An Arizona girl who mysteriously disappeared at age 14 in 2019 was found safe four years later, authorities said Wednesday.
Alicia Navarro, who is now 18 years old, walked into a small Montana police station more than 1,000 miles away from her home in Glendale, Arizona, to clear her name off the missing children’s list, Jose Santiago, a spokesman for the Glendale Police Department said at a press conference.
“She showed up to a police department. She identified herself as Alicia Navarro. She basically asked for help to clear her off of a missing juvenile list,” Santiago said.
Navarro was reported missing on Sep. 15, 2019, days before her 15th birthday, sparking a nationwide search with the collaboration from the Anti-Predator Project and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Jessica Grijalva Nunez, Navarro’s mother, told CrimeScoops in a 2020 interview that her daughter was a highly intelligent introvert on the autism spectrum and had acute anxiety. In the months leading up to her disappearance, Nunez said her daughter began talking to strangers in a gaming community online.
On Sep. 15, 2019, Nunez woke up to a handwritten note Navarro left inside her bedroom that read, “I ran away. I will be back, I swear. I’m sorry. -Alicia,” according to local news outlet AZ Central.
Nunez had told AZ Central that she was “90 percent sure” that her daughter may have met someone while online gaming, and they lured her away.
“I didn’t even think these types of people existed that would lure our youth. I know this world can be evil, but honestly, that didn’t cross my mind at all,” Nuñez told AZ Central.
A Facebook group, Finding Alicia, was created three months later, on Jan. 8, 2020, for individuals and online sleuths to share information.
In the years that followed, Nunez continued to speak with local and national outlets to keep her case in the news in hopes of finding her.
Police said Navarro was cooperating with officers and that her discovery did not close the case, adding that the investigation into how she ended up in Montana and who she was with over the last four years is ongoing.
Police added Navarro has been reunited with her mother and was “very apologetic to what she has put her mother through.”
“She wanted to talk to her mom, and she wanted to make sure her mother knew she was OK,” Santiago said at the press conference.
Santiago said Navarro is asking the public for privacy at this time so she may move on with her life.
In a video posted on Facebook, Nunez called the discovery of her daughter four years after her disappearance a “miracle.”
“For everyone who has missing loved ones, I want you to use this case as an example,” she said. “Miracles do exist. Never lose hope and always fight.”