HAVRE, Mont. (AP) — An Arizona teenager who disappeared days before her 15th birthday nearly four years ago is safe after walking into a small-town police station in Montana this week, authorities announced Wednesday.
Alicia Navarro, now 18, showed up alone Sunday morning in Havre, Montana, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) from the Canadian border, and identified herself as a missing teenager from the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, according to authorities.
“Alicia appeared to be fine and in good health,” police in Havre, a city of about 9,200 people, said in a statement.
Navarro's disappearance on Sept. 15, 2019, sparked a massive search that included the FBI. Glendale police spokesperson Jose Santiago said over the years, police had received thousands of tips.
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.”
But her mother, Jessica Nunez, raised concerns that Navarro, who was diagnosed as on the autism spectrum, may have been lured away by someone she met online.
Investigators are now trying to determine what happened to Navarro after disappearing at age 14 and how she ended up in Montana, more than 1,300 miles (2,090 kilometers) away from her home.
Glendale police Lt. Scott Waite said they were looking into all the possible scenarios that could have led to Navarro’s disappearance, including kidnapping.
“As much as we’d like to say this is the end,” Waite said, “we know this is only the beginning of where this investigation will go.”
Police said Navarro told them she hadn't been harmed, wasn't being held and could come and go as she pleased. She does not face any criminal charges, they added.
In a short video clip that police said was taken shortly after Navarro arrived at the Montana police station this week, she can be heard telling authorities, “No one hurt me.” In another short video, Navarro thanked the police.
“Thank you for offering help to me,” she said.
Waite described Navarro's reunion this week with her mother as “emotionally overwhelming" and that Navarro said she was sorry for "what she has put her mother through.”
In an emotional video posted Wednesday to a Facebook account titled “Finding Alicia,” Nunez told her tens of thousands of followers, “I want to give glory to God for answering prayers and for this miracle."
Nunez had been documenting her efforts to find her daughter on the Facebook page throughout the years. The account features hundreds of posts with photos of Navarro as a young child and pictures of Nunez holding up signs that read, “Children don't just disappear!”
“For everyone who has missing loved ones, I want you to use this case as an example,” Nunez said in the video, which has been viewed more than 200,000 times. “Miracles do exist. Never lose hope and always fight.”
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Yamat reported from Las Vegas. Associated Press writer Robert Jablon in Los Angeles contributed.
