Arizona’s missing person alert bill amended to address exclusion of Emily Pike’s case

A measure that would establish a new missing person alert system in Arizona was amended Wednesday to include minors — addressing a previous gap in the bill’s language that excluded Emily Pike, an Indigenous teen lawmakers say inspired their call to action.

The change comes after Arizona Luminaria reported on the proposed bill’s age restrictions, which would not have applied to Emily’s case despite legislators recently renaming the measure in the 14-year-old’s honor.

Emily, a member of the San Carlos Apache Tribe, went missing earlier this year after running away from a group home in Mesa. Weeks later, she was found on Valentine’s Day brutally murdered near Globe, almost 100 miles from where she disappeared.

Her case renewed interest in the ongoing injustice of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People and was used to rally support for the proposed alert system, despite being introduced in January before Emily’s case was widely known.

Amendment addresses previous discrepancy 

House Bill 2281 proposes the creation of a new Turquoise Alert System under the Department of Public Safety. Once activated at the request of a law enforcement agency investigating a missing person, the alert would distribute notifications statewide. The measure — sponsored by Rep. Teresa Martinez, a Republican from Casa Grande — also has support from Indigenous state Reps. Brian Garcia, Mae Peshlakai and Myron Tsosie, all Democrats.

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The proposed legislation was developed in collaboration with Gila River Indian Community Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis to address cases of missing Indigenous people across Arizona. It has since undergone several amendments, including one that restricted eligibility to people ages 18 to 64 and another that renamed it Emily’s Law, despite the age limit that would’ve excluded her case.

Luminaria recently reported on the discrepancy, prompting Martinez to say there was still time to make revisions that ensure Emily would’ve been included. On Wednesday, the bill was amended once more to apply to any missing person under 65 years old.

While the change expands coverage for missing people who wouldn’t qualify for Amber or Silver alerts, it’s still unclear if the bill would help runaway children like Emily due to its requirement that the missing person be classified as endangered — a designation not all runaways get. Emily’s recent missing person report from the Mesa Police Department did not indicate she was in danger, and no Amber Alert was issued — which stipulates that a child must have been abducted, not a runaway and believed to be in imminent danger.

The measure will next go before the Senate for a third read vote and, if passed, head back to the House for another final vote, according to Robbie Sherwood, Arizona House Democratic spokesperson.

If the bill passes, it will then go to Gov. Katie Hobbs, who will decide whether to sign it into law.

Shifts attention from Indigenous people

Earlier amendments also have gradually expanded the bill’s protections beyond its original focus on missing Indigenous people. In the process, the term “Indigenous” was removed entirely from the bill’s language. Another revision added that it “includes a member of a federally recognized tribe.”

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While this makes the alert system more inclusive, it also shifts attention away from its initial purpose: addressing the disproportionately high rates of violence Indigenous communities face, an issue that’s long been overlooked by government and criminal justice systems across the state and nation.

Several states have created alert systems specifically for missing Indigenous people, including New Mexico’s recently established Turquoise Alert System. Josett D. Monette, cabinet secretary for the New Mexico Department of Indian Affairs, emphasized the importance of these systems.

“Too many Native American families have faced crisis and the heartbreak of a loved one disappearing without the swift response they deserve,” she said in a March news release. “The Turquoise Alert System is a critical step forward in ensuring that missing Native American people are prioritized in the same way as other emergency alerts.”

Arizona is home to 22 federally-recognized Tribal Nations, and was identified in a 2018 study as having the third highest number of Indigenous women and girls going missing or being murdered in the country.

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System on Thursday showed just more than 90 Native Americans were reported missing in Arizona. Another 62 children identified as “Indian” also were listed as missing on DPS’s missing children database as of Thursday. It’s unclear how many are Native American versus Indian from India.

This article first appeared on AZ Luminaria and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.