BILLINGS — Two women have been sentenced to 18 months in Crow Tribal jail after being convicted of child endangerment and custodial interference in the disappearance of an 8-year-old girl whose body was found on the Crow Indian Reservation in south-central Montana.
Veronica Tierza Dust and Roseen Lincoln Old Crow, both 34, were convicted of the misdemeanor charges in the case of Mildred Old Crow, The Billings Gazette reported.
Mildred was reported missing last November, but she had last been seen alive in March 2019.
Mildred’s body was found on the reservation in February. Her death is being investigated by the Big Horn County sheriff’s office and the FBI, Sheriff Lawrence Big Hair said.
The women had been granted informal custodianship over Mildred in March 2017, according to Tribal Court records. It is unclear what the relationship is between Mildred and the two women, but she had stayed at their residence.
A petition was filed in Tribal Court in December 2020 requesting a hearing because the two guardians had “breached their fiduciary duty to the child.” After a hearing in which the women failed to produce the child or any evidence that she was alive, arrest warrants were issued for both of them.
The women were also sentenced Monday to a year of probation and fined $2,000, said Crow Tribal prosecutor David Sibley.