermain disappears, Michael follows through on an old promise and decides to take Jermain to court for custody of their two kids.
Michael comes from a white family and, honestly, has a lot more resources than Jermain's family. He has a lawyer; Jermain cannot afford one. This is likely why a judge ends up ruling in his favor. Michael is granted residential custody, but Jermain is allowed to have the kids Monday through Wednesday and every other weekend.
I'm so mind-blown. So you're telling me that he has all of these charges—no, not just charges, but a history of violence on his record. The authorities can see when the cops were called. The judge can see all of this. And yet the judge chooses to give him custody of the kids?
Well, he's the one who has a lawyer. She showed up without one.
It's crazy, though. As a judge, you'd think they'd look at—
Well, the judge says it's paperwork. And because Michael is granted majority custody, Jermain is also ordered to pay child support.
Oh my gosh. She's ordered to pay $800 a month—the one who showed up without a lawyer because she couldn’t afford one.
I'm so pissed right now. All this to say, I’m not going to be violent, and I’m not going to hit anything.
But the police are looking at all this and thinking, "Sheesh." The last person to be seen with Jermain is Michael, and there’s an ugly history between the two of them. There’s a lot of domestic abuse.
Here’s what police find after speaking with Michael: that Cassidy person Michael mentioned, the one Jermain supposedly brought up, might have been a name Jermain really did give him at some point. She likely didn’t want him to know where she was really going later that evening—to her new boyfriend’s house, just a few blocks from the Orange Street Food Farm.
This is the same guy she seemingly changed her relationship status on Facebook for. His name was Jacob, and Jermain had been texting him at the bar in the hours before she disappeared.
Naturally, when police learn about Jacob, they question him as well. He says he met Jermain on a dating app. The two of them had a strong connection, and things were going really well. However, he says he was actually out of town on the night Jermain disappeared, and he can prove it.
Jacob says, “Yeah, Jermain and I were texting that evening. She asked if she could stay at my apartment, even though I was gone, and I said it was fine. But around 1:00 a.m., I called Jermain to check on her—presumably to see if she got inside my apartment okay. The line rang a few times, then it seemed like someone purposely ignored the call and sent it to voicemail. I never heard from her again.”
With Jacob's alibi, police are able to rule him out as a suspect pretty quickly. However, he offers up something that puts the spotlight back on Michael. Jacob says Jermain told him the day before she vanished that she and Michael had been fighting again. Michael was yelling at her, asking about who she was dating, and said he wanted to get back together. This would make sense as to why Jermain might have lied to Michael that night, claiming she was staying with someone named Cassidy.
Only, police learn that Jermain—or at least her cell phone—never actually made it to Jacob's apartment that night. When investigators start collecting data from her cell phone, they find that the call Jacob made to her that night was silenced, just as he suspected. They also learn that between the hours of 2:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m. the next morning, Jermain's cell phone traveled back to the area near the Flathead Reservation, specifically to a place called Ivaro Hill. The phone was pinging towers around that area.
And you know who else's phone was pinging those same towers at the same time, in the middle of the night? Michael's.
It’s no surprise, considering he lives in that area. So Michael finds himself back in front of detectives. He claims, "I dropped her off, and she went to sleep at Cassidy’s," but Jermain's cell phone silenced a call from her boyfriend and then traveled back to the area where Michael lives.
I love technology. It’s amazing how it helps catch people now. So the detectives ask Michael, "Why did her phone ping near your house later that night?" Michael responds, "Oh, uh, she left her phone in my car."
He continues, "I actually tried to go through her text messages when she left it, but I couldn’t crack the code. When that happened, I decided to toss it out of my truck on Highway 12."
Michael even claims to remember the exact mile marker—94.
This is pretty suspicious. It’s unlikely Jermain would forget her phone in her ex-boyfriend’s car on the night she vanished. And for Michael to offer up where he supposedly left it, down to the mile marker, feels almost too good to be true.
Which it is—because when police go to mile marker 94, there’s no cell phone.
