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MESA, Ariz. - The family of Emily Pike, a teen found murdered after being reported missing, has filed a lawsuit against the Mesa group home where she was living.
What we know:
Philips Law Group, which is representing Pike’s father, Jensen Pike, announced the lawsuit. It alleges Sacred Journey Inc., which operated the group home, was negligent in Emily’s death.
Jensen Pike is currently incarcerated in an Arizona prison.
"Not only do we not have the murder solved, we have so many questions sitting in front of us about what could've been done differently?" said Olivia Lemorocco, the firm's vice president of operations.
Body camera footage from Mesa Police shows one of several instances in which Emily ran away from the group home, telling officers she wanted to go home to the San Carlos Apache Reservation. Emily was found murdered in February, nearly 17 months after the body camera footage was recorded.
She was 13-years-old in the body camera footage.
The lawsuit alleges Sacred Journey employees were inexperienced and reckless in their care of Emily, and that she was allowed to leave the home unsupervised.
"She was not taken care of in the way that she should've been," Lemorocco said. "This group home failed her in that regard."
Lemorocco added that Emily was reportedly struggling with difficult feelings and suicidal thoughts, but was not given basic counseling.
"These are children, you know, they're not profit and what we're seeing in a lot of these group homes is it's being run like a business," Lemorocco said.
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Data shared with the law group from the Arizona Department of Child Safety shows more than a hundred active cases of missing or runaway children currently in the system.
"Any father that is in Jensen's position is just heartbroken and can you imagine what he's going through, what the family's going through every day in this case?" Lemorrocco said.
The law firm says this lawsuit is a way to gain some accountability and stop more cases like Emily's from happening.
"It's too late for Emily, and now we have to look through and see what else can be done differently to change this for everybody else," Lemorrocco said.
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The other side:
FOX 10 could not find an attorney listed for Sacred Journey Inc., and attempts to contact the company have gone unanswered.