In the wake of the tragic death of 14-year-old Emily Pike, Arizona lawmakers are reassessing protocol and looking into ways to bridge the gaps within the state's systems to better protect children. Emily, a member of the San Carlos Apache Tribe, had a distressing history that included sexual abuse, suicide attempts, and frequent runaway incidents. Her case has shed light on the startling failures between tribal jurisdictions, local police departments, and the Arizona Department of Child Safety (DCS), prompting a call for more thorough communication and reforms.
According to a report from the Arizona Mirror, the failure to keep Emily safe began long before her remains were discovered near Globe, just outside her family's reservation. From the time of her initial sexual assault report, which led to her placement in a Mesa group home due to systemic deficiencies, to the handling of her eventual disappearance and murder, multiple entities including the San Carlos Apache police, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the DCS were implicated in a chain of miscommunications and jurisdictional challenges.
A recent report by KJZZ detailed the legislative panel discussions where lawmakers, like Sen. Theresa Hatathlie, expressed concern over jurisdictional disputes overshadowing the urgency needed when a child goes missing. "The fact that this is a missing child, just the fact that they're a child and that they're missing — we should be sounding the alarm," Hatathlie emphasized during the committee hearing.
One outcome cited by both sources is a recently implemented Turquoise Alert system, modeled after the AMBER Alert, specifically for missing Native American individuals. This new protocol, informally known as Emily's Law, was inspired by the teen's case. Further suggestions from tribal leaders, such as mandatory working alarms on windows in group homes and issuing cell phones to children, are being considered to enhance safety measures and tracking in the event of a disappearance.
Apart from the legislative advances, there are also calls for investigations into both the failure to prosecute in the initial assault and the mishandling of sensitive information by the Gila County Sheriff's Office, which caused Emily's mother to learn of her daughter's death through social media.
The committee plans to conduct stakeholder meetings in the upcoming months to solidify these suggestions into actionable changes. The goal is to present recommendations that can lead to revisions of existing laws and protocols by the next legislative session in 2026.
