TULALIP — Tucked into a corner booth in Seattle’s Hotel Sorrento, award-winning documentarian Sabrina Van Tassel’s jaw fell slack.
She leaned forward across the table, recalling what an FBI agent had told her months ago: “Some people want to go missing.”
“I literally stopped the interview and said, ‘You really want to say that to me on camera?’” Van Tassel said. “‘Then why do we have Missing and Murdered Indigenous People Day? Then why am I here?’”
The French-American director sat back against the wood-paneled walls in the hotel’s Italian café, picking at her English muffin. In about three hours, Van Tassel would head upstairs to pack her bags and fly back to Paris. She recently wrapped-up filming her newest documentary, a deep-dive into the 2020 disappearance of Tulalip’s Mary Ellen Johnson-Davis.