By Alex Dobuzinskis
(Reuters) - An 11-year-old girl kidnapped from the Navajo Reservation in New Mexico was found dead on Tuesday and the man suspected of abducting her was still at large, an FBI spokesman and the Navajo Nation said.
Ashlynne Mike and her 9-year-old brother were abducted after school on Monday near the community of San Juan, New Mexico, when a man driving a van offered them a ride, according to Federal Bureau of Investigation spokesman Frank Fisher and a statement released by the Navajo Nation.
The boy, Ian Mike, was found walking along a highway around 7:15 p.m. local time and taken to the police department in Shiprock, the largest town on the Navajo Nation. He reported the man had taken his sister, Fisher and the Navajo Nation said.
The boy told the police the driver took them toward the Shiprock pinnacle - a rock hill that is a landmark on the Navajo Nation - hit a dead end and released the boy, telling him to go home, the Navajo Nation said. The girl's body was discovered less than 8 miles (13 km) south of the pinnacle, Fisher said.
The suspect was described by the FBI as a light-skinned Navajo male in his late 30s with short dark hair and a tear-drop tattoo under his left eye, according to the Navajo Nation. The suspect wore earrings in both ears, a long silver chain necklace, a gold watch, a black shirt and blue pants, it said.
"The sooner we get this person off the streets the better. Ashlynne's family deserves nothing less," Fisher told a news conference. "There was no reason for Ashlynne to have suffered this way."
Fisher called on the public to look for the suspect's van, which he said had sliding doors, a luggage rack and no hubcaps. The Navajo Nation said the maroon vehicle also had a broken front bumper.
Dozens of law enforcement officers took part in the search for the girl, Fisher said. "They're more determined than ever now to try to find who did it," he said in a telephone interview.
(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by David Schwartz in Phoenix; Editing; editing by Frances Kerry and Dan Grebler)