New Search Underway for Missing Bemidji Teen Nevaeh Kingbird

It’s been two years since the last time anyone saw Nevaeh Kingbird. Kingbird went missing in October of 2021, and since then, there have been 13 searches. But authorities are still searching for answers.

Numerous agencies collaborated in a large search that began in Bemidji on Monday and went through Tuesday. Around 100 people and seven K-9s are searching 150 acres over the course of two days, both in previously examined locations and brand-new ones. The search efforts also extended to finding other missing Indigenous people like Jeremy Jourdain, a teen who went missing from the area in 2016, and Damon Boyd, who was last seen in East Grand Forks in 2014.

“I appreciate all the support and efforts and trying to help me locate my child, and for the support and efforts to help locate Jeremy Jourdain and Damon Boyd also,” said Kingbird’s mother Teddi Wind at a press conference on Monday. “That’s what we’re all focusing on, all three out there.”

“We’ve organized dozens of searches, aerial, ground, underwater,” said Bemidji Police Chief Mike Mastin. “We’ve enlisted the help of K-9 teams, we’ve done excavations, we’ve done draining of stormwater ponds, all in an effort to find these missing children. [We’ve had] thousands of runaway reports over the decades. There are only two outstanding – and that’s Jeremy and Nevaeh.”

The Bemidji Police Department led the search, along with the Minnesota Office of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives. Volunteers went out in search of Kingbird in an effort to provide closure to her family, friends, and all who care about her.

“Best thing I can do is just keep her memory,” said Wind. “I talk about her as if she’s still here, and that’s like really, really hard to hold conversations at time. But I keep it together by trying to be a good mom still to my other children.”

The search is being conducted to not only find clues, but to raise awareness about Kingbird and Jourdain. It’s inspired volunteers from different programs and agencies to go out and look for the missing teenagers.

“By far, this is one of the larger searches I’ve been a part of, and I think that’s been incredible,” said volunteer Samantha Hanlin. “We have people from all different walks of life and all different communities out here. And that gives us, that gives everyone a call for action at home, like, you can help.”

If anyone has any information on the whereabouts of Nevaeh Kingbird or Jeremy Jourdain, they are asked to contact the Bemidji Police Department at (218) 333-9111.

Zy’Riah Simmons contributed to this story.