NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — According to authorities, Emily Pike was reported missing from her group home near Mesa Arizona at the end of January.
In February, her dismembered body was discovered.
Since then, Indigenous communities across the country have mourned her loss and spoken out against the horrendous crime.
Sunday a memorial service and call to action ceremony was held in Nashville.
Emily Pike was tragically killed more than 1500 miles from Nashville, but her death hit home for Kahlea Nez in more ways than one.
"To know that this happened to her, she was 14 years old. I have a 7-year-old son and he is an Indigenous little boy. If something like this were to happen to him, I couldn't even imagine," said Kahlea Nez, a Middle Tennessee resident who grew up on an Indigenous reservation in Arizona neighboring where Pike hailed from.
14-year-old Pike was part of the San Carlos Apache tribe.
"That's home for us, Arizona, where all this had happened, and we just felt the need that something needed to be said," said Jennifer Kennedy, Kahlea Nez's mother.
The Nez family has been in Tennessee for about the last decade.
“My daughter, deeply felt for her, and she said, 'Mom, we need to do something here in Tennessee,” Kennedy said.
So they reached out to the Indigenous People's Coalition in Tennessee to hold a memorial Sunday.
Albert Bender, Chairperson for the Indigenous Peoples Coalition helped arrange the memorial service at Corinthian Missionary Baptist Church.
Bender said he was outraged when he heard the news about what happened to Emily Pike.
"We felt outrage and grief and sadness, tremendous amount of sadness,” Bender said. “Her head and torso were in separate bags. Her legs were in other separate garbage bags, and her arms and hands have not been found to this day.
Bender is calling on law enforcement to find those responsible.
“We demand that this case not be allowed to fall by the wayside as this happened in the cases of so many missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls,” Bender said.
According to the U.S. Department of Interior, Native American and Alaska Native women are victims of violent crimes at a higher rate than national averages.
A 2016 study by the National Institute of Justice found that more than four in five have experienced violence in their lifetime.
Click here for more information and updates from authorities on Emily Pike's case.
Do you have more information about this story? You can email me at robb.coles@newschannel5.com.
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