Authorities have issued an Amber Alert for the 11-year-old girl reportedly abducted on the Navajo Nation in San Juan County in northwestern New Mexico.
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Wade acknowledged that some parents are anxious about the safety of their children as they go to and from school.
According to USA Today, the Navajo Nation does not have access to the Amber Alert system and must contact local police to alert them to a missing child. Shawn said his nine-year-old son had also encountered the man in th e van and he too was offered a ride, with the enticement of seeing the movie “Zootopia”.
The FBI says it has more information that is not yet being released. Authorities are poring over parts of the Navajo Nation in search of the man who snatched Ian and Ashlynne Mike and killed Ashlynne. Tom Begaye was arrested in connection with Mike’s disappearance and death.
Begaye was charged with murder, kidnapping, kidnapping of a minor and committing a crime on an Indian reservation, NBC News reported. But Navajo President Russell Begaye, no relation to the suspect, acknowledged this week that the tribe needs a more effective response system using modern technology.
When Begaye was interviewed by FBI investigators, he allegedly confessed to kidnapping Ashlynne and her brother, sexually assaulting the girl and then killing her.
“As a dad, you would like to see your daughter grow up and see her have a family of her own one day”. The brother and another boy – a relative of the children – said no, but Ashlynne was somehow lured into the van.
News of the arrest came as mourners from across the 27,000-square-mile reservation and surrounding areas attended the vigil, held in Ashlynne’s home community of San Juan, located south of Shiprock, New Mexico.
Tips are flooding in from across the reservation that spans parts of New Mexico, Arizona and Utah as well as the close-knit tribal community where Ashlynne lived. The FBI said it’s following up on all leads. One of the children’s cousins, Shawn Mike, said his 9-year-old son spotted the pair as he was approached by a man in a maroon-colored van on Navajo Route 36. “It was really hard for the Federal Bureau of Investigation to get any information from him”.
Begaye told investigators he removed the girl’s clothes, preparing to sexually assault her, and that he struck her twice in the head with the crowbar because she was crying and pleading with him to take her home, the AP reported, citing the affidavit.
This image, provided by San Juan Chapter Vice President Robert C. Begay, shows the type of van suspected of abducting a young girl and her brother on Monday. Her aunt described Ashlynne as a fun-loving, kind and quiet girl. It notified the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 12:20 a.m. Tuesday of the need for an Amber Alert, and the organization informed New Mexico State Police of the abduction, the center’s Robert Lowery Jr. said. Authorities later announced the search was over after the arrest of Begaye.
The search for the girl included federal, tribal, state and county officers on the ground as well as a New Mexico State Police helicopter.
Jesse Delmar, a public safety director for the Navajo Nation, said the girl’s body was found in a secluded area south of the distinct rock formation that the town of Shiprock is named for. Her brother, also abandoned, tried to find her but gave up as darkness fell.
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Investigators have not said if the two children were known to the suspect or if this was purely random.
