Remembering Ashlynne
Funeral for girl, hearings for suspect set for today
The Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women held a community gathering and donation drive at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque Thursday to pay respects to Ashlynne.
A service for her will be held at the Farmington Civic Center today. Story, Page C1
As the man charged in a crime that shook the Navajo Nation and the entire state appears before a judge in a federal courthouse in Albuquerque today, the 11-year-old girl he is accused of kidnapping and murdering Monday will be laid to rest near her hometown nearly 200 miles to the northwest.
A public funeral will be held for Ashlynne Mike at the Farmington Civic Center today at 10 a.m., capping off several days of public mourning.
The San Juan Chapter House near her home held a candlelight vigil Tuesday evening, and the following night the Nenahnezad Chapter House near her elementary school held a community meeting, where her father spoke.
Banners and memorials popped up at Ashlynne’s school, the school bus stop near where she was abducted and along roadsides throughout the Shiprock and Farmington area.
As a safety precaution, all elementary schools in the surrounding school district will require parents to pick up their children at the bus stop until the end of the school year, said James Preminger, a district spokesman.
And news of the tragedy struck a chord among activists against sexual assault and violence among Native American populations.
The Coalition to Stop Violence Against Native Women held a community gathering and donation drive at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center in Albuquerque Thursday evening to pay respects to Ashlynne and her family and bring awareness to the high levels of violence committed against Native women and children.
About 400 Native and non-Native peo- ple filled the courtyard, many wearing yellow in honor of Ashlynne.
Students from the Native American Community Academy in Albuquerque performed a traditional song and dance to tell Ashlynne’s spirit that people care about her in the living world.
Students at the school made a memorial banner for the girl’s family to wish her spirit well on its journey, and a teacher invited all in attendance to pray over it.
Donated money and goods will be given directly to Ashlynne’s family.
Deleana Other Bull, the executive director of the coalition, said community leaders and other members are beginning to discuss how to make the community safer.
“This brings the community closer,” Other Bull said. “It brings them tighter, starts that dialogue. I see a lot of people wanting to talk to their children and the community acting and planning.”
In the meantime, the suspect, Tom Begaye Jr., 27, remains in custody on murder and kidnapping charges.
He attended his initial appearance in Farmington Wednesday and was then taken to Albuquerque, where he will appear before Magistrate Judge Steven Yarbrough in federal court for preliminary and detention hearings this morning.
Begaye doesn’t appear to have much of a criminal history.
He had been ticketed for speeding a few times since 2006 and was charged with DWI in 2015, according to the Shiprock District Court for the Navajo Nation. He defaulted on the speeding tickets and the DWI charge was dismissed.
Three weeks ago, he was charged with misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia and a petty misdemeanor of possession of marijuana or synthetic cannabinoids. He was supposed to be arraigned in Farmington on Thursday on that charge, but he was already being held in federal custody.
He was arrested Tuesday evening, a little more than 24 hours after Ashlynne Mike and her 9-year-old brother were abducted from a bus stop near their home in Fruitland, near Farmington.
Begaye told federal investigators he wanted to have “sexual intercourse” with Ashlynne so he offered to give the children a ride, an FBI agent wrote in a criminal complaint charging Begaye with murder and kidnapping.
Begaye then drove the siblings down a desolate dirt road south of the Shiprock pinnacle.
According to the complaint, Begaye admitted to sexually assaulting Ashlynne before hitting her over the head with a tire iron. He then let her brother go.