SHIPROCK, N.M. (AP) – On the far side of a desert hilltop in the shadow of the Shiprock Pinnacle, a towering monolith sacred to the Navajo Nation, the stranger ignored the cries of an 11-year-old girl.
Hours had passed since the man had talked the girl and her brother into his van while they were playing about a quarter-mile from their home after school.
She begged to be taken home, but he led her away from her 9-year-old brother, to an even more remote spot, where he removed her clothes and sexually assaulted her. Then he hit her twice in the head with a tire iron and left her for dead before driving off and leaving the boy as well, all alone, as night fell.
Details about the final moments of Ashlynne Mike’s life began to emerge Wednesday from court documents and family members, as the suspect, Tom Begaye, a 27-year-old Navajo man from a neighboring community, appeared before a federal magistrate on murder and kidnapping charges.
A criminal complaint outlined the crime based on statements Begaye made to investigators after his arrest.