Missing teen Alicia Navarro has yet to reunite with mom after reappearance in Montana, family PI says
The missing Arizona teen who re-emerged at a tiny Montana police station this week four years after her disappearance has yet to reunite with her mother in person, the family’s private investigator said Thursday.
Alicia Navarro, who went missing in 2019, and her mother, Jessica Nu?ez, have only “spoken briefly” after the 18-year-old turned up at the police station about 40 miles from the Canadian border — but the family is “thrilled” that she has been found safe, private investigator Trent Steel exclusively told The Post.
“I think this is a happier ending than any of us thought,” Steel told The Post. “We’re absolutely thrilled. This is a win.”
The investigator also said 18-year-old Navarro has “not made her intentions clear” on whether she’ll return to her hometown of Glendale, Arizona.
Navarro left Glendale in September 2019, only leaving her family a note that read: “I ran away. I will be back. I swear. I’m sorry.”
Nu?ez told 12 News in 2022 that her daughter had stacked chairs up in the backyard and hopped the fence, taking her phone and laptop with her when she disappeared.
The mother also believed her daughter had been lured from her home by an online stranger and she was not simply a runaway, despite what her note stated. Police have not revealed if Navarro has been living with anyone the last four years or why she ran away.
“I would never imagine that she will be willing to do something like this,” Nunez told the outlet in 2022.
Throughout the years, Nu?ez has handed out flyers, bought billboards, hired Steel, and even created a Facebook account called Finding Alicia to help find her missing daughter, all leading up to this moment.
Nu?ez posted an update in the Facebook group announcing the reappearance of her daughter, calling the moment a “miracle.”
“For everyone who has missing loved ones, I want you to use this case as an example,” she said in a Facebook video. “Miracles do exist. Never lose hope and always fight.”
Alicia Navarro's mysterious reappearance: What we know so far
Who is Alicia Navarro?
Alicia Navarro is a previously missing 18-year-old from Arizona who unexpectedly turned up in a Montana police station nearly four years after her disappearance.
When did she disappear?
In 2019, the girl left her family’s Glendale, Arizona, home in the middle of the night just a few days before her 15th birthday. Her parents found a handwritten note from Navarro saying: “I ran away. I will be back. I swear. I’m sorry.”
Where was she found?
Navarro walked into a police station in a tiny Montana town about 40 miles from the Canadian border — and some 1,000 miles from home — and identified herself as the missing girl from Arizona.
Is she facing any charges?
Authorities in Navarro’s hometown of Glendale, Arizona, said the teen is not facing any criminal charges and is not in any kind of legal trouble.
Why did she leave?
Alicia’s mother, Jessica Nu?ez, previously raised concerns that Navarro, who was diagnosed as high-functioning on the autism spectrum, may have been lured away by someone she met online.
Since her reappearance, Glendale police have classified Navarro, who went missing when she was 14, as a “victim.”
“To us, she is a victim, and we need to provide services to her,” said Glendale police Lt. Scott Waite, adding that she did not require medical attention.
She spoke with Arizona police over a FaceTime call, in which she thanked them for offering her help and told them her disappearance “started as a runaway situation,” ABC News reported.
“Did anybody hurt you in any way?” an officer asks the girl during the FaceTime call.
“No, nobody hurt me,” the teen replies.
The cop explains to Navarro that his goal is to make sure that she is safe, to which the visibly overwhelmed 18-year-old replies: “I understand that.”
Glendale police confirmed Navarro was who she said she was.
Navarro has been cooperative with the investigation and is “very apologetic” for the pain she has put her mother through, Glendale public safety communications manager Jose Santiago said.
