Transcript
Sean Rice (0:00)
Foreign.
Kendall Rae (0:07)
And welcome to another episode of True Crime with Kendall Rae. Thank you so much as always for joining me today. I truly, truly appreciate it. I know there is a lot of content out there on the Internet these days and I really appreciate you taking the time to spend some time with me. And for any of you who are new to my show, welcome also. So happy to have you. So today, guys, the case that I am going to be talking about is one that is very, very, very difficult to talk about. It's also been highly requested by so many of you. And as soon as I started learning the details, as hard as I knew it was going to be to talk about, I knew we absolutely needed to. We are going to be talking about Emily pike, who was murdered at just 14 years old. Just a child, just a baby really. And she was brutally and senselessly killed after she snuck out of a group home. And I mean, the story and everything surrounding it and aftermath of it all is just so, so upsetting. But more people need to hear her story. She is one of the many indigenous people whose life has been stolen. And her case really highlights the epidemic of missing and murdered indigenous women and girls that plagues this country. It's beyond inhumane what this little girl went through. And there not only needs to be justice, but truly there needs to be a major change in how the system handles cases of all missing and murdered indigenous people, which is something that we have talked about on this show countless times. I have been happy to see that Emily has gotten some coverage in really just the True Crime podcast and creator community, which is awesome and also in some local news station. It's all fantastic, but she really needs national media attention. The monster who killed this beautiful child should not be able to escape her face and name. They should just be absolutely bombarded with what they did every single day and have to suffer with knowing what and who they stole from this world. Before I get into Emily's case, I do have an exciting announcement. I believe I mentioned this last week, but in case you missed last episode, I did want to bring bring it up again. I wanted to let you know that all Mile Higher media shows, our merch is now all in one place, which is something that we have been trying to work on for quite some time. I know there have been so many people complaining about, you know, I want to get merch from multiple mile higher media shows, but the shipping, you know, you'd have to pay for shipping for all those different shows, which is totally understandably annoying. We finally fixed this issue so Everything is available@milehiremerch.com but what's really great and what I'm really excited to announce is that 100% of the proceeds from Merch for all shows. So every single piece of merch on our website is now directly going to my foundation, Higher Hope and will support victims of violent crime and their families as well as like minded organizations that are, you know, doing the same thing that we are. So if you're interested in supporting Higher Hope, we could use all the support we could get so that we can help as many people as we can. And that is all available@milehighermerch.com so check it out, see if there's anything you're interested in. Maybe you want to get something for a friend even or Mother's Day. Father's Day is coming up. I don't know. But we would love your support and it's an easy way to do that while also treating yourself to something nice. Her friends and tribe are desperately seeking attention on this and if you guys want to help, you can do so just by sharing her story. Whether that's word of mouth or on social media, we cannot stop talking about Emily. So with that, let me tell you about what we know so far, which I will warn you. You know, this is pretty early on in this case. There is still a lot that we don't know. But I just wanted to tell you what we do know for those of you who haven't already been following her case. So let's start out by just talking about Emily and who she was. Emily Carla pike was born on May 16, 2010 into the San Carlos Apache Tribe and she was born on the San Carlos Apache Reservation located in Southeast Arizona. Her mom, Steph, has been as vocal as possible in the midst of all of this, but considering how recently her daughter's life was taken, there's a lot, like I said, that we don't know yet. But what I can tell you about Emily, though is that she was such a sweet and special little girl. People remember her as having a joyful spirit as well as a loving and kind of quirky personality. And I'm always drawn to the quirky among us. She also had a major love of K pop and also playing the game Roblox. Emily loved all things sparkly. She loved pink, which is why I set the background colors to pink today for her. And she also loved cats. So I hope that she would like my cat. And she told everyone that she actually wanted to be a vet when she grew up. Emily was also super artistic. And I read that she was interested in maybe pursuing art as well. All of which she should have had the opportunity to do. But at just 14 years old, any hope for her future in accomplishing her aspirations, goals, and dreams was just taken from her. And it makes me sick to know what this poor child went through at the end of her life. You're going to hear me explain the circumstances of how her life ended here in a minute. But I just want to, right off the bat, remind you guys, which I almost feel I don't need to because my audience is so awesome, but just for, you know, the people that will say things, you know, I just wanted to remind everyone that she did not and could not have known better. So I just ask that you keep any of that commentary to yourself because it's not helpful to anyone. But with all that being said, let's talk about what happened. So, leading up to Emily's murder, she actually wasn't living on the reservation. Instead, she