Monica L. Bercier Wickre, known to many as “Mona”, always sang. A dance. If there was a stage, Monica was on it. If there was a piano, Monica would play it.
“She had the most beautiful voice,” her daughter, Tonya Hertel, told Dateline. “She would start singing, and that would reassure everyone who heard it.”
Tonya is one of Monica’s three children. Monica was born and bred in Belcourt, South Dakota, on the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Reservation. She is married and had two children, Tonya and her brother, Ryan. The marriage did not last, but Tonya told Dateline she remembered her parents had a friendly relationship.
Monica eventually remarried and had another child, a son. They raised their new family in Aberdeen, South Dakota while Tonya and her brother spent their teens with their father in Fort Yates on the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Reserve. Even with a three-hour drive between the two houses, Tonya said she visited her mother regularly.
“We had a special bond with our mother,” Tonya said. “She loved our children so much. And was so proud of us. No one could ever take her place. ”
Tonya had just started her fall in the fall of 1992 when she found out she was pregnant.
“I was so scared to tell my mom … because I knew she would be disappointed in me,” Tonya said. ‘I finally told her and she was shocked, maybe a little sad for me, but she quickly changed her mind. Suddenly she was so excited to be grandma. She started making plans for me and the baby. She was over the moon. ”
In February 1993, Tonya and her boyfriend went to Aberdeen to attend her half – brother’s first communion. It was the first time her family had seen her pregnant.
“I’m so glad my mom had to see me with her belly, and her granddaughter growing up in me,” Tonya said. “She told me she wanted me to live with her so she could help with the baby and I could go to university. She had all these plans. ”
But Monica’s life ended tragically before any of these plans could be realized.
Monica was 42 years old and lived with her second husband and young son in Aberdeen in April 1993. On April 7, her husband drove her to a local place where she planned to have drinks with friends after work. Tonya explained that her mother prefers to go out and be social rather than stay at home, and that is what her stepfather prefers to do.
“He was a housemate and she was very social,” Tonya added. “That’s what worked for them.”
Tonya told Dateline that her mother was last seen that night in a bar called The Body Shop, which has since closed. Because Monica did not drive there, she got a ride from a couple she knew and another man she did not know. Tonya said the couple dropped the man off at his vehicle, which was parked elsewhere, and that Monica decided to go with him.
This was the last time it was known that Monica had been seen alive. Chief Deputy Lunzman told Dateline that all three people were questioned by police at the time, but there was nothing that could lead them to her place.
Monica had a large family on the reservation. She was one of ten siblings. And they were close. When no one saw her for two weeks, they became concerned and contacted her husband and then the Aberdeen police station.
Brown County Sheriff Dave Lunzman, who was then an officer at the Aberdeen police station, told Dateline he remembered she was looking for Monica after she was reported missing. He said that on April 26, 1993, Monica’s family submitted a report of missing persons.
Detectives chatted with friends and family and neighbors. Investigations were carried out throughout the community and in the rural parts of the country, but there was no sign of Monica.
“That whole month was unclear,” Tonya said. “I waited for her to call, but she never did.”
When Tonya’s graduation ceremony took place in May, she knew that if his mother was still alive, she would have been there.
“I remember standing in my hat and gown in the gym and just hoping she would show up,” Tonya said. ‘But when she did not walk through the gym doors, I knew something bad was happening to her. My heart was hurting and I knew she was gone. ”
The continued search for Monica came to a tragic end on June 16, 1993. Monica’s dressed, badly decomposed body was found in a canoe in the James River just outside Aberdeen, according to Chief Deputy Lunzman.
The body was identified as Monica through dental records, but due to the condition of decomposition a cause of death could not be determined. However, disorderly conduct was suspected and investigators considered her case a homicide.
“It’s not something that happens out here every day,” Deputy Mayor Lunzman said. “It’s been here a very long time. And it still is. It’s a cold thing, but we’ve never stopped working on it. ”
Chief Deputy Lunzman told Dateline there were several suspects after they found Monica’s body, but in her case, no arrests have been made. He added that there are still suspects, but none of them have been named in public, and not all have been cleared.
Over the years, new detectives have been assigned to Monica’s dossier, which has been filled to the brim with interviews, notes and evidence. But Lunzman told Dateline the important three weeks between the last time Monica was seen and when she was reported missing could be the reason why it was not resolved earlier.
“Every hour, every day, every week makes a difference,” he said. ‘But now we can only move forward with fresh eyes. We want nothing more than to fix it and shut down the family. ”
At the end of the summer in 1993, a day after Monica’s 43rd birthday, her daughter Tonya gave birth to a baby girl. She called her Monica.
“My daughter was my savior,” Tonya told Dateline. ‘We all have a journey – it was not the one I had in mind, but it was the one the Creator planned for me. And my daughter is a small part of my mother that I am blessed with. ‘
Twenty-eight years have passed since Monica’s death, but her family and friends continue the search for answers and their fight for justice.
Monica’s own mother prayed for years for answers about her daughter’s death. She died in November 2020 at the age of 98, her prayers unanswered.
“She was so faithful and prayed for answers every day,” Tonya said. ‘But I’ll keep the fight going for her. One day we will know. I have hope. ”
Tonya is now 45 years old, just a few years older than her mother was when she died. She told Dateline she remains stunned that nearly three decades have passed without answers and no arrests.
This week, the family raised $ 10,000 to be offered to anyone who comes forward with information leading to the arrest and conviction of Monica’s killer.
The family continues to raise awareness of Monica’s case on the Justice4Monica Facebook page, hoping that someone will come up with information that could help. They also hope to set up a billboard soon.
Monica’s case is one of many mentioned in Savanna’s Act or #MMIW Act, which reforms law enforcement and justice protocols to address appropriate indigenous women. An initial version of the bill was passed on December 6, 2018 by the Senate.
The bill, nicknamed Fargo, Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind, a North Dakota resident who was murdered in August 2017, is just one example of the gruesome statistics regarding abuse and murder of Native American women.
Tonya told Dateline she often wonders why stories of indigenous women do not get the attention they deserve.
“My mother was someone too,” Tonya said. ‘But to whom can we turn? Sometimes it just feels like our people do not matter. ”
Tonya told Dateline she hopes by sharing her mother’s story and continuing to fight for justice, it will give others hope to be a voice for the voiceless.
“I felt like I did not have a voice for so long,” Tonya said. “But today I feel like I have a voice. And I feel like my mother has finally been given a voice. ‘
Anyone with information on Monica’s case is asked to call the Brown County Sheriff at 605-626-7100.