Alicia Navarro
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Voices for Justice is a podcast that uses adult language and discusses sensitive and potentially triggering topics, including violence, abuse, and murder. This podcast may not be appropriate for younger audiences. All parties are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Some names have been changed or omitted per their request or for safety purposes. Listener discretion is advised. My name is Sarah Turney, and this is Voices for Justice.

Today, I am discussing the case of 14-year-old Alicia Navarro from Glendale, Arizona, who seemingly vanished without a trace after sneaking out of her home on September 15th, 2019. She left a note telling her mother, Jessica, quote, I ran away. I will be back. I swear. I'm sorry, Alicia, end quote.

But it has been over a year since Alicia left this note and her mother is convinced that she was led away by a predator she met online. So let's get into it. Alicia is a stunning girl with the cutest smile. She has long, dark brown, kind of curly, kind of wavy hair and brown eyes.

You can find a ton of pictures of her all dressed up for different occasions online, but when she is in her preferred outfit of a hoodie and jeans and her beloved Vans, she looks like every girl I would have been friends with when I was 14.

It was Alicia's freshman year at Borgade Catholic High School in Phoenix, and in one of those terrible but amazing-to-look-back-at projects where you tell the class a little bit about yourself on a huge poster board, Alicia describes herself as quiet, odd, nervous, introverted, weird, different, and nerdy. She was a good student, but it didn't come easy.

One important factor to consider in this case is that Alicia has been diagnosed with autism, but is high functioning. She has sensory issues, is very picky about what she eats, wore a sweatshirt almost every single day, even in the blistering Arizona summers, and most importantly, she has a very serious fear of leaving the house.

This fear was apparently so bad that on her worst days, Alicia would curl up into a ball and cry because she was so scared of leaving the house. Although this was something Alicia was working on with a therapist about, it was never something she was fully able to work through or get past.

I was able to virtually sit down with Alicia's mother, Jessica, to ask her a few questions for the podcast. So here is Jessica describing what Alicia is like. My daughter, Alicia, was a very loving, smart, shy, caring person. She spent most of her time online and gaming. I don't know, it's because she felt more comfortable socially.

to be able to do that online, that in person. One of her challenges was socialization, to get out there, like get out of the house to go eat. So I felt that she had this online different personality because of that. I never thought that there would be dangers. I never have heard of awareness about

online grooming, about trafficking. And I just never, it never came to my mind. It was not in my life. None of those words were even mentioned to me. She always grew up in a private school since she was small. Most of her friends were friends since she was in pre-K. She only had a small circle of friends.

She was not a girl that will stay like overnight. It was really rare, like very, very rare. She always wanted to be home. So, yeah, that was my daughter. A very kind, loving, smart, timid girl. Another aspect that will become very important in this case is Alicia's use of the internet.

She had Facebook and Instagram, but it didn't seem like she was super active on her accounts. But where she was active is Discord. If you aren't familiar with Discord, it's kind of like Facebook Messenger, where you can connect with your friends over video, text, or audio.

And it's very popular among people who like to play video games, which is exactly what Alicia used it for. Now, the police haven't released every video game Alicia played, but they did state in a press conference that she played Minecraft and Roblox, which I would say are both pretty popular with most kids around her age. And like most kids around her age, she didn't really just play casually, it was pretty much the only thing she did when she wasn't at school or reading.

And according to Jessica, spending too much time on the computer was one of the only things they ever really argued about. There was times, you know, that we did have challenges about her being too much on the computer and in gaming and whatnot. But for me, it was in a way hard because that was like her enjoyment, you know, and by me taking that away, I felt bad, right?

Not knowing that I was going to have this kind of consequence, you know, and I, I just, I thought I just wanted her to be happy. That's all.

This argument wasn't unfounded on Jessica's part. Alicia had actually gotten in some trouble with talking to strangers online in the past. Jessica caught her daughter giving personal details to a stranger, leading to a very stern talk with Jessica and her therapist about how dangerous that is.

Another incident involved Jessica seeing a message from an older male asking Alicia if she liked stuffed animals, and then proceeding to say very creepy things about being a stuffed animal for Alicia to love on. This actually resulted in Jessica calling the police, but since there was no crime committed, all they could do is make an incident report.

Although these events stick out in Jessica's mind now, at the time, she didn't think much of them or think they could be related. She just figured that Alicia didn't realize how dangerous it was to give out personal information to strangers, and that a super creepy guy messaged her daughter. And since they were working on it in therapy too, she trusted Alicia and thought she understood these dangers.

