End of the Road: The Disappearance of Emmilee Risling

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Emmilee Risling was a college graduate, a traditional dancer, a devoted mother, and a tireless advocate for Native women in crisis. Enrolled in the Hoopa Valley Tribe with deep ties to the Yurok and Karuk peoples, she spent her life giving back to her community — until the system failed her when she needed it most.

In the fall of 2021, during a severe mental health crisis, Emmilee was last seen crossing a remote bridge over the Klamath River on California’s Yurok Reservation. She was naked, distressed, and alone. Days later, she was reported missing. Despite extensive searches, intertribal efforts, cadaver dogs, river patrols, and years of tips, Emmilee has never been found.

Four years later, her case remains active. A $20,000 reward still stands. And her family continues to wait for answers.

This episode examines Emmilee’s life, the warning signs leading up to her disappearance, the haunting clues that surfaced afterward — including an anonymous hand-drawn map — and the jurisdictional and systemic failures that so often leave Indigenous women unprotected and unheard.

Emmilee Risling is not just a missing person. She is a daughter, a mother, a dancer, and one of thousands of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women whose stories risk being lost to silence.

If you have information about Emmilee Risling — a sighting, a conversation, a detail that didn’t seem important at the time — please speak up now.

Contact Cold Case Detective Mike Fridley with the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office at [phone], or reach the Hoopa Valley Tribal Police at [phone]. Tips may be given anonymously. A $20,000 reward remains available.

Even years later, one piece of information can change everything.

To see more about this case, as well as the sources used to create this episode, visit our Blog Here.

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