Advertisement Victim's brother tells police abductor let him go 'This is a horrible, horrible tragedy,' governor says Share Shares Copy Link Copy

An 11-year-old girl was found dead Tuesday, one day after police said a man abducted her from a bus stop.“I just keeping thinking in my mind, she’s just fragile, she’s small, she’s a little girl,” said Darrell Foster-Joe, Ashlynne Mike’s aunt.Ashlynne Mike and her 9-year-old brother, Ian Mike, were abducted Monday, according to the FBI. The abduction prompted an Amber Alert.They went missing after the school bus dropped them near their home. Investigators say a man in a maroon van asked if the kids needed a ride and that's when both children got in.Hours later a driver spotted Ashlynne’s little brother walking on the side of the road but Ashlynne wasn't with him.Ian told Shiprock police that the driver who abducted them had taken them toward the Shiprock pinnacle where he came upon a dead end road. According to authorities, Tomas Begaye, 27, told them he picked the girl up because he wanted to have sex with her. He told them he inappropriately touched her and hit her more than once with a tire iron when she began to cry, they said.“If my child went missing I would want everybody to come look,” Shiprock resident Trudy Tso said.Tso was one of about 100 volunteers in Shiprock who woke up early Tuesday to help search for Ashlynne.“We just cried because what you think about is what she went through,” Tso said.The girl’s body was found about 6 miles south of the Shiprock pinnacle late Tuesday morning.“This is a horrible, horrible tragedy. My thoughts and prayers are with the little girl’s family, and right now our priority is finding and arresting the monster who did this. I’ve directed the State Police and Department of Public Safety to make all resources available to help apprehend the suspect," Gov. Susana Martinez said.Begaye has been charged with kidnapping and murder.The tragedy has rocked the close-knit Four Corners community, both on and off the Navajo Nation."One life taken in this tragic way is one too many," said Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye. "We need to do everything we can to implement a system that will enable members of the Navajo Nation to more readily assist in looking for perpetrators, especially when an abduction has taken place."CLICK OR TAP FOR BEGAYE'S FULL STATEMENT