Episode 160: Jermain Charlo – Bite-Sized Crime

When a young mother goes missing after a night in the city, investigators must retrace her steps and dig into her past. Where is Jermain Charlo?

Episode Media

Jermain Charlo and Michael DeFrance *(Facebook)*

Jermain wearing the clothes she was last seen in *(TikTok)*

Jermain (middle) and Michael (left) on June 16, 2018 *(Missoula Police Department)*

Jermain and Michael walking away from the Golden Rose bar on June 16, 2018 *(Missoula Police Department)*

Evaro Hill cell tower where Jermain’s phone last pinged *(CBS News)*

Episode Sources

Episode Transcript

Welcome back to Bite-Sized Crime. This week I’m bringing you a missing persons case, that of a young woman who has, in many ways, become the face of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women movement. This episode discusses sensitive topics, so listener discretion is advised.

Jermain Austin Charlo grew up on the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana. Her family described her as fun and spontaneous, quick to laugh and always wanting to make others smile. Jermain loved being outdoors, spending time hiking and fishing in the beautiful Montana landscape. Jermain was also a talented artist who poured her heart into her creations.

In the summer of 2018, 23-year-old Jermain was working at Big River Cantina in the town of Dixon. She was in a new relationship, her two young sons were happy and healthy, and she had an interview lined up for seasonal work as a firefighter on the reservation. Everything seemed to be going right.

On the night of Friday, June 15, 2018, Jermain was in downtown Missoula, about 40 miles south of Dixon. She and some friends had planned to hit up a few bars in the city for a night of fun. Missoula was a college town, a place where young people loved to hang out and party. It was a typical Friday night, but it took an unexpected turn.

When Jermain didn’t come home on Saturday as planned, her grandmother was the first to raise the alarm. Jermain usually called her grandmother every day, so it was unusual not to hear from her. Her grandmother reached out to other family members, asking if any of them had heard from Jermain.

Jermain’s aunt Valenda, who was as close to her as a sister, tried calling Jermain’s cell phone, but there was no answer. Jermain didn’t respond to her text messages, and she hadn’t posted on social media at all that day.

Immediately concerned that something had happened, the family started calling every hospital, jail, and homeless shelter in the area in case Jermain had somehow ended up there. They didn’t have any luck.

They reached out to the Tribal Police Department on the reservation, hoping for some assistance in finding Jermain. Unfortunately, because Jermain had last been seen in Missoula, there wasn’t much the Tribal Police could do other than hang flyers and spread the word for everyone to be on the lookout for Jermain.

On Monday, June 18th, Valenda contacted the Missoula Police Department to let them know that Jermain had gone missing in their city. Two days later, she drove down to Missoula to file an official missing persons report and speak with the detective in charge. The search was on.

Investigators began retracing Jermain’s steps on the night of June 15th. She had started the evening at the Dark Horse, a bar on Regent Street, before eventually heading downtown to the Badlander and the Golden Rose bars on the corner of Broadway and Ryman Street, just a few blocks from the river.

Shortly after midnight, a security camera spotted Jermain talking to two men outside the Badlander. As Jermain walked away out of the alley, one of the men followed behind her. Investigators were able to identify him as Michael DeFrance, Jermain’s ex-boyfriend and the father of her two children.

Jermain and Michael had a rocky history. They met in 2010 when Michael’s family moved to Dixon. Just 14 and 15 at the time, Jermain and Michael became inseparable, spending almost all their time together. Even when Jermain went to live with her grandmother in New Mexico, she and Michael stayed in contact. When she returned to Montana in 2012, they picked up where they left off, living together in Michael’s camper even though Jermain was underage. She often skipped school to be with Michael, and her family was concerned about the seemingly toxic nature of their relationship.

In 2013, Michael was convicted of assault after he pleaded guilty to striking Jermain multiple times with his fist. Jermain was just a few weeks shy of turning 18. Michael was ordered to complete 40 hours of domestic violence treatment classes, but it didn’t seem to work. There would be more incidents of violence in their future.

