HANDS OFF MY PODCAST: TRUE CRIME
Matthew Jay Broncho 12/01/22
Ep26 / HOM PODCAST RECORDING / JASMINE CASTILLO
It’s been 3 years since 34-year-old Matthew Jay Broncho of Fort Hall mysteriously disappeared and his grieving family members are desperate for word from anyone who may have seen or had contact with him.
Broncho disappeared from the 100 block of Rio Vista Road in Fort Hall, Idaho on March 20, 2019. He has never been heard from again. He disappeared with his dog, a red Dachshund named Afa with a yellow collar. This is Matthew’s Story……
Shoshone-Bannock Tribe History
From the Shoshone-Bannock Tribe website, The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes of Fort Hall have composed of the eastern and western bands of the Northern Shoshone and the Bannock, or Northern Paiute, bands. Ancestral lands of both tribes occupied vast regions of land encompassing present-day Idaho, Oregon, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, and Canada. Today, the indigenous community has 5900+ TRIBAL MEMBERS. The tribes are culturally related, and though both descend from the Numic family of the Uto-Aztecan linguistic class, their languages are dialectically separate. When the Northern Paiutes left the Nevada and Utah regions for southern Idaho in the 1600s, they began to travel with the Shoshones in pursuit of buffalo. They became known as the Bannocks.
In previous episodes, I had stressed what the treaty didn’t stand for. And what it should have respected, word for word. Here is a piece of the Treaty that was between United States and the Shoshone-Bannock tribe
Here is a couple of sentences from the treaty:
‘ARTICLE 1.
From this day forward peace between the parties to this treaty shall forever continue. The Government of the United States desires peace, and its honor is hereby pledged to keep it. The Indians desire peace, and they hereby pledge their honor to maintain it.
If bad men among the whites, or among other people subject to the authority of the United States, shall commit any wrong upon the person or property of the Indians, the United States will, upon proof made to the agent and forwarded to the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, at Washington City, proceed at once to cause the offender to be arrested and punished according to the laws of the United States, and also reimburse the injured person for the loss sustained.’
This 154-year-old treaty displaced Shoshone and Bannock from their land as that Shoshone and Bannock tribal members should be allowed to hunt, fish, and gather inside Yellowstone National Park.
Signed at Fort Bridger on July 3, 1868 in what’s now southern Wyoming, the treaty granted the Shoshone and Bannock native people the right to “hunt on the unoccupied lands of the United States” in perpetuity, so long as game was found and peace with white people maintained.
Yet, today, with a few exceptions, hunting isn’t allowed by tribal members or anyone else in Yellowstone or the rest of the National Park Service’s 400-plus units in the Lower 48. Wadsworth, the captain game warden for the Shoshone-Bannock tribes, suggested the federal government didn’t uphold its end of the deal.
Where is Matthew from?
Cynthia Metz, his mother, describes her son as a quiet and thoughtful person. He is a very intelligent young man and is planning on returning to college to work on a Master’s Degree. Matt attended Idaho State University receiving a Bachelor of Science Degree in 2008. Matt, then 34 majored in Political Science with an emphasis in Environmental and Federal Indian Law/Economics.
During college, Matt interned for the Shoshone-Bannock Agricultural Resource Management Program, where he was promoted to manager soon after graduation. He helped the tribe with various agricultural and environmental programs throughout his career, and served on the Shoshone-Bannock School Board.
About Broncho/Family:
Matthew’s father, Jim Broncho, believes he may have been depressed because of a series of personal problems and no one in the family has any idea what he had in mind when he left, or even that he planned to leave.
He had moved back into his mom’s home on the Fort Hall Reservation in Idaho in 2018, following a breakup with his girlfriend. On March 19, 2019, Matt told her that he planned to resign from his job at the tribe’s Commodity Program, a position he wasn’t satisfied with. They talked about his future education plans. Then he told Cynder he was going into town for some errands. He picked up his dog, a dachshund named Afa, and walked out the door.
