8-year-old girl who went missing from Navajo Nation found dead

By Brian Petersheim Jr. and Ben Bradley

COALMINE, AZ (AZFamily) — A young girl who went missing from the Navajo Nation in northern Arizona was found dead, the FBI announced on Friday afternoon.

The Navajo Police Department first announced that the search for 8-year-old Maleeka “Mollie” Boone had come to an end in Coalmine. The FBI later confirmed her body was found and identified in Coalmine.

Search efforts were focused in the Coalmine Canyon area. They involved tribal law enforcement agencies, the Arizona Department of Public Safety, the U.S. Marshals Service, the FBI, the Flagstaff Police Department and the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office.

Navajo police added that the Coalmine area will be on lockdown until further notice and that residents are asked to remain in their homes during the investigation. The FBI has also set up a command station in the area.

Boone was last seen playing around 6 p.m. on Thursday near Cedar Loop in the Coalmine NHA housing area, about 17 miles southeast of Tuba City. Her family said it was out of character for her to be gone for an extended period, and a Turquoise Alert was issued early Friday morning.

Anyone with information on the circumstances of her disappearance or death is asked to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324) or email tips.fbi.gov. Or, call the Navajo Police Department Tuba City District at 928-282-3111/3112.

Raising alert awareness

The Turquoise Alert was established to assist in locating missing persons, including members of the Indigenous community. The death of Emily Pike, a San Carlos Apache tribal member, sparked the creation of the new system.

Boone’s death is the first time somebody who was issued a Turquoise Alert was found dead.

Five criteria need to be met before a Turquoise Alert can be issued:

• The missing person is under the age of 65.
• The law enforcement agency investigating the missing person report has used all available local resources*.
• The person has gone missing under unexplained or suspicious circumstances.- A law enforcement agency has determined that the person is NOT a runaway as the only reason they went missing. (There is an exception if there are articulable facts that the person is missing and endangered due to aggravating factors.)
• Believes that the missing person is in danger, is in the company of a potentially dangerous person, or that there are other factors indicating that the missing person may be in peril.
• There is information that, if disseminated to the public, could assist in the safe recovery of the missing person.

“We need everybody to be educated, everybody to be alert, and know what it means when they see a Turquoise Alert. It means to keep your eyes open. There’s somebody who’s missing who needs our help, and the people who are being targeted with that Turquoise Alert are close by and may have the ability to help,” said VP of Operations at Phillips Law Group, Olivia Lemorrocco.

Earlier this week, a Turquoise Alert was also issued for 21-year-old Isabella Comas. Her boyfriend has been named as a person of interest in her disappearance.

Read original article on azfamily.com.

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