In spite of this, Jermain wanted the relationship to work. In 2014, she gave birth to her first child, a son she named Thomas. Everyone said what a wonderful mother Jermain was. When her second son was born, Jermain was even more determined to give her children the life she never had. Valenda told 48 Hours, “She was a great mother… Her world revolved around those boys. She wanted to teach ’em all about fishing and hunting… take ’em to the fair, try to give ’em the best life she knew how.”

But living in an abusive relationship was taking its toll on Jermain, and by 2017, she had had enough. Fearing for her life, she finally left Michael. That fall, they appeared in tribal court to figure out a custody plan for their sons. After a contentious battle, the court ruled that the children would primarily live with Michael; Jermain would have them Monday through Wednesday and every other weekend, and she would have to pay child support even though she had minimal income. Despite this setback, Jermain was determined to do everything she could to protect her sons.

Naturally, when investigators learned that Jermain had been seen with Michael on the night she disappeared, they had a lot of questions. When they called Michael, he confirmed that he had been at the Badlander bar with Jermain that night, but he said he had dropped her off at the Orange Street Food Farm – a local grocery store – around 1am. Jermain had told him that she was staying with a friend named Cassidy who lived nearby.

However, Jermain’s family had never heard of Cassidy, and she didn’t appear on any of Jermain’s social media accounts. The only person Jermain knew who lived near that grocery store was her new boyfriend Jacob.

Jermain and Jacob had only been seeing each other for a few weeks after meeting on a dating site. When investigators spoke with Jacob, he said that he had been out of town that weekend but had told Jermain that she could stay at his apartment in Missoula instead of driving back to Dixon. They had talked on the phone just before midnight, but when he tried to call her again an hour later, her phone rang a few times, then went to voicemail.

Investigators were able to confirm Jacob’s alibi for the night of June 15th – he had been in a different state, and phone records showed that he had indeed spoken to Jermain and exchanged a few text messages. So why had Jermain lied about a friend named Cassidy?

Jermain’s family suspected that Michael didn’t know about Jermain’s new boyfriend, so she had probably made up a name to avoid telling him that she was staying at Jacob’s place that night. In fact, Jacob told investigators that the day before she disappeared, Jermain had confessed that Michael was pressuring her to get back together, and she was afraid to tell him about her new relationship.

At this point, investigators needed to find out whether or not Michael had actually dropped Jermain off where he said he did, whether or not she had actually made it to Jacob’s apartment that night. Witnesses recalled seeing her leave the bar, and she was later spotted walking in a neighborhood near Russell Street and South Fifth Street West, blocks away from the Orange Street Food Farm. All reports indicated that she was intoxicated.

Investigators made an emergency request to Verizon for Jermain’s phone records. The data showed that around 2am on June 16th, Jermain’s phone pinged off a cell tower in the area of Evaro Hill. It stayed in that location for 8 hours. The tower was just a few miles from the home of Michael DeFrance.

If Michael dropped Jermain off in Missoula at 1am, why was her phone pinging at his property an hour later? When investigators questioned him again, Michael said that Jermain had accidentally left her phone in his truck and he hadn’t realized it until he was already home. He claimed that he tried to go through her phone, but gave up when he couldn’t gain access. Two days later, he tossed it out of his car off Highway 12 in Idaho near Three Devils Creek. It’s unclear why he would discard her phone when her family was actively looking for her.

It also didn’t explain where Jermain was now. She used her phone all the time; even if she had accidentally left it in Michael’s car, she would have found a way to get it back, would have found a way to contact her family. It just didn’t make sense.

Detective Guy Baker, the lead investigator on Jermain’s case, told NBC Montana that they needed anyone with information to come forward. “The more time that goes by, the more concerned that we get. Monitoring social media and talking to family and friends – no one seems to have heard from her and the fact that she’s not checking or active on social media is concerning for us too. We’re requesting assistance from the public because we have, so far, been unable to determine what has happened to Jermain. So maybe there’s somebody out there that knows what happened to her or where she is currently and we’re hoping that she is just out there somewhere that we’ve not been able to find her and she’s okay. But the more time that goes by, it’s more concerning for us that maybe her welfare is in jeopardy.”

