Scottsdale police confirmed Sunday that a body pulled from an Arizona canal belongs to 28-year-old Passion Schurz, a Native woman whose family reported her missing just one week earlier, and whose advocates say was denied a statewide alert designed to protect Indigenous people exactly like her.
Schurz's body was found Saturday, March 28, near Scottsdale and Indian Bend roads. Police said they identified her based on her tattoos and physical description. A medical examiner is now working on a full report, including toxicology results. The cause of death has not been determined.
The timeline is short and troubling. Schurz was last seen on March 19. Her family reported her missing to Salt River Police on March 22. Six days later, her body turned up in a canal. No suspect has been named. No indication of foul play, or the absence of it, has been publicly disclosed. What has been disclosed is that advocates tried and failed to get authorities to issue a Turquoise Alert, Arizona's specialized notification system for missing Indigenous people.
Leila Woodard, an employee of the Missing in America Network, told the Herald that Schurz's family contacted her after the young woman vanished. Woodard described the circumstances as immediately alarming.
"She left without her wallet and her purse, which she never did that. And so just the circumstances around her being missing was very concerning."
Woodard painted a picture of a woman deeply connected to her community and her children. Fox 10 Phoenix reported that Schurz's family reached out to Woodard after Schurz was last seen on March 19.
"She was very loved by her family and community in that she was a mother, you know, and this was very unusual."
The Scottsdale Police Department released a statement extending condolences but offering few details about the investigation itself.
"This is not the outcome anyone looking for Passion Schurz was hoping for. We extend our most heartfelt condolences to her family, friends, and community during this difficult time."
Police asked anyone with information about Schurz's disappearance and death to call the Scottsdale Police Department at 480-312-5000.
Arizona's Turquoise Alert system exists for one stated purpose: to help locate missing Indigenous people in a state that, by multiple accounts, faces a severe crisis of disappearances among Native communities. The missing person must be under 65 years old. Schurz was 28. Yet no alert was issued.
Woodard said advocates from the Missing in America Network "tried to work with the police to get a Turquoise Alert, but everyone was told she didn't meet the criteria." No further explanation of which specific criteria Schurz allegedly failed to satisfy has been made public.
That gap, between the system's stated mission and its application in a case like this, drew sharp frustration from Woodard. Missing persons cases involving mothers who vanish under unusual circumstances tend to generate enormous public attention, but advocates say Indigenous women rarely receive the same urgency.
"Turquoise Alert was intended to help the missing murdered Indigenous peoples crisis in our state and entire North America and whenever it's not utilized, we were really upset."
Woodard did not mince words about the scale of the problem. She described Indigenous women and girls going missing "at disproportionate rates" and stated they are "10 times likely to be found deceased in Arizona." She added that Arizona ranks second in the nation for missing people and missing Indigenous people.
"The missing and murdered Indigenous person crisis is a really big deal. Indigenous women and girls, especially, go missing at disproportionate rates. And they're 10 times likely to be found deceased in Arizona. We're No. 2 in the nation for missing people and missing Indigenous people. So, we have to kind of band together as a community."
The investigation is still in its early stages, and the list of unanswered questions is long. Police have not said whether they suspect foul play. They have not described any persons of interest. The medical examiner's full report, including toxicology, is pending.
The specific circumstances that led Schurz to leave home on March 19 without her wallet or purse remain unclear. The three-day gap between when she was last seen and when her family reported her missing to Salt River Police has not been publicly explained. Questions about the quality and speed of law enforcement response in missing-persons cases have surfaced repeatedly in Arizona in recent months.
Nor has anyone explained, beyond a vague reference to unmet criteria, why the Turquoise Alert system did not activate for a 28-year-old Indigenous mother who vanished under what her own family and an advocacy organization described as highly unusual circumstances. If a young Native woman who left home without her belongings and never returned does not meet the threshold, it is fair to ask what the threshold actually is, and whom the system is designed to serve.
Arizona Family reported the Scottsdale Police Department's statement on the identification. The case now sits with the Scottsdale police and the medical examiner's office, with no public timeline for when additional findings might be released.
The broader pattern Woodard described, Indigenous women disappearing at rates far exceeding other populations, with outcomes disproportionately fatal, is not new. What is new, each time, is the specific name. This time it is Passion Schurz, a 28-year-old mother.
Arizona created the Turquoise Alert precisely because lawmakers recognized that Indigenous people were going missing and dying at alarming rates. The system was supposed to be an answer. In Schurz's case, it was not deployed.
When public systems designed to protect vulnerable populations sit idle during the exact emergencies they were built for, the failure is not abstract. It lands on a specific family, in a specific community, with a specific outcome. Investigations into bungled searches and missing suspects have drawn scrutiny across Arizona before. This case may well join that list.
The facts here are still incomplete. The cause of death is unknown. The circumstances of the disappearance are murky. But the timeline, last seen March 19, reported missing March 22, found dead March 28, alert never issued, speaks clearly enough on its own.
A system that exists on paper but fails in practice is not a safety net. It is a brochure.