“It’s not like him to up and go without telling anybody,” Cynthia said. She said he had his truck serviced and put a new battery in it, “he bought all of that but disappeared.”
Cynder and Jimmy are not the only Shoshone-Bannock tribal members coping with the loss of a loved one. Jimmy estimates there are around five or six unsolved cases of missing and murdered people on the Fort Hall Reservation, with the most recent one being a woman found dead of undetermined causes last spring.
The person she said who’s been missing the longest was Webster George of Blackfoot. He was reported missing Sept. 1, 1982, and his body still hasn’t been found. He was declared deceased 2018.
Lionel “Hootie” Pokibro. Lionel died Jan. 11, 2016. His family said his death was determined to be a homicide but there’s been no arrest or conviction in tribal or federal court, and the U.S. attorney’s office has done nothing on the case.
Austin Forrest Pevo. He was a firefighter and competitive Native American dancer. Pevo’s mother dropped him off at a home in Fort Hall where he’d been hired to cut firewood on Feb. 3, 2018.
“And there will probably be more,” he said. “It doesn’t happen every day, but when it does happen, it is news and it will stir interest, and then it kind of just fades away.”
What Leads Up to the Mysterious Disappearance?
Broncho had been working with the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes Commodities Department, but he was terminated on March 18, two days before he disappeared.
On March 20, he informed his mother that he planned on turning in his resignation from the Commodities Program. She last seen him at home 172 N. Rio Vista Rd, wearing a gray Nike-pull over, blue jeans and black Under Armour running shoes, a black Raiders baseball cap and gold rimmed Ray-Ban Aviator Sunglasses. He drove off with his faithful companion dog a 3-year old red Dachshund named “Afa.” On the same day he made a bank transaction, withdrawing $250, there were receipts in the vehicle to show he expended the amount withdrawn on that day. The transactions he made that day gave no indication that he had planned on leaving home for an extended length of time.
By March 22, with no word from Matthew, On March 22, Cynder called Matt’s dad, Jimmy Broncho, to ask if he had seen Matt. He hadn’t. Jimmy, in a state of panic, started calling Utah hospitals and police departments. his mother became concerned and was able to locate his cell phone via GPS, where she located the 2011 Toyota Tacoma pickup about 8 p.m., it had been parked on the Interstate 84, exit 7 off-ramp at Snowville, Utah, This is 95 miles south of Fort Hall, about a two-hour drive. the doors closed and locked. His phone and wallet were in the truck’s center console. containing his driver’s license, Tribal ID and bank cards. It looked like he had eaten pizza for lunch, based on the pizza box and Monster energy drinks in the truck. The truck was taken to the nearest gas station, fueled up and another family member drove it back to Fort Hall.
Worried about where her son could be, Cynthia drove the truck (she had a spare key) around town to see if anyone had any information on Matthew's whereabouts. That evening his mother asked the attendants at the two gas stations, two cafes and hotel if they had seen him. No one recognized him from her photos, nor recalled seeing him or his dog. When she inquired about a local law enforcement office, she was informed by a gas station attendant, the nearest police department is in Brigham City, Utah 50 miles away and it takes the sheriff an hour to respond. During her search to locate Matt that evening she did contact the Box Elder County Sheriff’s Office, the dispatcher informed she would pass on the information to the deputy on duty as they were out on another report of a missing Brigham City woman.
A former employee of Shoshone-Bannock High School reported seeing Matthew at Lava Hot Springs the evening of March 20. Also, on March 21, a woman gave a vague description of Matt indicating she saw him walking his dog near the exit 7 ramp at 4 p.m., where the truck was located.
