Photo: Glendale Police Department
Alicia Navarro, the Arizona teenager who was finally located in Montana last week after initially going missing in 2019, reportedly "hung her head" and covered her eyes "like she was crying" during an FBI raid that resulted in an unidentified man she'd been living with being "cuffed," a neighbor told the New York Post.
Ron Turner, 69, said the FBI established a stakeout of the Havre, Montana, apartment building where Navarro had been living shortly after she identified herself to local police.
“Three Havre police [cars] pulled up out of the building and they all got out with guns drawn and went into the apartment,” Turner said, specifying that FBI agents with assault rifles and bulletproof vests were also present at the scene.
Turner said a man was "cuffed" and placed "in a police car and they left fairly quickly."
“I would say five to 10 minutes later they bring this girl out … They brought this girl out and I told my wife, ‘Oh man, that don’t look good. She looks really young,'” Turner said. “Little did I know she was legal age but she sure didn’t look it."
“She seemed fine when she first came out. Then she covered her eyes like this for a while,” Turner said while cupping his hands over his eyes.
Turner said officers then went inside the apartment with evidence-gathering kits.
“She covered her whole eyes like this with her head down, like she was crying. The guy got taken away by the time she came out. Officers were talking to her. They were talking to her and they were over there maybe three minutes and she hung her head and covered her face," Turner said via the Post.
Police said a man was detained and questioned in relation to Navarro's disappearance, however, never confirmed whether it was the same person whom Navarro had shared the Havre apartment with. The 18-year-old claimed she was okay when she made contact with police and thanked them for "offering to help me," but authorities insist she's a victim in the situation.
“To us she is a victim, and we need to provide services to her,” Glendale police Lt. Scott Waite said via the Post, adding that Navarro was unharmed and didn't need medical attention when she initially made contact with police.
Last Wednesday (July 26), Navarro, who left her Glendale home on September 15, 2019, at the age of 14, was reported to have gone to the Havre Police Department to get herself off of the missing person's list in order to get a driver's license and begin living a "normal life," according to the Glendale Police Department. Police said Navarro, who was described as having "high-functioning autism," willfully left her home in 2019.
Garrett Smith, 22, who lives in the Havre apartment complex, told the Post that Navarro had threatened to "go back" during an argument with a man she was living with one day prior to making contact with police.
“I was here the other day and I heard them yelling. She did say, ‘I will go back.’ But that’s all I heard,” Smith said.
Smith told the Post that Navarro and an unidentified man in his 20s had moved into the apartment complex about a year ago where he believes she still lives, despite making contact with police.
“She was asking for directions. She looked scared,” Smith said, adding that it seemed Navarro wasn't familiar with the area. “She said she was walking with her uncle and got lost and she’s looking for 6th Street,” Smith said. “I later found out that she was referring to him as her uncle.”
No one has been charged in relation to Navarro's disappearance as of Tuesday (August 1). Navarro was alone when spoke to police and was reported to have "basically" requested to be taken "off a missing juvenile list."
"She showed up to a police department. She identified herself as Alicia Navarro. She basically asked for help to clear her off of a missing juvenile list," said Jose Santiago, a spokesman for the Glendale Police Department, during a news conference via NBC News.
"She is not in any kind of trouble," he added. "She is not facing any kind of charges."
Navarro was said to finally be reunited with her mother, who continued searching for her since her disappearance, in what Waite said was "emotionally overwhelming" for both of them, but didn't specify on how they reunited.
"I can say, for everyone involved, including the detectives, it was extremely overwhelming," Waite said via NBC News.