11-year-old girl kidnapped from the Navajo Nation is found dead

An 11-year-old girl who was kidnapped from the Navajo Nation in New Mexico, the subject of a massive search, was found dead Tuesday.

Authorities had been searching by air and ground for Ashlynne Mike, a Navajo fifth-grader who was abducted Monday afternoon by a man believed to be a stranger, FBI spokesman Frank Fisher said.

The girl’s body was found Tuesday morning in Shiprock, near a rock formation that the town is named for, said Jesse Delmar, the tribe’s public safety division director.

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“We were very hopeful that we would find her in good shape,” Delmar said. “We found her, but it didn’t turn out well.”

Her family has been notified, Delmar said.

An Amber Alert said the missing girl was last seen on Navajo Route 36 and that her kidnapper was driving a maroon van.

The search for the girl included federal, tribal, state and county officers on the ground as well as a New Mexico State Police helicopter, Fisher said.

Authorities didn’t immediately say whether the suspect had been found or what they were doing to find him. He was described as Native American, but no other details were released.

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