Audio from a police body camera reveals that a teenage girl later found dismembered and murdered in Arizona had previously tried to escape the group home where she lived before she went missing.
Emily Pike was found on Valentine’s Day. The San Carlos Apache teen was just 14 years old when she went missing from her Mesa group home earlier this year. Her body was found nearly a month later, more than 80 miles away from the home.
In police bodycam video from late 2023, Pike can be heard begging an officer not to take her back to the group home, alluding that someone was trying to hurt her.
In the audio, an officer can be heard saying "no one’s trying to hurt you, OK."
"Yes they are," she responds.
"Talk to us. Tell us what’s going on," an officer says.
"Just let me go. I want to stay with my grandma instead," Pike says.
Pike’s disappearance stirred emotional reactions throughout Arizona as it highlighted a violent crisis disproportionately afflicting Indigenous women.
The FBI is offering up to a $75,000 reward for verifiable information identifying those responsible for the brutal murder of Pike.
San Carlos Apache Tribe Chairman Terry Rambler announced in March a separate $75,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in her murder.
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