A #NativeAmerican girl was found dead and dismembered by an Arizona highway. Will her killer ever be found?

“Criminals and bad actors believe that they can get away with (crimes) on the Indian reservations.”
—attorney and activist Margo Hill-Ferguson

By Rob Picheta
Feb 13, 2026

"Carolyn Bender remembers her niece’s smile: broad and vibrant and heartbreakingly innocent, as though the whole world was in on her joke.
She remembers Emily drawing in the back seat of the car, and teasing her younger brother, and the sound of her soft-spoken voice. She recalls with a smile her love of being active in the outdoors: Emily was 'always on a swing, always in a pool.'

"That’s how #EmilyPike’s family remembers her. But for many in her tribe and across Arizona, she is known for something else: Being the victim of a savage crime.

"Last year Emily – a 14-year-old member of the #SanCarlosApache tribe – went missing from her group home in #MesaAZ, an eastern suburb of #PhoenixAZ. Her dismembered body was discovered by hikers nearly three weeks later and around 70 miles away, stuffed into trash bags left by the side of a rural highway.

"A multi-pronged investigation by federal and tribal authorities, with the support of the #FBI, has seemingly stalled. And a year later Emily’s family is still left waiting, desperately, for justice.
But her grisly killing underscores a broader problem: an epidemic of violence against #NativeAmericanWomen and girls who go missing or are killed at a staggeringly high rate.

"Native people were reported missing more than 10,200 times in 2024, according to the latest available FBI data: a rate of 28 missing person cases a day, or more than one an hour. Over 7,000 of those cases involved children, and more than 4,000 involved girls.

"This is a crisis hidden in plain sight, campaigners and tribal leaders say. In 2023, homicide was the fourth-leading cause of death for Native American men under the age of 45, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the sixth-leading cause for women of the same age. And in a landmark study conducted a decade ago, more than four in five Native American women said they had experienced violence in their lifetime. "

Read more [paywall?]:
https://www.cnn.com/2026/02/13/us/emily-pike-killing-arizona

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/XhhqA

#MMIW #MMIWG #StolenSisters #MurderedSisters #MMIWGT2S #MMIWG2S #NoMoreStolenSisters #InidgenousRights #PoliceDontKeepUsSafe #WhoKeepsUsSafe #MurderedAndMissingIndigenosuWomen

A Native American girl was found dead and dismembered by an Arizona highway. Will her killer ever be found?

Emily Pike slipped out a window of her Arizona group home a year ago; days later, the 14-year-old’s remains were found in a pair of trash bags by a rural highway. The ongoing mystery surrounding her death underscores the epidemic of violence against Indigenous women and girls in the US.

CNN
Authorities investigating after man found dead in same area as Emily Pike

The Gila County Sheriff’s Office said they investigating another murder that happened in the same area where 14-year-old Emily Pike was murdered. Her remains were found on Valentine’s Day north of Globe off Highway 60 at milepost 277 off Forest Service Road 355.

https://www.kold.com

#EmilyPike from the San Carlos #Apache tribe was murdered. She was only 14. The young girl was reported missing on Jan 27, 2025. Her dismembered remains were discovered on Feb 14, 2025 off Highway 60 near #Globe , Arizona.

My heart goes out to Emily’s loved ones - her mother, family and friends. No one should ever loose their child this way.

Share this post to spread the awareness. And let us honour her memory ❤️

#JusticeForEmilyPike #JusticeForEmily
#NoMoreStolenSisters #MMIWG