Mother of missing teenager Alicia Navarro raises funds to put up billboards along US-Mexico border
If you have any useful information about Alicia Navarro, you are encouraged to call the Glendale Police Department or the Anti-Predator Project.
PHOENIX — The mother of a Glendale teenager who has been missing for nearly a year and a half is planning to put up billboards of her missing daughter at the US-Mexico border with funds recently donated by GoFundMe.
Similar billboards can be seen here in the Valley asking anyone who sees the teenager, Alicia Navarro, to call the Glendale Police Department or the anti-predator project.
Navarro is autistic and functions very well. She was last seen in September 2019.
The billboards are the latest effort in a search involving the Glendale Police Department and private investigators. This is all run by Navarro’s mother.
“I’ve tried to do everything I can to get answers about my daughter’s whereabouts. It’s been a tough year,” Jessica Nunez said.
Her daughter ran out of her parents’ house in 2019. Late in the evening, she unexpectedly bumped into her mother downstairs.
“She said, ‘Oh, it’s late.’ So she ran upstairs, but I never thought she was waiting for me to go to bed, because she had a plan,” Nunez said.
A note she left to read – which is now in the custody of the FBI – read: “I fled, I will return, I swear. I am sorry. – Alicia.
Her mother says she took light, carrying a small backpack that doubles as a handbag, along with her computer and cellphone, but no chargers. At the time, she was only 14 years old.
“Based on the evidence,” Nunez said, “I believe she was lured online.”
Navarro loved virtual games. Her mother says her otherwise introverted teenager took on a different personality while she was playing online.
“My daughter was a really loving and caring person. Wherever she went, whether it was an animal or a person, she cared,” Nunez said.
While there’s no evidence that Navarro is along the border or in Mexico, Nunez says the search extends to those areas.
“I’m scared, confused,” Nunez said. “But I will never lose hope.”
If you have any helpful information, call the Glendale Police Department at (623) 930-3000 or the Anti-Predator Project, which is investigating and administering a $20,000 reward, at (305) 796-4859.
