Crime With Holly Presents Emily Pike

Welcome to Primetime Crime. I'm your host, Kylie. Let's talk right now in true crime, and then together we're going to work on warming up some cold cases. Let's go. Hey, guys, welcome to Primetime Crime. It's Kylie. I am back from Crime Con. And when I say I don't think I've ever slept as much as I have posted this Crime Con, I mean it. I have slept so much, which I guess is a good thing catching up on sleep. I'm planning on recording my Crime Con twenty twenty six recap within the next week, so be looking for that. But I did want to get into a little right now in true crime. And then today's episode is a guest episode from my friend Holly from Crime with Holly, who I am so glad I got to meet over the weekend in Vegas. And then, like I said, I will be back next week with the Crime Con recap, and then I'm hoping to be back with regularly scheduled episodes as always. So let's go ahead and get into a little right now in true crime. So one thing I didn't get to talk about on last week's episode because it came out right after I recorded is an update in the Anna Kepner case. Now, Anna was eighteen years old and allegedly was murdered by her sixteen year old step brother on a carnival cruise ship in November of last year, twenty twenty five. Now, the alleged details of this case are very jarring and honestly very disturbing. I'm not going to go into the nitty gritty details here, but they are available online if you want the details. So this step brother, he is sixteen years old. He is being charged as an adult, and he's being charged with first degree murder and aggravated sexual abuse. And for whatever reason, because now he's awaiting trial, they have decided that he is going to be a to remain with his family just with one of those electronic inkle monitor type of situations while he is a waiting trial, so he doesn't have to stay behind bars while he's a waiting trial. I don't know what other circumstances are at play if they made this decision based on the fact that he's only sixteen years old, But this case is going to be wild. His name, his face, everything is out there. Like I said, he is being tried and charged as an adult, and he does face life in prison if he is found guilty of this heinous act of murdering his stepsister, and I know the prosecution is going to be doing everything they can to prove that he is guilty. It does sound, at least at this point, that they do have pretty good evidence, and I know that they're going to be working to try to solidify that because they do want if this is the direction they're going in, they do want to get a conviction, and of course, if he is responsible, that is what we want. We want the right person to be punished for what they did to Anna. This whole thing, though, is truly really really sad, and I'm sure it's just completely torn the family apart. Poor Anna never had a chance to survive what happened to her that night on that carnival cruise ship, and it's just terrible that this is where we're at. And this individual who is allegedly the one that did it, he's only sixteen. He has his whole life ahead of him as well, So it's just really sad and tragic all the way around. But obviously, if he is proven to be guilty of this crime, he is also a dangerous person, so I'm going to be sure to stay on top of this one. I do think it's going to be interesting as it starts to unravel, so I will be sure to keep you guys updated. So we do have an update in a cold case, the disappearance of Jody, who's in truth. She is one case that I have not done in depth coverage on, but I do want to kind of add her to my list of cases to cover. I just haven't gotten there yet, but I am very familiar with her case. So Jody went missing in Iowa on June twenty seventh of nineteen ninety five. She was working as a television news anchor for KIMT in Mason City, Iowa at the time of her death. So the circumstances surrounding her disappearance basically, she had failed to arrive at work, so a colleague of hers called her and she answered the phone said she had overslept and she was on her way, But unfortunately she never arrived at work, and there were in fact signs of a struggle outside of her apartment near her car, which has led investigators to believe that she was abducted from the parking lot of her apartment in the early morning hours of June twenty seventh, of nineteen ninety five. Jody was declared legally dead in two thousand and one. She was only twenty seven years old, she had a great job, she had her whole life ahead of her, and she seemingly was targeted for one reason or another and abducted allegedly abducted. So there is, like I said, kind of new information coming out. A private investigator from Iowa named Steve Ridge announced that he believes he knows who the suspect responsible for the disappearance of Jody is. And he said he came to this conclusion after he spoke with a witness who reportedly confessed about an interaction she had with somebody during that timeframe. So this is a quote from Aksnblocal four dot com article. Essentially, it's a woman who I surfaced who had a relationship with the suspect in the case almost immediately after Jody went missing. It was in the months right after end quote. According to the private investigator, the woman recalled that the potential suspect was being tailed by authorities on a regular basis and