Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Emily Pike, 14, Body Found Dismembered Off US 60, Killer Still on the Loose
Episode Date: March 18, 2026Fourteen-year-old Emily Pike vanishes after sneaking away from a Mesa, Arizona, group home, where she lives. When she does not return, Mesa police are contacted, and she is reported missing. Her mothe...r is not informed until Pike has been missing for a week. Police say the group home must notify her case manager, who would then contact her family or tribe. Authorities post her picture on social media, print flyers, and alert the media that Emily Pike is missing and may have run away. Nearly a month after Pike disappears, the Gila County Sheriff’s Office reports that searchers found the remains of an unidentified female in a wooded area near U.S. 60, about 20 miles northeast of Globe, Arizona. The remains are difficult to identify but appear to belong to a missing Native American girl. Within 24 hours, authorities confirm the remains are those of 14-year-old Emily Pike. The Gila County Sheriff’s Office reports that detectives found the head and torso in large contractor trash bags, while the legs were in separate bags. Investigators search the area but do not find the arms and hands. This information, intended for law enforcement only, is inadvertently shared with friends and family without warning. A preliminary autopsy report notes visible trauma to Pike’s face and head. Authorities do not find clothing, jewelry, or identification with the remains. Investigators believe someone killed Pike elsewhere before dumping her dismembered remains. Her arms and hands remain missing. The sheriff’s office says investigators recovered surveillance footage from Mesa, where Emily was last seen alive, but have not found footage from the rural area where her remains were discovered. Officials urge anyone with information to come forward. A $200,000 reward is available for information leading to Pike’s killer. Joining Nancy Grace today: Allred Pike Jr. - Uncle to Emily Mary Kim Titla - Executive Director of UNITY (United National Indian Tribal Youth Inc.), Native American Youth advocate for over 30 years, Former TV News Broadcaster and First Native American TV Journalist in Arizona; Instagram @marykimtitla, X @MKTitla Dr. John Delatorre - Licensed Psychologist and Mediator (specializing in forensic psychology); Psychological Consultant to Project Absentis: a nonprofit organization that searches for missing persons; X, IG, and TikTok - @drjohndelatorre Jon Buehler - Former Detective for Modesto Police Department, California; Lead Detective in the Scott Peterson Case Dr. Kendall Crowns - Chief Medical Examiner Tarrant County (Ft Worth), Host of Podcast "Mayhem in the Morgue”, Lecturer: Burnett School of Medicine at TCU (Texas Christian University) Susan Hendricks - Journalist, Author: “Down the Hill: My Descent into the Double Murder in Delphi;" IG @susan_hendricks X @SusanHendicks Dave Mack - Investigative Reporter, 'Crime Stories' See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
This is an I-Heart podcast.
Guaranteed human.
It's one of our very first foods.
And sometimes, the last thing before bed.
It's loved by young and old.
It's not just pasta.
It's eaten pasta.
Crime stories with Nancy Grace.
The Body of a Beautiful Little Girl.
Just 14 years.
old found, dismembered off US 60. That little girl identified as missing Emily Pike. In the last hours,
chilling details emerge as we learn the COD cause of death. A 14-year-old girl is dead and dismembered. I want to
justice. I'm Nancy Grace. This is crime stories. I want to thank you for being with us.
A 14-year-old little girl thrown off the side of the highway like she's trash. Four in five,
indigenous women have experienced violence in their lifetime. Emily Pike found
dismembered how has this dragged on this long. A 14-year-old girl
murdered and dismembered thrown on the side of the road like she's trashed. I'm not having it.
To say that I miss you so much and I really hope I'll try to see if he could come visit me next time.
We've not recovered any kind of weapon. Cause of death is still under investigation by the
M.E's office. We're investigating those leads. None of those as of yet have pointed us to a definite
suspect or person of interest. With Emily, of course, we believe that she was killed somewhere else.
and then that is where she was dropped off.
What do I need to do to put a fire under their tail?
