Teen Runaway, 14, Found Dismembered in Remote Area Previously Told Police She Didn't Want to Return to Her Group Home: Report

An Arizona teenager told a police officer she didn’t want to return to a group home over a year before she ran away again and was discovered murdered.

Emily Pike, 14, was reported missing from a group home in Mesa, Ariz. on Jan. 27, 2025. Her remains were found the following month on Feb. 14 near Forest Road 355 on state land near the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation, per a May FBI press release.

The teen was found dismembered in garbage bags in a remote area, NBC News previously reported.

Local news station KNXV’s ABC15 recently obtained body camera footage from the Mesa Police Department recovering Emily when she ran away in September 2023. In it, Emily told an officer that she didn’t want to go back to the group home. 

The teenager was reported missing from the location, reportedly operated by Sacred Journey Inc., three times in 2023.

The clip from September 2023 showed Emily walking along a canal when she was found by police after being reported missing.

“I just want to see my mom,” she told the officer, adding that she wanted to stay with her grandma.

“I’m not going to go to that f—— group home,” the teenager insisted. “I hate it there.” Despite her complaints, she eventually got into the car with the officer, the publication reported.

Another clip from January 2025 captured the moment that the group home called police to report the teenager missing. In it, a staff member told the officer, “I looked under the bed and the closet. I looked outside. The gate was open. The screen door, the screen window was kicked out.”

“We’ll get her in as a missing person,” the officer said, per the clip shared by the outlet. “And then if we get in contact with her, obviously we’ll notify you right away that we found her.”

In the May press release, the FBI confirmed it was “offering a reward of up to $75,000 for any person providing independently verifiable information identifying the individual(s) responsible” for Emily’s “disappearance and murder.”

Per Fox 10 Phoenix, San Carlos Apache Tribe Chairman Terry Rambler previously said its council was also offering a $75,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible.

The outlet stated that the tribe was requesting that state leaders tighten regulations for state-licensed residential group homes for children following Emily’s death.

A legislative hearing was held last month focusing on Emily’s case and group home protocol, per ABC15. 

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A spokesperson for the Department of Child Safety (DCS) shared a statement with the outlet in March: “At this time, the department does not believe any action taken, or not taken, by the group home caused the terrible outcome in this case. We have opened a licensing inquiry to determine whether appropriate steps were taken by the group home during this incident.”

Tribe chairman Rambler previously said in a letter of Emily’s death, “This crime must not go unsolved. Emily was murdered in a cruel, depraved and heinous act and the perpetrator(s) must be held accountable,” per NBC.

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The outlet stated that the tribe’s social services department had placed Emily at the group home. Her uncle, Allred Pike Jr., 50, declined to say why she was placed there.

The Gila County Sheriff’s Office, the Arizona Department of Child Safety and the San Carlos Apache Tribe didn’t immediately respond when contacted by PEOPLE for additional information. PEOPLE wasn’t able to reach out to a spokesperson for Sacred Journey Inc. for comment.