that he was expressing some frustration with being monitored. She said that often he would express frustration about it, and in a moment of being upset, he would slam on the steering wheel and say I didn't do it. I didn't do it, But then he eventually said I did it. In a statement to KTTC, Steve Ridge said that the witness provided a plethora of evidence to support her claim, and these items of evidence include dates, times, photos, financial records, different ticket stubs, and handwritten communication verifying that the romantic relationship existed between the alleged abductor and this woman at the time of the alleged confession. So we don't know who this suspect is. There have been a few suspects named publicly in Jody's case, and Steve Ridge did not disclose who this individual is or if they are still alive or not. He has shared the information that he has found with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigations, so he believes that this is going to be the break that the case needs in order to get resolution. And this one is a very old and cold case and it's going to be interesting to see what ends up developing from this, if anything at all develops. It does sound like it's more than just a woman claiming that she got a confession from somebody. It also sounds like there might be more going on behind the scenes, and there is substantial evidence. Steve Ridge has pledged one hundred thousand dollars reward for Jody's remains because they still have never been found, and this reward is in place through June twenty seventh, which is the anniversary of her disappearance. I'll be sure to keep you guys updated on this one. This is huge in the cold and unsolved community right now, and I'm going to be sure to stay on top of it, alrighty, So that is it for right now in' true crime. We are gonna go ahead and get into this week's episode, which, like I said, is a guest episode from my friend Holly over at Crime with Holly. I will be sure to link all of her socials below. Please go give her a listen and a follow on social media, and I will see you guys next week for a brand new unsolved case. Welcome back, everyone to another episode of Crime with Holly. It's your host, Holly, and I am here today with a tragic unsolved murder. I say it often when covering these unsolved cases that I know that some listeners just don't enjoy listening to unsolved cases. However, for me, there is so much passion and reason behind doing this podcast. I feel like these unsolved cases deserve the most attention because they are unsolved, and there are people among us living their lives knowing what happened, knowing that they did something evil to someone and is currently getting away with it. Someone knows something, and it just takes one person to be brave enough to come forward with information to help these families get closure. Today's case is on the murder of Emily Pike. This is a very very recent case and so for that reason, information is fairly limited, and also there's a lot of differing things being reported about this case. So I tried my very best to kind of weed through all of the information and get things the most accurate that I could. But despite it being pretty limited, I just feel it's so incredibly important to get this information out there while it's still potentially frus and people's minds, and also to bring awareness to Emily's story. She was a Native American young girl, and as we know, with these missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls, they don't get nearly enough attention as they should, despite the fact that they're being murdered and going missing at terrifying and alarming rates. But before we dive into the details that is currently known on Emily's story, let me just first say that I am fighting for my life at the tail end of a very serious chesshold and serious head congestion. So things with my voice and my tempo might be a little bit off because I am like fighting to breathe, so please forgive me for that. Secondly, I also want to say thank you guys for giving me some grace. Last weekend. I did not get an episode out, However, I was spending a lot of family time. It was the last week of school. I just didn't not have the time to get everything organized and situated, so I appreciate you guys bearn with me on that. And also, last but not least, allow me to give a shout out to my dear friend Christa, who just signed up for my Patreon. I have known Christa since middle school and when her name popped up in my notifications that she signed up for my Patreon, it was such a sweet surprise. So thank you Christa so much for always being in my corner and cheerin your girl on. Welcome to the Patreon family. If you guys would like to join the family, you can sign up for just two dollars a month and listen to every single episode ad free. Check the link in the description of this episode for more information, or visit patreon dot com slash Crime with Holly to sign up. All right, so, without further ado, let's kick this off and get into the details of the tragic and gruesome murder of Emily Pike. Emily Pike was born on May sixteenth, two thousand and ten. Emily and I actually share a birthday, which means that she would have just turned fifteen on the sixteenth. Unfortunately, her life was taken before she could turn fifteen, and as a fourteen year old girl, she was known for