Arizona tribal authorities are investigating the death of a White Mountain Apache girl found dead a week after she was reported missing.
The US Department of the Interior’s Indian Affairs division said detectives were looking at the death of 16-year-old Challistia Colelay as a murder, KTVK reported.
Colelay was reported missing to White Mountain Apache tribal police on October 27, but notification was never sent to the state Department of Public Safety, likely because she was labeled a runaway. Her body was found on the Fort Apache reservation in Whiteriver on November 3.
According to KNXV, the remains were found in a remote area less than a mile from her home.
“It breaks my heart because this goes on far too often and I think when police departments have very good training and strict policies on what to do when they have a child who is a runaway, I think that helps prevent children like Tia [Challistia] who go missing and end up getting murdered,” Darlene Gomez with Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Relatives told KTVK.
The state DPS confirmed that they did not send out a Turquoise Alert because they did not get a request from the investigating agency. The agency said that Colelay had been reported missing twice before — a year ago — and that both cases had been closed.
According to KSAZ the the teen’s family said they last saw her on October 16 when she said she was going to visit a friend.
“She did go to a friend’s house, and they had contact with her and then that contact was gone,” said Leila Woodard, founder of the Arizona Missing Child Task Force.
Gomez noted two possible issues involved: first, chronic understaffing and underfunding of tribal police, and second, that Colelay being tagged as a runaway.
“In Tia’s case someone labeled her as a runaway and often times we get the misconceptions of children being runaways as they’re not vulnerable so that we don’t have to look for them. They just chose to run away,” she said.
Tribal officials have not responded to requests for comment from KTVK or KSAZ.
Anyone with information should to contact the BIA MMU Hotline at 1-833-560-2065, email [email protected] , or text keyword BIAMMU and your tip to 847411.
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[Featured image: Challistia Colelay/GoFundMe]