When she arrived home in Fort Hall the next morning and Matt still wasn’t there, March 23, his mother filed a missing person report with the Fort Hall Police Department. The Fort Hall Police Department informed they would contact Box Elder County Sheriff’s Office in Brigham City, Utah. Family and friends began their own search on March 24 returning to Snowville, Utah. Cynder, along with Jimmy and other family members, began searching Snowville for any sign of Matt. “We were out there in the sagebrush, walking. Walking through the mountains there. At that time, the weather was snowy and rainy, so it was tough and very cold. We returned to that area daily for a couple of weeks.”
On March 25, Cynthia went to Brigham City-Box Elder County Sheriff’s Office to complete any necessary reports but was told by dispatch that no paper work was necessary as they had all the information needed. Family later that day met with deputies in Snowville and was told they were checking the surrounding areas, as they were also looking for the Brigham City woman.
On the evening of March 27, Cynthia was contacted by Heather Baldwin an employee at the Ranch House Diner. She was informed that an individual found Matthew’s dog, at Exit 5, two miles west of exit 7 in Snowville. Baldwin also contacted the Box Elder County Sheriff Office to inform where and when the dog was found. Metz said the people that found the dog had a hard time catching her. Cynthia then contacted the Box Elder County Sheriff’s Office and was notified that Box Elder County Search and Rescue would be out looking for Matt. The following day March 28, family and friends also assisted in the search.
For two days an extensive search was initiated by Box Elder Search and Rescue, Shoshone-Bannock Tribes Fish and Game Department, 50 family members and friends from Fort Hall, searching an eight-mile radius from the I-84 exit ramps where the pickup truck and his dog were found. Utah Search and Rescue and their dogs were utilized, also searchers on horseback and the Utah sheriff’s office launched a drone to assist in the search.
On March 29, Matt’s truck was retrieved at his residence by Fort Hall Police detectives and stored at their facility until Box Elder County Detectives in Brigham City, Utah were able to process the vehicle for the investigation. Cell phone data, fingerprints and DNA results are pending.
Box Elder County Sheriff Kevin Potter and his detectives have been following up on numerous reported sightings of Matthew, including going to Salt Lake City and showing his photograph around the areas where homeless people are known to congregate. Family members have also traveled to Salt Lake and Boise areas, following reported sightings, the outcome of those sightings have resulted in mistaken identity.
Box Elder County Sheriff detective Scot Lewis said he may have been seen in the Salt Lake City area as security guards indicated they might have seen Matt. However Metz said they drove to the area to look near a park and where transients are fed but it may have been mistaken identity.
Sabrina DeSautel, director of public safety for the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, hosted the discussion around bridging the relationship between agencies and tribes, as many call for cross-deputization of tribal and local police officers so cases are examined sooner. It’s an issue of major importance to Shoshone-Bannock tribal member Cynder Metz, whose son Matthew Jay Broncho went missing in May 2019.
Metz said there have been “jurisdiction issues” in Broncho’s disappearance.
But now, after three years, Matt’s parents are unsure where the investigation stands. His case has passed through multiple detectives in both Fort Hall and Box Elder County. “It’s just been handled by too many people now,” Cynder said. “It’s assigned to a third detective in Box Elder. And I don’t think he’s familiar with the case.”
Yates was assigned to Matt’s case in mid-March after staffing changes in the department. He is taking steps to learn about the investigation. “I’ve read about 44 of the 61 parts of it. It’s all about reading the story,” he said. He also spoke to some people who have been involved with the case, including another detective and the sheriff. “That’s about what I know.”
Detective Yates said the tips they have received so far have led to nothing. “We’ve exhausted just about every avenue,” he said. “We’re just kind of waiting for tips and any new information.”
MMIMB
thousands of American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) men and boys who are missing or murdered in the U.S. but capture little media attention in the shadow of the greater campaign seeking justice for missing and murdered indigenous women (MMIW). Everybody is talking about MMIW, and that’s fair. But our men and boys are missing and murdered in way higher in numbers, men are murdered and missing more than the women.
This the case of gender stereotypes. Women are perceived as more vulnerable; men as more able to take care of themselves. And because men commit most of the violence against women, families and law enforcement fail to recognize that men, too, are vulnerable.
