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- By Native StoryLab
What happens when law enforcement refuses to act? For Lydia Lerma, a Lipan Apache mother and data analyst, the answer was to take justice into her own hands. On the latest episode of Native Bidaské, host Levi Rickert sat down with Lerma to hear how her fight for her son became a movement for many.
Rickert set the stage:
“Lydia Lerma, who is a Lipan Apache, was featured in a six-episode podcast this summer called The Hunter. The podcast hit number three on the Apple podcast channel. In the series, Lerma tells the story of how her son, who was sexually molested when he was only six years old, and how she traveled all the way to Mexico City using her own funds to bring justice for her son.”
Lerma explained the motivation that drove her:
“What went through my mind initially was it actually reopened up a bunch of wounds that I had for myself. I'm a sexual abuse survivor myself… when I found out what had happened to my son, it reopened all of those wounds, but it also provided the motivation for me to get justice… I did not want him to live the rest of his life carrying the weight on his shoulders of what had happened to him and not having some type of closure.”
Armed with her skills as a data analyst, Lerma dug into the case herself:
“I was very familiar with just pulling information from different resources and putting it all together, and I think that's what helped me in my social media campaign when I was tracking down the man that had abused my son.”
What she uncovered was chilling:
“I found evidence that he was a serial predator, that my son was not the first victim… Yes, it felt like I was on an episode of Dateline when they find the trophy chest of a serial killer. I am looking at pictures of victims. I'm looking at their artwork and personal belongings that he had taken as mementos. He took a baseball glove from one of his victims. He had one of his victims’ baseball hats. He had a cleat. He had pictures that these children would draw in school and bring home. He had so many different things from each of his victims. And I was shaking when I found it, and I couldn't believe what I was seeing.”
But even with this mountain of evidence, authorities did not act quickly.
“I actually had contacted law enforcement and told them this is what I found. But guess what? Nobody came to get that evidence… Nobody listened to me. And it wasn't until I went to the extreme of going to Guatemala, Mexico to track him down… and I spoke in front of the judge when he had been extradited back to the United States… At that point the media was in the courtroom, and that's when they picked up my case.”
Today, Lerma’s work continues through the Lydia Lerma Foundation, which supports survivors of sexual abuse and their families with resources, advocacy, and healing programs. Her story is not just about one fight for justice; it’s about creating visibility, building community strength, and refusing to let silence protect abusers.
🎥 Watch the full episode of Native Bidaské with Lydia Lerma to hear her powerful story.
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