her big, beautiful smile, bubbly personality, and joyful spirit. She was a member of the San Carlos Apache tribe and grew up with her cousins, brother, m and grandmother in a small house on the reservation in southeast Arizona. She's been described by her family as very soft spoken, kind hearted, sweet, a lover of arts and crafts, and she loved animals as well, especially her cat that was named Millie. Emily's favorite color was pink, and she also enjoyed the character Hello Kitty. Emily was making plans for her future and was looking forward to attending high school the following year. She wanted to go off to college and make a future for herself, but still didn't quite know what exactly she wanted to do. As far as a career goes, Emily was your typical teenage girl in the sense that she loved her friends, she had crushes on boys, she took guitar lessons, and she enjoyed experimenting with makeup. Azy Central reported that Emily was close to her five siblings and many cousins, and she had aunts and uncles that lived in Colorado and Utah who she loved and adored. She had spent time visiting both of her aunts and uncles in Colorado and Utah, and they doated on her, taking her to the malls, water parks, zoos, and movies. And while Emily's story sounds like she was having a happy and healthy life, things weren't as amazing as they seemed, and she had been a victim of sexual abuse. Though the details aren't heavily known. ABC fifteen reported that federal law enforcement agents had investigated two sexual assault allegations from Emily in twenty twenty three, and it was said that after the second report had been made, Tribal Social Services took custody of Emily and placed her into foster care for the next eighteen months. This foster situation also included a group home in Mesa, Arizona, which is over one hundred miles from her home on the reservation. I will say that it's been reported that one of the reasons the Tribal Social Services took custody of Emily was due to her struggling with some mental health and self harm, and they took her to provide her with better services and things that just weren't readily available for her on the reservation. Now, a lot of the news articles and fellow creators I've seen cover this case didn't name the group home in order to protect the children that are still living there, and even the group homes operator, Elizabeth Morales, has asked that the name of the home remain private again to protect the children who are there. This group home has fallen under a lot of public scrutiny, which we will get into, but I just want to go ahead and follow suit and not release the name, even though it is public information, because because there are still children who are there and they deserve their privacy. I do want to reiterate here though, that Emily wasn't in the care of Department of Child Services. This group home does have children who are in the care of DCS, but for Emily, she was in the care of Tribal Social Services, and that does matter and make a difference with this case, so just keep that in mind. It is important to also note here that though Emily's home life isn't really known, her family still was a part of her life and have been vocal about fighting for justice. I do know that at the time of Emily's death, her father was incarcerated for criminal damage. I had read a couple different things about it, one of them said arson, but none of that really pertains to Emily's case, and he still was very much involved in his daughter's life and loved and still loves her today. And with Emily gone in this group home home, her family still spoke to her on the regular so they all were just very much involved in her life. They were ready for her to come home at some point, but they wanted to make sure that she was getting the help that she needed, and it seemed like this group home at that time was going to be the best option. Emily was close with her cousins, and she had spoken to them just a few weeks before she went missing about wanting to go shopping when she got home. It's been reported that Emily had been talking about how she would be home the following month. However, I haven't seen it officially said if that was true, if she really was going to be released, or if this was just something that she was kind of hoping for. Given that nothing has been officially reported that she was due to be released back home, I'm going to guess that this was just Emily having some hopeful thinking. On January twenty seventh of this year, so twenty twenty five, at around eight twenty pm, the group home made a call to the Mesa Police Department to report that Emily was missing. An old roommate of Emily's told asyfamily dot Com that on that night, Emily had left the group home to visit a boy that she had met while taking guitar lessons and that Emily was able to sneak out of the group home because a church group was there doing activities with the kids, so there was a big distraction that was happening and it created the perfect opportunity for her to leave unnoticed. Witnesses came forward and said that they had seen Emily walking down Mesa Drive and Mcallips Road sometime around seven forty five pm, and after that she was never seen again. Now I will say there are surveillance footage in the area. However, things haven't been released publicly yet on those videos and if they caught anything, this