Missing Glendale teenager Alicia Navarro has been located in a small Montana town after vanishing without a trace four years ago, police announced Wednesday.
The former Arizona resident was found safe, healthy and happy, public information officer Jose Santiago said at a pressconference held by the Glendale Police Department and has been reunited with family.
Alicia stopped by a local police department in the area alone and identified herself as the missing teenage girl, police said.
As soon as Glendale police received word that the young woman identified herself as Navarro, they went to work on verifying her identity with help from the Navarro family in addition to conducting numerous interviews.
“I can’t even begin to express to you all the pride that I personally have in the men and women here at our police department. Since her discovery, our men and women here have been working tirelessly around the clock to not only bring closure to this family but to make sure that Alicia gets everything she possibly needs,” Santiago said.
Her reappearance has brought forth a tremendous amount of relief and joy for us, for Alicia, for her family and for the community, police said.
Glendale Police will continue to investigate the circumstances leading up to her disappearance and return. It is still unclear where she was or who she was with, as police say she initially ran away from home.
“Alicia by all accounts appears to be in good spirits. She really just wants to move on with her life. She is very apologetic to what she has put her mother through. And she understands that she has caused a lot of pain to her mother, and it was not intentional on her behalf, and she is hopeful that they can have a relationship,” Santiago said.
Alicia wrote a note to her mother saying she would return home
A week before Alicia’s 15th birthday, she left her mother a handwritten note in her bedroom saying she’d come back home, The Arizona Republic initially reported.
Alicia asked her mother, Jessica Nuñez, if she could stay home from school a couple days prior to her disappearance, on September 13, 2019. Nuñez agreed, figuring Alicia may have been feeling nervous about starting classes at Bourgade Catholic High School in Phoenix.
The pair spent the next day visiting a chocolate factory together. Alicia seemed so happy that day, Nuñez told the Republic. During the wee hours of September 15 after asking her mom what time she would be going to bed, Alicia vanished.
Nuñez found a note from Alicia in her bedroom saying, “I ran away. I will be back, I swear. I’m sorry. -Alicia.” Up until their recent reunion, Nuñez had not seen or heard from her daughter since reading that note.
Nuñez suspected Alicia may have been abducted by someone she met while online gaming. Gaming, a hobby she had taken up at 11 years old, was an activity she spent most of her time on.
“I’m more than 90% sure that my daughter met this person online,” Nuñez previously told the Republic.
Nuñez said her daughter was a pretty cautious person so it would have been unusual for her to be fooled so easily. She mostly kept to herself, but had a small group of friends she’d known since kindergarten.
“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. Knowing the way my daughter’s personality is, I don’t think that she would have fallen for that. This person probably took a while to be able to gain (her) trust,” Nuñez said.
Police investigated thousands of tips after her disappearance
Glendale Police followed up on thousands of leads regarding Alicia’s disappearance after she went missing in 2019, the department shared.
It was also the first time Arizona issued a Silver Alert for someone who was not an elderly person with dementia, the Republic reported.
Last year, police reported that they were getting at least one tip a week, with potential sightings reported inside and outside the country. However, there was no concrete evidence that Alicia was abducted.
Nuñez has partnered with private investigative agencies, put up billboards, appeared on television programs and used social media to help locate her daughter.
Kathleen Winn, director of Project25, a nonprofit that partners with law enforcement against human trafficking, said it appears Alicia had plans to return home.
“The note that she left suggested that she didn’t plan on being gone very long, and the clothes that she left in her closet, some of her favorite things, also suggests to us that she herself didn’t know she wouldn’t be returning,” Winn previously told The Republic.
Arizona Republic reporters Jose R. Gonzalez and Salma Reyes contributed to this report.
