By Catharin Shepard • Editor • Rayonna Diane “Ray Ray” Bell’s smile could light up a room.

That smile is what her oldest sister, Sissalee “Sunshine” Bell remembers most about the 19-year-old.

“She was one of those people, if she was riding down the road and saw a dead dog, she wanted to get it off the road. If she saw a homeless person, she wanted to give them her clothes,” Bell said. “She was too kind for the world. She didn’t do harm to the community. She was a ball of light; she was an outgoing person. She had so much more life to live. She had so many more memories to make.”

Rayonna Bell was found dead this past April at Mott Lake on the Fort Bragg military reservation. She had been fatally shot, and at the time she was found, the woman was barefoot and missing her purse and phone. An anonymous call from someone who claimed to have found her body while fishing at the lake tipped off law enforcement, her family said.

Rayonna’s family had tried to report her missing from the home on Turnpike Road she had shared with her boyfriend, Josh Hunt, for the past three years. They were told they had to wait until she had been missing for 48 hours, Bell said.

The next time her family heard of Rayonna’s whereabouts, it was to learn that her body was being held at Womack Army Hospital.

“She was only 19. I feel like we could have used her for 19 more years. Her life was cut way too short,” Bell said.

Ever since, her family has been working to see an arrest made in the investigation. They’ve put together a $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of a suspect in Rayonna’s murder. They hope that the community will rally to spread the word about the reward and encourage people with information to come forward.

The search for answers is still underway. Since her body was found on military property, the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID) took the lead on the case. Capt. Shipp of the Hoke County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that the local law enforcement agency is now working with CID on the case. There are persons of interest, he said, but so far there have not been any arrests made.

As months have passed without an arrest, the family’s frustration has grown.

“It’s like the case is just stored on a shelf,” Bell said. “I feel like nothing’s getting done, for us to celebrate someone getting arrested for her murder. It’s like she was just killed, buried and that was it.”

Rayonna’s family still has questions about what happened to the 19-year-old.

“She was found on military property. My first question is, how? How was somebody able to drive back there or walk back there, how was somebody able to carry a dead body and place them on what’s supposed to be highly protected land?” her sister asked.

Adding to their grief, the family didn’t get to see Rayonna’s body for two weeks while CID held onto her remains as evidence in the investigation.

“The family never viewed Rayonna until we were burying Rayonna. Rayonna sat on a gurney for two weeks after she was found,” Bell said. They weren’t allowed to visit with her and were told it was due to the ongoing investigation, she said. There was an autopsy conducted in the case before she was returned to the family.

“She was shot, she was murdered, she was thrown in this lake. She was found with no shoes, no cell phone, no pocketbook. She was already put away terrible,“ Bell said.

The family was able to lay Rayonna to rest in May.

The case has changed hands over the past months. Having different personnel with CID take over the investigation, has left the girl’s sister feeling exhausted from explaining the same story multiple times to different officers. Bell said she feels like she’s taken on the role of being a detective, herself.

“I feel like I haven’t slept since then,” she said.

Rayonna’s family recently visited Mott Lake to see the place where responders found her body. They waded into the shallow water at the edge of the lake to throw flowers, leaving them floating on the surface. The memorial was where they met Littlesnowbird Bray, a Hoke County resident who knows firsthand what it’s like to have a family member vanish.

Rayonna, a member of the Lumbee Tribe, is one of many Indigenous women who are found murdered or are reported missing. There were more than 10,248 missing Indigenous persons reports filed in 2024, according to numbers from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and women on some reservations face up to 10 times the murder rate versus the national average.

Five years ago, Littlesnowbird’s cousin Emmilee Risling disappeared from the Yurok reservation in California. Littlesnowbird, herself, is a survivor. When she saw social media posts about the memorial, she went to Mott Lake to join the Bell family in remembering Rayonna.

Ever since she’s been helping the family raise awareness of the investigation, advocate for Rayonna and seek justice.

“I’ve been doing heavy advocacy work since my cousin went missing,” she said.

Littlesnowbird is a part of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW), a group that raises awareness about the high rates of violence and murder to which Indigenous women fall victim. A Hoke County resident, she visits local middle schools and the high schools to talk about MMIW with students and has worked with other Tribes to spread the word.

Last Friday, she helped set up a display at the Hoke County Public Library in memory of Rayonna. The display included a red dress on a mannequin, a framed photo of Rayonna, and a tablecloth with a red handprint symbol on it bearing the words: “No More Stolen Sisters.”

“I see it as part of the ethos to speak up for the women who cannot, and their families who don’t know where to go or who to turn to, to get the word out,” she said.

MMIW provides free support and information for families, but people often “don’t know how bad it truly is with Native women going missing and being murdered,” she said.

“I think it’s important for the citizens of a Tribal community to know that they have a voice within their Tribe to be the mouthpiece for their missing or murdered loved one.”

For more information about MMIW, visit https://www.niwrc.org/mmiwr-awareness.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call Army CID at (910) 391-4911 or contact the Hoke County Sheriff’s Office at (910) 875-5111.

To receive the reward money offered by the family, information provided must lead to an arrest and a conviction in Rayonna Bell’s murder.

The News-Journal also reached out to the Lumbee Tribe’s main offices seeking a statement regarding the case.