'No one hurt me': Missing Arizona teen who resurfaced 4 years after disappearing speaks out

Updated

An Arizona teenager who showed up at a Montana police station nearly four years after she disappeared told detectives in Glendale, Arizona, that no one had hurt her, according to video released by authorities.

"Did anybody hurt you in any way?" a Glendale detective asked Alicia Navarro. Navarro, 18, was still in Montana and briefly spoke with detectives in Arizona by video, police said.

"No, no one hurt me," she responded in the 27-second clip.

"OK, because our goal is we just want to make sure that you're safe," the detective said.

"I don't, I don't, ummm," she said before pausing. "I understand that."

The police department muted the rest of the video.

Alicia Navarro in a photo released after she was found safe. (Glendale Police Dept.)
Alicia Navarro in a photo released after she was found safe. (Glendale Police Dept.)

In a second clip, a detective thanked Navarro for speaking with investigators.

"Of course," she replied. "Thank you for offering help to me."

Authorities in Glendale said Wednesday that Navarro went to a police station in a small Montana town near the Canadian border and identified herself as a missing person. She was 14 when she vanished from her mother’s home on Sept. 15, 2019.

Her mother, Jessica Nuñez, told NBC’s "Dateline" in 2020 that she had found a note in her daughter’s bedroom saying she ran away, which she said was out of character. She added that her daughter was on the autism spectrum and could be shy or anxious in some social situations.

Jose Santiago, a spokesman for Glendale police, told reporters at a news conference that Navarro "is by all accounts safe, she is by all accounts healthy, and she is by all accounts happy."

“She is not in any kind of trouble. She is not facing any kind of charges,” he said.

Police Lt. Scott Waite said the case remains under investigation. Police did not immediately have details about how she arrived in Montana.

"Every indication she’s given to us so far is that she willfully left her home," Waite said. "Now, the dynamics surrounding that decision are obviously something we’re looking into."

Waite said Navarro arrived at the police station by herself. Santiago said she "basically asked for help to clear her off of a missing juvenile list."

Authorities said they are not naming the town to protect her privacy and because of the investigation.

Navarro has been reunited with her mother. It is not clear whether she is back in Arizona.

On Wednesday, Nuñez released a video calling it a "miracle" that her daughter had been found safe.

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