11-year-old's slaying spreads grief far beyond Navajo Nation

FARMINGTON, N.M. (AP) — She was a budding musician and talented artist, a girl whose death at the hands of a man who authorities say lured her into his van spread grief far beyond her home on the Navajo Nation.

More than 3,000 people turned out for Ashlynne Mike's funeral in Farmington, New Mexico, weeping as images of the 11-year-old girl were displayed overhead and the sounds of her xylophone rang out in the auditorium.

More than 200 miles away in Albuquerque, suspect Tom Begaye Jr. waived his right to a preliminary and detention hearing, and a judge ordered him to remain in custody on charges of murder and kidnapping.

Begaye, a 27-year-old Navajo who lived down the highway from Ashlynne's home, persuaded her and her 9-year-old brother, who had been playing near their bus stop after school, to climb into his van, an FBI agent's affidavit says.

Begaye has been cited multiple times by Navajo police since 2006 on suspicion of public intoxication, speeding, theft, disorderly conduct and not having a valid driver's license, tribal records say.

The slaying has raised tough questions for residents and law enforcement on the country's largest American Indian reservation, which stretches for 27,000 square miles into New Mexico, Utah and Arizona.

Navajo families extend far beyond bloodlines, through traditional clan systems that foster kinship among tribal members, and the law enforcement delays didn't prevent about a hundred community members from searching for Ashlynne, driving across the open desert long into the night.