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Search continues for Nevaeh Kingbird, last seen in Bemidji in 2021: "I just want to bring her home"

Crews continue search for Nevaeh Kingbird in northern Minnesota
Crews continue search for Nevaeh Kingbird in northern Minnesota 01:53

BEMIDJI, Minn. – Loved ones are fighting to find a teenager, nearly two years after she disappeared. 

Nevaeh Kingbird was 15 years old when she was last seen in October of 2021. 

WCCO traveled to Bemidji on Monday to spend the day with search teams. 

They search because they're desperate for answers. For nearly two years, friends and family of Nevaeh have wondered. Teddi Wind is her mom.

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"I don't know if my daughter is alive, I don't know if somebody killed her, I don't know if somebody trafficked her," Wind said.

The missing teen is always on her mom's mind. Teams are searching places she enjoyed, and locations near where she was last seen, by Pine Grove Steet and Washington Avenue in Bemidji.

"We're just looking, or our lost, really," Lissa Yellowbird Chase said.

She traveled from North Dakota with her dogs to help look for Nevaeh. She's come for every one of the searches.  

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Nevaeh Kingbird CBS

"The two dogs that are on site here are both trained HRD, human remains detection dogs. The boys do the work, I read them, you know," Yellowbird Chase said.

Then there are people on foot, like Navaeh's sister LaKaylee Kingbird.

"There's a lot of different emotions coming up," LaKaylee Kingbird said.

LaKaylee is her older sister, one of Naveah's five siblings.

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"I have no idea what happened or what happened to her, you know, and I just want to bring her home," LaKaylee Kingbird said.

That's what keeps them going – to cross possibilities off the list. The desire to find Navaeh, where ever the search leads them.

"I'm holding on to hope, that's what keeps me going," Wind said.

The search in Bemidji continues Tuesday morning. There's a larger search with law enforcement being planned for September.  

Call police if you know anything or notice anything unusual on your property.

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