The Pulikla Tribe of Yurok People has spent the last three months working to find one of their enrolled tribal citizens: Brandyone “Brandon” Salazar. The 23-year-old was last seen in the early morning hours of Sunday, March 22, in Klamath, California.
Brandon’s cousin, Fawn Murphy, told Dateline she is the tribal chairperson for the Pulikla Tribe, and she’s been leading the charge in the search for Brandon. “We would just meet in the morning, go over our notes, coordinate, get out, search for the day,” she said. But “when you don’t really have the technical expertise or all of the tools you need, it is very difficult.”
“Our tribe is very, very small,” Fawn said. “We need coordination, and we need to get the word out.”
Fawn says Brandon loves the traditions of his tribe. “I remember he expressed a real interest in traditional eeling, and so I was able to get him some eel hooks,” she said. Brandon also participated in ceremonial dances and wore traditional regalia. “He’s got this great big, really bright, happy smile.”
“He’s very traditional,” Brandon’s mother, Brandy Mendoza, shared. “He just brightens up the world with him in it.” Brandon is Brandy’s fourth child, but the eldest boy. “He’s, like, the oldest in all of them, because he wanted to be the bigger brother, ‘cause he’s the first boy in the family,” she said. “He was protective.” Brandon lived in Crescent City, California, with a roommate. But in the days prior to his disappearance he had been staying with his mom in Klamath.
According to Fawn, the last sighting of Brandon was around 2:00 a.m. near the Country Club Bar and Grill in Klamath. “It was around the time the bar was closing,” she told Dateline. “There was some sort of an altercation where Brandon took off running.”
Fawn says the bar is right near Highway 101 and the Klamath River. According to Fawn, a Yurok Tribal public safety officer witnessed Brandon jump over a fence. “His sweatshirt got caught up on the fence,” she said. The officer grabbed the sweatshirt, which Fawn says was taken into evidence.
Fawn told Dateline that around 2:20 a.m., Brandon sent a final text message asking a friend to come pick him up near a boat launch for the Klamath River. The friend told the family that by the time they arrived, Brandon was not there. Fawn says the family learned from the Yurok Tribal Police that Brandon’s phone also “pinged right near the Klamath River” right around the time his last text was sent.
An official missing person report was filed, and California Highway Patrol initiated a Feather Alert on behalf of the Del Norte County Sheriff’s Office on March 23. Brandon’s case is also listed on the State of California Department of Justice Office of the Attorney General’s website.
Dateline reached out to the Yurok Tribal Police Department for comment on Brandon’s case and its investigation, but has not yet heard back. The Del Norte County Sheriff’s Office has also not yet responded to Dateline’s request for comment.
Fawn says the searches for her cousin have focused on the Klamath River area where his phone last pinged. They used boats and an underwater drone with sonar, but Fawn says nothing was found.
The possibility that Brandon is in the water is of great concern to the family. “He was afraid of water,” Fawn said. “The Klamath River is pretty swift-moving, and we went down to that boat launch area to kinda look, and it -- it is pretty -- a steep drop-off.”
The family is at a loss as to what happened to Brandon that night. “We don’t know if it was an accident,” Fawn said. “We don’t know if he took off because he was scared, but that’s kind of a far-fetched thing. Or we don’t know if somebody purposely hurt him.”
Either way, Brandon’s family is “desperately wondering what happened,” Fawn said.
“We’re in a small town, and it’s a close-knit community,” Fawn said. “But there’s rumors swirling around.” She’s hoping that if someone out there knows something about what happened to Brandon, they will come forward with that information now.
Brandon is about 5’7” and 145 lbs. He has short, dark brown hair, is usually clean-cut, and has a small gap between his top front teeth. He was wearing a white T-shirt, black joggers, and white Nike shoes when he went missing. He has tattoos on his forearms/elbows and near his wrist, including a traditional tribal friendship design.
The Pulikla Tribe of Yurok People is offering a $10,000 reward for “information leading to the safe return or information leading to the location of the missing person Brandyone Salazar.”
If you have any information about Brandon’s disappearance, please call the Yurok Tribal Police at 707-237-5702.
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