is just what we know for now. It is unknown if she truly was going to meet someone or if she was running away to go back home to the reservation. And of course we don't know if whoever picked Emily up was known to her or not. Cell Phones for the girls that the group home weren't allowed, and so if Emily had spoken and made plans to meet with someone, it had to have been on the public phone lines at the home, and so if there are phone records showing she called someone, that information hasn't been made public yet. At first, I'm not sure how much had been done for Emily, and that's because she had previously ran away from the group home in the past, so initially she was listed as a runaway team opposed to an actual missing child. I know that it's been reported that Emily had ran away from this group home like three or four times, and each time that she was found, she would tell the police that she didn't want to go back to the group home. And Emily wasn't the only child who ran away from this group home either. She would often be accompanied by one or two other girls, and each time police would find them and take them back. In September twenty twenty four, Emily and another girl were picked up by the Mesa police after running off and they told them quote they did not want to go back to the group home because they make them work by scrubbing walls, base boards, window seals, and even getting on their hands and knees to scrub the grout on the tile end quote. During a different runaway incident where police found Emily, she said that she didn't want to go back because it quote makes her uncomfortable when the staff gets into arguments with other juveniles in the home end quote. I cannot speak on this particular group home or what it's like in general to live in a group home. But from a lot of the stories I've seen over the years of researching different cases where group homes have been involved, they aren't always the most pleasant place to live, just to put it lightly. Not only are you surrounded by people who have been exposed to some seriously traumatic things and have a lot of things going on for them, they seem like they often are understaffed, maybe overworked, and the living conditions isn't always the best. Just doing a quick search online you will find endless stories of awful things that happen to some youth in group homes, and inprintnews dot org reported that group homes can actually cause harm to fostered youth. Again, I cannot speak from experience and only speak on what I have read from other people who have lived that life, but it's easy to see how a lot of these children in group homes could want to go home and not want to go back. And I just want to say, just to make it clear, I am not bashing group homes. I'm not bashing this specific group home. I'm not bashing the system at all, just simply stating what is being said I do believe that there are likely group homes out there that are amazing for some troubled youth and have helped guide kids back to the right path, But it does seem like the majority of them, based on the experiences that are shared online, are not a positive place to be, and it seems like Emily was unhappy and uncomfortable with her living situation. Since her disappearance, this group home has been under a lot of public scrutiny, and it was revealed that in the last three years, the Mesa Police Department had taken thirty one missing person's reports from this home alone. I will say that this information has been twisted in a ton on social media, and you may have seen this floating around out there. When Emily's case first started being reported on, I saw people on TikTok and other social media platforms saying that this group home had thirty missing kids that had never been found, and that's just simply not the case. They had made thirty one reports of children going missing, all of which most were found after they had run away. Many of these reports were for the same child who repeatedly ran away. A new report has to be made every single time a child runs away, even if it was the same child multiple times. So while thirty one reports is a crazy amount, these reports were allegedly for only eighteen children, which that's still a lot of kids, don't get me wrong, that should be overlooked. But all of these kids had been found alive and well except for two, the first being a seventeen year old girl named Veronica Cruz who went missing on May eighteenth, twenty twenty four, and then Emily Pike, whose story ended very tragically. So getting back to the story, I'm assuming that on this January twenty seventh, police felt like Emily was trying to run away again. Now, in the state of Arizona, the law states that when a child is in state custody and they go missing, they need to notify the authorities within twenty four hours, but Emily was under the care of tribal Social Services and apparently that law does not apply to them. However, the group home did call the police, and then the police did their part to notify the National Crime Information Center about her disappearance on the night, but after that nobody thought to notify Emily's family. It would have been the group home's job to notify Emily's tribal caseworker that she was missing, who then in turn should have notified Emily's family, But for whatever reason, this slipped their minds, and Emily's family had no idea that she