Arizona Luminaria

Missing Indigenous Girls

Chelsea Curtis

The main headline reflects a premise and truths Arizona Luminaria’s reporting revealed that one judge described as “gutting”: Emily’s Law wouldn’t have helped Emily.

Emily Pike was 14 years old and a member of the San Carlos Apache Tribe when she went missing in January 2025. She was later found dead.

An Arizona legislator drafted a bill meant to create an alert system for missing Indigenous people and named it in her honor — the Emily Pike Law, now known as Emily’s law. But as Arizona Luminara revealed through reporting, provisions of the law, such as an age limitation, would not have applied to Emily’s disappearance.

Chelsea Curtis’ “data analysis provided irrefutable proof of the law’s failures,” a judge wrote. The reporting also had an immediate impact, including revisions to the legislation. The coverage also “prompted immediate action in two cases overlooked by the system, resulting in two missing children being found safe,” the judge noted.