Two boys missing from residential facility
Police and family looking for Angel Mendez and Zayne LaFountain
On Nov. 26, Trudy Ice got a knock on the door of her home in Fort Totten, North Dakota. Her grandson, 15-year-old Angel Mendez, appeared behind the door. She invited him inside to come warm up. She gave him Gatorade and offered him food before she took a nap. By the time she woke up, Mendez was gone. She said she hasn’t seen him or heard from him since.
Less than a week prior, on Nov. 20, Mendez was reported missing by Home on the Range, a nonprofit therapeutic residential facility on a ranch in Sentinel Butte, North Dakota, serving children 12-18. Also reported missing that same day from Home on the Range is 17-year-old Zayne LaFountain.
Golden Valley County Sheriff Dey Muckle said the sheriff’s office is not investigating the two boys as missing people, but as runaways, as they are suspected to be bouncing between houses on the Spirit Lake Reservation.
The sheriff’s office alerted tribal authorities that the boys might be on the Spirit Lake Reservation, but, said Muckle, “It seems like tribal authorities never came to do anything about it.”
The Spirit Lake public information officer did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding the claim.
Ice said her family has not heard from Mendez in nearly two weeks.
With the whereabouts of the boys unknown, Ice began to cry at the thought that her grandson could be out in the snow in subzero temperatures. She told Buffalo’s Fire she messaged Mendez on Facebook asking him to give her a call and to let her know he’s OK. She said she still hasn’t heard from her grandson, who is usually active on social media.
Ice said during Mendez’s visit, she’d called Brianna Sich, his caseworker with North Dakota’s Division of Juvenile Services, asking for him to be picked up. Ice said Sich never showed up. Sich said she can’t comment on whether she received a call from Ice.
Home on the Range clinical director Jodi Ebel said the facility is not locked but that residents are monitored 24/7. It is unclear whether Mendez and LaFountain were being monitored when they ran away, or if staff tried to stop them. She said she could not comment on how the boys went missing, but she did provide Buffalo’s Fire with information about the organization, saying Home on the Range provides treatment for traumatized kids, support for family issues and group counseling and drug and alcohol treatment.
Buffalo’s Fire tried contacting LaFountain’s family members but did not hear back by press time. Anyone with information regarding the whereabouts of Mendez and LaFountain can contact Valley County Sheriff’s Office at 701-872-4733.
Jolan Kruse
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