was missing for an entire week. Now, if you ask me, if the police were actually investigating Emily's case thoroughly like they should have been, you would think that their first stop would be to her home on the reservation to see if she had made it there or if her family knew anything. But clearly that was not the case. And again, even though they reported her to the NCIIC, I don't think police fully believed she was at risk and believed that she was just going to turn up again like she had all the times before. I can't help but feel frustrated for Emily's family over all of this. Whether she was a runaway or she was missing like legitimately missing, they should have looked into it. They should have crossed their t's, dotted their eyes, done everything within their power to find her. It's just unacceptable. Her family could have been doing their part at that point to spread the word and raise red flags that something wasn't right, but instead a whole week went by and they had no idea that she was gone. Also, because they had zero information about who took Emily, who she could have been with, and because she was listed as a runaway, there was no Amber alert that went out, which as we know, there are certain criteria that has to be met for an Amber alert to be issued for a missing child, and usually that includes a description of a car and or a suspect. I don't take criticizing the police or authorities lightly, and I really think that this case was a massive eye opener for those down in Mesa. But in my opinion, it seems like everyone just assumed immediately that she was a runaway, that she would surface up again eventually, and they didn't put much effort into their search. After learning Emily's fate, many people were demanding change, and though this case is very recent, I will say that Emily has already made a huge impact. But as a young Indigenous girl, Emily was already considered high risk. As we know from other MMIW cases i've covered, Indigenous women and girls go missing and are murdered at a disproportionately higher rate. Indigenous women and girls have a murder rate that is ten times higher than any other ethnicities, and murder is the third. Let me just say that again, murder is the third leading cause of death for Indigenous women and girls. She was at high risk not only for the fact that she was a fourteen year old girl wandering the streets at night alone, but she also was high risk because she was Indigenous. No matter how many times that Emily had ran away before, each time she should have been properly looked for. And that goes for every missing child. No matter if they are a runaway, they are still a child. We should be looking for them and doing our part to protect them. All of the te's should be crossed and all of the eyes should be dotted when it comes to a proper search for children, and unfortunately that just wasn't the case. I know that resources can be so limited for the police department, and it's easy to assume that these troubled youth who've ran away in the past will turn up again, but clearly that's not always the case, and for that reason alone, one hundred percent efforts should always be given for these missing kids. The right hand needs to talk to the left. The MESA police should have contacted the tribal police, the group home, should have communicated with her social worker. There's just a lot of things that should have been done. And again, I don't like criticizing law enforcement. I am very pro law enforcement. I love them dearly. I know they're very hard workers most of the time. I know that they try their best most of the time. But it does feel like policies and procedures could be improved to be better. So let's talk about what we know about what happened to Emily. And I just want to say just a quick warning here, listener, discretion is advised because the details are brutal and tragic. On April fourteenth, twenty twenty five, fourteen year old Emily Pike had been missing for nearly three weeks. A day that was meant to be filled with love and affection was instead filled with the tragic truth of what happened to Emily. Officers from the HeLa County Sheriff's Office responded to a call that suspicious garbage bags had been found off mile posts two seventy seven along Highway US sixty near a remote forest road. This area was just outside of Globe, Arizona, and when officers arrived on scene, they found several heavy duty blocks black trash bags, and inside those bags they found some of Emily's dismembered remains. Now, this area is a very remote area, and it seems like someone had just pulled over into this secluded spot assumed that it would be the perfect place to drop Emily's remains before hopping back on the highway. This spot where Emily was found was over one hundred miles east of where she was last seen near that group home, and interestingly, it was on the way towards her reservation, which led many myself included, to thinking that maybe that was where Emily was headed. As we know, she was telling her cousins that she would be back within a month. Had Emily been hitchhiking and picked up by the wrong person. What is absolutely awful about this case is that Emily's family was not properly notified about this discovery. Nobody knocked on her mother's door to tell her they found her remains. She didn't get a phone call, but instead she found out through