Gallup police seek public help locating missing woman Olivia Thacker

Gallup police are asking residents, motel workers and travelers to help locate Olivia Thacker, a 33-year-old Diné woman last seen the morning of May 8 at a Super 8 motel in Gallup. Investigators say even small details could matter, including who she was with, what she was wearing and whether any vehicle drew attention in the motel parking lot.

Thacker is described as about 5 feet 3 inches tall and roughly 154 to 200 pounds. She has black eyes and black hair with blue highlights. A Missing People in America database entry lists her as missing from Gallup, New Mexico, with a last-seen date of May 8, 2026 and an updated entry timestamp of May 9, 2026.

The search lands in a city where missing-person cases can move quickly because Gallup sits at a regional crossroads for work, medical visits, family travel and highway traffic. That makes the first days after a disappearance especially important for spotting patterns, checking motel logs, and hearing from people who may have noticed something unusual around the Super 8 or elsewhere in town.

The case also fits a larger crisis that state lawmakers have repeatedly flagged in New Mexico. Legislative materials say Gallup and Albuquerque rank among the U.S. cities with the highest number of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls. One New Mexico legislative document cites Gallup Police Department data showing that from 2014 to 2019, Native Americans accounted for 76% of all missing-person cases in Gallup, and 87% of homicide cases involved Native Americans.

Statewide data cited in New Mexico legislative materials shows 986 missing-person cases were reported in New Mexico from 2014 to 2019, with 97% remaining unsolved and 16% involving Indigenous people. The National Institute of Justice says NamUs is a no-cost resource that helps connect law enforcement, families and justice professionals in missing and unidentified person cases.

Gallup police have limited but dedicated staffing for those investigations, with 60 commissioned officers, 10 public service officers and 6 civilian employees listed on the department’s website. For a city where so many cases depend on quick public awareness, the narrow window after Thacker was last seen may prove critical in determining where she went next.