$5,000 reward in missing woman case

Rapid City, S.D. (KELO) — The Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Rapid City police department are offering a $5,000 reward for information regarding the disappearance of a woman over a year ago.

Michelle Elbow Shield’s grandmother says it was unlike her to go anywhere without letting someone know.

“If she left someplace you know, she let somebody know. Or if she’s farther away from town, she’ll let somebody know. And there was this friend of hers that told me she contacted him every day,” Michelle’s Grandmother Nellie Bald Eagle said.

The $5,000 reward is for identification, arrest and conviction of the individuals involved.

“We know somebody out there knows what happened, where she’s at or the circumstances on why she’s disappeared. And we’re hoping that the $5,000 is some incentive to come forward with the information,” Sigel said.

“I looked and I looked. I questioned everybody that I could think of and at the same time as I was doing it, I was telling the detectives and the investigator,” Bald Eagle said.

The Rapid City Police Department’s partnership with the BIA’s Missing and Murdered Unit is expanding what resources they are using as they investigate Elbow Shield’s disappearance.

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“So we’re coming up on the year anniversary when Michelle Elbow Shield was believed to have gone missing. In October of 2023, she was last seen. It’s been a year, our investigation, we’ve been following up on a ton of resources and a ton of leads working throughout the past year trying to locate her,” Criminal Investigations Division Captain Christian Sigel said.

Anyone with any information about Elbow Shield’s whereabouts, or the circumstances of her disappearance, should contact RCPD Detectives Mackenzie Armstrong or Andrew Randazzo at 605-394-4134, or BIA MMU Special Agent Savannah Peterson at 505-221-0974.

An anonymous tip can also be submitted by texting the letters ‘RCPD’ to 847411.