Preston Tolth, the man who pleaded guilty to robbing Navajo elder Ella Mae Begay and acknowledged beating her, stealing her truck and leaving her on a roadside, was released from federal custody Monday, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Tolth’s release came on the five-year anniversary of Begay’s disappearance from her home in a remote corner of Arizona.
Tolth pleaded guilty in April to one count of robbery and was sentenced May 8 to five years in prison, with credit for three years already served. The sentence meant he would be released after roughly two additional years of incarceration, but the time he had spent in custody before sentencing counted toward his term. The Bureau of Prisons listed Monday as his release date.
Begay’s relatives said they expected Tolth to remain in prison until at least 2028 and were shocked to learn of his release. Gerald Begay, the eldest of her three children, said he heard the news while finishing his workday at a construction site. “This is just another slap in the face,” Begay told the Associated Press.
Ella Mae Begay was 73 years old when she disappeared in June 2021. She has not been located, and authorities have not said whether they believe she is alive. U.S. officials did not charge Tolth with murder or kidnapping; the robbery charge stemmed from the taking of her pickup truck and other property. The case is among many missing-persons investigations involving Indigenous women in the United States, a category that advocates say receives disproportionately less attention and resources than other missing-persons cases.