In late June, officers pay a visit to Michael’s home in Ivaro Hill, where he presumably still lives with his parents. While Michael isn’t there, they speak with his mother. She claims Jermain has never been to their house, which seems unlikely considering they dated for years and share two kids. However, she also says her son loved Jermain and wanted to get back together with her. This, in her mind, is a reason to believe he’s innocent.
I get it. I mean, I guess I understand being a parent and trying to defend your kid, but there’s no way Jermain’s never been to that house. She’s lying. She’s definitely lying.
A week later, police return with a search warrant. They comb the house for any sign of foul play or personal property belonging to Jermain. However, they don’t find anything.
Over the next few months, police believe they know the general area where Jermain’s body might be, but they just can’t find it.
They’re like, "We think this is probably where the evidence or the body is hidden." However, the area is heavily forested, with a lot of wildlife. It spans hundreds of square miles, where animals might reach the remains before any human ever comes across them. Using helicopters and aerial surveillance would be a waste of time due to how dense the brush is.
While searching, police do find a lot of bones—but none of them are human. They admit, "This is like trying to find a needle in a haystack."
Despite this, Jermain’s family feels confident this is probably her final resting place. That’s why they put up a billboard in the area. It features a picture of Jermain wearing a baseball cap, a screen grab from one of her last social media posts made on the day she disappeared.
Although police haven’t officially ruled Michael Defrance a suspect, they keep a close eye on him. In October, they return to his house with another search warrant. This time, they find something problematic for Michael: a large collection of guns.
Now, I don’t know if police missed this the first time or if this was part of a deliberate strategy. But if you remember, ever since Michael’s 2013 domestic abuse charge, he’s not allowed to own firearms. Despite this, police pull seven weapons and tons of ammunition out of his house.
When they ask Michael if he knew this was a condition of his probation, he claims, "Oh, I didn’t really know that. I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to have guns."
Yeah, sure, man.
It also seems that during this search, cadaver dogs locate several items that appear to be blood-stained. These items are sent to a crime lab, but the problem is none of the DNA can be conclusively tied to Jermain. Police don’t arrest Michael that day. From what I can tell, they just take away his weapons.
I don’t know. I’m surprised they haven’t been able to find anything more concrete. And with all this happening, they could have arrested Michael for the guns—but they chose not to.
Maybe they’re thinking, "We’ll just arrest him for her murder, or whatever happened to her," when the time comes.
Unfortunately, Jermain’s case runs cold. Her family and community are left to continue the investigation pretty much on their own. More billboards are put up across Montana calling for any information about Jermain. The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribal Council even increases the reward for information to $10,000.
Just when it seems like Jermain’s story might become another MMIW (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women) case that falls into obscurity, an indigenous Cree reporter from the Okanese First Nation in Saskatchewan, Canada, steps in to make sure that doesn’t happen.
Her name is Connie Walker. She creates a podcast called Stolen: The Search for Jermain.
Connie immerses herself in the case, traveling between the Flathead Reservation and Missoula to unravel the mystery behind Jermain’s disappearance.
After the eight-episode series airs in March 2021, it brings a lot of national exposure to the case, which also means a lot of pressure on local authorities. Connie Walker is essentially saying, "Hey, what’s going on? We’re pretty confident we have a suspect."
In July 2021, after the podcast gains significant attention, everyone starts going hard. Police finally arrest Michael.
It’s frustrating because it took a journalist to come in and put pressure on the case. While this isn’t uncommon—pressure often pushes authorities to act—it’s disheartening. What’s interesting is that they don’t arrest Michael for anything related to Jermain’s disappearance. Instead, they arrest him for possession of those firearms—three years after the fact.
Oh my gosh, can you even do that? It’s insane. It feels like they’re just trying to appease the public by arresting him for the firearms. And while I’m not saying they should arrest him for Jermain’s disappearance, especially since there’s not much evidence, maybe they could use this momentum to ramp up the investigation again. Push a little harder.
Michael finally gets his day in court in April 2023. He’s found guilty on four counts of firearms-related felonies. In September 2023, he’s sentenced to 21 months in prison. He files an appeal that same day. As far as I’m aware, Michael has yet to serve any real jail time as he awaits the results of his appeal.