But despite Alicia's challenges and these arguments over her use of the internet, Jessica says that they have a very loving family. Alicia lived with her mother, stepfather, two younger siblings, and her beloved dog Sushi in Glendale, Arizona. Now, let's talk about Glendale for a second.

For those of you who don't know, I was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, which touches Glendale, and I actually worked in Glendale for a few years as well, so I feel pretty qualified to tell you about it without having to look up a ton of information. But it is me, so of course I looked into it anyway.

Technically, Glendale has a population of about 250,000 people, compared to Phoenix's population of 1.7 million. But they are so close to each other that trying to say Glendale is a medium-sized city knowing it's sitting right next to Phoenix would be doing this story a disservice. There is no real separation of the cities, it's like you're driving down the road and at a certain street you just see the Welcome to Glendale sign and absolutely nothing changes.

Even where Alicia went to school is technically in Phoenix and about an 8 minute drive from her home in Glendale. So for the purposes of practicality and logic, we can pretty much say that Glendale and Phoenix present the same dangers when it comes to missing children.

It's a big city in a state that borders another country, in this case, Mexico. And the neighborhood Alicia's family lives in is pretty typical for South Glendale slash Phoenix, old homes built in the 70s and 80s filled with working class families. It's not the best part of town, but it's definitely not the worst either.

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Around the middle of 2019, Jessica could sense that Alicia was going through some changes, and some of them were actually really good. Alicia was working hard in therapy to feel more comfortable going in public and seemed to be doing well. And some of the other changes Jessica felt just came from Alicia growing up.

She started wearing perfume, which was a huge feat for Alicia considering her sensory issues. She also asked her mom to buy her makeup and more mature clothing than she had ever worn in the past. She started listening to more vintage music instead of pop. She also asked her mom to buy her a $200 comic book, despite never really liking comic books.

And although Alicia loved to read, Jessica never saw her reading it. But again, Alicia is 14, so Jessica figures she's just trying new things, and with her being so timid and so shy for so many years, she really wanted to encourage this.

And then Alicia took a huge leap by asking her mom if she could go to Metro Center Mall with two boys from her school. So Jessica says yes, drops her off for two hours, and when Alicia came back, she was apparently head over heels for a boy, just kind of super bubbly and talking about how fit he was. She even started asking her mom for things like protein supplements because she was inspired to get into fitness too.

Now, a junior at Alicia's school did confirm that he met up with her at the mall, but he would later report to police that he saw her with a backpack and a second phone, a burner phone, that her parents won't learn about until after she goes missing. But Jessica insists that when she dropped off Alicia, she didn't have anything other than her regular cell phone, no backpack and no purse, not even to hold a second phone.

But I have to say, teenagers can be pretty sneaky, and I'm sure if she had a burner phone, she could have easily hidden it somewhere on her body. As for the backpack, that's a bit harder to explain. But it's important to note that some people do question the validity of this classmate's testimony about the mall that day.

Some of Alicia's friends have stated that Alicia had a few boyfriends, but none that Jessica considered legitimate. And some of Alicia's friends questioned the validity of these online boyfriends as well. But one thing that we do know for sure is that Alicia spoke to a lot of people through her online gaming. So I can absolutely see Alicia developing a relationship with someone online and no one thinking that it's legitimate.

And just a few days before Alicia goes missing, she actually told a friend that she planned on running away. But this friend did not take her seriously or report it to anyone. On Friday, September 13th, 2019, Alicia tells her mom that she's feeling very anxious and she asks her if she can stay home from school.

Jessica says yes. Alicia has been making so much progress that if she tells Jessica she needs time away from school, she trusts that. So Alicia stays home and spends most of the day in her room, most likely on her computer. The next day is Saturday, so Alicia sleeps in and wakes up just after 10am. When she does wake up, Jessica takes her for a little girl's day.

They get their eyebrows threaded, they go to a chocolate factory, Jessica buys some incense, and they finish the day with Alicia's favorite meal, chicken nuggets from McDonald's. Jessica says it was a great day, that Alicia was laughing, and she was happy. And again, when they get home, Alicia spends most of the day and night in her room. Again, pretty typical for Alicia, and I dare to say, most teenagers.

At about 11.30 that night, Jessica is still awake, she's watching TV, waiting for her husband to get home from working the night shift. And Alicia comes about halfway down the stairs, sees her mom and asks her why she's still awake, and then makes this remark like, oh, you know how you get kind of grumpy when you don't sleep, mom. She also asks Jessica what time she planned on going to bed. Alicia then goes back to her room.