Yet law enforcement will write it off as ‘they’ll be back’ or examiners may note the cause of death as “overdose” or “alcohol-related” for both men and women. Even go to the lengths of misclassifying their race as “white” especially if the victim is of mixed race.
Several federal agencies collect homicide data, but reporting is mostly voluntary. Federal law requires police to report all missing juveniles to the FBI’s National Crime Information Center (NCIC) but not adults.
Identified in 2019, only 47 tribes have access to NCIC .
https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/227
https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/1853/text
https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/982/text?r=44&s=1
https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-bill/1585/text
Matt’s disappearance opened Jimmy’s eyes to how big the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous people really is, he said. The Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) estimates there are about 4,200 cases that have gone unsolved. Native communities experience disproportionately high rates of assault, abduction, and murder – rates that advocates say are tied to a “legacy of generations of government policies of forced removal, land seizures and violence inflicted on Native peoples,” the BIA website states.
https://www.voanews.com/a/usa_are-missing-and-murdered-indigenous-men-us-being-ignored/6176751.html
When Matt first disappeared, a local Fort Hall Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (MMIP) group called Carrying the Message reached out to Cynder. The group helped organize a prayer walk and run for Matt in June 2019. In 2020 , for the second anniversary of his disappearance, the group held a balloon release to bring awareness to the MMIP crisis. This year, Cynder and Jimmy attended a vigil and prayer walk for Matt on March 18 and 19 in Fort Hall.
But while Cynder and Jimmy continue raising awareness for their son, they feel law enforcement has stopped prioritizing Matt’s case.
Detective Yates said the tips they have received so far have led to nothing. “We’ve exhausted just about every avenue,” he said. “We’re just kind of waiting for tips and any new information.”
Jimmy and Cynder have approached the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes’ tribal council to encourage them to continue working on the case. “We’re given a big smile, but yet nothing changes,” Jimmy said. “We hear excuses – ‘Oh well, we’re short-staffed,’ or ‘we can’t talk about it.’ We’re kind of getting stonewalled on the reservation side.”
The Fort Hall criminal investigator assigned to Matt’s case was unable to speak with Native News Online for an interview due to tribal restrictions regarding talking to the press.
Cynder and Jimmy still hope they will find their son. Jimmy also keeps praying for Matt, wherever he may be. “I’ve tried fasting in his honor to see if that would lead me to maybe a higher depth of prayer, so maybe I could get an answer of where he is,” he said. “Just to grasp onto anything.”
Thankfully, enough voices have been heard and have motioned to create A number of bills have been introduced that would address these issues:
Savanna’s Act would improve tribal access to national databases and require DOJ to develop national guidelines for handling missing and murdered Native Americans and report statistics annually to Congress.
The Bridging Agency Data Gaps & Ensuring Safety (BADGES) for Native Communities Act would improve sharing of law enforcement agency data and boost officer recruitment and retention.
The Not Invisible Act of 2019 would require the DOJ to allocate more resources toward missing and murdered Native Americans based on input from local, tribal and federal leaders.
introduced amendments to the Violence Against Women's Act (VAWA),
Cynder’s advice to others with missing loved ones is, “Don’t wait.”
“When somebody disappears or you’re missing somebody, you need to get that information out as soon as possible,” she said. “Get it out to the police department, get it out to media, and start searching.”
Any Updates?
How you can help, Please Contact:
Matthew Jay Broncho is considered an endangered missing person
If anyone has any information on Matthew Broncho’s whereabouts please contact his family at 208-760-0436 or contact Sheriff Kevin Potter or Detective Scot Lewis, Box Elder County Sheriff’s Office at 435-734-3881 or the Fort Hall Police Department at 208-478-4000.
https://charleyproject.org/case/matthew-jay-broncho
http://shobannews.com/local_sb0425a02wd.html
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