That from our friends at CBS 5, and we do, as of tonight, know a cause of death on this little girl.
Straight out to investigative reporter Susan Hendricks joining us.
Susan, what do we know about the death and dismemberment of this little girl, Emily Pike?
It is devastating to say the least. It's been more than a year, Nancy, just 14 years old.
Her body dismembered, found on the side of a road in construction like garbage bags.
And get this, the way the family was notified, it was allegedly accidentally leaked on Facebook by the sheriff's department.
And now they say they're working on it.
There is outrage.
But does that mean the sheriff's department is doing anything?
And if so, what?
Isn't it true, Susan Hendricks?
I would like to see Susan that the arms and the hands of this little girl have not been found.
It's just unthinkable.
They haven't been found.
And there's little confidence that they will be found.
because the sheriff's office isn't saying much and are they acting on much? Are they looking at this as a cold case? Are they just disregarding it? It's just my heart goes out to the family and you're right. Why? Why Susan Hendricks? Is it because she is a Native American? Is that why joining me an all-star panel? But I want to go to a very special guest joining us tonight. It's All Red Pike Jr.
This is Emily's paternal uncle.
Mr. Pike, thank you for being with us.
Is it true that you learned information about Emily, just 14 years old, murder through a unintentionally leaked post online?
Yes, that's how we found out.
What happened?
I got a call from my sister saying that there was information through social media that
Our niece may have passed away, and that was the saddest way to find out.
I want to go to John Bueller.
You know him well.
He was already famous within his ranks for being an incredible detective in homicide.
But the world found out who John Bueller was during the Scott Peterson double murder trial.
Bueller, former Detective Modesto PD, 31 years.
years in robbery homicide.
You know what, John, I want to introduce you over the airways to Mr. Allred Pite, Jr.
This is Emily's paternal uncle.
I can still remember like it was yesterday the moment I was told my fiancé was dead.
It didn't dawn on me.
He could have been murdered.
But I remember exactly.
Do you ever, are you ever not shocked anymore?
Are you to the point where you're like, eh?
It happens because I am not.
First of all, for this to happen to this little girl.
And seemingly nobody cares.
Her arms and hands missing.
And they find out, the family finds out through a leaked post.
Does that still burn you up?
Or are you just like completely numb at this point, John?
I'm not numb to it.
When you hear it, it strikes.
but it's when you see the photographs of this young girl that it really becomes haunting.
And then to see how there was some goof up on the part there at their office where they leaked that information, probably unintentionally,
but somebody did that.
And you can't let that stuff happen.
Beuler.
Unintentional.
Fine.
Unintentional.
An accident.
What's worse, really?
Someone's so incompetent.
They have an accident.
accident like that, that like slices the soul of the family? They're that incompetent? Or
well, that's definitely incompetent. The thing is that they did it on purpose for pizza. I don't know which is
worse, Bueller. Yeah, and it strikes for the family because it puts them in a position where they're
going to lose confidence in the sheriff's office and whoever else is involved in assisting in this
investigation. It's a terrible way to go about it. But other mistakes were made to. And
and things that we can talk about.
I don't like the way you said that.
Just warning right now.
Other mistakes we made.
You just like had trilled off your tongue.
Mistakes, my rear end.
This has been months and months and months since Emily went missing and was found murdered.
Back to Allred Pike Jr., Emily's uncle, Mr. Pike, did you believe it at first when you heard about this post, this online post, or did you think it was just BS?
like, it's a prank. That's a horrible prank. What did you think?
Coming from social media, I asked my sister, are you sure it's our niece?
Because half the time, most of the stuff on social media are not true.
But she told me that it was pretty much verified it was her. And I was confused.
Why did it come from social media and not from law enforcement?
All this little girl, Emily Pight, wanted was to go home,
to her mom, to her grandma, and her little cat, Millie.
But she didn't get her wish.
The Apache teen girl spent the last two years of her life in and out of group homes.