But then again, about an hour later, around 1230, now the morning of Sunday, September 15th, Alicia again asks her mom why she's still awake. So Jessica and Alicia talk for a bit before Alicia grabs a glass of water and goes back upstairs to her room. When Alicia is almost back to her room and just out of sight of her mom, Jessica yells up the stairs to say goodnight and Alicia yells it back.

This is the last time Alicia and Jessica spoke. At about 2am, Alicia's stepfather comes home from work and Jessica goes to bed while he stays up a bit longer watching TV. And he eventually falls asleep on the couch.

This is when Alicia sits at her desk and writes her family the following note, quote, I ran away. I will be back. I swear. I'm sorry, Alicia. End quote. She then grabs her little black backpack, her iPhone, her MacBook, and that $200 comic book that she was never really seen reading, and she heads down the stairs.

But she has to be smart about getting out of the house because if Alicia goes through the front door, she runs the risk of getting caught on her neighbor's surveillance camera. And if she goes out the back door to the other side of the house away from the camera, no one will see her, but she will run the risk of making noise. Not only by climbing the fence and landing on the other side, but by stacking items to get over the fence in the first place.

Alicia was 4 foot 5 inches tall at this time, so there's no way that she's scaling cinder block fences without something to climb up onto and get to the other side. But despite Jessica apparently being a very light sleeper, Alicia chooses to go out the back door and risk making noise, versus risking getting caught on camera leaving.

So in order to get out of her house on the side away from the neighbor with the camera, she actually has to jump two cinder block fences to get out of her backyard. One that puts her into a separate fenced-in area with an RV gate, and then the final fence that leads to the street.

For the first fence, Alicia stacks a few chairs on top of each other and lands in the dirt on the other side. She then makes her way to the corner of the fence near the street and jumps over using a pile of bricks and lands in the rocks. And Alicia is gone, or at least this is what the police and Jessica believe happened.

The next morning around 8am, Jessica gets up to make breakfast for her husband and two younger children, assuming Alicia is just sleeping in again. But then she sees something weird. The back door was kind of open. Not all the way open, but like someone didn't shut it behind them.

So she's literally pouring her husband a glass of orange juice and asks him if he left it open, but he says it wasn't him. So Jessica gets freaked out, wondering if someone maybe broke into the house, and tells her husband to go upstairs and check on Alicia. But of course, Alicia isn't there, so they call 911. Eventually, they find her note and the chair stacked by the fence.

So they check the other side of the wall, and luckily it had just rained, so they see a single set of footprints in the mud leading to the set of bricks Alicia used to jump the fence. But because she landed in the rocks on the other side, they weren't able to make out which direction she went. I asked Jessica about the prints and about whether or not she believed the note was really from Alicia.

Yes, that did come across my mind. I thought somebody maybe came in my home and made her write that note and kidnapped her. The reason why I know that is not so is because on the side of my home, there's like a dirt area where she jumped and it was clearly her.

Her shoe prints were there and the original officer who took the report saw them. I just wish, you know, we would have taken pictures. But when you're in a situation, there's a lot of stuff you should have done in the beginning that you don't realize till later. Because unfortunately, there is no one to guide you. There is no one to tell you. Does that make sense? It's something that I was in shock about.

So by me seeing those shoe prints, knowing the way she stacked the wall and conversation she had online where her intentions were to leave, because there is someone who knew about her leaving that did not take it seriously, did not, you know, knowing Alicia the way she was, it was not taken seriously. You know, that person thought that she was joking.

Obviously, she didn't specify where or what, but according to that conversation, she did have intentions to leave that weekend. They really did a good job in not leaving any tracks, you know, and that kind of, that's what gets me nervous is the way they did this. Jessica wasted no time trying to find Alicia. After calling 911, she called a friend to walk around the neighborhood to look.

And when the sun went down, she was shocked at what she saw. But as a teenager who ran the streets of Phoenix, I have to say that I was not surprised. Jessica saw kids about Alicia's age staying out all night, some of them drinking and doing drugs, and some that looked like they might have been trying to sell their bodies for sex. It got really dark really fast when she started thinking about where Alicia could be.

But I've only read about this part in articles. I didn't want to bring up this horrific image again for Jessica, so I just asked her about her efforts in trying to find Alicia when she first went missing. When this happened, I immediately dialed 911 after I found out.

I actually called my friend and we went in the neighborhood. We looked for cameras. We went and talked to neighbors and we went around the block. I was actually the one who got some of the video footages of some homes, not law enforcement, you know, and let me correct that. So I Googled, you know, missing child and I found organizations. I started calling.

