Alicia Navarro Appeared After 4 years In Montana, Her Mom Never Stopped Looking For Her Missing Daughter

HAVRE, Mont. — Days before her 15th birthday, Alicia Navarro, who lived in a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona, vanished in 2019 but left a note for her family expressing her intention to return.

The note said, “I will return, I swear.” Saying, “I’m sorry.”

Jessica Nunez never gave up looking for her daughter because she was confident she would keep her vow.

She spent a year paying for a billboard advertisement in Mexico that featured a picture of her daughter. In Las Vegas, she purchased 10 more ads. To spread awareness, she gave interviews to the media and spoke at gatherings. She put flyers all over Glendale, including in parks, truck stops, and hair shops.

When Nunez’s daughter, now 18 years old, entered a small-town Montana police station close to the Canadian border on Sunday and claimed to be the missing adolescent, the years-long hunt for her was finally over.

According to the police, Navarro said she hadn’t been hurt, wasn’t being detained, and was free to come and go as she liked. They emphasized that she is not being prosecuted for any crimes.

Now that Navarro has vanished, investigators are working to figure out what happened to her and how she got to Havre, Montana, more than 1,300 miles (2,090 km) from her home.

According to a Glendale police spokesperson, no one has been detained concerning Navarro’s disappearance as of Friday. Officer Gina Winn refused to clarify if the detectives knew Navarro’s stay in Montana for how long.

Days before her 15th birthday, Alicia Navarro, who lived in a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona, vanished in 2019 but left a note for her family expressing her intention to return.

At a news conference on Wednesday, Glendale police Lt. Scott Waite said they were investigating every scenario—including kidnapping—that could have caused Navarro to vanish.

Nunez had expressed worries over the years that Navarro, who had been given an autistic diagnosis, might have been seduced by someone she met online.

Even though most people in Havre, a community of 9,200 people north of the Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation, had never seen or heard of Navarro, her story caused a stir among the locals. A group of heavily armed law enforcement officers entering an apartment and taking a guy into custody just a few blocks from the Havre police station on Wednesday night also attracted attention, according to witnesses who spoke to The Associated Press.

Around 8 p.m., 10 uniformed and undercover police officers arrived and handcuffed the man. According to Rick Lieberg, who lives across the street, the man had been residing in the flat.

Later, a young woman who Lieberg claimed he had not previously seen emerged from the flat, one of six in the dilapidated structure in a residential area. According to him, the woman resembled Navarro from a police photo that had been made public.

A plainclothes police officer from Arizona questioned Jonathan Michaelson, the neighbor, on Wednesday night and inquired as to whether he had ever seen a girl at the flat across the hall. He claimed not to have.

Michaelson remarked if she was in that flat, “I’m surprised I never saw her.”

Jeff Hummert, who works at the Dollar Tree in Havre, claimed to have seen a young lady who resembled Navarro in a photograph last year in a local park just a few blocks away from the residence that was searched by police on Wednesday. She was alone and carrying a plastic Walmart bag, according to Hummert.

Days before her 15th birthday, Alicia Navarro, who lived in a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona, vanished in 2019 but left a note for her family expressing her intention to return.

The main topic of discussion Friday among regulars at a coffee shop inside Gary & Leo’s IGA, a grocery store in downtown Havre, was how Navarro ended up in Montana. Most of the discussion concerning Navarro’s potential whereabouts and whether she was being pressured was speculative because officials had provided little data, according to former county coroner Steve Sapp, who joined the meeting.

When you work in law enforcement, it might be challenging to determine which version of events is accurate because there are so many conflicting accounts, according to Sapp. “I really want to learn more,”

Nunez denied a request for an interview. But she had chronicled her search for her daughter for years on a Facebook page called “Finding Alicia” and a podcast. Nunez urged her tens of thousands of followers in a vibrant video that has been viewed more than 200,000 times since it was published on Wednesday: “For everyone who has missing loved ones, I want you to use our situation as an example. Miracles do happen. Never give up, and keep fighting.

Throughout the years, Nunez had built up a devoted social media following by posting motivational sayings, pictures of Navarro when she was small, and messages targeted to her daughter.

“Alicia I have faith that you’ll keep your word,” Nunez said in a post. “You’ll be coming back,”

A loose network of volunteers was formed when individuals from around the country contacted the mother in Arizona to inquire how they might assist. Through the Facebook page, they disseminated images and information.

This Monday, Glendale police reported receiving tens of thousands of tips throughout the years.

She can be heard saying to investigators, “No one hurt me,” in a brief videotape that Glendale police said was recorded soon after Navarro arrived at the Montana police station. Navarro praised the cops in another brief video.

I appreciate you offering to help me, she said.

SOURCE – (AP)