Missing Arizona teenager Alicia Navarro reunited with her family after four years

A missing teenager has been found in a small Montana town after vanishing without a trace four years ago, police announced Wednesday.

Glendale native, Alicia Navarro was found safe, healthy and happy, information officer Jose Santiago said at a newsconference held by the Glendale Police Department. She has since been reunited with her family.

Alicia stopped by a local police department in the area alone and identified herself, police said. 

As soon as Glendale police received word the young woman had identified herself as Navarro, they went to work on verifying her identity through interviews and with help from the Navarro family. 

“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. 

Glendale police were investigating the circumstances leading to her disappearance and return. It was still unclear where she was or whom she was with. 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 would come back home, according to The Arizona Republic, part of the USA TODAY Network.

Alicia asked her mother, Jessica Nuñez, if she could stay home from school a couple of days before her disappearance on Sept. 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. In the early hours of Sept. 15, after asking her mother 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 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. She had spent most of her time gaming, a hobby she had taken up at 11 years old.

“I’m more than 90% sure that my daughter met this person online,” Nuñez told the Republic. 

Nuñez said her daughter was a 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 had 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 after the girl vanished, the department said.  

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 they were getting at least one tip a week, with possible sightings reported inside and outside the country. But there was no concrete evidence Alicia was abducted. 

Nuñez has partnered with private investigative agencies, put up billboards, appeared on television programs and used social media to find her daughter. 

Kathleen Winn, director of Project25, a nonprofit that partners with law enforcement against human trafficking, said it appeared 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.”

Contributing: Jose R. Gonzalez and Salma Reyes, Arizona Republic