She hated it so much that at one point, this little girl who wanted so desperately to go home
tried to hang herself rather than stay in a group home.
Home was made up of multiple people, an extended family.
How in the world did this little girl who had lived through so much already end up dead on the side of the road?
And why?
Do we have no leads?
Nothing.
Straight out to a name you know well, Dr. Kendall Crown.
Chief Medical Examiner Terrant County.
He is a star of a hit podcast, Mayhem in the Moorg, which, by the way, Dr. Crowns, I love.
I always learn something, and you tell all of your medical findings in an anecdote, a story, a true story, that I can understand.
He is the esteemed lecturer at the Burnett School of Medicine at TCU.
you, Dr. Kendall Crowns, what do you make of the recent news that we're just learning that the COD
cause of death on this little girl was homicidal violence, bludgeoning.
I mean, I'm going to have to go to shrink on this after you, Dr. Kendall Crowns, to bludgeon
a little girl dead and then dismember her and throw her on the side of the road in a trash bag
like she's trash? I mean, what other indignity could be done to this child? And no answers. No answers. I'm
happy. Let's see the mural. I'm happy they put up a mural because it will remind people that Emily
Pike's case is not solved. I'm happy that they care. But I want answers. This is not justice,
Dr. Crowns. Tell me your analysis of the recently discovered COD cause of death. So with the cause of
death of homicidal violence with blunt head trauma. It's saying that she's had her head smashed,
possibly skull fractures, beaten, et cetera, about the head. But the homicidal violence part is because
the dismemberment and the fact that they don't have the complete body, they can't rule out other
forms of violence like sharp force violence, even gunshot injury, because with an incomplete
body, you don't have all the answers. But they know that she was murdered and there is a blunt
force component to it. But they're adding on the homicidal violence because of the dismemberment,
because of the incomplete body. Who knows what else could have been done. There could be cut marks
all over the arms. The hands could have been chopped off purposely before she was dead. She could
have been shot in the arms. Who knows? So that's why you've gotten this kind of vague homicidal
violence with the blunt head trauma. Okay, hold on just a moment. I need to analyze what you just said,
Dr. Kendall Crowns. Since this child and to Mr. Pike, I'm sorry to discuss the facts so bluntly,
but this is the nature of homicide investigation. Dr. Kendall Crowns, the body's been dismembered.
So how do we know homicidal violence? Is it based on her upper torso and head? How do we know
homicidal violence? How did the medical examiner come up with that? You've done it many times.
How'd you do it?
So homicidal violence is basically they're saying they're unsure of what else could have been inflicted, but they know that it's violence done intentionally to the individual.
The fact that she's been dismembered and you don't have all the body parts, they can't rule out something else having happened to the body as well.
Like I said, there could be gunshot wounds.
There could be stab wounds of the arms that they haven't been able to determine yet because they don't have those findings.
When a body is dismembered, if the individual is still alive, you will see changes in the skin and the muscle with hemorrhages that you can note.
And then you know they were dismembered while alive.
If they're dismembered after death, the actual dismembered body parts have kind of a dried, tan look to the areas of dismemberment.
So you can get an idea of whether the injuries happened with living or with death.
But again, homicidal violence is kind of a catch-all term when they're unsure of what else may have been inflicted.
I want to go back to Mr. Allred Pike, Jr.
This is Emily's uncle.
Her death and dismemberment to me is horrific enough, Mr. Pike.
But isn't it true that while living at home, she was sex assaulted by a male relative.
I mean, she's only 14 at the time of her death.
So I don't know her age when that happened to her, that sex violence on a little girl.
And as a result of that, she was taken out of the home while the alleged assaulter got to stay home.
Did that happen?
Those were the allegations.
That's why she was removed from the home.
And the justice system was backwards.
you know, she was the victim, but yet she was removed from the home, and she never came home.
She was out there for over two years, two years.
Because a lot of people think Susan Hendricks, guys, let me properly introduce my colleague from way back at CNN's HLM.
