Passion Schurz, 28, had been reported missing from the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community before her body was found in a canal.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — The search for 28-year-old Passion Schurz ended in tragedy over the weekend when authorities identified a body found in a Scottsdale canal as the missing woman from the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, shifting the case into an active death investigation.
That turn has left two tracks moving at once: investigators are trying to determine exactly how Schurz died, while relatives, advocates and community members are asking harder questions about the days between her disappearance and the discovery of her body. Police have said the cause of death is still unknown, and the outcome of the medical examiner’s work will be critical in deciding whether the case remains an unexplained death or develops into a criminal case.
Schurz had been reported missing on March 22, according to police, after concern grew over her disappearance from the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community. Local follow-up reports said she was last seen alive March 19 at her home. In the days that followed, flyers circulated online and in the community as relatives and supporters tried to track her movements and gather leads. That search ended Saturday morning, March 28, when a person walking along the canal near Indian Bend and Hayden roads in Scottsdale spotted a body in the water and called authorities. Officers and firefighters responded, recovered the body and began working to identify the woman, a process that police later said relied on Schurz’s tattoos, physical features and clothing description.
Once police publicly named Schurz, the story quickly widened beyond the initial recovery scene. Advocates focused on the fact that she was a Native woman whose disappearance had already alarmed family members and supporters. In television reporting after the identification, community advocates said Schurz’s relatives had been deeply worried because her disappearance did not fit her usual behavior. One advocate said Schurz had left without items she normally carried, raising concern early in the search. Officials, however, have been careful not to go beyond what evidence can support. Scottsdale police said they could confirm there were no injuries related to fractures, stab wounds or gunshot wounds, but they have not said whether the body showed other signs that could explain her death. They also have not said how long the body may have been in the water.
The setting has added another layer to the case. The canal corridor where Schurz was found runs through one of Scottsdale’s best-known public areas, near roads, paths and recreation sites that see regular foot traffic. It is not the kind of location many people picture when they think of a missing-person case ending without witnesses. At the same time, Arizona canals can be deceptively hazardous, and investigators often need time to separate accident, medical emergency, self-harm and criminal acts before making a public conclusion. In Schurz’s case, authorities have not endorsed any of those possibilities. The absence of obvious gunshot, stabbing or fracture injuries narrowed some scenarios, but it did not answer the larger question of how she died or whether someone else may have played a role.
The procedural path now appears straightforward, even if the facts are not. Scottsdale police said they are working with Salt River police and the Maricopa County medical examiner. That means the case still ties back to the original missing-person report while also depending on forensic findings that may take days or longer. The medical examiner is expected to issue the official cause and manner of death after reviewing the body and any toxicology or related evidence. Police have also asked for information from the public, which suggests detectives are still trying to fill gaps in Schurz’s timeline from the last confirmed sighting to the moment her body was found. No charges, suspects or arrests had been publicly announced by the end of the weekend.
Outside the formal investigation, Schurz’s death has become part of a broader conversation about how missing Indigenous people’s cases are handled in Arizona. Some advocates have publicly asked whether more urgency or a wider alert might have changed the outcome, though authorities have not said that any missed step contributed to her death. Those concerns remain unresolved and separate from the forensic process. Still, they help explain why the case has resonated beyond a single police jurisdiction. What began as a local missing-person search has become both a death investigation and a renewed point of grief for a community already sensitive to cases involving Native women who go missing and whose stories do not always receive sustained public attention.
As of Monday, the case remained open, with Schurz identified, her cause of death still pending and investigators waiting for medical findings that could determine the next public update.
Author note: Last updated March 30, 2026.