Minnesota Confronts a Crisis: Missing and Murdered Black Women

Tonight on PBS News Hour

When 18-year-old Brittany Clardy went missing in Minnesota in 2013, her family went to the police.

They were dismissed immediately — told that Clardy likely ran away with her boyfriend. Her family, especially her sister Lakeisha Lee, knew that wasn’t true.

Ten days later, Clardy’s body was found in the trunk of an impounded car. A man who was not Clardy’s boyfriend was later charged and convicted in her murder. She became one more statistic in a state with striking racial disparities. Even though Black women only make up 7 percent of the state’s population, they comprise 40 percent of domestic violence victims. And Black women are nearly 3 times more likely than white women to be murdered in Minnesota.

In 2024, it became the first state to open an office of Missing and Murdered Black Women.

Watch our report on the PBS News Hour tonight.