What Happened to Alicia Navarro?

In September 2019, a 14-year-old Alicia Navarro seemingly ran away from her family home in Glendale, Arizona.

A shy and intelligent teenager who loved video games left her mother a note, promising she would come back. But years went by without any word from Alicia.

Then, in July 2023, Alicia walked into a police station in Havre, Montana. She said she wasn’t harmed and wanted to be taken off the missing persons list.

Soon, police officers discovered she had been living with a 36-year-old man, and the case took an even darker turn.

Background

Alicia Christian Navarro was born on September 20th, 2004, and lived with her mother, stepfather, and two younger siblings in Glendale, Arizona. Alicia’s biological father wasn’t in her life and lived out of state. Alicia was intelligent, but also very introverted and shy.

She was diagnosed with high-functioning autism at a young age and relied on her mother, Jessica Nuñez, for support and reassurance in social situations.

After changing schools several times, Alicia enrolled at Bourgade Catholic High School and was described as an intelligent student with excellent grades. However, she struggled to make friends at school.

Alicia preferred routines and was very selective about her food choices. Any change to her routine would cause her anxiety and agitation. Her daily routine included eating the same meals daily and wearing long-sleeved hoodies regardless of the temperature outside.

While she had a couple of friends, Alicia preferred the online world. She was a skilled gamer and enjoyed chatting with other players in-game. Interacting with people in digital spaces was much easier for her, and she spent hours in Minecraft, building her own little world.

But as Alicia’s 15th birthday approached, her family noticed several significant changes in her behavior. Her interests began changing, and she started listening to classic rock music, which her mother found unusual.

The family was used to Alicia listening to the same handful of pop artists over the years, so her exploration of a whole new genre seemed strange.

When Alicia started asking about makeup and adding protein powder to her food list, her mother, Jessica, assumed these changes were influenced by the kids at her high school. Perhaps Alicia was trying hard to fit in and was simply exploring other interests.

The disappearance

On the morning of September 13th, 2019, Alicia told her mother that she was feeling more anxious than usual and asked if she could skip school that day. Wanting to support her, Jessica agreed and offered to take Alicia to McDonald’s so she could get her favorite meal.

**The handwritten note Alicia Navarro left behind in her bedroom before running away from her Glendale, Arizona home in 2019.**

The two spent the day together doing activities that Alicia liked, and they returned home in the afternoon. Later, Alicia retreated to her room, where she played video games until after midnight.

Sometime before 1:00 AM, she went into the kitchen to get a glass of water. Jessica was still awake, waiting for her husband to come home from work.

Alicia looked happy and asked her mother when she planned on going to sleep. The two chatted for a minute before Alicia returned upstairs and entered her room. As far as Jessica knew, her daughter went to bed.

In the morning, Alicia’s mother noticed she didn’t come downstairs, so she went to her room to check on her. She discovered her daughter wasn’t in her bed, which was alarming. Alicia had left a note that read: “I ran away. I will be back. I swear. I’m sorry.”

Hoping that Alicia hadn’t gone too far, Jessica and Alicia’s stepfather searched the neighborhood and nearby parks, but there was no sign of the teenager. The two had already found a stack of chairs in the backyard that Alicia used to climb over the garden wall.

Furthermore, she had chosen a route that wasn’t covered by the neighbor’s surveillance camera. Alicia took a small backpack with cat ears, along with her MacBook, iPhone, a comic book, and makeup. She left behind the chargers, which suggested that she was planning to meet someone.

The Glendale Police Department was informed of her disappearance later that morning, and officers analyzed the footprints left in the backyard. They confirmed that Alicia wasn’t kidnapped from her room and didn’t have any help in running away, as the only footprints belonged to her.

In the following days, Alicia’s family tried to contact her via phone and on social media, but received no response.

On September 19th, 2019, she was spotted at La Pradera Park, just 1.5 miles away from her family home. Several witnesses reported seeing the teenager with a heavily tattooed African American man.