was living in a group home in Mesa, Arizona, which is about 120 miles west. A lot of people I've seen covering this case have chosen not to name the home to protect the kids who are still living there, which I think is a great decision. I definitely want to follow suit, but just know that she had been living in a group home. As for why she was there, that's one thing. One of the many things that we don't have a lot of insight on, but we do know that she was placed there by tribal social services, and we also know that she was likely placed there because she was struggling with her mental health, and they had better resources for her than if she were on the reservation. Now, there is is a group home on the reservation. However, due to the high demand for child placement and limited staffing and space, it doesn't sound like there was even room for Emily there. And one thing that I want to clarify right away here is that the home that she was in does work with the Department of Child Services or DCS to place kids. But Emily wasn't in the care of dcs. She was in the care of, like I said, tribal social services. And that distinction does matter. And also, if, which I'm sure a lot of people are wondering about her family and her home life. And that's another area where we just don't have a lot of clarification or answers. I can tell you, though, that Emily was surrounded by a community who loved her, including her parents, her grandmother, her aunts and uncles, as well as her cousins. Her father was in prison at the time of her death for criminal damage. And again, there's not a lot of information here on that. But his incarceration didn't impact the love that he had for Emily. As far as what's been reported, I will say I especially loved learning about her relationship with her cousins. She was very, very close with her cousin, some of them, and I think the cousin bond can be very, very special. I am personally best friends with my cousin, and two of her cousins were around the same age as her, and they called themselves the trio. And they were basically inseparable. And even while Emily was away, they would talk to her on the phone and they would make plans for when they could finally see each other again. They were just a huge part of each other's lives, which just breaks my heart thinking that they no longer have her and it shouldn't be that way. They even spoke just a few weeks before what happened. And they remember her saying that she was going to be home within a month, which I guess they were excited about because they were making plans to go shopping when she came home. But this was a little confusing because it hasn't been reported if this was a legitimate plan that they had or if this was something that Emily was independently hoping would happen. Some people think it was the latter, though, especially given what happened on January 27, 2025. Very, very recently that day, at 8:19pm the group's home manager made a call to the Mesa Police Department to report that Emily was awol, which, if you haven't heard that term, the Oxford dictionary defines it as absent without official leave, but without intent to. To dessert or absent from where one should be missing. I guess there was a local church group that had come to the group home, which sort of created a distraction, and she was able to slip out of her bedroom window. And according to reports, she was last seen walking near the intersection of Mesa Drive and McKellips Road at around 7:45pm but after that, Emily was never seen or heard from again. And this wasn't very far from the home. So it's believed that whoever took her did so not long after she left. And what we also don't know yet is if she knew this person or not. The group home doesn't allow cell phones, so I'm not sure if there's any type of digital trail or not. And let me just say, the way the saga, I should say, of how her disappearance was handled is going to piss you off, or at least it should. And that started with what we see in so many cases of missing children and teenagers who are failed by the system. And that's because the missing persons report, when it was taken, she was considered a runaway teen, which isn't entirely untrue. The problem, though, and again, something we see a lot, is they used Emily's history of running away as an excuse to not take this seriously. I am so, so excited to finally be partnering with one of my favorite brands out there. 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You can get 20 off your first order with code BABY20. That's code B A B Y20@nanit.com now once again, N A N I T.com Nanit Parenthood looks different here. Now, Emily's full history of how long she was in the group home actually hasn't been released, but we know that she had lived there two separate times. And in 2023, she ran away from the home on three different occasions. And on one of those occasions, Emily actually ran away with another child from the and this is really sad, but every time that Emily ran away and was found by the police, she made it clear that she really did not want to go back there. In September, she and that other child who she ran away with told the Mesa police, quote, they did not want to go back to the group home because they make them work by scrubbing walls, baseboards, window seals, and even getting on their hands and knees to scrub the grout on the tile. Now, one of them, and we're not exactly sure who, actually said that she would rather go to jail or live with her grandma, then return back to the group home. And then in another September runaway incident, Emily told the officers that she didn't want to go back, quote, because it makes her uncomfortable when the staff gets into arguments with other juveniles in the home. And this is, of course, I think, in my opinion, one of those things that you could never truly understand what it's like unless you have lived in a situation like this. And of course, I can't say that I understand