Native American, 27, arrested at sacred sweat lodge 'kidnapped Navajo girl, 11, because he wanted to have sex with her - before killing her with tire iron blows to the head when she started to cry'

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The naked body of Ashlynne Mike, a Navajo fifth-grader was found in the Shiprock desert on Tuesday - a day after she was kidnapped

A Native American man charged with kidnapping and murdering an 11-year-old Navajo girl told authorities his motive was to have sex with her.

Tom Begaye, 27, made his first court appearance Wednesday in Farmington, New Mexico, after police arrested him at a sweat lodge near to the Shiprock murder scene.

According to the complaint, Begaye lured fifth-grader Ashlynne Mike, from Fruitland, into a van Monday afternoon by offering her and her younger brother a ride as they played in an irrigation ditch near to their home after school.

Ashlynne's brother, Ian Mike, nine, told investigators they accepted the lift because his sister had hurt her foot while playing in the ditch.

Begaye -  a regular at church meetings on the Navajo Nation - from Waterflow, New Mexico, told investigators he drove the siblings along a dirt road toward the Shiprock pinnacle.

Ian Mike said Begaye then took his sister and a 'curved piece of metal' out of the van and to a hill near a remote dirt road, before returning to the vehicle alone.

The boy said he was then told to get out of the vehicle, at which point he ran two miles to the highway where he was picked up by motorists along Navajo Route 13 and taken to police.

He told authorities the two didn’t know the man previously. 

The girl's body was found on Tuesday morning in Shiprock, near a rock formation that the town is named after, said Jesse Delmar, the tribe's public safety division director.

Police arrested Begaye Tuesday night at a sweat lodge after he matched the description given to them by the victim's brother. Sweat lodges are considered sacred places.

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Tom Begaye, 27, was arrested by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents and appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge B. Paul Briones in Farmington on Wednesday

Tom Begaye (pictured) shuffled into the courtroom in shackles but stayed quiet as some of the victim's relatives and other community members listened to the charges being read

He said he stripped the girl naked while she was 'crying and begging to be taken home,' the complaint states. 

According to authorities, Begaye told police he penetrated Ashlynne with his fingers before hitting her twice in the head with the tire iron. He told police Ashlynne was moving when he left her naked in the desert.

When investigators found her body late Tuesday morning, they said it appeared she’d suffered blunt force trauma.

As Begaye left the courthouse, a group of people who were waiting on the street across from the courthouse screamed: 'Die. Go to hell', the Albuquerque Journal reported.

Begaye faces life in prison if he is convicted. U.S. Magistrate Judge B. Paul Briones in Farmington ordered him held in the custody of U.S. marshals and transferred, along with the case, to Albuquerque. The next hearing will be there on Friday.

A woman who knew the 11-year-old victim and Begaye said he was active in cultural and religious life on what is the nation's largest American Indian reservation.

Sher Brown, of Lower Fruitland, New Mexico, says one of her brothers knew Tom Begaye, and they regularly went to sweat lodges and church meetings on the Navajo Nation. 

Pictured left is Begaye, (in shorts) after his arrest at a Navajo sweat lodge. He is pictured right dressed in prison overalls attending his federal court hearing Wednesday

Begaye was arrested Tuesday night at a sweat lodge similar to this visitor center sweat lodge at the Navajo National Monument in Arizona, USA.  The sweat lodge (also called purification ceremony or simply sweat) is a hut, typically dome-shaped and made with natural materials, used by Indigenous peoples of the Americas for ceremonial steam baths and prayer

Governed by the Navajo Nation,  Shiprock is in the Four Corners region and plays a significant role in Navajo religion, myth, and tradition 

An access road to the Shiprock pinnacle (seen in the distance) is taped off Tuesday along Navajo Route 13, just a few miles from where Ashlynne Mike's body was discovered

Family and friends gather near Shiprock, New Mexico Tuesday just a few miles from where the girl's body was discovered

Albuquerque FBI Public Affairs Specialist Frank Fisher, left, with local law enforcement agent hold a news conference regarding the death of the 11-year-old girl Tuesday

Begaye was cited in Farmington in mid-April for marijuana and paraphernalia possession. 

'We were very hopeful that we would find Ashlynne in good shape,' Jesse Delmar, the tribe's public safety division director said. 'We found her, but it didn't turn out well.'

'Tears are falling,' The girl's mother Pamela Foster, wrote in a social media post. 'Mommy loves and misses you my sweet little angel,' according to the Albuquerque Journal.

The girl's sister, Anna Celeste Begay, wrote: 'I'm so devastated... No one will know the way I feel right now.. I love you Ashlynne .. You never deserved anything like this.. Rip'.  

Tribal police faced criticism for the delay in issuing the Amber Alert which came some hours after the incident was reported. 

After the girl’s body was found, San Juan Chapter President Rick Nez said: 'The Navajo Nation, they are always slow to respond,' he told The Daily Times. 'As soon as the child was abducted, they should have put out the Amber Alert.'

Ashlynne's cousin Shawn Mike, 43, told The Daily Times today that his own son, nine,  was also approached by a driver of a maroon van along Navajo Route 36 at approximately the same time that Ashlynne and Ian went missing.

He said the driver asked his son whether he wanted to see a movie, but that his son declined. He added that his son saw both Ashlynne and Ian inside the vehicle at the time. 

'As they drove away, Ashlynne was waving at him,' he said. 

The search for the girl included federal, tribal, state and county officers on the ground as well as a New Mexico State Police helicopter, Fisher said. 

The FBI asked anyone with information to call the FBI’s Albuquerque office at 505-889-1300.

Before Ashlynne's body was found, a woman claing to be her distraught mother posted the above Facebook post to raise a search party in the hope of finding her alive

Sad: Once police broke the bad news, Pamela Foster posted the above Facebook tribute to her daughter