Crownpoint District missing pair, Edwin Peshlakai and Devin Adaky, found safe

Navajo Police said Edwin Peshlakai and 15-year-old Devin Socee Adaky, both from Crownpoint District, were safely located on April 11, ending a missing-and-endangered search that had drawn attention across the Navajo Nation and McKinley County.

The update brought relief to families and community members who had been watching for word on the pair. Peshlakai and Adaky had been entered as missing and endangered, a designation that can trigger faster coordination between tribal police, state alert systems, and public notifications when safety is at risk.

In New Mexico, those notifications can move through the Missing Persons Clearinghouse, which posts missing people to a public registry and coordinates alerts with media and emergency channels. For missing enrolled or eligible Indigenous people, the state can also use a Turquoise Alert when a case is involuntary, unexplained, suspicious, or raises safety or health concerns. That system is designed to push information quickly because every hour matters in the earliest stages of a disappearance.

The broader response also reaches beyond state lines and into federal Indian Country resources. The Bureau of Indian Affairs Missing and Murdered Unit says American Indian and Alaska Native people are at a disproportionate risk of going missing or being harmed. The unit accepts public tips by text at 847411, by phone at 1-833-560-2065, and by email at OJS_MMU@bia.gov.

For families in Crownpoint, Fort Defiance, Window Rock, and other Navajo communities, the April 11 recovery was the result people hope for, but not the end of a larger crisis. Missing-person cases on the Navajo Nation can remain open for years, and families have repeatedly said they want more answers and better communication from law enforcement while searches are underway.

Navajo Police have tried to build that bridge. On Nov. 4, 2023, the department held its first Missing Persons Day in Fort Defiance, where families were encouraged to bring photos of relatives, along with medical and dental records. Roughly 11 families attended, and about 11 law enforcement agencies and 10 programs or departments took part, creating a rare space where families could sit down with police and NamUs representatives in one place.

The safe return of Peshlakai and Adaky stands as a welcome resolution in a region where missing-person alerts can spread rapidly, but answers can take far longer. For Crownpoint District, the outcome showed why those alerts, registries, and cross-agency channels exist in the first place: to move fast enough to bring someone home.