Susan Hendricks is joining us, investigative journalist.
She is also the author of a hit book, Down the Hill, My Descent, Into the Double Murder in Delphi,
And that's referring to the murders of two other little girls.
That would be Abby and Libby in Delphi.
Remember the little girl is taken off the trestle bridge and murdered by Richard Allen, the local pharmacy tech?
Right, that.
Susan Hendricks, let me understand what I'm hearing.
Because when I look at my little girl or my little boy, John David and Lucy, sometimes they're just so precious to me.
I just want to cry.
Just to look at them.
breaks my heart.
This little girl, let's see, at at least 12, if not younger, her, sex assaulted by a male
relative on the Apache reservation.
Nothing happened to the perp.
So the perp's still living near the home compound, and she gets removed from the home
and put in a group home which she hates.
She wants to go home to her mother,
her grandmother, her little bit of kitty cat.
But no.
A lot of people think Emily Pike
was somehow disobedient, was a juvenile delinquent,
not that that would matter because she was murdered.
But that is not what happened.
She was sex assaulted.
I don't know the details.
Because they're buried,
very deep within the reservation
archives, but I do know she was sex assaulted.
And she somehow is the one that gets punished.
Isn't that true?
It is backwards what her uncle said, and my heart goes out to you already.
And he could speak to this.
She's very close to her cousins.
They call themselves the trio.
She loves Sparkle.
She was a young girl, just 14 years old, wanted to be there with her mom.
And she gets in trouble.
She gets thrown out of the house.
She was a loving 14-year-old and wanted to be there.
There's body cam footage, Nancy, that I watched yesterday,
where she says, I don't want to go back.
I want my mom.
And my heart broke for that.
For her.
You are seeing body cam footage right now, and I want you to hear it.
Remember, this is all because she was sex assaulted.
Listen.
Emily.
Come with me, okay?
No, I don't want me.
I know. Let's talk, okay?
No.
It's okay.
Hey, it's okay.
You're not in trouble, okay?
Hey, hey, hey, hey.
I can't let you go, okay?
Get off. I just want to see my mom.
Come here. We'll call your mom, okay?
No, what?
It's okay.
Come on.
I will call your mom for you, okay.
No.
It's okay.
I don't want to go back to that .
Please.
Hey, hey, Emily.
No.
Listen, I'm here to help you, okay?
No, what's helping me?
Well, you got to stop.
Well, that's not going to help things either.
No, what's going to help me?
If you're going to act like a child, we're going to put you in handcuffs.
Stop it.
I really don't want to put you in handcuffs, young lady, okay?
I just want to go horrible.
I know.
You, she is a child.
What is wrong with these people, John Bueller?
Well, you're right into these situations.
with people and not everybody's trained well enough and they don't always have the patients
to deal with them properly, but the system definitely failed this little girl. Just I echo what you
said about how she was removed from the house. Why should she be removed? It seemed like the
offender should have been taken out of there. Purely a victim multiple times, ignored, tossed
aside and just not given what she needed to have a good life. Disposable young children,
it breaks your heart every single time. And there's just so many of them. This one's a highlight
because she's so pretty and she's so young, but there's so many more like that. And those are
the things that haunt you even after you retire in this job.
Average over 5,000, 5,000 Native American women go missing in the U.S. and nobody seems to care.
Now joining me in addition to Mr. Pike, Allred Pike Jr., speaking out on behalf of his niece, Emily,
Mary Kim Titla.
She is the executive director of Unity, which is United National Indian Tribal Youth, Inc.
Mary Kim, I really don't know how you do it.
I don't know how I do it.
I don't know how I did it for over a decade every single day seeing the worst.
