A 15-year-old Greeley girl never made it home after her first day of school on Monday, and investigators believe she may have traveled more than 70 miles south to the Parker area. Amaya Pena was last seen at Greeley West High School near 35th Avenue and West 29th Street, according to authorities, who are now classifying her as a runaway juvenile and asking the public for help finding her.
The Weld County Sheriff's Office says Pena attended classes on Monday, August 10, but did not return home afterward. That date happened to be the official first day of the 2026-2027 school year for grades 1 through 12 across Greeley-Evans School District 6, according to the district's own calendar, meaning Pena disappeared on the very same day students headed back to class. Greeley West High School, located in Greeley, serves roughly 1,930 students in grades 9 through 12, per data compiled by the National Center for Education Statistics.
Investigators describe Pena as 5 feet tall and weighing 90 to 100 pounds, with a thin build, brown hair, and brown eyes. She has nose and ear piercings, though she typically does not wear any. When she was last seen, she was wearing a black crop top, white pants, and black shoes. She does not have a car and does not drive, according to the sheriff's office.
A Possible Lead 73 Miles South
While Pena is described as someone who frequents the Greeley area, authorities say she may be found in the Parker area instead. Parker sits in Douglas County roughly 73 miles south of Greeley, an 80-to-90-minute drive down the Front Range urban corridor, according to travel data from Rome2Rio. Given that Pena has no vehicle and does not drive herself, how she might have reached the Denver metro suburb, if she has, remains an open question.
The sheriff's office is asking anyone with information to call 911 for local law enforcement or to reach investigators directly. Tips can be submitted by phone at (970) 304-6464 or by email at [email protected], the same crowdsourcing channels the agency has used in other recent cases, including its search for wanted man Dillon Fisher earlier this month, as per Hoodline. The department can also be reached at (970) 350-9600.
State Law Sets Strict Rules on Runaway Reports
Colorado law leaves little room for delay in cases like Pena's. Under Colorado Revised Statutes § 16-2.7-102, officers statewide are required to accept a missing person or runaway report immediately, without any mandatory waiting period, according to a policy directive from the Grand Junction Police Department. The law reflects a broader statewide push to treat runaway reports with the same urgency as any other missing person case.
There are also consequences for anyone who might shelter Pena without notifying authorities. Colorado Revised Statutes § 18-6-601 makes harboring a runaway minor a Class 2 misdemeanor punishable by up to 120 days in jail, unless the person sheltering the youth notifies parents, legal guardians, or law enforcement within 24 hours, per Colorado law. Cases like this are typically logged with the Colorado Bureau of Investigation's Missing Persons Unit, which serves as the state's central clearinghouse and coordinates data with national systems such as the National Crime Information Center, according to the agency.
How Pena's Case Fits a Larger Pattern
Pena's disappearance mirrors patterns seen nationally among missing teens. According to 2023 statistics from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, endangered runaways made up 93 percent of all missing children reports the organization received, with 74 percent of those runaways falling between ages 15 and 17 — squarely the age bracket Pena occupies. The same data shows that 48 percent of endangered missing runaways nationwide are recovered within one week of disappearing, offering some context for what typically happens next in cases like this one.
Weld County has handled another juvenile runaway case in recent days. Just a day before the alert for Pena went out, the sheriff's office announced the safe recovery of a Hudson teen, a 13-year-old girl who had been missing for more than two weeks with her stepsister, as per Hoodline. That case resolved safely, though it remains unclear how quickly Pena's search will reach a similar outcome. Anyone with information on her whereabouts is urged to contact deputies using the tip line or by calling 911.
