Florence Okpealuk

Case background and investigation

Florence Helen Okpealuk, known to family and friends as Flo, was a 33-year-old Inupiaq woman originally from the village of Wales, Alaska. She had moved to Nome in 2013 and worked as a patient financial services representative at the Norton Sound Health Corporation. The second youngest of seven siblings, she was the mother of a six-year-old daughter and was described by her sister Blaire as stubborn but organized, responsible and an involved parent. Friends remembered her as humorous, sophisticated and encouraging.

Okpealuk disappeared at the end of August 2020 from West Beach, a stretch of shoreline about one to two miles outside Nome where gold miners pitch tents during the summer dredging season. The Nome Police Department reported that she went missing in the early morning hours of August 31, 2020; according to her sister, a witness saw Florence leaving a tent on the beach at about 4:00 p.m., and when Blaire went to look for her she found Florence's shoes, sock and jacket left outside that tent. No other trace of her was ever located.

The search that followed was among the most extensive in the region's recent history. The Nome Police Department was joined by the Alaska State Troopers, the Nome Volunteer Fire Department Search and Rescue team and the U.S. Coast Guard, which flew helicopter searches over the coastline. Volunteers conducted at least two large community searches, one drawing roughly 38 to 40 people, and searchers used K-9 teams, planes, boats and an underwater drone in nearby ponds. On September 11, 2020, six FBI agents, including specialists in abduction response, arrived in Nome to assist; the bureau had already provided technical analysis of Okpealuk's cell phone to try to reconstruct her movements. Investigators sought and located the driver of a black flatbed truck seen in the area. In mid-October, three search dogs from the MAT+SAR K-9 team swept the West Beach area but, according to city officials, found no evidence.

Police have not said whether they believe foul play was involved. In 2023, Nome Police Chief William Crocket told Dateline that Okpealuk was still considered a missing person and that the department was unsure whether foul play was a factor. An FBI spokeswoman said in September 2020 that investigators did not believe there was a threat to the community. Family members and advocates have pressed for continued attention, noting Nome's troubled history with unresolved disappearances of Alaska Native women.

The case has become a prominent example of the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples (MMIP) crisis. In 2024 it was the subject of the fourth season of the podcast Up and Vanished, titled In the Midnight Sun, hosted by Payne Lindsey, with a second part premiering in August 2024. Okpealuk is listed in NamUs as case MP73491, described as 5'2" and about 142 pounds with black hair and eyes. Anyone with information is asked to call the Nome Police Department at 907-443-5262; callers may remain anonymous.