how Emily felt because I've never lived in a group home. And when I was researching this case and, you know, reading comments on other videos and just things on Reddit and forums, I read a lot of stories of people who have lived in these homes. And according to so many of them, these types of things seem to be very common. Some, if not a lot, or the majority of these kids are probably scared and confused and potentially not treated well. And all they really want is to be able to go back home. Obviously, there are probably some group homes that are excellent and that kids do have a good experience in. But I'm telling you, from just what I have read from other people's experiences, this seems to be what the majority of them are saying. And I'd love to hear from any of you out there who have experienced living in a group home and what it was like for you personally. But it really seems that a lot of them want to get out of these group homes because they either don't feel safe or don't feel comfortable. And again, I want to be really clear here that not all group Homes are bad or create that kind of environment, but some of them definitely are. And from what we just heard, it sounds like Emily wasn't happy and really, really did not want to be there. And a lot of people have questioned whether the home that she was staying in was doing a good job of protecting kids. It's been reported that in the last three years, the Mesa police have responded to over 80 calls from that home, specifically, 42 of which were for missing persons. And of those 42 calls, 30 resulted in missing persons reports being filed. Now, I don't want to downplay this at all, but I do feel it's important that I explain it a little bit further, because I've seen a lot of coverage on this, especially in early reporting, where people say things like, wow, this group home has had 30 kids run away in just three years. Which, of course, it does kind of sound like that, but that was 30 reports for 18 kids, and that is a horrible number still. I mean, 18 kids is too many. One kid is too many. But I think it's really important when it comes to these cases that we stick to the facts as much as possible. But, yeah, to clear some of the confusion, in this case up, it was 30 runaway instances for 18 kids. So basically, if a child ran away twice, that is counted as two of the reports. I just wanted to explain that a little further because I think especially in the true crime space, it's so important that we stick to the facts. And saying things like that just perpetuates misinformation. But still, that doesn't change how I feel about this group home and about other group homes I've learned about. I mean, I definitely question this specific group home's ability to protect children who stay there. And even though 18 of those runaways were found, two of them were not. One of them, of course, being Emily. But there's also another young girl named Veronica Cruz. Now, she disappeared from this group home in March of 2024, and she has yet to be found. And that alone should have been an indication that there needed to be change. But instead, Emily was able to slip out of her window, where she was quickly met with what can only be described as horror. So, in the state of Arizona, it is the law that when a child in state custody goes missing, they need to notify the authorities within one day. But since Emily was under the care of Tribal Social Services, that law actually didn't apply. Now, we know that the group home made the report that night and that the Mesa police did report her as Missing to the National Crime Information center that night as well. But nobody, not even the police, thought to notify Emily's family. This is absolutely maddening, but it took a full week before her mom got a call from her daughter's case manager that her daughter was missing. I'm sorry, but you can't tell me the police were trying that hard to find her if they didn't go to her mother first. It just makes no sense. And listen to this. Mesa police said that it wasn't their responsibility to notify her family. Yes, they actually said that. Instead. They said that the group home should have told her case manager, who then should have told her family. And honestly, I don't care what the protocol is. It's all just ridiculous and makes no sense. But at the end of the day, you tell the family if their child is missing. But they didn't. They waited a week and so tons of precious time was wasted. Her family could have spent time getting the word out or going around putting out flyers, talking to people they knew, just looking for her, but instead they had no idea that she was gone. The police did start to circulate flyers as well as canvas the immediate area, but apparently since they categorized her as a runaway, she didn't meet the requirements of an Amber Alert, which I have also covered cases on all of our shows. Where this happens, I will never understand. It makes no sense to me. It is so, so frustrating. And the vibe I really get here, and again, this is just my opinion is it seems that everyone thought that since she ran away that she would just be coming back and so they didn't think or care to look any harder. Even though there's a 14 year old child out there on her own who knows where and who knows in whose hands, which is just wrong on so many levels. But especially when you consider the fact that indigenous women and girls are murdered and go missing at a disproportionately higher rate than other people. And the state of Arizona is actually ranked third for the largest number of MMIWG cases behind New Mexico and Washington. The data literally proves that Emily was a high risk individual and yet she was not treated that way even remotely. And I don't care what her history was and I don't care if she chose to run away. It honestly doesn't matter at all. She did not deserve to be killed. 