An 11-year-old girl kidnapped from Duarte, California, in 2020 has been found safe in a North Carolina classroom, after sharp-eyed school staff realized she was enrolled under a fake name and called in authorities.
The Washington County Sheriff's Office says deputies were alerted on March 10 by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and the Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services that the child might be in Washington County, according to WITN. After coordinating with agencies in both states, deputies tracked her down and placed her in protective custody.
Public missing-persons records list the child as Karen Rojas, who was 5 when she disappeared from Duarte on June 2, 2020, according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Her case appears on MissingKids.org under NCIC number M465861999, a reminder of how long investigators had been searching for her.
How deputies say she was found
According to WCTI, Sgt. Quintana and School Resource Officers Tate and Scolaro discovered the girl was enrolled in Washington County Schools under an alias and alerted investigators. From there, the sheriff's office says detectives worked with multiple agencies in North Carolina and California before taking her into protective custody.
It was the kind of routine school paperwork check that quietly turned into the break in a years-long kidnapping case.
What officials said
The sheriff's office publicly thanked its partner agencies and called the recovery a "rare positive outcome" in a long-running investigation, according to a social media post cited by ABC7. Officials added that they are withholding the child's name because of her age and the active investigation.
What comes next
Authorities say Los Angeles County agencies will now work with Washington County officials to untangle how the child ended up in North Carolina and to ensure she remains safe, per WITN. As of Tuesday, no arrests or charges had been announced publicly.
