February 16, 2025
by Carla Hay
Directed by Sia Savvy (also known as Sia Stewart)
Culture Representation: The documentary film “Left for Dead” features a predominantly African American group of people (with some white people) talking about the cases of two Washington, D.C. women: 47-year-old Pam Butler (who disappeared in 2009) and 24-year-old Unique Harris (who disappeared in 2010).
Culture Clash: Family members and other people looking for these missing women say that they experienced racial bias from law enforcement and the media that did not place enough priority on the cases because the missing women were black.
Culture Audience: “Left for Dead” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in true crime documentaries about that examine investigations into missing person cases about black females.
“Left for Dead” is an inspiring and fascinating documentary about families seeking truth and justice for loved ones who go missing. It also puts an important spotlight on the racial biases in investigations that often give lower priority to black women. While other similar documentaries cover numerous missing persons cases, “Left for Dead” keeps things fairly intimate by focusing on two missing persons cases of two women who lived in Washington, D.C. at the time they disappeared.
Directed by Sia Savvy (also known as Sia Stewart), “Left for Dead” tells each case story in chronological order, but alternates back and forth between each story. In other words, this isn’t a documentary that tells all of one case in the first half, and all of the other case in the second half. Each case has similarities and differences. There are some re-enactments and archival footage, but most of the footage consists of interviews conducted for this documentary.
“Left for Dead” begins with this caption that doesn’t list the source for its statistics: “Across the U.S., more than 100,000 black women and girls go missing each year, with more being reported every day. Black women are 7% of the U.S. population are nearly 40% of missing women.” The caption than goes on to say that black women’s missing persons cases remain unsolved four times longer (on average) than white women’s missing persons cases.
Whether or not those statistics are entirely accurate in any given year, the National Information Crime Center has the latest statistics that are not far off from the statistics that are cited in this documentary. There have have also been numerous studies at institutions, such as Northwestern Law School and The Journal of Criminology, Criminal Justice, Law & Society, proving that white females (especially young white females) are the people who disproportionately get the most media coverage in the U.S. if they go missing, compared to people from other demographics who go missing.
In “Left for Dead,” these are the missing-person cases that are examined are for two women who disappeared from their homes in Washington, D.C.:
Pam Butler was a 43-year-old bachelorette who worked for the Environmental Protection Agency. On February 14, 2009, she and her 43-year-old boyfriend Jose Rodriguez Cruz were supposed to meet up with Pam’s 77-year-old mother Thelma Butler to spend this Valentine’s Day with her. Pam never showed up and was immediately reported missing when family members, such as her younger brother Derrick Butler, went to her house and saw part of it was in disarray, which was out of character for neat and organized Pam. Cruz said he hadn’t seen Pam since February 13, 2009. Surveillance footage later showed that Cruz went in and out of the house (with her set of keys) carried out numerous bags several times during a period of time that Pam went missing.
Unique Harris was a single mother of two sons when she went missing on October 10, 2010. The night before, she and her two sons had invited over the two daughters of Unique’s cousin Tiffanee Smith for a evening of watching movies. (Smith is one of the people interviewed in the documentary.) When the children woke up the next morning, Unique was gone and didn’t leave any messages or any indication of where she was. Two persons of interest were quickly ruled out as suspects: the father of Unique’s children and her current boyfriend, because each man had an alibi proving that they nowhere near Washington, D.C., in the period of time that Unique disappeared.
Although many people helped in the search of these two missing women, two particular family members are credited with pushing the hardest and being the most diligent in the investigations. Derrick Butler, just two years younger than Pam, describes how he was relentless in getting the Metropolitan Police Department and the media to pay attention to the case. Unique’s mother Valencia Harris is shown to be Unique’s biggest advocate in the same matters. Derrick and Valencia both say that that they believe law enforcement and the media were slow or reluctant to investigate the case properly because of Pam and Unique being black.
Other people interviewed in the documentary include Pam Butler’s sister-in-law Gamini Butler; Unique’s cousin Pamela Harris Alexander; Unique’s sister Ashley Jordan; Unique’s godmother Melissa Mathis; Unique’s cousin Elaine Harris; Mitch Credle, a retired homicide detective from the Metropolitan Police Department; Peter Newsham, chief of police for Prince William County Police Department in Virginia; Chanel Dickerson, retired assistant chief of police of the Metropolitan Police Department; Diane Groomes, retired assistant chief of police of the Metropolitan Police Department; and Neal Augenstine, a radio reporter for WTOP-FM.
The non-profit group Black and Missing Foundation is mentioned several times in the documentary as a valuable resource for people with black loved ones who are missing in the United States. However, this documentary shows that loved ones of missing black people often have to take matters into their own hands by investigating and doing community outreach on their own when they are ignored or stalled by law enforcement and the media, which are almost always controlled or led by white people.
Several family members who are interviewed in the documentary put an emphasis on the fact that, contrary to negative stereotypes, Pam and Unique were not involved in drugs or crime. They also did not have a history of mental illness or going places without telling anyone. Pam and Unique are both described by people who knew them best as responsible, kind and loving.
Pam and Derrick had ambitions to be real-estate moguls and had been involved in buying and selling properties. At one point, Derrick became a suspect because he was the sole beneficiary in Pam’s will, while she was the sole beneficiary in his will. He explained the business reason for that arrangement. Derrick also had an alibi, so he was dropped from the list of possible suspects.
As for Unique, she had plans to go to school to become a massage therapist. Her mother Valencia, who has the most passionate personality in the documentary, describes Unique as an ideal daughter who had an angelic personality. Unique’s only real problem at the time she disappeared was that she was in a custody battle with the father of her two sons. As previously mentioned, this man (who is not named in the documentary) had an alibi and was not a suspect in her disappearance.
The case of Unique Harris was a much more difficult case to solve because there were no obvious suspects. However, one of her sons provided a valuable clue that led to a big break in the case. This clue was overlooked by local law enforcement, but Harris family members took this clue seriously and investigated further on their own.
Valencia Harris gives a lot of credit to Metropolitan Police Department homicide detective Mike Fullton (who is not interviewed in the documentary) for his help in solving her daughter Unique’s case. This review won’t reveal any spoiler information if people want to see this documentary and find out the outcomes of these two cases. It’s enough to say that Pam Butler’s loved ones didn’t get justice in the court system until 2020, which was 11 years after she disappeared. The loved ones of Unique Harris had their case resolved in court in 2023, which was 13 to years after each disappearance.
“Left for Dead” is competently made with just a few areas that look unprofessional, such as a noticeable grammatical error in one of the captions. The documentary has good editing overall, because when the documentary jumps back and forth between each case, it doesn’t become confusing. The filmmakers also wisely didn’t overstuff the documentary with too many talking heads.
The people interviewed in the documentary have compelling comments, with none of the interviews looking staged or exploitative. One of the most memorable parts of the documentary—besides showing the outcomes of these cases—is a scene showing a heart-to-heart conversation between Derrick and Valencia as they talk about their experiences. “Left for Dead” shows in many unflinching ways not only the heartbreak of these families but also the strength and resilience it takes to never give up in finding out what happened to their missing loved ones and seeking justice.
Tubi premiered “Left for Dead” on February 5, 2025.