Meanwhile, investigators were trying to put the pieces together. On August 2nd, nearly two months after Jermain disappeared, authorities filed for a search warrant, requesting to do a ten-day surveillance on Michael’s property. The warrant application stated that they had reason to believe a crime had been committed in Missoula – specifically listing it as a deliberate homicide – and they were afraid that Michael would potentially move or tamper with evidence that may be related to the case. A judge granted them permission to search the property by ground and air, including allowing them to use thermal imaging to highlight any heat signatures. Whether or not they found anything on the property, investigators couldn’t say, but they didn’t make any arrests in the aftermath of the search, leaving Jermain’s family still wondering.

As the months passed, the Missoula Police Department continued to search for Jermain, partnering with the county sheriff’s office, Tribal Police, and the FBI. In October, authorities were granted another search warrant for Michael’s property. This time they seized multiple firearms, which Michael was not allowed to have due to his previous conviction. He was charged with illegal possession of firearms and ammunition. Still, there was no sign of Jermain.

In April of 2019, Jermain’s family gathered to honor her on her 24th birthday. They met under a large billboard that featured Jermain’s picture and information about her case. They shared memories and spoke about how much they loved and missed her. Valenda told KULR that they weren’t giving up on finding Jermain. “We are doing it to keep her name out in the public so people know that she is still missing.”

As the one year anniversary of Jermain’s disappearance approached, her community was rallying around her. The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribe – of which Jermain was a member – passed a resolution to address the rising problem of missing and murdered women on the reservation. They hosted workshops and safety training to raise awareness about human trafficking, and they developed a protocol for handling missing persons cases in the community. They raised money to put up more billboards, and they offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in Jermain’s case.

Slowly, Jermain’s story began to gain more attention. In 2019, her case was featured on Live PD, a national television show that averaged millions of viewers each week. In 2021, Pulitzer-award winning journalist Connie Walker released a long-form podcast about Jermain’s case, bringing new eyes to the story. Jermain’s family was grateful for the attention not just on her case, but on the thousands of unsolved cases of missing and murdered indigenous people in the United States and Canada. Valenda told KXLF, “The more people who are aware of it, you know, wherever she is, you always hope that somebody can identify her and that we can bring her home.”

In October of 2024, Jermain’s case was featured on the CBS program 48 Hours. For the first time, the Missoula Police Department released the last known footage of Jermain Charlo as she left the Badlander bar in the early morning hours of June 16, 2018. Detective Baker urged the public to come forward with information. “Someone out there knows what happened to Jermain Charlo. Jermain walks out of view… so maybe somebody saw something… that has never thought about contacting us… So, if anybody has any information about that night or any aspect of this investigation, I encourage them to call me.”

In 2023, Michael DeFrance was convicted of the gun charges that had been filed in 2018 and was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison plus three years of probation. However, in January of 2025, a federal appeals court overturned his conviction due to a mismatch between the state and federal laws under which he was charged. He is currently no longer in federal custody.

As of this recording, Jermain Charlo is still missing, and no one has been charged in relation to her disappearance. Investigators are still hard at work on her case. Detective Baker told 48 Hours, “I feel like I got this puzzle in front of me, but I don’t have all the pieces on the table quite yet. One or two pieces could break this case.”

Jermain’s family isn’t giving up either. Valenda told 48 Hours, “I will never stop looking for her. I’ve met so many families that have had a loved one disappear. And I want other families to know that it’s OK to keep pushing and it’s OK to keep their name out there. We have to fight for justice for our loved ones.”

Jermain Austin Charlo was last seen on June 16, 2018, in Missoula, Montana. She is described as a Native American female, 5’9” tall with brown hair and brown eyes. She has a tattoo of a flower in the center of her chest and one of a deer on her left shoulder blade. At the time of her disappearance, Jermain was 23 years old. She was last seen wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt with a brown Under Armour logo, a white t-shirt and jeans, cowboy boots, and a blue baseball cap. She may be using the nickname Liz or the last name Morigeau.

If you have any information about Jermain Charlo’s disappearance, please contact Missoula Police Detective Guy Baker at 406-396-3217.

And if you or someone you know is experiencing domestic abuse, please contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or text START to 88788 for free and confidential help. You don’t have to suffer alone.