What happened to Jermain Charlo? Details explored ahead of 48 Hours on CBS
48 Hours airs an encore on Jermain Charlo this Saturday, June 7, at 10 pm ET / 9 p.m. CT on CBS and Paramount+. The episode Where is Jermain Charlo? condenses 6 years of investigation into the disappearance of the 23-year-old Confederated Salish & Kootenai woman. She was last seen during a late-night visit to Missoula’s Badlander bar.
Surveillance footage shows Jermain Charlo entering an alley with ex-partner Michael DeFrance moments before she disappeared, as per a CBS News report dated June 4, 2025. Witness accounts, however, conflict over her route.
Soon after, her phone pinged from Evaro Hill, land tied to DeFrance, and he later admitted discarding the handset in Idaho; it has never been found. He later faced gun charges tied to those searches, drawing a 21-month sentence in 2023. The sentence, however, was overturned by the Ninth Circuit on December 30, 2024, as per NBC Montana's report dated January 3, 2025.
Justice.gov report dated August 2, 2021, filings confirm he remains free under supervision while prosecutors consider a retrial, leaving Jermain’s family still searching for answers.
2018 gun seizure connects DeFrance’s 2013 Jermain Charlo assault conviction to firearm ban
During a 2018 sweep of Michael DeFrance’s Evaro Hill property, officers removed several firearms. He could not legally hold these weapons because of a 2013 Partner-or-Family-Member-Assault conviction tied to Jermain Charlo, as per the CBS News report dated June 4, 2025.
That earlier case file notes DeFrance hit Charlo with an open hand, followed by two closed-fist blows. He later pushed her onto his van’s hood, struck her ear, temple, and cheek, spat on her, and shouted insults.
He pleaded guilty in May 2013, and the court stripped him of his firearm rights, making any future possession a federal offense. When detectives later found guns on his land in 2018, the weapons were logged as evidence of a prohibited-person violation, directly connecting the old domestic-violence plea to the new gun-possession investigation.
Night out becomes a disappearance
48 Hours footage shows DeFrance trailing Jermain Charlo out of Missoula’s Badlander bar just before midnight on 15 June 2018. He later told police he dropped her at Orange Street Food Farm at her friend, Cassidy's, place, then revised the location to a residential block eight streets west. Detectives never found the “Cassidy” he said Charlo planned to visit.
Cell-tower logs placed Jermain Charlo’s phone on Evaro Hill, property tied to DeFrance, between 2 am and 10 am on June 16. As cited in a CBS News report dated June 4, 2025, speaking to 48 Hours, Missoula County Deputy Attorney Brittany Williams said:
"In a subsequent interview, [DeFrance] provided a statement that she left her cellphone and he attempted to go through her cellphone and he was unable to get into her cellphone."
DeFrance admitted discarding the phone beside Idaho’s Highway 12; searches found nothing. The phone was never recovered. Lead detective Guy Baker told 48 Hours:
“I'm very much committed to finding her,...I wanna bring justice to Jermain and hold accountable who's responsible.”
Community volunteers, tribal members, and cadaver dogs have combed Evaro Hill and the Flathead Reservation repeatedly. However, no trace of Jermain Charlo has surfaced.
Firearms indictment, conviction, and reversal
Guns seized from DeFrance’s land in October 2018 triggered a federal prohibited-person indictment three years later. He pleaded not guilty in August 2021 but remained on bond.
After a 2-day bench trial in April 2023, Judge Dana Christensen found him guilty on four firearm counts. Sentenced to 21 months that September, DeFrance filed an immediate appeal and stayed free pending review.
On December 30, 2024, the Ninth Circuit vacated the conviction, ruling that Montana’s misdemeanor assault statute did not match the federal definition that drives the gun ban. The matter is back in district court, and prosecutors have not announced whether they will retry. DeFrance still lives under pre-trial supervision in western Montana.
48 Hours returns to the case with an encore presentation of Where Is Jermain Charlo? on Saturday, June 7, at 10 pm ET / 9 pm CT, streaming on Paramount+. Detectives now treat the file as a no-body homicide and urge anyone who saw Jermain Charlo after she left the Badlander, or who knows events on Evaro Hill, to come forward.
Her family’s billboard still faces the highway, a daily reminder that the search for answers continues.
Stay tuned for more updates.
