The Navajo Nation is being sued over its delay in creating an Amber Alert system that some believe might have saved the life of an 11-year-old girl.
Ashlynne Mike was found dead May 3rd, 2016, near the Ship Rock formation in New Mexico. She and her younger brother reportedly had been kidnapped while walking home the day before by a man who let the boy go, then sexually assaulted and bludgeoned her. Ashlynne’s father, Gary Mike, has filed a complaint in Shiprock District Court against the Navajo Nation and three other parties. In the complaint, Mike says although he filed a missing-persons report around 7 the night of May 2nd, it wasn’t until 2:30 a.m. the next morning that an Amber Alert was issued and a search organized. The complaint says “the horrifying delay” caused the girl’s death. The man charged in her murder, Tom Begay, Jr., of Waterflow, New Mexico, who has pleaded not guilty, reportedly said the victim was alive when he left her. The complaint says the Navajo Nation received a $330,000 federal grant in 2007 to develop its own Amber Alert system, but the money was funneled into other uses such as megaphones and electric heaters. Nation President Russell Begaye told the Farmington Daily-Times he doesn’t know why the previous administration did not use the funds for an alert system, but the tribe now has one in place.
