The mother of an Arizona teenager who has reappeared safe and well after going missing four years ago has hailed her return as a “miracle”.
Alicia Navarro, 18, vanished without a trace in 2019 but showed up alone this week in a small town in Montana about 40 miles from the Canadian border and identified herself, according to police in Glendale, a Phoenix suburb.
Her mother, Jessica Nunez, had raised concerns that Navarro, who was diagnosed as high-functioning on the autism spectrum, may have been lured away by someone she met online.
“I want to give glory to God for answering prayers and for this miracle,” she said in a Facebook post. “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.”
Police shed little light on what may have happened over the last four years.
“She is by all accounts safe, she is by all accounts healthy, and she is by all accounts happy,” a police spokesman, Jose Santiago, said at a news conference.
Police said Navarro told them that she hadn’t been harmed.
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.”
Lt Scott Waite said that Navarro had an “emotionally overwhelming” reunion with her mother and was “very apologetic [as] to what she has put her mother through”.
