EDGEWOOD, N.M. — On the exact five-year anniversary of the day Navajo elder Ella Mae Begay vanished from her home in a remote part of Arizona, the man who admitted beating her, taking her truck, and abandoning her on the side of a road has walked out of federal prison.
Preston Tolth entered a guilty plea for robbing Begay and was sentenced on May 8 to five years behind bars, with credit for three years he had already served. According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, he was released this past Monday.
Begay’s family had believed Tolth would remain incarcerated until at least 2028 and were caught completely off guard when they received the news. Her eldest child, Gerald Begay, found out about the release while finishing up his shift at a construction job — a moment already heavy with the weight of his mother’s unsolved disappearance.