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Just go to hellofresh.com Kendall Ray 10fm which unfortunately brings me to the hardest part to talk about in this case, which is finding Emily's body. Very recently On Valentine's Day, February 14th, 2025, officers with the Gila County Sheriff's Office were notified by civilians about suspicious trash bags in a remote area just off of the highway. And when officers arrived they discovered multiple contractor trash bags which contained dismembered human remains. The remains were located in a very remote area off of Highway 60 near mile marker 277 for service road 355 just outside of Globe, Arizona. And based on where she was left, it seems as though someone had pulled into this service road to toss her body before making their escape in an unknown direction. Now, Highway 60 can take you all the way from Arizona to Virginia. And in context of where Emily was last seen, her dump site was 100 miles to the east, and it was also in the direction of her reservation, which has led many people to believe that maybe that's where she was trying to go. Like maybe she hitchhiking or something. That could be a possibility here. And, oh, my, this just makes me sick to think about. But do you want to know how her family and everyone else found out about this? Through a leaked memo on Facebook. Yep, you heard that right. Someone in law enforcement accidentally posted an internal memo to the sheriff's office Facebook page. And I can't even begin to understand how someone would make a mistake of this magnitude. It is beyond strange to me. It's so negligent. It almost feels, and this is just my opinion, it almost feels, like, purposeful. But at the same time, I'm like, why? Why would anyone do that? But how could you be dumb enough to make a mistake like that? It's just so. I cannot understand it. And it was horrible. It was horrible because it contained graphic descriptions of what had been found. Also, I just wanted to quickly note that this memo is very graphic. What I'm about to say is very graphic, very upsetting. So that's your warning to skip forward or to just close out now, but I hope that you'll stay, even though it's difficult to hear, because Emily's story really needs to be heard. This memo shared that an unidentified female was found dismembered in contractor trash bags and that a head and a torso were found in one bag and that legs were found in another. It was mentioned that her head and face showed visible signs of trauma, and to this day, her arms and hands have never been found. And I know that that information is brutal to hear, extremely terrifying, and I mean, there aren't even words for it. It is so horrific. But I think it's important that we share what exactly happened to her, what this child went through probably at the end of her life. Now, they didn't name Emily directly in this leak to Facebook memo. Absurd. I don't even have words for it. It's so wild. But it was pretty clear that she was who they were talking about. And get this, guys, they even included photos of the crime scene in this post, including the trash bags that she was found in. Can you even imagine what that would be like for anyone to see, let alone her own family and loved ones, her friends? It is. Is horrific beyond words. It is such A massively disgusting mistake that I just. Oh my God, it makes me so angry that this could ever have happened. Not to mention that anyone could have seen that post and then gone to the crime scene, gone to the spot where it happened and possibly destroyed evidence. Especially since it was so early on. I mean, it is just such a massive up. And I'm sorry for my language there. Another word just doesn't seem to cover how messed up this situation is. And to say that this was careless feels like an understatement. But all of this just truly speaks to how cases with indigenous people, indigenous victims are handled. So to say that this absolutely outraged their community would be an understatement. I mean, they are so, so angry beyond words, as they should be. And what makes it even worse is there hasn't even been an AP, just a follow up memo that came out on February 26th, which didn't do a whole lot of explaining at all. It reads in part. On February 14, 2025, the remains of an unidentified female were found. The Gila County Sheriff's Office, in conjunction with the San Carlos Apache Tribal Police, began an investigation. Due to the circumstances, it was decided that further information was needed before any public notification. There was no indication that there was an active threat to the community. Unfortunately, the information on Facebook was intended only for law enforcement agencies and was leaked. GCSO detectives are currently working long hours to make positive identification and find any information and evidence. I do get that this was an official statement, but it is shocking how little sympathy or responsibility there was. I mean, there was really no, no accountability at all, no real recognition of what a massive mistake this was. And really no apology whatsoever or any attempt at anything to that. And also, I don't know if you caught this, but they said that there's no active threat and that just pissed off everyone, the whole community. Because to suggest that there's no active threat, it makes no sense. That has been so upsetting to so many people to hear. I think we can all agree that someone who is willing to kidnap and then dismember a 14 year old girl has either done this before or is sick enough in the head to do it again. Even if they are trying to say that this is an isolated incident, and even if it is, I understand why people are scared and angry. And the next day everything that people in the community and her loved ones were fearing came true. Because the Sheriff's office confirmed that these remains did in fact belong to Emily Pike. This confirmation came through both dental records and a DNA sample submitted by her mom. The remains of a 14 year old girl were recently found in a wooded.