GLENDALE, ARIZONA (AP) – An Arizona teenager who vanished without a trace nearly four years ago is safe after walking into a police station in Montana, authorities said.
Alicia Navarro, 18, of Glendale, showed up alone this week in a small town about 64 kilometers (km) from the Canadian border and identified herself, police in Glendale, a Phoenix suburb, said on Wednesday. Her disappearance sparked a massive search that included the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Santiago said over the years, police had received thousands of tips.
Her mother, Jessica Nunez, raised concerns that Navarro, who was diagnosed as high-functioning on the autism spectrum, may have been lured away by someone she met online.
The name of the town wasn’t immediately disclosed, but Montana is more than 1,609km from Arizona.
“She is by all accounts safe, she is by all accounts healthy, and she is by all accounts happy,” police spokesman Jose Santiago said at a news conference.
Investigators were trying to determine what happened to Navarro after her disappearance at age 14 on September 15, 2019.
Police said Navarro told them that she hadn’t been harmed.
Police said she wasn’t being held and could come and go as she pleased. She does not face any criminal charges, they added.
“She is not in any kind of trouble,” Santiago said.
When she disappeared from her home, Navarro left a signed note that read: “I ran away. I will be back, I swear. I’m sorry.”
