by Travis Mateer
When an attractive indigenous woman by the name of Jermain Charlo went missing, the non-profit run by the chaplain of the Sheriff’s Office in Missoula, Lowell Hochhalter, sprang into action. Did they find her? No, but two years later, KPAX reported on how Lowell’s non-profit, the LifeGuard Group, was continuing to search for missing persons.
A Missoula search and rescue group says recent statistics that were released about missing persons over the last three years are daunting, but they won’t stop looking for missing people.
It’s been almost two years since Jermain Charlo went missing. And still, the Lifeguard Group says it hasn’t and won’t stop looking for her.
Charlo was last seen at the Orange Street Food Farm in Missoula on June 16, 2018.
Two years later, after Rebekah Barsotti went missing, I caught the LifeGuard Group lying to me about their involvement in the search for Rebekah. Why would they lie about that?
Now, another two years later, another woman is missing and I don’t see any indication that the LifeGuard Group has been involved in searching for Eva Prather. Instead, this is their most recent post on Facebook:
Why is this non-profit involved in searching for missing persons NOT searching for Eva Prather? Can anyone answer that question for me?
Police are asking for the public’s help to find a missing woman who suffers from mental illness.
Missoula PD says 43-year-old Eva Masin Prather has been missing since 1:30 a.m. on December 30th when she left her residence on foot. The family noticed she left her personal belongings behind. Police say she has not seen or heard from since she left the home, and has no known destination of travel.
MPD went to on say that Eva suffers from anxiety and extreme paranoia, and when she’s not around family she is said to believe people are out to get her.
At the very least, this non-profit could have posted an article about Eva on social media, but they didn’t even do that. Why the fuck not?
When Joey Thompson went missing, did the LifeGuard Group do anything to search for him? Not that any Facebook search results indicate.
Nothing came up when I searched the Group’s Facebook page, which is VERY weird, considering Lowell Hochhalter was familiar with who Joey Thompson was before he went missing. So, why not help search for him? I mean, ANY information on what happened to Joey would be NICE TO KNOW, and I think Lowell Hochhalter knows SOMETHING about what happened.
Thompson’s death certificate, filed last week, lists his cause of death as drowning in a period of minutes in the river. However, in a space on the certificate for an explanation of how the injury occurred, it says “undetermined.”
The manner of death (i.e. whether it was an accident, homicide, suicide or natural) is also listed as “could not be determined.”
According to a news release from the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office sent out in April, detectives followed information on the events leading up to and after Thompson’s disappearance. They believe no criminal activity was suspected in his disappearance, the news release stated.
Did I mention that Lowell Hochhalter WORKS for the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office? And have I mentioned my own investigation into the disappearance and death of Joey Thompson indicates that criminal activity WAS INDEED involved?
Here’s my reporting from last year on Joey’s case:
Some Curious Things NOT Happening In The Joey Thompson Missing Person Case (May 5th, 2023)
Who Knows What Happened to Joey Thompson? (May 15th, 2023)
We Adults Are Failing The Friends Of Joey Thompson (May 20th, 2023)
Why Are Two Sheriff Offices Now Failing To Call Me Back Or Acknowledge Any Investigation In The Death Of Joey Thompson? (May 28th, 2023)
Who Found Joey Thompson’s Body In The Clark Fork River, And Where? (June 19th, 2023)
Joey Thompson’s Death Certificate Information Has Finally Been Released, Now What? (June 29th, 2023)
Now what? Nothing, because that’s what the Missoula County Sheriff’s Office is good at. And with such a pathetic array of local media pretenders, the public is fucking clueless about how bad the situation is.
When I saw Eva’s last name, I thought it sounded familiar. Then the Missoulian’s report used a DIFFERENT last name, which brought my attention to it even more (emphasis mine):
Missoula police are asking for the public’s help locating a 43-year-old woman who’s been missing for about four days.
Eva Masin was last seen in Missoula in the early morning of Saturday, Dec. 30, at about 1:30 a.m. She was at her house, according to a news release from MPD.
Concerns were shared with law enforcement over Masin leaving behind her personal belongings, and that she wasn’t appropriately dressed for cold outside temperatures, according to the release.
When I did some searching, using the name Prather, I found that a Missoula County Sheriff Sgt. has the same surname in an article about the Sheriff’s Office getting money from the Five Valley Drug Task Force, so I’ll ask the obvious question: is Ryan Prather related to Eva Prather?
Sgt. Ryan Prather with the Missoula County Sheriff’s Department said the county has received funding from the Montana Board of Crime Control for the Five Valley Drug Task Force for over 20 years.
“It’s a continuous program and it has been very productive,” he said.
I’m only asking these pointed questions because recent history has indicated that our Sheriff’s Office is NOT VERY GOOD at doing their job, and I say that after following several cases VERY CLOSELY. But is this really incompetence I’m seeing, or is something else happening here?
To be fair, it appears Lowell and family are busy teaching victims of human trafficking how to fix horse saddles. For resale? (emphasis mine):
Chances are, right now, there’s an old saddle buried somewhere under a pile of dusty tack in the back corner of a Montana barn. This saddle has been forgotten, just like the hole in the barn’s roof that’s been patched over by a swallow’s nest. However, outside of Missoula, there’s a ranch where old saddles like those are being restored by people who know how it feels to be forgotten. They are survivors of human trafficking. Lowell Hochhalter and his team at The LifeGuard Group have made it their mission to rescue these lives and bring them to safety. By teaching how to restore a saddle, they’re giving survivors a chance to restore themselves.
Yesterday, after writing the majority of this post, I drove to where the Griz would be leaving Missoula for the FCS Championship in my transit truck with my BIG magnet asking WHAT HAPPENED TO SEAN? The magnet includes the picture of Sean smiling with Salma Hayek, and I’m happy to report the image worked as intended, grabbing the attention of none other than LOWELL HIMSELF as he walked down Higgins with his son and non-profit co-worker, Carson, to cheer on the Griz.
Was it the cleavage that got your attention, Lowell?
Since January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month, I’m sure I’ll write at least one more post about the LifeGuard Group and their special relationship with Montana’s Governor, Greg Gianforte. I’m also interested in how our Attorney General, who is seeking reelection, will be framing this issue in the weeks and months to come.
If you appreciate my perspective on local issues, please consider supporting Travis’ Impact Fund (TIF). I’ll be traveling soon, and any little bit helps.
Thanks for reading!