The family of 14-year-old Arizona girl Emily Pike, who was found murdered and dismembered off a forest road in February, has sued the Mesa group home she ran away from.
The family is accusing the home of failing to follow proper protocols to report Emily missing and protect her. The family said they filed the lawsuit to force group homes to better safeguard children in their care and to seek justice for Emily.
“There’s so many questions about what could have been done to prevent this,” Olivia Lemorrocco, a spokesperson for Phillips Law Group, said, according to AZ Family.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Emily was last seen alive on January 27 near Mesa Drive and McKellips Road. The Gila County Sheriff’s Office said searchers found her dismembered remains in trash bags on February 14, off U.S. 60 near Globe.
Some of her remains have not been recovered.
Lemorrocco said lawyers feel the group home could be found liable if it failed to follow proper protocols to keep Emily safe and to train staff to recognize signs a child might run away.
“We pulled all of the records from the state, from the group home, everything, and we were in the process of reviewing all of the evidence,” Lemorrocco said.
She added that these types of lawsuits could force group homes to update safety policies to avoid losing insurance coverage.
“Did the group home follow all the rules and regulations that were supposed to be followed? And could this have been prevented ultimately, is a big question,” Lemorrocco said.
According to 12News, murder, rape, and violent crime affect Native American and Alaska Native communities at higher rates than the national average, per the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Division of Indian Affairs
A 2016 National Institute of Justice study found that violence has impacted 84% of American Indian and Alaska Native women in their lifetime, including 56% who have experienced sexual violence.
“I see a lot of death, but no one sees as much death as our Indigenous people, and we need to shine light on that, on our MMIW/MMIP,” Indiana funeral director Kyra King previously told CrimeOnline.
Meanwhile, Mesa police revealed that 30 children had gone missing from this particular group home in the past three years. They also noted that Emily had run away before.
The group home manager, Elizabeth Morales, dismissed reports of the missing children, claiming all had been accounted for, adding that Emily missed her family at the San Carlos Apache reservation.
“She just missed her family. It was that simple,” Morales told the Arizona Republic. “Did I think she was running away because she was afraid? No. … Was she gone and planning on going for good? No.”
The San Carlos Apache Tribe is offering a $75,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest in the case, 12 News reports.
A task force was formed shortly after the tribe offered the reward. To assist in the investigation, the Gila County Sheriff’s Office and the San Carlos Apache Police Department have set up an online tip portal where anonymous tips can be submitted through tips411.
Information can also be reported to the Sheriff’s Office at 928-425-4449, option 1, or the San Carlos Apache Police Department at 928-475-1700.
Check back for updates.
[Feature Photo via Mesa police]
