Pernell was a student at a local cosmetology school and lived with his sister at her house in Bloomfield about 10 miles southeast of Farmington. On the night of his disappearance in May 1998, he spent the evening with his sister and friends at Gator's Bar & Grill, a popular Farmington club, before leaving in separate cars. He drove his sister's 1988 Subaru station wagon while his sister rode with friends. She thought he was following her home but he never arrived. On 06/18/1998, almost three weeks later, an oil field worker checking on a well about five miles northwest of Farmington found the badly burned Subaru in a dry river wash in Choke Cherry Canyon. Pernell is of Navajo-Hopi descent.