It was a year ago Tuesday when San Carlos Apache teenager Emily Pike went missing from Sacred Journey, a group home in Mesa. Her dismembered remains were discovered a month later in garbage bags more than 100 miles away.
No arrests have been made, nor suspects named in connection to the 14-year-old girl’s unsolved murder. A makeshift shrine at the corner of Mesa Drive and McKellips Road, where Emily was last seen, had been abruptly taken down a few weeks ago.
This site swiftly became the latest rallying cry for justice.
Dozens of demonstrators were drawn to the bustling intersection on a recent Saturday afternoon as cars drove by honking their horns in solidarity.
“Who are we here for?”
“Emily Pike.”
“Then say her name.”
“Emily Pike.”
“Justice for who?”
“Emily Pike.”
“Justice for who?”
“Emily Pike.”
“Who do we love?”
“Emily Pike.”
“Who do we love?”
“Emily Pike.”
Since her disappearance, a chain-link fence hugging the edge of a 28,000-square-foot vacant lot has become home to a roadside shrine for the slain Apache teen. And over time, it just kept on growing as more shared her tragic story, which garnered national attention.
The roadside memorial for Emily Pike at the corner of Mesa Drive and McKellips Road was full of photos, toys and flowers in August 2025. By January 2026, most of it had been abruptly taken down but advocates have begun rebuilding it.
Visitors from near and far have flocked to the streetside tribute, adorned with flowers, stuffed animals, a banner of Emily’s face and lots of red ribbons — each markers of MMIP, or the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Peoples movement.
That was, until someone suddenly took everything down earlier this month.
All of those items weren’t thrown away, though. They were neatly placed in and around a plastic trash bin sitting in front of the fence line. The city of Mesa told KJZZ it’s not responsible for taking down that memorial.
According to records from the Arizona Corporation Commission and Maricopa County Assessor’s Office, Phoenix real estate developer Doubletree Ventures owns the parcel and did not respond when asked.
The Valley-based company’s portfolio of active properties, a website which is no longer publicly accessible, lists that spot as where Doubletree Ventures wants to build a Dunkin’ Donuts.
No matter who did it, Jolene Shorty is still upset.
“Look what you guys did. You took down her stuff,” said Shorty, a volunteer with the San Carlos Apache Tribe MMIW-MMIP Coalition. “There is a respectful way. There is a traditional way to let things go. This is not the way.”
She and fellow Apaches trekked a few hours from their reservation to the Valley that weekend. Some consider this area sacred. They burned bundles of sage and tobacco while spreading ashes along the sidewalk bordering that barren property.
For Shorty, she says removing those trinkets remembering Emily is the second tragedy to happen there, “but what I see here, my people, what I see here, my tribal nations, I see a clean slate — a clean slate to start over.”
“In a way, they almost helped us,” she added. “We’re going to come back and put up more stuff. We’re going to honor them the way we’re supposed to.”
And together, advocates started striving toward that goal, including Diné peer support mentor Delvina Charley, who thinks taking down those mementos only adds insult to injury.
“This is the respect that we got,” said Charley. “This is the type of communication that we get. We’re pushed to the side, that our voices meant nothing, that she meant nothing. If this was a different privileged girl, it would have been handled differently.”
Since the items were taken down, Emily’s mother, Stephanie Dosela, has been in talks with the city of Mesa on planting a tree and placing a bench at Fitch Park — just a few blocks from Emily’s last known location.
Graphic: Chelsey Heath and Gabriel Pietrorazio/KJZZ
Dosela is also in discussions with the Arizona Department of Transportation about putting up a highway sign honoring Emily at Milepost 277 along U.S. 60 just north of Globe — where her remains were found within the Tonto National Forest.
“This girl lost her life thinking nobody cared,” said Jared Marquez, who is San Carlos Apache and treasurer of the nonprofit Turtle Island Women Warriors. “This girl lost her life wanting her family. This girl right here wanted love, wanted her mom, wanted her siblings, wanted a better life.”
“I’ve been there, being a 13-year-old kid, never talking to my parents, running around on the reservation, you know, nobody ever truly caring,” he added. “And it’s hard to think what this girl went through — a lot of us could have been through.”
As for the investigation into Emily’s murder, KJZZ asked the FBI; the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ Missing and Murdered Unit; and the lead agency the Gila County Sheriff’s Office, for the status but did not receive any updates.
Meanwhile, all of the records relating to Emily’s autopsy and medical examination report, done by the Pinal County medical examiner, remain sealed by the Gila County Attorney’s Office.