I called immediately missing, exploded children. Nobody guided me to do that. I actually, when I Googled, that's the main one that came up. And then from there, you know, I did whatever I can. There is some things that I wish I would have done different that I cannot change. But unfortunately, you know, it's a little bit too late for that. Like one of them is check your social media, um,

spoken to neighbors door by door and ask them certain questions and stuff if they see anything suspicious. And I just never thought about none of that at that time. I just assumed law enforcement will do all that. After taking an inventory of Alicia's items, it is believed that she was wearing a whitewashed denim overall skirt with a sweatshirt and high top black and white Vans.

The only other items that were missing from her room was her small black backpack, her iPhone, her MacBook, and that $200 comic book that, again, she was never seen reading. No other clothing, no toiletries, not even charges for her devices were taken. The night after Alicia goes missing, a silver alert is issued in Arizona.

According to the Arizona Department of Safety, "...a silver alert is activated when a person with specific cognitive or developmental disabilities as defined by statute or a person the age of 65 or older goes missing." End quote.

Jessica has stated that the only way that this silver alert was possible was with the help of a female Phoenix police officer. And thanks to this effort, Alicia's case was sent to millions of people and made huge waves in Arizona.

Alicia's disappearance was featured on the local news every night for the next few days. To find her missing 14-year-old daughter with autism. I'm Kariba Devine. Well, have you seen this girl? Glendale police want as many people as possible to see her picture. 14-year-old Alicia Navarro is missing. The teen left her parents a note yesterday morning saying she was going out but has not been seen or heard from since. I'm trying to get it together, but

I'm just in hell. If she's out there wandering, please call the police. A Glendale mom's desperate plea to find her daughter. Of course, Alicia's parents were extremely worried about her immediately. But they were holding out hope that she would be home by September 20th, her 15th birthday.

Everything was planned ahead of time, even down to the red velvet cake that Alicia picked out herself. Jessica even went ahead with the party, hoping that she would show up. But unfortunately, that didn't happen. In this video, she is sobbing, holding her rainbow number 15 balloon before blowing out her daughter's candles for herself. Look at the way I'm celebrating it. Just look at me.

Happy birthday to you Happy birthday to you Happy birthday dear Alicia Happy birthday to you I love you baby

And Jessica and her husband continue trying to think of where Alicia could be. And even scarier, what could be preventing her from coming home?

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The police tell Jessica that neither Alicia's phone or laptop have been used since she disappeared. They also tell her that they cannot trace either item. Jessica wouldn't go into a lot of detail about this because this is still an open investigation, but I'm wondering if the devices can't be tracked, does that mean they were powered down before leaving home?

And if this is true, did someone tell her to do this to help her cover her tracks? Did she do it without any instruction to cover her tracks? Why can't they track either of these devices? I don't know, but it makes me wonder. Again, because this is a very new case, the Glendale Police Department is not releasing all of the information, which is totally understandable. But it does make this next part a little fuzzy.

At some point, the Anti-Predator Project begins working with Jessica and the police on the case, and they dig up something that leads them to believe that Alicia was speaking to someone online that may have potentially groomed her. At this point in the investigation, Jessica told me that she didn't even really know what online grooming was, let alone what signs to look for to ensure it wasn't happening to Alicia.

Before Alicia's case, I hadn't actually heard of the Anti-Predator Project, but according to their website, quote,

The Anti-Predator Project is a non-profit organization dedicated to combating human trafficking and sexual predators in the United States through the use of specially trained private investigators, along with providing investigative and protective services for those victims of these horrific crimes. Anti-Predator Project is also highly dedicated to educating the community about the reality of human trafficking in the United States. End quote.

And I have to say, they must have something pretty strong to believe that Alicia has been trafficked because the Anti-Predator Project has very publicly advocated for her case, as well as helped with fundraising, creating and printing Alicia's flyer, and being there for Jessica to consult with on the case.

I also have to say that it makes sense to me. Something stuck with me when Jessica first told us about Alicia. She said that she acted like a different person when she was online, so I wanted to go back to that for a second. She had like a different personality online. She was really outgoing, spoke with a lot of people. It was like two different persons. I don't know if it's because it was easier for her. I don't know.

To me, this makes so much sense. Alicia described herself as being odd, weird, and different. So it makes sense why she would want to escape to this online world where she can literally be whomever she wants to be. She can have a different hair color, she could dress differently, and above all, she could be confident without the anxiety she would feel if she tried to do the same thing in the real world.

