LOCKWOOD — It was in June 2022 when Lame Deer woman 38-year-old Arshanda KnowsHisGun was found in a canal near the East Bridge in Lockwood. The Yellowstone County Sheriff's Office has ruled out foul play, but KnowsHisGun's family believes there's more to the case than meets the eye.
“I can’t bring myself to go anywhere, it’s too hard,” said KnowsHisGun's mother, Sherri Ewing, in Lame Deer last week.
After the death of her daughter, Ewing and her family are still searching for answers.
“We've all been distraught. We've all been lost. And this is a painful, painful wound that's very open” said KnowsHisGun's second eldest son, A'Lairyn Brady.
The mother of five had traveled to Billings with a supposed girlfriend to see a concert at MetraPark on Saturday, June 11.
"I know the girl she was with. I thought they were good friends” said August "Tiger" Scalpcane, KnowsHisGun's uncle.
KnowsHisGun didn't come home and was reported missing by her family before her body was found in a canal near the East Bridge the following Tuesday.
“Her clothes and her phone and everything was down north by North Park, I believe somewhere down there. It was found later on. And her phone was smashed and the sim card was taken out,” Scalpcane said.
The Yellowstone County Sheriff's Office said in a statement that the case is not active at this time, saying KnowsHisGun drowned.
Sheriff Mike Linder said "the investigation, including the autopsy did not reveal any signs of foul play, and no new information has been received or developed that would indicate foul play."
After receiving mixed messages from the woman KnowsHisGun was with, Scalpcane, a victim specialist with the Northern Cheyenne Investigative Services, believes otherwise.
“She started telling me that...they got into a fight after the concert and Arshanda took off running from her and I was like, running?" Scalpcane said.
He said KnowsHisGun had barely been able to walk without a cane after she broke her pelvis and other bones in a car wreck earlier that year. The family said they've heard about four different versions of a similar story with various locations from the woman.
They even tried to search for their own information.
“I've walked around the streets and seen people and I'm getting more information," said Ewing.
They grew even more suspicious after seeing the state of KnowsHisGun's body.
"She had a big old bump on her left side. I wanted to look at her body and we were dressing her and there was bruises all over her," Ewing said.
They're frustrated with what they said is a lack of effort from the Yellowstone County Sheriff's Office.
"They never interviewed anybody that was with them. They never asked for any of this information that we've had," said Scalpcane.
The family didn't even realize the case was considered inactive until MTN showed them the sheriff's statement. They also hadn't received any autopsy report.
“Native American women are known to be targeted. My mother is not a statistic. She was a woman who cared. She was a woman who tried,” Brady said.
If you have any information on the death of Arshanda KnowsHisGun, contact the Yellowstone County Sheriff's Office at 406-256-2929.