social media when the HeLa County Sheriff's Department accidentally leaked photos on their social media of large garbage bags that had contained Emily's dismembered body. Along with these photos, there was also an internal memo that was only meant for law enforcement's eyes that got posted as well. And in this memo, it detailed the horrific and graphic details of the condition of Emily's body, and it stated that an unidentified female was found dismembered in contractor style trash bags, with a head and torso in one bag and legs were found in a separate one. It was also noted that the head and face showed visible signs of trauma. When this information was posted, it did not specifically name Emily as the victim that was found. However, it was pretty easy to put the puzzle pieces together and figure out who was who in this situation. And while these details are shocking and horrifying and graphic to hear, just put yourself in Emily's mother's shoes. She learned all of the graphic details from a Facebook post at the same time as everyone else who followed that page. I cannot fathom how such a mistake like this could have been made. It's absolutely unacceptable, and even more unacceptable is the fact that no real apology has been issued. From my understanding, that is to Emily's family. The HeLa County Sheriff's Office had posted a second memo on February twenty six that discusses the remains of an unidentified female having been found. It stated that the HeLa County Sheriff's Office and the San Carlos Apache Tribal Police were investigating it, but due to the circumstances, it was decided that further information needed to be investigated before any public notification. It also stated that there was no indication that there was an active threat to the community. And lastly, it mentioned that information that was posted on Facebook was intended only for law enforcement agencies and was leaked, and that they were working hard to get a positive identification and to find any information and evidence. What this memo lacks is an apology, if you ask me. While I get it's meant for official business, I personally feel like acknowledging the wrongdoing and apologizing for any distress it may have caused the Pike family or members of the community would have still been acceptable in such an official memo, but what do I know. Also, the fact that this memo states that there is no indication that there is an active threat to the community blows my freaking mind. How could you even assume that here you have a child who was not only kidnapped, but was brutally attacked, sustained great trauma to her head and face, and then was dismembered and dumped along the side of the road like trash with no idea who did this? How can you just assume that this deranged person wouldn't do it again. That is just mind boggling to me, and honestly, everyone in the community felt the same. Clearly, this person obviously is very sick in the head and is capable of evil, evil things, but yet there's no threat to the community. I just don't get it. The following day, HeLa County Sheriff's office announced that the remains were positively identified as belonging to Emily Pike, and people were outraged. In the comments, they pointed out the fact that police are saying there is no threat to the public. People in the public also commented about the fact that Mesa Police department treated this as a runaway situation. People want answers, and rightfully so. From my understanding, there are no suspects or persons of interest in this case, unless they are just keeping that information close to the vest at this time. I know that it's been reported that Emily's arms and hands are still missing despite endless efforts to locate the rest of her remains. They searched extensively around the area where her remains were found, but came up empty handed. It is believed that Emily had been murdered and dismembered somewhere else, and if law enforcement could just find where it happened, they may be able to piece together more of what happened to Emily and who did it. But right now, it really feels like they're just searching for a needle in a haystack. Of course, I'm sure more things are happening behind the scenes that haven't been made public. I would assume that the construction grade garbage bags are being tested and further analyzed for clues and details. Potentially they will be able to work out where those bags were sold and when, But all of this stuff takes a considerable amount of time. The HeLa County Sheriff's Office is not the only one working on this case either, and while they're leading it up because that's where Emily's remains were found, they also have the help of the FBI, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the San Carlos Apache Tribal police. It really does seem like they're all a unified front and working hard to figure out what happened to this sweet young girl. According to Fox ten, the San Carlos Apache Tribe initially offered a seventy five thousand dollars reward for information leading to an arrest of the person or persons responsible for Emily's murder. The FBI has now matched that offer with an additional seventy five thousand dollars reward, bringing the combined total to one hundred and fifty thousand dollars for someone who can provide verifiable information that leads them to the person responsible. Since the announcement