Plot Synopsis

From directors Razelle Benally and Matthew Galkin, MURDER IN BIG HORN is a three-part documentary series that features tribal members and their communities within Big Horn County, Montana, who are battling an epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) that has been prevalent since colonization. This series examines the circumstances surrounding many of these cases, told solely through the perspectives of those involved: Native families, Native journalists, and local law enforcement officers. Within the past decade, dozens of young Indigenous women and girls from the Crow and Northern Cheyenne Nations have disappeared from Montana's Big Horn County and its surrounding areas. Grieving Native families who fear the worst press local law enforcement for answers, but their pleas are most often met with silence or indifference. Arrests in these cases are rare, and convictions are virtually nonexistent. Elsewhere in America, similar stories of disappearances and death shock communities and become nationwide news, but when they occur on Native land, a circle of bereft family members, friends, and activists are left to fight for justice on their own. MURDER IN BIG HORN intimately embeds with these families and this community in an effort to shine a light on the unanswered mysteries of this land. On Sunday, January 22, 2023, MURDER IN BIG HORN had its world premiere at Sundance Film Festival. 12 days later on Friday, February 3, all three episodes were made available on streaming and on-demand platforms for Showtime subscribers. MURDER IN BIG HORN made its official television debut on Sunday, February 5 at 10pm ET/PT on Showtime, with a new episode premiering each Sunday thereafter:

Episode 1 (Sunday, February 5, 2023 at 10pm): When the body of 14-year-old Henny Scott is discovered on the Northern Cheyenne reservation, the FBI determines the cause of death to be hypothermia. When the body of 18-year-old Kaysera Stops Pretty Places is discovered, the cause of death is "undetermined". When Selena Not Afraid goes missing, the response is unprecedented. All three are examples of the growing epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women in Big Horn County, Montana.

Episode 2 (Sunday, February 12, 2023 at 10pm): When 16-year-old Selena Not Afraid is reported missing on January 1, 2020, the entire town mobilizes to find her. Questions arise about whether she may have been a victim of sex trafficking. When her body is discovered weeks later the community is frustrated when the cause of death is determined to be hypothermia. No charges are brought and Selena's father is appointed as Undersheriff of the Big Horn County Sheriff's Office.

Episode 3 (Sunday, February 19, 2023 at 10pm): Journalist Luella Brien investigates Kaysera Stops Pretty Places' case three years after her death,. Meanwhile, the MMIW movement grows stronger than ever as families band together to support each other, to fight for justice and to bring more attention to their cause.