Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - The Missoula County Attorney’s Office charged 22 new criminal complaints this week, which is one more than last week and higher than the weekly average. Mac Bloom is the Lead Attorney for the Major Crimes Unit and he said this was the second busiest week of the year so far. 

“Four of those were endangerment crimes and seven of those were property crimes,” Bloom said. “There were also three drug crimes and four administrative crimes. It was a busy week. We had one week back in January where we had 28 cases. Most weeks we are filing anywhere between 10 and 15, but we had 22 this week.” 

According to Bloom, this week was also unique because there were four robbery cases. 

“That is not super common,” Bloom said. “I don’t know what was going on, but a robbery occurs when somebody assaults somebody while committing a theft. So, for whatever reason, we had four of those. All of our violent crimes this week were robberies and that is not something we usually see.” 

In addition, there have been a handful of missing person cases in the past few weeks and Bloom wanted to reiterate that the Missoula County Attorney’s Office takes those situations very seriously. 

“I know that there have been some missing persons reports that have been rocking our community and I just wanted to express on behalf of myself and the County Attorney’s Office that our hearts go out to these folks and their families,” Bloom said. “Law enforcement is doing absolutely everything they can to find these people. We are hoping and praying for a safe return. I just wanted to let the community know that our office cares a lot about these kinds of cases and these people. We are hoping to see them found soon.” 

One of the individuals who is still missing is Nefataree Bartell. You can read about her situation by clicking here.

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