For more than a week, family members had been desperately searching for a missing Indigenous woman from Riverside County who they said was fleeing an abusive relationship, and on Sunday morning they made a devastating discovery.
The family’s search party found the body of Amy Porter, 43, in a desert area near the side of Interstate 10 in Yucaipa, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department reported. Porter was a member of the Morongo Band of Mission Indians and the subject of a Feather Alert over the weekend.
She was last seen in Lake Elisnore on Sept. 14, the department said.
Frustrated by a perceived lack of urgency from authorities, her family launched their own search on Sunday morning after hearing reports that Porter had been involved in a car crash in Yucaipa.
The cause of death is currently unknown. The Sheriff’s Department is investigating the case, and an autopsy of the body is set to be performed.
Although family members said they were glad these steps were being taken, they said her disappearance should have been more thoroughly investigated from the start.
“Unfortunately, authorities haven’t been as helpful as we would like them to be,” Angelina Lyons, Porter’s cousin, told OnScene.TV on Sunday morning. “We feel like things weren’t taken seriously.”
For example, Lyons said, she discovered blood on the mattress and clothing in Porter’s bedroom, but she said authorities did not take a close look.
“Now they want to do their jobs, they want to investigate, want to go to the house,” she said. “They want to finally take what we’ve seen. We knew better.”
Porter’s cousin Shannon Quesada and Lyons said they believed she was trying to flee from danger when she was involved in a car accident.
No arrests have yet been made. Porter’s boyfriend, whose name was unavailable late Monday, has not been linked to the case. He was taken into custody by police in Pomona on Friday on an unrelated parole violation, local news stations reported.
“She was seen running from a hotel that they were both at, on foot, barefoot, running to her Suburban,” Quesada said.
Anyone with information about this case is asked to contact Detective Daniel Berumen at (909) 890-4904. Anonymous tips can be left at (800) 782-7463 or the WeTip website.