Missing Milwaukee girl Joniah Walker found safe nearly four years later

A then-15-year-old Milwaukee girl who had been missing for nearly four years has been located safe, according to police. 

The Milwaukee Police Department would only say Joniah Walker was located May 25 and is safe. 

Walker disappeared on June 23, 2022 after being seen on surveillance video walking near Buffum and Reservoir, a few blocks away from where she lived with her mother. 

She was one of dozens of missing persons cases that MPD said they are investigating. 

Since 2021, State Rep. Shelia Stubbs has been working to create the Missing and Murdered African American Women and Girls Task Force. Last summer, Walker joined the families of Sade Robinson and LaSheaky Hill as the public faces of the latest push to get the bill passed.

The proposed task force would bring together law enforcement, survivors, attorneys and victims’ rights advocates to examine the factors driving violence against Black women and girls. It would also be responsible for recommending ways to prevent that violence.

The bill cleared the Wisconsin State Assembly in 2024 but never made it through the Senate.

During the campaign at the Wisconsin Capitol, signs highlighted sobering statistics from The Guardian: Wisconsin had the highest homicide rate for Black women and girls in the nation in 2020.

Research from Columbia University paints an even starker picture. Between 2019 and 2020, Black women in Wisconsin were 20 times more likely to be murdered than white women—the largest racial disparity in the country, according to the researchers.