It’s been six months since San Carlos Apache teen Emily Pike went missing from an all-girls Mesa group home. The 14-year-old’s remains were discovered in garbage bags along an Arizona highway weeks later.
Investigators have yet to make an arrest or identify any suspects. KJZZ retraces the case and Emily’s last known footsteps.
Missing teen report
Some of the most basic details provided to the Mesa Police Department when Emily went missing were wrong, from her age to the spelling of her first name. The following exchange is from a 911 call recording — obtained by KJZZ — between Sacred Journey Inc. staffer Cathy Montano and a police dispatcher on Jan. 27.
DISPATCHER: Police, non-emergency.
CATHY MONTANO: I’m trying to call for a child of ours. They’re AWOL.
DISPATCHER: OK, your child went AWOL. Is this a family?
MONTANO: Yes, this is a group home.
DISPATCHER: OK, what’s the age of?”
MONTANO: Fifteen.
DISPATCHER: Any mental impairment or danger to self or others?
MONTANO: No.
DISPATCHER: What’s her first name?
MONTANO: Her name is Emily — E-M-I-L-E-Y.
DISPATCHER: And what’s her last name?
MONTANO: Pike — P-I-K-E.
DISPATCHER: Is she white, Black, Hispanic, Native?
MONTANO: She’s Native.
Emily had a history of running away from the same Mesa group home three times prior in 2023. But on Jan. 27, one of the girls living there told staff they saw Emily crawling out a window wearing a pink-and-gray striped long-sleeve shirt.
Officer Ethan Kapke with Mesa police responded, with his body camera rolling.
“I’ll pick up that picture from you, and then I’ll try to, at least, like, search around in the area. Hasn’t been too, too long,” said Kapke. “I’ll check over by the [Oakland Athletics] facilities as well on my way up to you, just to see if she kind of went back to that same spot, if we’re lucky.”
“And then you kind of know how it goes from there,” he added. “We’ll get in as a missing person. And then if we get contact with her, obviously, we’ll notify you right away that we found her.”
Emily was last seen walking near Mesa Drive and McKellips Road.
Elizabeth Morales, CEO of Sacred Journey Inc., initially agreed to an interview but ultimately declined after consulting her attorney. In an email, LaTasha Morales, program director for the Mesa group home, told KJZZ “it has been a rough time for Liz and the Sacred Journey family.”
The Arizona Department of Child Safety began investigating Sacred Journey’s license shortly after Emily went missing — with an inspection finding that the Mesa group home violated a state regulation by failing to immediately notify the agency’s Centralized Intake Hotline.
The rule applies whenever a child’s whereabouts are unknown by licensees — even for runaways. In a letter dated April 15, the state agency instructed Sacred Journey to update policies and train staff.
No further action was taken after the facility complied.
While Emily was sent to that Mesa group home, she was still in the custody of the San Carlos Apache Tribe Social Services Department. State lawmakers held a nearly three-hour fact-finding hearing, hoping to figure out how to prevent another tragedy from happening again.
“We’re at about 17,400 [members]. ... That’s just all we have, that’s who we are,” said San Carlos Apache Chairman Terry Rambler while testifying back in May. “Emily was a child of ours. Emily was also my personal relative, so this cuts deep.”
‘Like she didn’t matter’
More than two weeks and over 100 miles separated Emily’s last known location and the discovery of her remains. Authorities have not revealed the circumstances of when they were found on Valentine’s Day along Route 60 within the Tonto National Forest. Emily’s body had been dismembered and divided up between a pair of black garbage bags.
Her hands and arms were missing.
The Missing and Murdered Unit at the Bureau of Indian Affairs helped identify human remains believed to belong to an Indigenous female, with its agents and analysts then positively linking them to the disappearance of Emily from Mesa.
The sign marking Milepost 277 and nearby guardrail have been tagged with bloody handprints — a symbol of MMIP, or the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples movement. Signs, flowers, crosses and stuffed animals adorn the highway pull-off less than 25 miles north of the town of Globe.
Graphic: Chelsey Heath and Gabriel Pietrorazio/KJZZ
Five law enforcement agencies spanning local, federal and tribal jurisdictions have been pooling resources together — from the BIA and FBI to the Mesa and San Carlos Apache police departments.
In the following months, Pike family members have even gone to Washington to meet with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and FBI Director Kash Patel in their ongoing search for justice.
The Gila County Sheriff’s Office, which is leading the investigation, has jurisdiction because of where Emily’s body was found. The county contracts its coroner services from neighboring Pinal County.
Emily’s cause of death was blunt force trauma.
The Pinal County Medical Examiner’s Office told KJZZ her autopsy report is being withheld at the request of the Gila County Sheriff’s Office due to the ongoing investigation.
“She was murdered. She was dismembered. She was tossed to the side of the road like she didn’t matter,” said Allred Pike Jr., who is Emily’s paternal uncle. “She was our daughter — our niece — our granddaughter — our cousin — our friend, and we're here to tell you that she mattered. Her life mattered.”
Pike spoke on behalf of family back in May when Gov. Katie Hobbs signed "Emily’s Law" — legislation that established Arizona’s Turquoise Alert — initially touted as a way to address the MMIP epidemic but later expanded to help locate any person aged 65 and younger who is believed to be in imminent danger.
Despite her namesake law, a Turquoise Alert could not have been issued in response to Emily going missing because she was deemed a runaway — a type of disappearance which does not qualify for the new voluntary statewide system.
“Emily’s Law is a step in the right direction,” added Pike. “I’m conflicted. This bill is named after my niece, my niece, who’s not here no more. … We still have to keep fighting. Her killer has not been located yet.”
‘A lot of people want to help solve it’
A reward for information leading to an arrest has ballooned to $200,000 with help from the FBI and Arizona Department of Public Safety among other contributors — though no suspects have been named or arrests made.
When asked in July whether Emily’s murder case has gone cold, the Gila County Sheriff’s Office told KJZZ they still consider it to be “active.” Gila County Sheriff Lt. Jim Lathi shared investigators are “working through various leads,” but “no suspect profiles nor any new details to release at this time.”
“I don’t see it as there’s a slow in the investigation, or that it may be going cold,” said Phoenix Police Sgt. Brian Bower. “Emily Pike’s case has touched the emotions of a lot of people, to include law enforcement, where there’s an obligation and a desire to provide as much help, resources that we can.”
Bower is media coordinator with Silent Witness, which offers cash in exchange for information. Tipsters can stay anonymous. More than 13,000 felony cases have been solved — with nearly 8,300 arrests made — since the nonprofit’s founding in 1979.
“Now you are 100% correct. I work with Phoenix Cold Case [Unit] almost every day, and detectives say, ‘Hey, I’ve done as much as I can in my investigation, and the case still hasn’t brought me anywhere,’” Bower explained. “It’s that time we bring Silent Witness in and try to find details.
“I don’t see it in this Emily Pike case, though.”
Bower mentioned that Emily’s is the first case that Silent Witness has been involved with where a crime occurred outside of Maricopa County, adding “it shows we have the capability of covering the case with a different target audience.”
Bower admits case detectives still had final say.
“We always leave it up to the case detectives, but this is something that Gila County said, ‘That yes, it would be helpful,’” he added. “They assured us that the family would also be appreciative. A lot of people want to help solve it.”
Anybody with information on Emily’s case may contact Silent Witness by calling 480-948-6377.