After learning more about what grooming is and factoring in Alicia's past behavior of talking to older people online and to Alicia's changes with the perfume, the music, and the $200 comic book, Jessica is now convinced that her daughter met someone online, was groomed by them, and led away from her home. A good place doesn't really give me a...

like some kind of what they think. They just say that they're not sure. But there is a private organization, a nonprofit that is in my daughter's case, it's called Anti-Predators. And, you know, according to the evidence, it was somebody that groomed her. I'm pretty sure it was somebody that she has been speaking with for a while. It's not somebody that she just met overnight and just decided to leave.

knowing that my daughter's personality, it's definitely somebody she felt confident with. It's not a family member. There's lots of questions, a lot of, you know, questions that maybe it's somebody, you know, a family member. Like I said before, I'm a really private person. Most of my friends are also from years and hardly come to my home. My family is out of

you know, out of the city. They don't live locally. And it's embarrassing to say this, but we really don't have that much of a, you know, we hardly see each other. So it has all the, you know, the way everything looks and the conversations, it is somebody that was online. I am confident of that. You know, according to what we have found out so far, I am confident to say that it is somebody online.

And although the Glendale Police Department isn't outright stating that that's what they believe happened to Alicia, much of their investigation begins to focus on figuring out who Alicia was talking to online and tracking down leads. They even call in the FBI after 10 days, stating that they simply do not have the resources required to follow up on all of these leads all around the country.

So the FBI steps in and starts tracking down a lot of people Alicia was talking to online. This is now a full-on national investigation. Jessica starts doing as much media as possible to spread the word, and tells Alicia's story over and over again to anyone who will listen.

But, like these things unfortunately tend to go, the days turn into weeks, and the weeks turn into months, and Alicia misses Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. And before we know it, we are at the one year mark of Alicia being missing.

On the one-year anniversary, the Glendale Police Department held a huge press conference with their officers as well as with Jessica to give a status update and to urge the public to share Alicia's picture in hopes of generating more leads. ...and tips for us to continue this investigation and have something fresh to work with. This case began September 15, 2019.

And what you see in front of you is a timeline of events that ran in the days leading up to the disappearance and then the days post the runaway dates. So the Glendale Police Department goes through the timeline of Alicia's case. And then they ask Jessica to come up and say a few words. And eventually, Jessica speaks right to Alicia. Alicia, have you seen this message? I'm waiting.

For you to please come back the way you swore to me. I'm not mad. I just want to know that you're okay. I miss you very much. Thank you. Sorry.

This is when I first met Jessica, literally just hours after that press conference, at a small public vigil that she was holding for Alicia that night. It was held at a small banquet hall right off the freeway, and it was decorated better than some weddings I've attended. There were chandeliers hanging from the ceilings, a stage adorned with white flowers, round tables dressed with white tablecloths, and flower bouquet centerpieces.

Now, this isn't because Alicia's family is particularly wealthy. It's because Jessica has an entire army behind her cause. In fact, I was told that the venue agreed to let them use the dressed-up room for free as long as they agreed to clean up afterwards. At the vigil, I had the pleasure of meeting a member of Alicia's church who had me in tears after telling me that he saw my TikTok account and urged Jessica to create her own.

which is now at a staggering 230,000 followers, with many videos getting well over a million views, by the way. And I met the young man and young woman who helped Jessica with social media. There was also Macca Silva, a local musician who performed a beautiful song she wrote about Alicia, titled Alicia, Velve and Mama, or Alicia Come Back to Mom. Alicia

Of course, in addition to this, there were members of the media and a ton of friends and family. I was honestly overwhelmed with the amount of support she received. I actually attended the event with a very pregnant Kristen Dennis, the sister of Brandi Myers, whose story you will hear in a future episode. And we could barely keep from crying when discussing how amazing the turnout was. Jessica even invited Kristen up on stage to speak.

I'm really just here to support her today and be support for her finding Alicia because I know from my own dealings with my sister being missing what it's like to have these anniversaries and just celebrate birthdays without that person and holidays without the person that you love and

Like if there's anything I could possibly do between my friends and my page that I could somehow bring an end to the suffering that Jessica feels every day and her family for not having Alicia there, I would do it. I would move mountains if I could. So I don't want to take up a lot of time. I'm hoping that all my people on Justice for Brandy Myers are plugging away to share this information.

It was a beautiful event. After Jessica, Kristen, and a few others spoke, there was a prayer and it ended with more music and all of us lighting a candle for Alicia. Before I left, Jessica asked me if I would make a TikTok with her for Alicia's account.