This is infuriating. It feels like this is going to end with no one being charged for Jermain’s disappearance. Even though she was last seen with Michael, and there’s evidence of their abusive relationship, they’ve got nothing solid to move forward with.
His phone was pinging near his house. He claims he threw Jermain’s phone out of his car, but they’ve never found her phone or her body. The phone pinged back at his house, yet nothing has come of it.
At this point, the reasons authorities might not pursue charges could be: (1) the national exposure makes it hard to find an impartial jury, and (2) they don’t believe they could secure a conviction. It’s horrible and sad. Personally—Garrett’s opinion—I think Michael did it. Allegedly, of course. Come sue me, I don’t care.
Meanwhile, the billboards with Jermain’s face remain along roads and highways throughout parts of Montana. They’re waiting for the moment someone comes forward with more evidence—maybe a smoking gun, a weapon, DNA, or a body. None of it has been found yet. That’s why Michael Defrance, or anyone else for that matter, hasn’t even been named a suspect in Jermain’s disappearance.
It’s heartbreaking. If her case had been taken more seriously within the first 10 days—if the evidence, like the phone pings, had been discovered earlier—could they have found her body on the property? Did Michael move the body during those 10 days?
Let’s face it: 10 days is a long time to clean up, hide evidence, and move a body. But this is the devastating reality behind so many cases involving missing and murdered Indigenous women.
Jermain’s aunt, Valinda, hinted in an interview that she isn’t exactly surprised by how the case has been handled. She said:
"MMIW isn’t something that just started. It honestly has happened since colonization, and we’ve all kept so quiet about it. I think the world is finally realizing what Native Americans go through."
She vows to continue the fight for Jermain and to be the voice Jermain no longer has. But really, I think that voice can be amplified. We might not be able to be boots on the ground. We might not be able to find Jermain or solve any of these MMIW cases. But we can still draw attention to them. We can pass them on. We can put pressure on authorities. And honestly, that is probably our biggest responsibility—my biggest responsibility as a storyteller, a journalist, and a podcaster.
That is how I can help make a difference. And you guys, just by listening and talking about these cases, you’re making a difference too.
However, if you do have any information regarding Jermain’s case, you could provide the missing piece by calling the Missoula Police Department at 406-396-3217.
And that is the unsolved missing case of Jermain.
Wow. It’s crazy. I mean, he’s going to be out of prison soon—or not even that, because he’s not in prison yet. He appealed the gun charge, and they’re still waiting on the results, so he hasn’t even served a day. It’s just—oh my gosh, I don’t know.
It sucks that more evidence hasn’t been found. At this point, I don’t think he’d be convicted, which is horrible. I’m not saying that’s okay; I’m just saying that if I think about it logically from the justice system’s standpoint, I don’t see a conviction. Do you?
I guess it depends on the jury. It just depends.
Well, also, I think if we could get some attention—some larger-scale searches—in the area around his house, it might help. Unless he moved her during those 10 days, the phones were last pinging in that area. The problem is, he’s had so much time to change things, to move things, to do whatever.
And again, there’s so much wildlife there. The body could be scattered. If there’s no other evidence—outside of what we already know, which doesn’t sound like much—that’s horrible.
Unless they find some DNA evidence, like her blood in the house, which it sounds like they didn’t, I don’t know. At this point, after all these years, it’s probably gone.
The mom, though. I hope she’s listening to this. What if she doesn’t know? But she was living there.
I don’t give—I’m pissed. I’m pissed. Honestly, I don’t have kids, but if my son’s girlfriend—his baby mama (and I mean that in a respectful way)—went missing, and her phone was last pinging with my son’s phone on or near my property, I would be sitting his little booty down and saying, "Talk."
No, "Talk." Talk. Because, like, I still love you, but this is the right thing to do.
All right, you guys. Thank you for listening to this case today, and we’ll see you next time with another episode.
I love it.
And I hate it.
Goodbye.
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