of Emily's tragic murder and the way that she was found, hundreds have gathered for vigils and marches in her honor. People are demanding just They're demanding that we keep saying her name and keep fighting to raise awareness on the MMIW crisis. Vigilgoers chanted her name, they held up signs that read Justice for Emily Pike and No More Stolen Sisters, and a memorial was placed on the corner of Mesa Drive and mckellips Road, where she was last seen. Now, I will say when this story first broke, I did see it a lot on social media. I'm not sure if that's because I live in Nevada so I'm pretty close to Arizona, or if it was because people were sharing it a ton, But I do feel like this case has been given more media attention and has been really shining a light on the MMIW epidemic. And while it was getting more attention when it first happened, it does seem like the interest in this case has somewhat fizzled out, as there hasn't really been any new information, which I find and so unfortunate because this was a teenage girl who was brutally murdered. We should still be talking about this on the daily. But, like I often say in my Missing Monday's episodes, when the hype of these cases dies down and people go back to their daily lives, these families feel forgotten. And I want Emily's family to know that her story will not be forgotten, and I will continue to share, Share Share until they get answers and someone has been brought to justice. On March twenty ninth, twenty twenty five, a memorial was held at the San Carlos High School. Hundreds of people came out to pay their respects, and Emily's brother, cousins, and members of the Red Rum motorcycle Club carried her pink and purple casket inside. Attendees were dressed in black, red, and pink, and her casket was painted with her favorite color, flowers and a Hello Kitty character on top. As I mentioned earlier, her father was incarcerated at the time of her murder, but he was granted leave to attend her wake the day before, but according to Azy Central, he was unable to be present at the actual memorial and burial the following day. It was a beautiful memorial by all accounts, and the amount of people that showed up to show their support was incredible. I can only imagine how much that meant to the Pike family. ABC fifteen reported on March eleventh that DCS opened a licensing inquiry into the group home that Emily lived before going missing. A spokesperson for DCS told ABC fifteen in an email quote at this time, the department does not believe any action taken or not taken by the group home caused the terrible outcome in this case, we have opened a LFE licensing inquiry to determine whether appropriate steps were taken by the group home during this incident. End quote. Now, after this was announced, a manager from that group home answered questions for True Crime Arizona about safety protocols and protection at the home. And the way that this person answered these questions had a lot of people feeling even more uncomfortable with the way in which the group home ran things. And honestly, it seems like this person tried to kind of dodge some of the questions that were asked. And I will link this in the description of this episode, so if you want to read all of the questions and the answers for yourself. But the biggest thing that people kept pointing out is the fact that the manager was asked why staff doesn't go search for runaway kids, and their reply was, quote, we are a standard group home. We are a hands off facility. We will never put our hands on a child. The only reason to ever touch a child is to keep them safe from harm, for example, from running into oncoming traffic. When upset. We have been known to call mesa police and stay on the phone and follow our children until police assist us, which is always immediately when our children are in danger to themselves or others. And people feel like this manager was just trying to avoid answering the question because the question literally had nothing to do with touching kids or anything of that nature. So it felt almost like this manager was trying to skate by with blanket statements and not truly own up to mistakes made. And again, I'm not trying to bash this group home. They did immediately contact police as soon as they realized that Emily was missing. You know, I'm sure that they have certain protocols and procedures that they have to follow, and they can't just all go out searching for missing children given that they have other children in the home. So I don't want to bash them because I really don't know enough information about the way that they run things. But there are a lot of people who are really talking poorly about this group home, So just kind of maybe do your own research, form your own opinions, and go from there about your feelings for what happened inside that group home. This group home seems like they've been very cooperative and doing their best in all of this, and so I'm sure that they have been advised, probably legally not to say certain things or answer certain types of questions. So again, kind of take that for what you will when you read over this link, if you choose to read it. I do hope though, that they maybe look over their policies and procedures and find things that maybe they could improve at the group home. And their first that I would suggest is their lack of contact with