Sorry if that sounded a little muffled, but we were wearing masks.

But this is why you are hearing Alicia's story today. Because this is one of those cases I didn't just read about or hear about. This one jumped out and grabbed me, forcing me to listen. Jessica jumped out and grabbed me, screaming for me to listen.

By the end of the event, after hearing the songs and after hearing Jessica speak about the case and honor Alicia's memory, all while wrangling Alicia's two younger siblings, I knew I had to help her. And if you don't already feel like you want to help Jessica too, I think you guys will if you take a moment to look at her social media accounts advocating for Alicia.

Watching the many social media accounts dedicated to raising awareness for Alicia is heartbreaking, but it is a constant reminder that Alicia is still out there and has left a huge hole in the lives of her family.

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Jessica posts almost every day. Sometimes she writes directly to Alicia, telling her that she loves her, that she's not in trouble, and that she can come home whenever she wants. In other posts, she speaks directly to whomever might have taken Alicia, begging for her safe return, promising not to ask any questions or go to the police.

Most everything else in between are status updates about the case, mostly confirming that Alicia was not found in whatever the most recent sex trafficking bust is being reported all over social media. Or she's advocating for other cases, sharing missing persons flyers, raising awareness about online predators, that type of thing.

But some of the most infuriating things I see on her social media accounts are the posts of people telling Jessica terrible things about Alicia. Stating that they have her, that they are doing terrible things to her, offering to return her for money. Pretty much the worst of the worst. Jessica admitted to paying a good amount of money to the first person who messaged her with information like this, stating that she was desperate. And I don't blame her for a second.

But unfortunately, the torment doesn't end there. She also gets a ton of unsolicited messages from psychics telling her very graphic details about how they think Alicia died. There are even entire TikTok accounts claiming to be Alicia.

On one of these accounts, the bio says, I miss you mom, followed by two crying emojis. It has 85 followers and one video with about 11,000 views as of recording this episode. In the thumbnail of the video is the title, Mom, with three exclamation points. The

The video was posted on September 22nd, 2020, just two days after Alicia's 16th birthday. But there's no one in the video. It's just an animated cake with the words, Love you so much, Mom, written across the cake. And the caption reads, I'm here, Mom. They also go as far as to actually tag Jessica's Find Alicia Navarro account.

The video has just under 300 comments filled with people telling the poster that the video isn't funny and others wondering if it really could be Alicia. Jessica actually commented on the post saying that she was Alicia's mom and didn't think that the post was funny. Another account that has since been deleted did something really similar, but this time the person actually got on camera. Hey guys, so my friend found me. No, I'm ugly.

Bitch. I'm not homeless. My mom's gonna come pick me up. Yeah, so I was missing for a year, guys. And yeah, stop, stop calling me a clown, bro. I was missing. You can't call someone missing. Anyways, my main account's gonna be in the description.

But it isn't just random kids on TikTok or random people on the internet saying terrible things about Alicia to Jessica. Last year, a local Arizona newspaper posted a story online saying that they needed help to identify the remains of a 20- to 30-year-old woman that were recovered by police. And in the post, they used a picture of Alicia.

This led to hundreds of people flooding Alicia's mom's social media accounts with false news that she was found dead. I can't imagine the agony she goes through, or the agony of having a missing child, let alone a child with special needs in the current state of the world with the pandemic.

No, Sarah, I'm not as strong as you think, really. I have my days. And to top it all off, we have to deal with this COVID. It makes it harder on parents who have missing children because they could disguise themselves with this mask. And my daughter's a Hispanic girl. She is light-complected, but there's lots of Hispanics. And it's just so difficult.

to be, you know, makes it more difficult with this virus. And, and also not only that, just my, my concern is my daughter's safety. What is she being exposed to out there? You know, and, and is she eating? I used to go every day to,

To McDonald's. I even got a job there at some point. They even knew me. I worked there part time at night because I didn't want to leave my daughter alone. You know, I worked a couple of hours and I even got a job there because they knew me so good. And they were, you know, I...

Every day I went and I bought her favorite food just to make sure that she ate because that was a challenge for me because of sensory. And she was getting therapy for that. So is this person doing all this for my daughter? You know, are they making sure she's eating? It's stuff like that. Knowing that she has special needs and being out there and with all this going on in this world, you know, all this stuff.

chaos, with politics, with the virus, it does affect me. It really does. And I have to be a mother of small children that depend on me, that are, you know, that still need me. I have to be strong. And it's just hard. It's really hard. But, you know, I just want to know that my daughter is okay. I want to know. I

The thing is that my relationship and my bond with her is so strong. I am the one who saw her struggles. I am the one that was there when I saw all her, you know, achievements. And it's that bond that I have with her that it's so difficult for me because I get flashbacks when something was wrong.

