Advocates continue to push for answers in connection with the untimely 2025 death of 14-year-old Arizona girl, Emily Pike.
On Tuesday, crowds marched through the streets of Phoenix, in support of missing and murdered Indigenous people (MMIP) Awareness Day.
Dozens gathered outside the Arizona State Capitol, chanting for justice for Emily and other Native Americans whose disappearances or deaths remain unsolved, the AZ Mirror reports.
“It doesn’t take a huge amount of people to make a difference,” founder of Turtle Island Women Warriors, Reva Steward, told the crowd.
A report by the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Missing and Unidentified Persons System indicated that Arizona is the second highest-ranked state in the nation for missing Indigenous people.
One in three Murdered Native Americans get reported to the FBI in the state, making Arizona the second-worst rate in the nation, according to the Murder Accountability Project (MAP).
“We’ll continue this so we’re heard,” Steward added.
On February 14, 2025, hikers discovered trash bags near Forest Road 355 and Interstate 65 in Gila County. The Gila County Sheriff’s Office later announced that Emily’s partial remains were found in the bags.
Some of her remains are still unaccounted for.
The death occurred after Emily fled a Mesa group home, located near Mesa Drive and McKellips, on January 27, 2025, at around 7:30 p.m. She left on on foot, wearing a pink and grey shirt.
Early Home Life, Group Home
Born on May 16, 2010, Emily lived with her family on the San Carlos Apache reservation in southeastern Arizona, until 2023, when a 911 caller stated that a family member had sexually assaulted her.
The tribe’s fish and game department responded to the call.
San Carlos Apache Police Chief Elliot Sneezy stated that police were “busy” on the day in question. Despite this, police arrested the family member, who was later released without formal charges.
San Carlos Apache social services subsequently placed Emily in the group home that same year.
Emily reportedly attempted to take her own life at least twice, and ran away multiple times between September and November 2023, Arizona Republic reports.
In 2024, responding officers found her alone near a canal and attempted to console her as she pleaded to return to the reservation, as seen in body cam footage released by Mesa police
“No, I don’t wanna go back,” she protested. “I wanna see my mom. I wanna stay with my grandma instead.”
Despite this, they returned her to the group home, that had at least 30 missing person investigations involving minors since 2022. The group’s management would later state that all but one of those children have since been accounted for.
Death Investigation
In 2025, the The Pinal County Medical Examiner’s Office stated that Emily died from “homicidal violence with blunt force trauma.”
With assistance from the FBI and the US Bureau of Indian Affairs, the the Gila County Sheriff’s Office is currently investigating the homicide.
Although a person of interest has been questioned, it hasn’t led investigators to a suspect and the case remains unsolved.
Lawsuit and Emily’s Law
In October 2025, Emily’s family filed a lawsuit, contending that the group home “failed to reasonably watch, supervise, care for, and protect Emily Pike.”
Phillips Law Group is currently representing Emily’s father, Jensen Pike, who filed the suit from an Eloy prison, where he was serving time for arson and criminal damage.
According to a response by the group home’s licensed operator, Sacred Journey, Jensen Pike, along with Emily’s mother, Stephanie Dosela, were “unfit, unresponsive and neglectful.”
The company added that Emily had “left of her own free will.”
Jensen Pike, however, claimed that the group home, along five employees, helped cause Emily’s death by not following protocol.
“Defendant Sacred Journey failed to properly care for Emily Pike during her time at Sacred Journey; this is evidenced by Emily Pike’s history of running away from the group home more than once,” the lawsuit alleged.
“Sacred Journey failed to implement reasonable policies and procedures that would have educated their employees on how to properly care for the minors under their supervision.”
Meanwhile, in 2025, Gov. Katie Hobbs signed “Emily’s Law,“ also known as the Turquoise Alert, which assists in helping locate missing Native Americans in the state.
How to Help
The FBI and the San Carlos Apache Tribe are offering a combined total of $150,000 reward for information that leads to the person(s) responsible for Emily’s death and disappearance.
Anyone with information is urged to contact the FBI’s tipline at 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324).
[Feature Photo: Emily Pike/Handout]
