Britt Jones
An investigator has spoken out about the circumstances surrounding a woman who has finally been found after three decades of being listed as a missing person.
Just this month, Christina Marie Plante, was found alive and well, after going missing at just 13 years old on May 15, 1994, in Payson, Arizona.
According to the authorities, Christina, who now 44, 'vanished without a trace’ and her disappearance was said to be ‘under suspicious circumstances’ and she was deemed ‘endangered’.
Christina had been last known to be walking to where her horse stayed at the stables before vanishing without a trace.
Advert
And while police tried their best to get tips and collect evident via interviews, eventually, the case went cold and the 13-year-old was placed on the missing children’s register.
However, things were not as they seemed.
“I was dumbfounded,” said Captain Jamie Garrett in an interview with NewsNation on Thursday (April 2).
Christina had eventually been tracked down 32 years after vanishing, and on April 1, the Gila County Sheriff's Office made the announcement online.
But after detailing that they wouldn’t release any more information about her circumstances to protect her privacy, Garrett revealed the situation.
Allegedly, Christina had purposefully run away with the help of other family members.
“I guess she wasn’t happy with where she was living and who she was living with and she ran away,” she claimed. “I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh. Okay, so you ran away.’ I told her … ‘You know, we were under the impression that somebody kidnapped you. It was deemed a criminal offense.’”
Garrett, who was the investigator in the case that contacted Christina to confirm her identity, said: “She said that was a long time ago, that was an old life.”
As for whether Christina thinks about the family she left behind, Garrett claimed: “She’s in her adult life. She has her family now. That’s not something she even thinks about.”
The Gila County Sheriff's Office Cold Case Unit initially disclosed that they had identified Christina with the help of advancements in technology, and posed on Facebook to reveal the news.
“Investigators have confirmed her identity, and her status as a missing person has been officially resolved,” the Gila County Sheriff's Office said.
The sheriff’s office went on to say that they are set on ‘bringing long-awaited answers to families and communities’ by opening cold cases, and if anyone has information about other cases, to come forward.
UNILAD reached out to the Gila County Sheriff's Office for comment.