She didn't like and, you know, the noise or whatever. And she would cover her ears and start, you know, having like a meltdown. And I was there, you know, and it's something that I never, never will regret. I'll do it all over again because she's my daughter and I love her. And all I care is for her to be okay.

Despite this obviously being excruciating for Jessica, she takes the good and the bad and carries on advocating for Alicia, trying to address and update followers of Alicia's case as much as possible. Here is a bit from a post from 2020 where she literally just got out of surgery. You can see the hospital bracelet on her wrist.

And she went on Facebook Live as she was driving home to tell people that Alicia was not the girl in the video she kept being sent and to make sure that people know that they should keep sharing Alicia's picture. Hi everyone, it's me. Sorry I haven't answered. I've been getting lots of tags and messages about a picture of my daughter. I was actually in surgery and I just literally got out right now. I just got picked up from the hospital by one of my dear friends.

The video that the picture that's going on about QT, it's under investigation, but from it looks like it's not my daughter. They're going to go look at the cameras and verify that. I appreciate you guys tagging and messaging and doing all that as soon as they confirm.

I'll let you guys know but honestly I don't think it's my daughter it does not I understand there's a resemblance the picture is not clear but they are looking into that I just want to let you guys know I haven't answered my messages because I was I just got out of surgery right now so I'm getting better so you guys will see more of my posts more responding messages

And that is being looked into I really hope it's her but from what I see It's hard to tell so they are gonna look into that just want touch base on you guys on that picture But honestly, I don't think it's her I'm hoping it is and we are gonna be looking into that. The only thing is that I'm trying to get the time and the date and all that information just to confirm and I'll let you guys know Okay

So I just don't want any confusion because I'm getting messages saying that she has been found. She hasn't been found and I don't want that to be out there confirming that she's found because we don't know. So I just want to let you know. Buenas tardes a todos. Me estoy comunicando. Me acaba de salir de cirugía originalmente.

Yeah, she even usually repeats her messages in Spanish as well in order to reach as many people as possible. And no, unfortunately, that was not Alicia in that particular instance she was talking about. But through this persistent use of social media, Jessica has garnered so much attention and so much help for Alicia's case.

With the help of the Anti-Predator Project, Jessica was able to get a $20,000 reward for information leading to the recovery of Alicia. She also got a billboard and a ton of flyers spread all over the state and country.

I even saw one three hours away from Phoenix at a truck stop. But when I asked the people I was with if they had ever seen the girl on the flyer before, they told me they hadn't. So as large as Jessica is trying to make this case, as large as I am trying to make this case, there are still so many people that haven't heard this story.

For Jessica, it seems like a never-ending battle of distributing these flyers through ever-dwindling in-person events and just balancing her life. But she admits that it isn't easy, and so many things trigger her to think about Alicia. I can't explain to you. It's like living, but living like in a nightmare in a way, not knowing. And I have to be happy. I mean, I am happy. I have other children. Don't get me wrong.

But it's not the same. It's like something's missing. And when you go out there and you're trying to have a good time and trying to be a good mom, you think, you know, only if my daughter was here. Where is she? Just going out there, driving, constantly looking. Is that her? Turning back, you know, turning back and saying, I think that's her. And it was somebody else.

Just constantly living that life, looking around, looking for her, thinking, you know. And like today I was driving down the street and I figured, I wonder if she walked this way. What way did she go? How did she get there? You know, it's every day I wake, is this the day? Is this that day that I'm going to be with her? Every night that I pray, it's just a life that I don't wish upon anybody. Yeah.

No, and of course I totally understand that. Um,

I don't think that people realize that it's not something you can just turn off and forget about for a while, that you're triggered every second of every day by different things that you see or smells, sounds, places you drive by, whatever it is. You're constantly triggered and it's not some type of on-off switch. It's a constant way of living, which I think, I mean, that's what drove me to want to help people. And it sounds like that's what drove you to want to help people outside of advocating for Alicia. Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. It's like certain songs, certain music, seeing the McDonald's, you know, it's, it's just those triggers and they're every day, every day. And I try because I have to remain right in my mind. I cannot, I know I just have to remain. I have other children and I just have to continue. Yeah.

