Gallup police seek public’s help finding missing Diné man

Gallup police are asking residents to help find Kyle Ortega, a 32-year-old Diné man who was last tied to a family member’s request for a wellness check around 1 p.m. April 11. Police want any information that could help determine where Ortega went after that call, a detail that can quickly become critical in a missing-person case.

Ortega is described as 5 feet 9 inches tall and about 225 pounds, with brown eyes and black hair. In cases like this, even a small observation can matter, whether it is a recent sighting near a store, a vehicle seen in a driveway, or a stop at a gas station that helps rebuild a timeline. That is especially true when family members are the first to notice something is wrong before a case becomes a formal alert.

Tips can be routed through the Gallup Police Department Records Division at 451 S. Boardman Drive in Gallup, or through Metro Dispatch. The records division can be reached at (505) 863-9365. Gallup police are led by Chief Erin Toadlena-Pablo, and the department says it includes 60 commissioned officers, 10 public service officers and 6 civilian employees.

The case lands in a larger crisis that has shadowed Indigenous communities across New Mexico for years. The New Mexico Department of Justice says Indigenous communities are disproportionately affected by missing and murdered cases, and the state created a Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons Advisory Council in 2019. In McKinley and San Juan counties, Native Americans account for 52% of missing persons, according to a 2024 policy brief from the Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women.

Gallup has also been described as having one of the highest rates of missing and murdered Indigenous women and relatives in the state, a reality that gives added urgency to alerts involving Diné families in the city and surrounding neighborhoods. For Ortega’s family and for neighbors who may have seen him near local roads, businesses or homes, a single detail could be the clue that moves the search forward.