Police have issued a turquoise alert as the desperate search for a missing 16-year-old girl who vanished in Arizona continues.
Yolyn Hermios was last seen at 6.50 pm on Saturday and has “not been seen or heard from since,” according to the City of Mesa Police Department.
Authorities decided to intensify their search on Sunday morning, as the investigation entered its second day.
“Family is concerned for her welfare since it is out of character for her to be gone for an extended period of time,” one of the police alerts read.
Hermios has been described in a police statement as being a Pacific Islander who was last seen wearing red shorts, a black shirt and black shoes. She has brown hair with “green faded highlights” and brown eyes.
Anyone with further information is urged to contact the police.
A turquoise alert is a special warning system used by Arizona police to notify residents about a missing Indigenous person.
The system was established on May 21 when Governor Katie Hobbs signed Emily’s Law in honor of a murdered 14-year-old Emily Pike.
Pike’s dismembered body was found on a trail off the U.S. Highway 60, in a chilling crime that rocked Arizona’s Native American communities.
The teenager’s remains were found nearly 100 miles from her group home in Mesa. Pike had fled the house several times after being placed there when she reported being sexually assaulted.
Her body was found on February 27, 2025, although no killer has been found.
Allred Pike Jr, Emily’s uncle, spoke to reporters shortly after the bill named after his niece was signed into law.
"It's a good thing that an alert system is here for all of Indian Country," he said. "But the hard part is it's named after my brother's and Steff's daughter, and she's not here no more."
Governor Hobbs added that Emily would have celebrated her fifteenth birthday just a week before the law was signed and that she “should have celebrated with friends and family.”
"While this bill was being considered in the state Legislature, we learned of the senseless murder of this beautiful, 14-year-old Emily, a member of the San Carlos Apache Tribe," Hobbs said as she signed the law. "No parent, no tribal community should lose their child, their young member to violence."
