A girl from the United States who disappeared in October 2018 has been found alive and well in Mexico, the FBI has said.
Aranza Maria Ochoa Lopez, who had been in foster care, was kidnapped by her birth mother from a mall in Vancouver, Washington, when she was four years old.
She was last seen on supervised visitation with her mother – who was arrested a year later in September 2019 in Pueblo, Mexico.
However, the child, who is now eight, remained missing until she was found by authorities in Michoacan, Mexico in February.
The FBI had offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to his recovery.
She was flown back to the United States by FBI special agents, the branch office in Seattle said Wednesday.
“For more than four years, the FBI and our partners have not abandoned Aranza,” said Richard A Collodi, special agent in charge of the FBI’s field office in Seattle.
“Our concern now will be to support Aranza as she begins her reintegration into the United States.”
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His mother, Esmeralda Lopez-Lopez, pleaded guilty in January 2021 to second-degree kidnapping and robbery and first-degree custody interference in Clark County Superior Court, according to local newspaper The Columbian. She was sentenced to 20 months in prison.
Aranza was placed in state custody and foster care in 2017 following complaints that her mother was physically assaulted, according to the newspaper. Lopez-Lopez received supervised visits twice a week.
