Information
Name: Flathead
Tribes:
Bitterroot Salish, Kootenai & Pend d'Oreilles
Population: 26,172
Native: 20%
Counties: Flathead,
Lake, Missoula,
Sanders
As Fyant, her younger brother Louis and her mother, Denise Tyro, discuss the death, the conversation drifts effortlessly into a series of stories about Everett, and then simply an airing of memories from Shelly and Louis Fyant's childhood. They talk about the time they were caught boiling mud in the chicken coop, the horse named Buttons they all used to ride, the times they set up a teepee in the backyard—moments they never expected would be significant.
Butler has memories like that too. She remembers that Everett bought her the first purse and belt she owned and encouraged her to go to school.
"He was my mentor," Butler says, her voice breaking off as she starts to cry.
She wipes her eyes with a Subway napkin and resumes smoking her Marlboro cigarette.
"If I want to cry, I'm gonna cry," she says. "You can't pen your emotions up."
Butler knows all about losing family. She watched a speeding vehicle hit her parents' pickup truck on St. Patrick's Day in 1970. The driver, who was drunk, almost hit her too when she got out of her car to run down the road to her parents. She testified against him in court. Her mom died the following November from injuries sustained in the accident. Her family pretty much fell apart after the loss, and her father died of a blood clot in August 1971. Virginia doesn't think he wanted to live any longer.
One of her younger brothers drowned in a pond when he was 13. A succession of family members has died from cancer. Butler herself has suffered from the disease. She seems tired. When she gets home from work, she says, she often just wants to be alone.
Though their lives have been defined by tragedy, the Fyants have persevered. Shelly works at Kicking Horse Job Corps outside of Ronan and has been a Mary Kay consultant for the past three years. Her home is strewn with Mary Kay products and black and pink Mary Kay totes. She has Mary Kay shoelaces on her white Nike tennis shoes. She wants to quit her other job soon.
Despite the difficult nature of prosecuting hit-and-run incidents everywhere, the Fyant family can't shake the belief that discrimination and apathy are part of the reason why Everett's case remains unsolved.
They are sure someone knows what happened that night. They also are adamant that police didn't do as much as they could have. Because of that, they're at a standstill in the grieving process—never quite accepting what happened.
On a Sunday afternoon in April, Shelly follows her 3-year-old grandson around the back yard, attempting to take photos with her cell phone. He will turn 4 at the end of the month —his birthday is the same day as Everett's.
But for Bulter, a child with the same birthday as her brother's brings little satisfaction.
Twenty-one years have passed. The case no longer gets attention from state or tribal law enforcement. Still, Butler believes one day they'll get answers.
"It will come around," she says. "I'm a firm believer in that."