I managed to get through and still get through because I care about the victims and feel this is all we can do for them at this.
juncture. What do you make of what has happened to Emily Pike? And still no answers. It's just been
one debacle after the next. It's heart-wrenching to watch the videos, to see the photos, to be reminded of
what happened to this precious little girl. She has become everyone's daughter, granddaughter,
niece and in Indian country I represent a segment of the population that is you know
the horrible statistics involve native women and girls who go missing every year
and are found murdered we have so many that are are still missing so justice has
not been served in this case we have to work together we are
searching for answers. There has been more awareness. We have the turquoise alert. So there have
been some positive steps that have happened. But we have a lot of work to do to prevent this from
happening again. My heart breaks and continues to break every time I go home because I pass the
billboards that are publicizing the reward. There's reminders with the mural that you
saw, she is never far from our minds.
I'm a mother, I'm a grandmother.
I fear for the fact that the murderer or murderers are still on the loose.
We want justice, and we have to work together to make that happen.
It's one of our very first foods.
And sometimes the last thing before bed, it's loved
by young and old.
It's not just pasta.
It's it a pasta.
Crime stories with Nancy Grace.
Emily kept running away
from one group home after the
next, trying to get back to her
own family.
The last time,
Emily didn't make it after running
away from the group home.
Her body,
not even a body, remained. She was
dismembered. We're found,
Valentine's Day, stuffed in two trash bags and thrown onto a patch of dirt on a lonely, lonely
desert highway in the Tonto National Forest, five miles from the boundary line of the reservation.
Emily, come with me, okay?
No, I don't want to go back.
I know. Let's talk, okay?
No? It's okay. Hey, it's okay. You're not in trouble, okay? Hey, hey, hey, hey, I can't let you go, okay?
Get off. I just want to see my mom. Come here. We'll call your mom, okay? It's okay. It's okay. Come on. I will call your mom for you, okay.
It's okay. It's okay.
I don't know back to that, please.
Hey, hey, Emily, listen, I'm here to help you, okay?
I can't.
Well, you got to, well, that's not going to help things either.
No, it's going to, help me.
If you're going to act like a child, we're going to put you in handcuffs.
Stop it.
I really don't want to put you in handcuffs, young lady, okay?
I just want to go horrible.
I know.
We still haven't found her arms or hands.
Now we've got some body parts in a bag.
How come her mother wasn't told about this for one?
month. What is going on here? It's hard to hear exactly what happened to her.
Emily Pike, just 14 years old at the time of her death, had been sex assaulted on the
Indian Reservation. After that, she is removed from the family home. The perp stayed
there, and she's put in one group home after the next. Of course, she runs away trying to get back
to mom. You saw the video of her begging and crying.
Then she was put in handcuffs.
Now we have an official COD cause of death.
Homicidal blunt trauma.
Her arms and hands have not been recovered.
Back to Allred Pike, Jr.
This is Emily's paternal uncle.
Mr. Pike again, thank you for being with us tonight.
Mr. Pike, does the mother and or the grandmother know the car.
of death on Emily? Have they been told?
Yes, they know the cause of death and, you know, just can't, there's no words to describe how they're feeling.
I'd like you to try.
I know it shattered them to know how she had passed away and what was done to her.
I mean, even I was in shock.
And you're right, the part of her body parts have not been found.
And it hurts to know that the people who did this haven't been caught.
In the last hours, the county medical examiner's office releases cause of death on little Emily
found dismembered in the woods after being reported missing from her group home in Mesa.
She was found dead on Valentine's Day in the woods north of Globe.
The full report yet to be released, but we do know blunt force trauma and homicidal violence.
No arrests. No arrests.
Allred Pike, Jr., I'm curious.
Did the mom and the grandma try to get her out of the group home and put the sex assaulter behind bars?
What happened with that?
Why was she the one taken away from the home?
That I'm not sure of.
I believe my sisters had tried to take her in, but there were issues that just they couldn't navigate through to get her to stay with them up in Utah or Denver.
To Mary Kim Titla joining us, she is the Executive Director of Unity United National Indian Tribal Youth.
