The tragic mystery surrounding the death of 14-year-old Emily Pike has taken a grim turn. Months after her dismembered remains were discovered near the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation, an official cause of death has finally been released — and it confirms what many feared.
According to multiple local outlets, including ABC15 Arizona and Fox10 Phoenix, the Pinal County Medical Examiner has ruled Emily’s death a homicide caused by blunt head trauma. While the full autopsy report has yet to be made public, authorities say she was the victim of “homicidal violence.”
Emily vanished from a group home in Mesa, Arizona, on January 27. Her remains were found on February 14, stuffed into trash bags and abandoned in a remote area more than 100 miles away. The gruesome discovery sparked outrage and grief throughout the state — and renewed attention on the ongoing crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous girls and women.
In the weeks after Emily was reported missing, ABC15 obtained the chilling 911 call from the group home. “I looked under the bed and the closet. I looked outside. The gate was open. The screen door, the screen window was kicked out,” a staff member reported to police.
At the time, Emily was simply listed as a runaway — but her dismembered body was later identified and confirmed to be the same girl who had previously attempted to flee the facility just months earlier.
Body cam footage from her first runaway attempt, obtained by ABC15, showed a distraught Emily telling police she didn’t want to return to the group home. “I just want to see my mom,” she pleaded. “I’m not going to go to that f—— group home.”
Investigators have yet to determine how Emily ended up so far from where she was last seen or what happened to her in the time between her disappearance and death. No arrests have been made.
The FBI initially offered a $75,000 reward for information leading to the person or people responsible for Emily’s murder, but that number has now grown substantially. Gila County recently upped the reward to $200,000, while Silent Witness is offering another $27,000, and the San Carlos Apache Tribe has added $75,000 — bringing the total reward to over $300,000.
In March, protesters gathered outside the Arizona State Capitol demanding justice for Emily and calling attention to what activists describe as an epidemic of neglect and indifference toward missing Indigenous children.
Emily’s case remains open, with investigators urging anyone with information to come forward.
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Author: thedailycrime1
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