I know I went a little heavy on Jessica's struggles in this episode, but I think you can understand why. After watching her go through this for over a year, I couldn't just ignore it. Her advocacy has now really become a part of this case.

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According to Jessica, Alicia came downstairs twice that night asking her mom when she was going to bed. And she left a note stating that she was running away, but she would be back. So if what Jessica says is true, which I and the police believe it is, Alicia definitely had plans to leave that night. But could she have just run away? Of course, it's a possibility, but I'd say it's pretty unlikely.

She has no history of running away. In her note, she said that she would be back, and Alicia took almost nothing with her. No clothes, no money, not even her phone charger. And as much as I hate to say it, I don't think Alicia has the skills to survive on her own. Could she have run away and been met with foul play? Again, this is possible.

But if she did, it doesn't seem like she was planning on being gone for very long. Was Alicia harmed by someone she knew? Again, anything is possible. But all evidence, especially that single set of footprints, leads me to believe that she left her house totally alone. But could she have been picked up by someone that she knew afterwards? Again, anything is possible.

Of course, I think that there is a good chance that she was groomed by an online predator and led away from her home. And due to Alicia's extreme social anxiety, I would think that this person built up some trust with her. So they may have been talking for quite some time.

And one loose end that scares me so much is that when I spoke to Jessica about the second time Alicia had trouble online, when the man made the comments about being her stuffed animal or whatever disgusting thing he said, she mentioned that when they went back to look at the police report to cross-reference this information, she realized that the police never even put down the phone number of the guy in the official report.

So as far as I know, they haven't been able to rule out that Alicia continued talking to this person. Is it possible that Alicia was talking to someone for a few months online, met up with them at the mall, got super excited and agreed to sneak out for a few hours to play some video games on a Saturday night? I think it is also a very good possibility.

Like so many of you, I was once a 14-year-old girl. And I also literally spoke to strangers online and made plans to meet with them. Which, of course, is not something I would ever recommend doing. But according to Jessica, Alicia was wearing one of her favorite outfits. A super cute-sounding overall skirt with a sweater and, again, one of her newest and favorite pairs of high-top fans with her tiny black backpack.

She had just gotten new perfume and makeup. It sounds to me like she was getting ready to meet a boy. But because she also brought her laptop and that expensive comic book, it sounds like they may have planned to play video games, and Alicia may have brought the comic book as a gift.

So thinking that she would be gone for just a few hours, she doesn't even bring her chargers. But she does leave a note for her mom, just in case she checks on her in the middle of the night and panics. But again, this is just a theory. I have seen other people speculate that she might have brought her laptop because it would have evidence of who she was going to meet with. And that she could have just left her chargers behind on accident.

All of these are possibilities, and we could theorize all day. But let's get to how we can help.

Right now, the best way to help Alicia's case is to help generate leads, which means sharing her picture. I know it is a common call to action, but it helps more than you could ever imagine. So I will have Alicia's missing poster on the Voices for Justice social media accounts for easy sharing, but as always, you are free to share any picture or poster of Alicia that you like, but I do ask that you do share.

I know that flyers are a huge initiative for Jessica, so I asked her if she needed any help printing them or any funds to help get them printed. And she said no, that the Anti-Predator Project does help with that and everything else she just covers out of pocket.

But you guys know me, so I am actually creating a new flyer for Alicia and printing off 100 of them to give away to you. And with the flyer, I will also send you a Voices for Justice sticker. I know it isn't a lot, but I hope that it helps.

So if you are interested in getting one of these flyers and one of these stickers, please send me an email with your name and address to sarah at voicesforjusticepodcast.com. And please include Alicia Navarro in the subject line.

In addition to sharing her picture and sharing this flyer, Jessica has created a GoFundMe to help raise money for more billboards to help further draw attention to Alicia. I will have a link to that in the description if you are able to help.

As a reminder, Alicia Navarro was 14 years old when she went missing. She was 4 foot 5 inches tall and weighed 95 pounds. She was also wearing braces. She is now 16 years old, has naturally brown hair and brown eyes, and she is Hispanic with very light skin. She also has a scar on her left knuckle.

If you do have any information about Alicia, please contact the Glendale Police Department at 623-930-3000. But as always, thank you, I love you, and I'll talk to you next time.

Voices for Justice is hosted, produced, and edited by me, Sarah Turney. For more information about the podcast or to submit a case you'd like me to cover, visit VoicesForJusticePodcast.com. And for even more content, you can join the Patreon family for just $5 a month at Patreon.com slash VoicesForJustice.