Alicia turned 15 on September 20th, 2019, and her family hoped she would return home. She had been looking forward to her birthday and even made plans with her mom to have a steak dinner and red velvet cake. However, Alicia didn’t show up.

The investigation

Investigators from the Glendale Police Department examined the electronic devices Alicia left behind in her room, and they quickly found an interesting Discord conversation with a 20-year-old Clark Sampels from Oregon. Clark was Alicia’s gaming friend, and the two communicated regularly.

On September 4th, 2019, Alicia informed Clark that she had sold her Xbox and mentioned that she had a boyfriend. Clark later told the police he found these messages strange because he knew how much Alicia loved her Xbox.

While Alicia had a very small circle of friends in Glendale, her mom remembered two boys from Bourgade Catholic High School who had met with Alicia two weeks before her disappearance.

The trio got together at Metrocenter Mall in Phoenix, and the boys invited Alicia to join their robotics club. One of the boys noticed Alicia had a burner phone with her, which he found odd.

Jessica also mentioned that she once caught Alicia giving out her personal information to a stranger online. The two had a talk about the dangers of the internet, and Alicia promised she would never do it again.

However, months later, Jessica discovered Alicia had been chatting with someone much older than the teen, prompting her to file an incident report with the local police department.

Considering Alicia’s trusting nature and her history of making friends online, both investigators and her family suspected she may have been groomed by someone on the internet. They believed that after gaining Alicia’s trust, this individual talked her into running away from home.

On July 1st, 2020, a Silver Alert was issued for Alicia due to her autism diagnosis, which required her to be cared for by an adult.

A Silver Alert is typically used to locate missing seniors or adults with dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. However, Alicia was deemed a vulnerable individual in need of help, so she qualified for the Silver Alert.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children put up multiple billboards with Alicia’s information across the country and distributed her missing person posters to all subscribers. Investigators followed up on thousands of leads, but none led them to Alicia.

The return

On July 23rd, 2023, a teenage girl walked into a police station in Havre, Montana, and identified herself as Alicia Navarro from Glendale, Arizona.

She requested that the officers remove her name from the list of missing juveniles so she could start living her life as an adult because she was eighteen years old.

The Havre City Police Department contacted their colleagues in Glendale, Arizona, who confirmed that Alicia Navarro was indeed a missing person.

Afterward, they informed the local FBI office, which became involved right away. Alicia’s identity was confirmed through DNA testing. Her mother was also called via FaceTime. The teen looked healthy and stated that she wasn’t being held against her will.

Before entering the police station, Alicia had been seen with an adult male who was quickly identified as 36-year-old Edmund Davis. Police officers went to the address provided by Alicia, located just a couple of blocks away from the station, and brought him in for questioning. He was released the same day.

On July 26th, 2023, police executed a search warrant at the same address. When Alicia opened the door, the teen said she was home alone, but officers observed Edmund Davis standing in the kitchen. He was trying to hide his phone in the trash can by covering it up.

Neighbors confirmed to the police that Alicia and Edmund had been living together for at least one year. Officers learned he sometimes introduced Alicia as his niece.

During the search, several electronic devices were seized, including a laptop, cellphones, and a gaming console. The computer forensics unit later discovered child abuse material.

**Edmund Davis appears in court following his arrest on October 23, 2023. He later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 100 years in prison.**

Edmund Davis was arrested on October 23rd, 2023. In September 2024, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 100 years in prison in February of the following year, with no eligibility for parole for 25 years.

Aftermath

Alicia Navarro wasn’t required to testify in court regarding Edmund Davis. After her reappearance, she asked for privacy and didn’t give any interviews. The teenager expressed guilt over what her mother went through.

Her current location is not known to the public, but it is believed she is not in Montana at the moment. Investigators haven’t disclosed whether Edmund Davis was the person who helped Alicia leave Arizona, nor whether she was groomed by him online.