I don't understand again
and at this point this is a side issue
because the real issue is who murdered Emily Pike
but I don't understand why the assaulter was allowed to stay at the family compound
and Emily was the one forced out
and then the system was so difficult to navigate
mom couldn't get her back
it doesn't make sense
and what I would like to address is something that was mentioned earlier
and that's confidence in law enforcement
it's shot there is a lack of trust among Native Americans
when it comes to law enforcement, and rightly so, because there are so many unsolved cases,
the handling of crimes involving Native Americans.
It's a sad reality.
There have been so many unsolved cases.
And the fact that she was removed from the home, it doesn't make sense one bit.
It makes so many of us in the community very angry the way this was handled on so many levels.
We have to have accountability.
We have to make sure that there's oversight, and it does mean people working together.
There is now a task force on the reservation.
There is now a community group raising funds to put up these billboards, to raise awareness.
I'm glad that people are working together, but more must be done to prevent these things
from happening. We have to know what it's going to take to keep our children safe, whether they're
on the reservation or taken away. So we have to work together to make sure that this never
happens again. Well, I have one suggestion, and that would be to allow local law enforcement
and the feds onto the reservation to help find missing people and solve unsolved homicides.
thousand Native American women missing a year is unacceptable. But isn't it true, Mary Kim,
that on Indian reservations, local law enforcement and the feds, neither one have any jurisdiction.
They cannot come in an investigative case. Isn't that true? There are jurisdictional issues,
and that must be addressed. You're absolutely right.
There are limitations and it does seem to take so much time to get these cases solved.
There's not enough resources.
We know that.
We must work together and lift these limitations so that we can solve these crimes.
It is unacceptable that there are so many unsolved crimes and we don't want this to become
a cult case. We are fighting very hard to make sure that Emily Pike's name and case stays in the forefront.
But every day that slips away, it seems to get further and further away. We don't want that to happen.
So we have to keep raising our voices and making sure that law enforcement knows that this is of high importance.
We can't let this become a cold case.
To Dr. John Deletory joining us, renowned psychologist mediator, specializing in forensic psychology at ResolutionfCS.com.
Dr. Deletory, thank you for being with us.
It's very difficult for me to sit by and hear this because I feel there's nothing we can do.
And I'm going to get Bueller to comment on this because local law enforcement not allowed on Native American reservations.
Fed's no jurisdiction at all.
So what can we do?
Not a D-A-M-N thing.
Nothing.
And we're seeing this unfold in the Nancy Guthrie case, right?
We see the feds.
And I experienced it.
I was a Fed for three years before I became a felony prosecutor in intercity Atlanta.
I know the feds have all of the resources.
They have all of the technology that local law enforcement does not have.
So this is an injustice to Emily Pike.
And it just burns me up to hear her case is unsolved.
And just the entire, the whole package.
is a hot, stinking mess.
The way she was taken out of the home,
when she is a sex assault victim,
the perp allowed to stay,
probably never brought to justice.
And now this,
the way she was treated,
handcuffed, a little girl handcuffed like that?
I mean, let me just throw it at you deletory.
I don't even know where to start.
Well, let's start with that police body cam that we saw.
So we know that she was sexually assaulted.
maybe the police didn't know, but it is absolutely awful the way that they manhandle her.
Hold on.
Delo Tori.
That's why she got removed.
She got removed.
They did know.
They don't know that.
She was removed.
Right.
Responding officers don't know when they're interacting with her what actually has happened to her.
But it is already awful that they're manhandling her the way that they are.
I mean, look at her.
She is trying to fight them off.
And so that already tells me something about how she is going to be.
be interacting with adult men. She's fighting them off as best as she can, but they're still
overpowering her. So we can absolutely start there. We can also start with, well, what can we do?
Well, as citizens, we can put pressure on all of these organizations, including the reservation,
including the tribe. We can put pressure on having them actually solve this case and the thousands of
other cases that have gone unsolved. We can absolutely put pressure on them to take a look at members
within the tribe, most likely they're probably being protected by the tribe. And the perpetrator
of this offense is probably there on the reservation, which is probably why her hands are missing
because it contains a DNA of whoever assaulted her. Emily is just one. I mean, this is the one we're
talking about. But there's so many other women. There are so many other victims that deserve to have
their cases solved. And they're just not. And so we as citizens have to do it for them.
