what happened to Kit Mora?
sorry everyone, I accidentally got the last one I shared deleted editing in Kit's sisters facebook page because she (Charlotte) compiles all the info there, so, resharing this without the link!
Esmerelda "Kit" Mora was just 17 when they went missing from Omak, Washington where they had just moved recently to live with their biological mother, Lorie, and siblings. Kit is latino and indigenous with ancestral ties to the SnPink’tn (Penticton Indian Band). Kit also identified as non-binary which they had confided in some friends. All of Kit's friends described them as a kindhearted teen who enjoyed music and drawing but suffered from anxiety.
This post is going to include a few people; Kit, Charlotte (older sister). Bonnie and Charlie Groo (grandparents), Amythist (friend), Lori (Kit's biological mother).
Kit was born in 2005 into a household with documented domestic abuse, drug abuse, and alcoholism. Kit's father was in and out of jail throughout. This combination all lead to them briefly being in a foster home until Kit was adopted at age 4 by their great grand-grandparents Bonnie and Charlie Groo who lived in Yakima, Washington; they were able to adopt them in 2010. At that time, Kit's mother, Lorie, had been reported to child protective services a total of 39 times. investigators were able to verify three findings of neglect against her, two of the alleged instances were inconclusive.
in 2021 Kit told their friend (some sources state it's their partner) that Kit had been talking to their mother "my mom wants me to go see them, like, go see my mom and siblings and meet my siblings,’” Amithyst recalled Kit saying.
Amythist and Charlotte were both under the impression that this would be a short term visit, like a week so after that had passed they checked in on them to ask how their visit went for them. At that point Kit informed them that they were going to actually stay there. Charlotte said that her (Charlotte & Kit) had heard around that time that Kit planned to start school there. Kit had just told their grandparents that they were going to assist her art teacher in class and was extremely excited prior to them going missing.
The last time Amythist saw Kit in person is on their birthday in 2021.
When Kit was 17 they would go missing after returning to stay with her biological mother and siblings in Omak, Washington in 2021, they noticed a shift and felt that something was wrong by the way Kit was talking to them, they were growingly concerned that Kit hadn't called. Amythist said her last conversation was November 5, 2021.
Charlotte and Charlie said that they called the Omak police on November 27, 2021 and asked for a wellness check and the police said that they had gone to the house and Kit came to the door and advising they were safe and that was all. so the rest of the family assumed Kit was fine. the following months Kit got messages from friends and family, the holidays went without a response from them. Amythist continued texting through summer 2022 without any response and the messages were never opened.
In September 2022 Amythist called Charlotte to see if Charlotte had been able to get in touch with Kit" and at that moment realized neither of them had, Kit seemingly had disappeared. I can only imagine how scared they felt knowing that everything had just changed from simple no replies to missing persons.
That's when their best friend, Amythist, decided to make a 6+ hour round trip drive to try to find them. When they arrived at Omak from Yakima, there was nothing. Not at Kit's home, not anywhere she (Amythist) knew Kit frequented, even Kit's moms store on main street. They found no Kit, just that the shop had been closed for months. after tirelessly searching, Amythist went to the police department to ask if they had heard anything about Kit.
The police officer said he would check and he was able to get in touch with Lorie. The officer passed along the message to Amithyst that they had been missing since April and that the mom said that Kit had run away presumably back to Yakima. Nelson then called Kit's relatives to tell them all what was happening.
Their worst fear had to have been happening.
No one was looking for them. no one had ever known to be looking for them.
Kit had never even been reported missing.
10 months had gone by without anyone hearing from Kit, it took over a year for a search to begin.
Charlotte said around that same time they had seen photos of Kit which was nothing like the typical androgynous look she (Charlotte) was accustomed to seeing Kit wearing. Charlotte described their look as your typical t-shirts, sweats, joggers, jeans, boys shoes, short hair. Yet in these photos she (Charlotte) was seeing they were wearing prairie gunne sax style prairie dresses with floral prints which was just not how they dressed. asides from physically there there was a significant shift in their behavior as well.
They were reported missing in April 2022, their biological mom notably told them they had not heard from Kit for months and that "Kit had run away to Yakima with some girlfriend" when they were asked. however, November of 2021 was the last time Kit's loved ones heard from them, based on records and social media, their disappearance had been withheld for a year.
It took an additional 3 months for the police to begin investigating after that delaying the search by using what is referred to as the runaway loophole and marking them as a runaway instead of a missing endangered persons case. this can cause many issues but one is where it was used as well to delay the search as the bias of runaways leads to sluggish searches and assumptions that they will return on their own.
As of 2026 Kit is still missing and their loved ones, friends, and community are looking for answers. everyone failed Kit and now we/they need more eyes to try to find them. I want to know concretely what happened so we can end the speculations and they have closure & justice. they have been missing for more than three years.
Kit was dropped from their school in early 2022 because they had stopped going to class. under state law before withdrawing Kit the district would have needed to have taken steps like conferences with the mother, filing a truancy petition, along with other required meetings for a student to withdraw from school which the school district did not follow.
Washington Child Protective Services, Omak Police Department and Kit's school had all received signs that the household was potentially unsafe and warned of child neglect/violence in her (Lorie's) home. the last place Kit was staying, long after anyone had even heard from Kit, was with Lorie. none of these agencies meant to help protect people from these circumstances happened to checked on Kit until months had already passed since they were last seen. based on records and social media, their disappearance had been seemingly concealed for more than a year.
Washington is one of the states that has the highest mmiw rates within the states alongside alaska, arizona and new mexico. indigenous folk are 10x more likely to experience violence than non-indigenous women. this is attributed to the disproportionate representation of missing persons/homicide cases, to systemic racism, colonization and socioeconomic changes. there is a widespread issue with mmiw across the country that needs to be addressed on a grand scale. Kit was never meant to be a statistic.
Charlotte created a “Finding Kit” page. She now organizes vigils, made missing person posters and messaged anyone she could think of with a connection to Kit or Nelson. every piece of information she has shared on her facebook.
So, what happened to Kit? how has it been so long without any updates or probing into the schools, cps, etc. why did it take a year for them to even be looked for?
Did Kit ever actually leave Omak?
sources
https://www.opb.org/article/2024/02/18/kit-nelson-mora-missing-indigenous-teen/
https://www.missingkids.org/blog/2026/new-image-offers-hope-in-search-for-missing-teen