SHIPROCK, N.M. – When the stranger approached Ian and Ashlynne Mike at the school bus stop, the boy was wary. But his older sister got lured into the van, and he didn’t want her to go alone, so he went, too.
The man took the siblings to a desolate spot on the edge of the nation’s largest American Indian reservation, authorities and family members say. The man and the 11-year-old girl walked into the hills, but the stranger came back alone, the boy told authorities.
This undated photo provided by the New Mexico State Police shows Ashlynne Mike. The air and ground search for the abducted Navajo girl ended tragically Tuesday, May 3, 2016, when authorities found the 11-year-old dead near the towering rock formation that gives the New Mexico town of Shiprock its name. Ashlynne Mike was kidnapped from the Navajo Nation, FBI spokesman Frank Fisher said.Scared and in the dark, Ian ran more than 2 miles to a highway on the Navajo Nation where a passing driver found the 9-year-old boy Monday night.
Police gleaned some information about the suspect from the younger brother of Ashlynne, whose body was found Tuesday near a distinct rock formation that the rural town of Shiprock, New Mexico, is named for.
On Tuesday night, authorities arrested a 27-year-old man in connection with the abduction and death.