Key facts
- Name: Sharon Bald Eagle
- Age at disappearance: 12
- Last seen: September 18, 1984 (some sources report September 19, 1984)
- Location: Casper / Evansville, Wyoming
- Status: Still missing — abducted; kidnapper convicted, died in prison without revealing her fate
- Investigating agency: Tips: 1-800-THE-LOST; Fall River County (SD) Sheriff’s Office, (605) 745-4444
The ride
In September 1984, twelve-year-old Sharon Bald Eagle ran away from the Brainerd Indian School in Hot Springs, South Dakota, with a fifteen-year-old friend. Sharon was Lakota, from the Cheyenne River Reservation at Eagle Butte — the oldest of four siblings, about to start her first year at the school. The two girls were trying to get to Idaho, where Sharon hoped to visit old classmates. They hitchhiked.
Near Casper, Wyoming, a truck stopped. The driver was Royal Russell Long, 49 — a long-haul trucker and carnival worker. He took the girls to his home in Evansville, just outside Casper, fed them, and then offered them $100 for sex. When they refused, he tied them up at gunpoint. He beat Sharon. He assaulted her friend.
The older girl got free and ran for help. She gave police a clear description — of Long, of his truck, of the house. But by the time officers reached the Evansville home, Long and Sharon were gone.
They caught up with Long a week later in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Sharon wasn’t with him. He said he’d driven her to Cheyenne and put her on a bus or truck bound for Dallas, Texas — a story with no evidence behind it and no witness to support it. Prosecutors considered charging him with Sharon’s murder but decided they couldn’t prove it without a body. Instead, Long pleaded guilty to two counts of kidnapping and was sentenced to two life terms.
Sharon’s father, Taylor Bald Eagle, went to visit Long in prison shortly before Long died of a heart attack in 1993. Long refused to speak to him.
The man in the middle of everything
Royal Russell Long did not begin or end with Sharon. By the time he crossed into Wyoming in 1984, investigators would later understand, he had been moving through the cracks between jurisdictions for years — a trucker and carnival worker whose routes carried him through states that never compared notes.
He had lived and worked in the Rawlins area during the summer of 1974 — the summer four young girls vanished there. He became a possible suspect in those disappearances and in two murders. In 1981, two girls, Cinda Pallett and Charlotte Kinsey, vanished from the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds after being approached by a man offering them jobs; Long was charged with kidnapping and murdering them, but the charges were dismissed for lack of evidence. Neither girl was ever found.
He was convicted only for Sharon. And for Sharon, he never said where she was.
In January 2024, an unsigned article in a Wyoming online outlet reported that remains of a teenage Native American girl had been found near a power plant — bones in the ground twenty to thirty years — and quoted a podcast host saying there was “a remote possibility these remains might be Sharon’s.” Taylor Bald Eagle, still alive and still advocating for his daughter, was put through it all again. “To me it’s all hearsay unless I hear it in a confirmation from the FBI,” he said. The remains were not confirmed to be Sharon’s.
In 2026, a two-part Cowboy State Daily investigation, “The girls Wyoming lost,” placed Sharon’s abduction in the full context of the state’s long, troubled history of missing girls — the transient workforce, the trucking corridors, the carnival circuits, the counties that didn’t talk to each other — and the predators who moved freely through all of it.
Theories: what might have happened
Long killed her between Wyoming and New Mexico. This is what investigators came to believe: that somewhere along his flight route, Long murdered Sharon and hid her body, then invented the bus-to-Dallas story. His shifting explanations were inconsistent and unsupported, and nothing about them holds up. What keeps it from being certain: without a body, it remains an investigator’s belief, not a finding — and Long took the truth with him in 1993.
She was put on transport and survived. Long’s story, and for years her father’s hope — Taylor Bald Eagle said he believed his daughter was alive. Against it: no credible sighting, no contact, no trace in forty-two years; a twelve-year-old put on a truck by her kidnapper does not vanish cleanly into a new life.
The remains found in 2024 were hers. Raised by local media, quashed by the lack of confirmation. Her father’s standard stands: hearsay until the FBI says otherwise.
Sharon Bald Eagle was twelve years old, Lakota, far from home, trying to get to Idaho. A man stopped his truck. Her friend got away. She didn’t. Forty-two years later, her father is still waiting for a confirmation that has never come — and a state is still reckoning with how many girls it lost in the years when nobody was connecting the dots.
Have information?
Call 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678) or the Fall River County Sheriff’s Office at (605) 745-4444. In an emergency, dial 911.
Timeline
- September 18, 1984 — Sharon Bald Eagle, 12, and a 15-year-old friend run away from the Brainerd Indian School, Hot Springs, SD, hitchhiking toward Idaho.
- September 1984 — Picked up near Casper, WY, by Royal Russell Long; taken to his Evansville home; tied up at gunpoint; Sharon beaten, her friend assaulted.
- September 1984 — The friend escapes and leads police to the house; Long and Sharon are gone.
- ~One week later — Long arrested in Albuquerque, NM, without Sharon; claims he put her on transport to Dallas, TX.
- 1985 — Long pleads guilty to two kidnapping counts; sentenced to two life terms.
- 1993 — Long dies of a heart attack in prison, having refused to speak to Sharon’s father.
- January 2024 — Unconfirmed report of a teenage girl’s remains found near a Wyoming power plant raises false hope; not confirmed as Sharon.
- 2026 — Cowboy State Daily’s “The girls Wyoming lost” investigation revisits her case.
- Today — Still missing.
FAQ
Is Sharon Bald Eagle still missing?
Yes. As of October 2026, Sharon Bald Eagle has been missing for 42 years. She was never found.
Was Sharon Bald Eagle ever found?
No. Despite her kidnapper’s conviction and decades of investigation, no trace of Sharon has ever been found. A 2024 report of possible remains was never confirmed to be hers.
How old would Sharon Bald Eagle be today?
Sharon was 12 when she was abducted in September 1984 — she would be about 54 years old today.
Who was Royal Russell Long?
A truck driver and carnival worker who kidnapped Sharon Bald Eagle and her friend in 1984. He pleaded guilty to kidnapping and died in prison in 1993. He was also a possible suspect in the 1974 Rawlins disappearances and the 1981 Oklahoma State Fair disappearances, but was never convicted in connection with any missing person besides Sharon.
What happened to Sharon’s friend?
The 15-year-old girl escaped from Long’s home and went for help, leading police to the house. She survived.
How can I help?
Share this case file. If you have any information, call 1-800-THE-LOST or the Fall River County Sheriff’s Office at (605) 745-4444.
Sources
- News: Brookings Register, “Man hurt by ‘false hope’ surrounding long-missing daughter”; Native Sun News Today, “The girls Wyoming lost” (2026, Cowboy State Daily two-part investigation).
- Reference: The Charley Project; NamUs.
- Media: Cold and Missing podcast, “Sharon Bald Eagle”; Dead & Gone in Wyoming podcast.
Found an error? Tell us via the About page and we will fix it promptly and note the change here. Last verified October 2026.
Note (October 2026): Some sources (e.g., regional case summaries) list September 19, 1984 as the date Sharon went missing, while the Charley Project and the Wikipedia kidnapping list give September 18. The file retains September 18 with the conflict disclosed.