INDEPENDENCE, MO. — Twenty years after she was found severely beaten and murdered in an empty lot off Highway 40 in Independence, Lakota Renville is never forgotten.
Every year, the KC Indian Center holds a ceremony in Lakota's honor. The 20th anniversary was no different, with people gathering in the lot for prayer and sharing in the grief that Lakota's family is feeling from more than 500 miles away.
"It's still really hard after 20 years," Waynette Renville, Lakota's sister, said. "It still seems like it happened yesterday."
Renville did an interview with KSHB 41 News from her home in Sisseton, South Dakota.
"When they brought her body back, I promised her I'd find whoever did this to her," Renville said.
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Lakota's family tells me that the soft-spoken Lakota met a man in a chat room and drove all the way down to the Kansas City area to meet him.
But the family told me the relationship didn't turn out to be what she thought. Police have indicated she was a victim of sex trafficking.
"Even though she was, you know, working the streets as a prostitute, she had family who loved her and we still [do]," Renville said. "And she had plans. She wanted to go to school to be a veterinarian to make horses better if they were sick."
About a year after Lakota left home, her body was found wrapped in this blanket on Pitcher Road on Oct. 16, 2005.
It's a distinctive blanket, one that police hope will stir up someone's memory.
In 2023, the KSHB 41 I-Team covered Lakota's case in depth and learned that IPD is still working on it.
"They have been looking at DNA evidence, yes," former Independence police spokesperson Officer Jack Taylor told the I-Team in 2023.
They would not get into detail about what exactly they tested, but they're confident her case is still solvable.
"I think with the right information, absolutely," Taylor said. "We just haven't hit that one piece we're looking for, but we'll get it."
IPD posted on its Facebook page on the anniversary of Lakota's murder, asking anyone with information to come forward.
Renville has been a walking billboard for Lakota's case for 20 years and will never stop being her voice.
"Just to remember her and knowing we're still searching for the suspects," Renville said. "And if you know something, heard something, please come forward. Do the right thing."
Earlier this year, the Independence city council voted to allocate $100,000 to crack five cold-case homicides, including Lakota's.
Any information, big or small, could be key to solving this case.
If you have any information regarding this case, call the TIPS hotline at 816-474-TIPS.
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