Family of Alicia Navarro says the public needs to move on

GLENDALE, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) — It’s been exactly one week since police announced Alicia Navarro was safe after going missing from Glendale nearly four years ago. She was 14 years old at the time. Since then, thousands of people have been posting online, trying to piece together on their own what may have happened.

But now Navarro’s mother is asking the public to move on, saying the amount of attention on her daughter is risking her family’s safety. “So I beg you, please, no more TikToks. No more reaching out to Alicia or me with your speculations or questions or assumptions,” Alicia’s mother, Jessica Nuñez, said in a video on social media.

Just a quick search of Navarro’s name on social media will take you to a bunch of posts and videos, and many are random people trying to put information together. But it’s now to the point where police are frustrated, saying some of it is misleading or may not be true. “I know you want answers, and I do too. But the public search for answers has taken a turn for the dangerous,” Nuñez said in her social media video. “The public has gone from trying to help Alicia to doing things by trying to show up to her house and putting her safety in jeopardy.”

A former FBI agent gives his opinion on the video Glendale police released of Alicia Navarro when she reappeared this week after missing for four years.

In 2019, Navarro ran away from her Glendale home. Last week, she surprisingly showed up at a police department in Montana asking to be removed from the missing persons’ list. Police described her as safe, happy, and healthy.

Glendale Police is the lead agency on this investigation. They have looked into thousands of tips over the years and are still actively investigating. But what they’re running into now is people inserting themselves into this case by posting online information that could be inaccurate. They say this is causing more harm than it is helping. “People have responded to Montana themselves and began their own separate investigations,” Gina Winn with the Glendale Police Department said. “Continuing to place pictures of individuals online that don’t know they’re going online can be traumatic.”

In recent days, pictures of Navarro and others have surfaced on the internet, and a plethora of assumptions are being made. Glendale Police say all of these speculations are already being looked into behind the scenes and just because they can’t announce specific information doesn’t mean they don’t have it. “When it comes to our investigation, we are going to make sure we have addressed every single area of the investigation before we release that information,” Officer Winn said.

Social media can be beneficial to police, but because this is a lengthy case, it is going to take time to get new details. Both police and Alicia’s mom are asking for patience. “We’re asking you to respect Alicia’s privacy. We are asking you to respect her mom’s privacy, and we’re asking you to respect the integrity of our investigation so we can do the work we need to do to get you the answers you want,” Officer Winn said. Glendale Police say they have interviewed four people since she has been found and one person was detained but has been released. When detectives spoke to Navarro last week, she told them she had not been harmed. If you do have any tips, you can contact the Glendale Police nonemergency number, (623) 930-3000.

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