VANCOUVER, Wash. — An 8-year-old girl who has been missing from the Vancouver area since October 2018 has now been located, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Seattle division.
Mexican authorities were able to locate and safely recover Aranza Ochoa Lopez in Michoacán, Mexico. She was escorted back safely to an undisclosed location in the United States by FBI special agents.
“For more than four years, the FBI and our partners did not give up on Aranza,” said Richard A. Collodi, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Seattle field office. “Our concern now will be supporting Aranza as she begins her reintegration into the U.S.”
Aranza, who was 4 years old at the time, was taken by her biological mother Esmeralda Lopez Lopez on Oct. 25, 2018 on a court-supervised visit at the Vancouver Mall, according to Vancouver police.
After releasing a missing person poster to the public, the agency was able to determine that Aranza was taken to Mexico.
FBI’s Legal Attaché in Mexico City, Vancouver Police Department, Washington State’s Department of Children, Youth and Families, Fiscalía General del Estado de Michoacán (FGE Michoacán) and the Instituto Nacional de Migración all worked in collaboration to safely bring Aranza back to the U.S.
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