FBI, tribal agencies host child ID event in response to Emily Pike’s murder
FORT MCDOWELL, AZ (AZFamily) — The disappearance and murder of 14-year-old Emily Pike sent shockwaves throughout Arizona. As the search for her killer continues, several law enforcement agencies hosted an event today focused on prevention and preparedness, so no other family suffers the same pain.
As a mother of three, safety is always at the top of Malinda Pattea’s mind. “It’s something that I’ve had to explain to my kids what happens, why we need to be careful of our surroundings, where we go, you know, make sure you’re always letting somebody know where you’re at,” she said.
Pattea knows it’s important to be prepared for the worst-case scenario. That’s why she brought her family to an event about what to do if a child goes missing.
“We can’t control anything that happens in the world these days, but it does give me a sense of security knowing that I have the resources,” said Pattea.
The program was held on the Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation and was inspired by Emily Pike’s murder. “The event we prepared today started out of grief and powerful call to action,” said FBI victim specialist Maricela Savalas.
She said after Emily was found dismembered off a highway east of Globe on Valentine’s Day, agencies knew more needed to be done to protect Arizona’s Indigenous children.
“When we were seeing the impact that Emily’s death had, it was a question of how do we serve these children better. How do we improve upon the tools that we do have to make sure our response is rapid, so that we can make sure that they have the right to be safe and also to be seen,” she said.
On Saturday, families received resources like national child ID kits. These kits have sections for a photo and basic information like height and weight. There’s even space for fingerprints and DNA collection.
“Say there is an abduction and we are looking into things, we may find fingerprints on a car or a bicycle or those kind of things,” said Roger Geisler, who leads the Arizona Attorney General’s newly formed cold case unit. “We can eliminate her fingerprints from other fingerprints that we might find.”
Geisler said that time is of the essence when a child is missing.
“Report the child missing immediately. A lot of families will spend an hour, two hours, three hours looking for the child before they contact law enforcement,” he said.
Another tool is the FBI’s free child ID app. Parents can create a profile for their child and upload all relevant information, which can easily be sent to law enforcement in case of an emergency.
See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it.
Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description.
Copyright 2025 KTVK/KPHO. All rights reserved.
