Danette Tenas

Her FAMILY

“We love her, and we need her to come home,” Dana Hewankorn told Dateline.

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Dana’s younger sister, Danette Tenas, has been missing for two months. She was last seen on October 8, in Lake County, Montana. It was her 54th birthday.

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Dana told Dateline their family is from the Flathead Reservation in Lake County. She said they moved away early on but returned when they were young adults.

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“I pretty much raised her when my mom went to work,” Dana said of her relationship with her sister. “She really loved and cared about her family, her kids and her grandkids.” 

Danette has three children and one grandchild. “She really cared about people and would give her last dollar if they needed it,” Dana said.

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At the time of her disappearance, Danette was living alone on the Flathead Reservation, just a few towns away from Dana. Dana says she last spoke to her sister a few weeks before her disappearance. Everything was normal. “She doesn’t carry a phone so it’s, like, she’s not the easiest to get ahold of,” Dana said.

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Dana says she stopped by Danette’s house on her sister’s birthday. “I dropped off a box of food that I do for my work, and she wasn’t home,” Dana recalled. “But I didn’t know she was in any kind of trouble.” A few days later, Dana went out of town. Then, on October 13, she got a concerning call from their brother. “He said, ‘Hey, I’m starting to get worried. Sister hasn’t checked in or anything,’” Dana said.

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Dana says Danette has a plethora of friends on the reservation and since it was her birthday week, it would be typical for her to be out celebrating. But Dana’s brother told her Danette hadn’t even been seen since her birthday, which wasn’t typical. “He went to Lake County and filed a missing person’s report,” she said.

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When Dana returned to town a few days later she learned Danette and a friend went to a Casino earlier in the day of October 8, and then the pair went to the river near Buffalo Bridge in Lake County.