Emily's family. Her family or her caseworker should have been the first person or people that they called after reporting her missing to the police, and they didn't do that, and I just can't help but be frustrated by that part of this story. And while this case is tragic, I want to just say it has shined a light on the MMIW and the unfortunate statistics that go along with that. The community has really gathered together to bring awareness, and people across the country are showing their love and support and chanting Emily's name. A mural was painted for Emily. Search efforts are still being conducted by community members and volunteers. Visuals and marches are still happening, Flowers and banners have been laid where Emily's remains were found, and those within this area are fighting for answers for Emily, according to ABC fifteen. On May fourteenth, a legislative hearing was held at the Arizona State Capitol and the focus was on Emily Pike's Care and Group Home Protocol. DCS San Carlos, Apache leadership, the MESA Police Department, and members of Emily's family were all in attendance. Discussions were had about policies, procedures, improving communications, ways to improve group homes as a whole, and their security systems, among many other things that they discussed. And I just want to say that I'm really happy to hear that these conversations are happening. It really feels like they're taking accountability for what had happened and are trying to do better and be better. I feel like often with these m MIIW cases, they get swept under the rug, but it seems like this time they're trying to take action and do better. On May thirteenth, Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs signed House Built twenty two eighty one, also now known as Emily's Law. According to Fox ten Phoenix This bill would establish the Turquoise Alert System as a way to issue and coordinate alerts for missing tribal members who are under the age of sixty five. So think Amber Alert for Indigenous people. Governor Hobbs was quoted saying, while this bill was being considered in the state legislature, we learned of the senseless murder of this beautiful fourteen year old Emily, a member of the San Carlos Apache tribe. No parent, no tribal community should lose their child, their young member to violence. While the law won't bring Emily back, Governor Hobbs said that she and others hope the Turquoise Alert will prevent other such losses. After signing this bill, Governor Hobbs also announced that the state would be adding twenty five thousand dollars from the Department of Public Safety and Anti Racketeering Fund to the two other rewards from Emily's tribe and the FBI, So the total reward amount is now one hundred and seventy five thousand dollars for information leading to an arrest of a person or persons responsible for Emily's death. Unfortunately, that is all the information that is really out there. On this case. It's still so new and so recent, and I do hope that the police have more information that they're looking into and investigating further. I'm assuming they've followed up on all leads and have looked into that boy that she met at the guitar lessons that she might have been leaving to go visit. There are a lot of hands on deck for this case, and so I'm hopeful that answers will come sooner rather than later. I hope that they can find the rest of her remains and maybe they'll be able to find new evidence from her hands. I also hope that whoever did this to this sweet young girl is brought to justice soon. I can only imagine the pain and the heartache here family feels knowing that the monster who did this is still out there roaming free. And this is such a new case, and while all of the information isn't readily available, I just felt like it was so important to talk about this case because someone knows something. If you, or anyone you know has information on what happened to Emily, you can contact the HeLa County Sheriff's Office at nine two eight two zero zero two three five two I will have that number as well as other numbers you can call to get in touch with the Bureau of Indian Affairs special agents and tribal police detectives if you'd rather speak to them opposed to the Sheriff's office, and those numbers will be in the description of this episode. If you guys, I could also share this episode with anyone. The more awareness on Emily's case just it's going to be for the better. She deserves justice and the evil person who did this deserves to be behind bars. I will be watching this case like a hawk for updates, and I will let you guys know as soon as I see anything new about this case. Make sure that you guys are a part of my private Facebook group by searching Crime with Holly Podcast discussion group. In there, I share all information and pictures pertaining to the cases that I cover, and I also encourage all members to share all things true crime. If you'd like to keep up with what I've got going on in life, you can find me on Instagram at crime a Holly, and if you would like more true crime content, you can follow me on TikTok at Crimewithholly dot podcast. Thank you guys again for bearing with me as I am fighting for my life with this dang cold. Hopefully next week I won't sound so winded, I won't sound so rough and gruff, but who knows at this point. So until next time, y'all be aware and take care. Bye bye