Alicia Navarro, missing Glendale, Arizona teen, reunited with her family after four years after turning up to Montana police station. 19 year old teen’s abrupt return raises too many questions.
Where did she disappear to and how did she survive? An Arizona teen girl who disappeared days before her 15th birthday four years ago is reported to have walked into a Montana police station, some states away, authorities announced Wednesday.
Alicia Navarro, now 18, walked into a police department in a tiny Montana town 40 miles from the Canadian border earlier this week and identified herself as the teen who was reported missing in September 2019, Glendale police said.
‘Alicia Navarro has been located,’ Glendale public safety communications manager Jose Santiago said during a press conference. ‘She is by all accounts, safe, she is by all accounts healthy and she is by all accounts happy.’
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‘I ran away. I will be back. I swear. I’m sorry.’
The teenager — who was described as autistic but high-functioning in her missing person’s report — left her Glendale home overnight on Sept. 15, 2019, at just 14 years old.
Her parents, who were asleep when she slipped out of the house, found a handwritten note from their daughter stating: ‘I ran away. I will be back. I swear. I’m sorry.’ the next day, according to KTAR News.
The parents never heard from their daughter again until this week.
Over the course of the next four years following her disappearance, police received countless of leads related to the girl, including reports of sightings inside and outside the country. However, there was no concrete evidence that Alicia was abducted.
Navarro walked into the local police station in Montana alone and asked that she be removed from the missing children list. The department alerted Glendale police, who confirmed her identity and contacted the teen’s family to let them know she had been found safe.
A mother breathes a sigh of relief
During a Facetime call with police, Navarro upon being asked whether she had been hurt by anyone, responded that she had not been hurt and that she was fine.
Navarro was then met by her mother — who never gave up searching for her daughter — in an emotional reunion, police said.
The teen wanted to make sure her mom knew that she was OK and was very apologetic over the pain her mother went through not knowing where she was for the past four years or even if she was still alive, Santiago said.
Her mom, Jessica Nuñez, called the discovery of her daughter four years after her disappearance a miracle in a video she posted to Facebook.
‘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.’
Nuñez said she doesn’t have details on her daughter’s disappearance but said ‘the important thing is that she is alive.’
A message from Alicia Navarro’s mom. pic.twitter.com/aCBSEbjxTI
— L❤ve🧡thy💛Neighbor (@lisahawkfan) July 26, 2023
‘Miracles do exist. Never lose hope and always fight.’
Nuñez according to previous reports, 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 has partnered with private investigative agencies, put up billboards, appeared on television programs and used social media in a bid to help locate her daughter.
Glendale police said they are investigating how the teen got to Montana and who she has been staying with over the past four years as many questions remain unanswered.
They said Navarro ran away from home under her own free will and has been cooperating with their investigation.
She also told police that no one has harmed her and appeared to be healthy.
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 Arizona Republic.
Navarro currently remains in Montana and is able to come and go as she pleases. She is asking for privacy so she can move on with her life, Santiago said.
‘We can only imagine what she’s going through, mentally, emotionally, as well as her family, and as much as we’d like to say this is the end, this is probably only the beginning of where this investigation will go,’ Glendale PD Lt. Scott Waite said.
Police are continuing to investigate the circumstances of Navarro’s disappearance and the following four years and what prompted the now 19 year old to suddenly reach out to authorities and what had preempted the daughter from directly reaching out to her mother.