Dr. Deloey, you just taught me off the ledge here because everything you said is correct.
And to throw your hands up in exasperation and frustration, that's not the answer.
That will get me and Emily nowhere fast.
Back to John Bueller, former detective Modesto PD.
Right now, we are trying to help solve the Emily Pike murder.
and I don't want to spend the rest of our few moments together, our group tonight, rehashing what went wrong.
But what do you make? I mean, is there any hope? What do we do now? The case is a year old, a year and a month old.
We've got a task force formed between the locals and the tribe and the tribe and, and,
I believe the FBI is in on it, but I don't see really any advancement.
They claim there may be a POI. Maybe.
At this juncture, I know you've worked on plenty of coal cases, as have I, and it is not easy
to resurrect a cold case. It's hard. What do you advise right now, Bueller?
Well, there's a couple of things that could be done in the future.
And number one, you have to allow detectives to specialize in violent crimes so that they gain experience, they gain training, not just in the classroom, but being mentored by senior detectives that show them how to work the case.
They should be allowed to gain that experience.
And there's where your success rate comes when you're working a case like that.
There were many cases I never would have solved if I wouldn't have been trained by the guy who trained me.
And then over and above that, the one thing that strikes me that we're not talking about too much is the guy who did this probably has done it before.
Now, maybe he hasn't murdered before, but he's probably a violent offender.
He's went through the court system many times, and they've just passed them along.
When there's no accountability for the people that are making decisions about punishment, and I'm speaking specifically of judges, they have all the time in the world to make a decision on what they do.
But violent offenders need to be kept behind bars because they can't function in society.
And then you don't have victims like Emily in the future.
But soft punishment is very violent to the victim twice when they were victimized and then
afterwards for their family.
Those are things that just kind of pop into my head on the spur of the moment.
Mesa Police report Emily Pike as missing to the National Crime Information Center the
evening of January 27th the same day police got word of her disappearance.
Her mother is not even informed of Emily leaving the group home until her 14-year-old daughter
has been missing for a full week.
Police say it is up to the group home to contact her case manager who would then have
contacted Pike's family or tribe.
There are...
It's one of our very first foods.
And sometimes, the last thing before bed, it's loved by young and old.
It's not just pasta.
It's eaten pasta.
Crime stories with Nancy Grace.
In a shocking turn of events,
Events. Information about the remains of Emily Pike is leaked on Facebook, revealing gruesome
details that were not intended for the public. The Heala County Sheriff's Office posts information
that detectives found the head and torso in large contractor trash bags and the legs were found
in separate bags. Detectives searched the area but failed to find the arms and hands.
The teen had visible face and head trauma. No identifying clothing, jewelry, or identification is
found with the remains. The cause of death is still undetermined. Deputies,
say there's no indication that there is an act of threat to the community.
Straight out to Susan Hendricks joining us, investigative journalist, Susan,
isn't it true that, well, it's kind of obvious, but Emily was murdered at a primary crime scene
where her remains were found is at least a secondary, if not tertiary crime scene.
Isn't that true?
Yeah, that is true.
She was thrown out like trash basically in the middle of nests,
nowhere. I think it's about an hour outside of Mesa, Arizona. And as we were just listening to that
report, what do you mean that people aren't in immediate danger? They are in immediate danger.
And these loopholes and the lack of communication, someone, a lot of criminals, multiple people
are benefiting from this. How do we know this guy's not a serial killer? And he's still out there.
And like you said, Nancy, outrage doesn't equal justice. And it just makes you think, what can we do?
What can law enforcement do?
Analyze this case, for starters, to Dr. Kendall Crowns,
when a person, a human is dismembered,
it's almost impossible to get rid of any trace evidence.
Explain.
