A California girl declared missing in 2020 has been found in North Carolina, with Los Angeles County authorities saying her mom could be responsible for her disappearance.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department received information about her whereabouts on Friday. After being notified, the Washington County Sheriff’s Office in North Carolina found she was enrolled in a local school under an alias, the office said Tuesday.
She is now in protective custody.
The girl was kidnapped on June 2, 2020, per the North Carolina sheriff’s office, but L.A. County’s sheriff said in a release Tuesday that the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services first reported the girl missing on July 1, 2020, out of Duarte, about 20 miles northeast of L.A.
Neither law enforcement agency named the child, but the nonprofit National Center for Missing & Exploited Children identified her in a release as Karen Rojas, 5 at the time of her disappearance and now 11.
Los Angeles child services personnel were investigating Karen’s disappearance before her mother, who had legal custody, stopped contacting them. L.A. County’s sheriff said the mom “was believed to have taken the child.”
The sheriff’s department did not say whether Karen’s mother was still the main suspect in her disappearance or whether any charges were pressed against her.
