Mother of Ashlynne Mike Shares Powerful Story at AMBER Alert Symposium
by Kyler Edsitty
Washington, D.C., February 26, 2025 – The tragic abduction and murder of Ashlynne Mike, an 11-year-old girl from the Navajo Nation in Arizona, sparked a wave of advocacy that continues to shape the response to missing children's cases in Indian Country today. Ashlynne's mother, Pamela Foster, shared her heartbreaking journey and the critical role that alerting systems like AMBER Alerts play in saving children at the 2025 AMBER Alert and AMBER Alert in Indian Country Symposium in Washington, D.C.
Foster's presentation at the symposium was both personal and powerful. In 2016, a stranger abducted Ashlynne and her younger brother while they were walking to a bus stop. While her son managed to escape, Ashlynne was not so lucky, and her life tragically ended. The horror of losing her daughter is something no parent should endure, but Foster channeled her grief into advocacy for better protections for children, particularly those in Tribal communities.
"After Ashlynne was taken from us, I knew I had to do something to prevent this from happening to other families," Foster said. "We need systems that can alert everyone quickly, especially in Tribal areas where resources and communication channels are often limited."
The AMBER Alert system, which had already proven effective in many parts of the country, was not fully functional in Indian Country at the time of Ashlynne's abduction. The gap in alerting systems for missing children in Tribal regions became painfully clear. In response, Foster spearheaded a grassroots effort to create what is now known as the Ashlynne Mike AMBER Alert in Indian Country Act, a law signed into effect in April 2018. The law expanded the AMBER Alert system to include Tribal lands, ensuring that children in these areas could be quickly located with the same urgency as children in other parts of the country.
"We must work together to make sure that no other family has to go through what we went through," Foster emphasized. "This is not just a law. It's a commitment to our children's safety."
Foster's message resonated deeply with the diverse group of emergency management professionals, law enforcement officers, and Tribal leaders at the symposium. The focus of the event was clear: collaboration and communication are key to protecting vulnerable children from abduction and exploitation.
Throughout the three-day event, attendees heard from experts in the field of child protection, including case studies of successful recovery efforts and strategies for improving response times and coordination among agencies. The Gila River Police Department in Arizona presented their efforts to recover missing children across state lines, offering insights into the unique challenges of working within Tribal jurisdictions. Their work emphasized the importance of a collaborative approach, not just between local law enforcement but also with Tribal leadership and other agencies, in ensuring the swift recovery of missing children.
Brian Wadsworth, Chief Operating Officer of Native Public Media (NPM), attended the symposium to raise awareness about the Missing and Endangered Persons (MEP) Alert—a new initiative set to go live in Fall 2025. The MEP Event Code will enable authorities to issue alerts for missing adults aged 17 and older and minors who do not meet the criteria of the AMBER Alert, filling a critical gap in the protection of vulnerable individuals, particularly Indigenous people.
"There is a crisis in Indian Country with our missing and murdered relatives," Wadsworth said. "The MEP Alert will provide an important tool in helping to recover and protect our people. While it's not the final solution, it's a step in the right direction, and it's impactful to be here at the symposium, hearing from those on the frontlines of this crisis."
"Individually and collectively, we need to be a part of the solution," Foster concluded in her presentation, echoing the sentiment that unites all those working to prevent the tragedy she endured.
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