When you're dismembering a body,
depending especially on how you dismember it,
sawing or cutting with implements,
it's going to cause blood, bodily fluids, tissue,
to get everywhere.
it's going to get on your clothing, on the furniture, it'll get on the floor.
And then, of course, when you place it in trash bags, the trash bags aren't completely sealed.
It'll leak out in a car or whatever vehicle you use to transport the bodies in or body.
So anything that was involved in the portion of the case where there's dismemberment is going to have DNA evidence on it, no matter how good they clean it up.
It'll still be able to be found.
If that evidence is still there this much time later, but as you just pointed out, it's really hard to clean away trace evidence from a dismemberment.
There can be blood in every nook and cranny, every tiny hole in the floor, especially when you have, well, carpet, hardwood, linoleum, you name it.
It's really hard to get every speck of blood out, but we've got to find that location.
According to reports tonight, there may be one person of interest on the radar.
It's speculative at this juncture, but according to one law enforcement official, Emily,
may have been kidnapped by an older man based in the area of Globe, Arizona.
someone they think she trusted.
That's all we know now.
After this many months, that's all we've got.
Back to Allred Pike Jr., this is Emily's paternal uncle.
What, if anything, is law enforcement telling you or Emily's mom?
On the dad's side of the family, we don't really hear nothing from law enforcement.
from the beginning to now, there's no real updates regarding my niece's case.
John Puehler, former Detective Modesto PD, how can that be that the family is told nothing?
I know this, but they don't.
How can that be, John?
Well, to me, it shows a lack of experience because generally you're going to have one detective
that's going to make constant contact with the family and give them updates,
and then that person in the family will broadcast.
that information to other family members. You can't talk to everybody, but there should be one
point of contact that they do. Suggests a lack of experience on their part. To me, I don't know for
sure because I'm not there, but that's kind of what it looks like here, you know, from this seat.
We also learn that another teen goes missing from the same group home. During the investigation of
Emily Pike's disappearance from a group home in Mesa, Arizona, it is revealed that another teen has been
from the same group home since May of last year. Mesa PD says the group home notified them when 17-year-old Veronica Cruz went missing from the home on May 18, 24, and has been missing ever since. They don't know who she's with or where she is and points out that Cruz will be 18 next month. Mesa PD says that's not good enough because she is under 18. They need to physically verify that Cruz is safe and under the care of a guardian before changing her status.
Straight back out to John Bueller.
John, I'm just trying to advance the case, advance the investigation.
Finger pointing and recriminations will not advance the investigation.
We do know that there is a $200,000 reward, $200,000 on the table for information leading to the whereabouts of the perp who murdered, who murdered,
and dismembered this little girl. I mean, John Bueller, shouldn't that jog somebody's memory for Pete's sake?
That's nearly a quarter million dollars. Well, you'd think it would, especially if two people were involved.
One's going to probably turn on the other for that amount of money. Also, if you've got family members or friends of the perpetrator,
if they see he's missing, or if maybe he has unaccounted for time, or something's going on with his life that they think is strange and might be.
link to this. Those are the people that need to call and give the locals help on this thing
because they can't do it alone. There's only so much that physical evidence can do for you.
There's only so much that circumstantial evidence can do for you in a case like this.
They do need some help from somebody. Now, they also may have more information than they're
letting out and they're keeping that close to the vests. And I get that and that's definitely
something that they want to do. But the mere fact that the trash bag information was released and where
the body was and the condition was in, those are not good things to release because those are things
that you want to keep close in the investigation to verify information when you're interviewing a suspect.
John Bueller, I only pray that you are right that the local authorities know more than they are letting on.
If you know or think you know anything about the disappearance of Little Emily Pike,
please call the local sheriffs 928-200-2352.
928,
200,
2352
or
505
917
783030
505
917 7830
there's a nearly
quarter million
dollar reward
for information
regarding Emily Pike's
killer
Nancy Grace signing off
goodbye friend
This is an I-heart podcast.
Guaranteed human.
