{"id":698036,"date":"2026-04-01T20:39:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T20:39:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/698036\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T20:39:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T20:39:15","slug":"13-year-old-missing-for-decades-found-alive-gcso","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/698036\/","title":{"rendered":"13-year-old missing for decades found alive: GCSO"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

PHOENIX<\/strong> – Officials with the Gila County Sheriff’s Office say a person who went missing decades ago has been found alive.<\/p>\n

What we know:<\/p>\n

According to a statement<\/a> posted to the agency’s social media page on April 1, Christina Marie Plante was found alive after she was reported missing in May 1994.<\/p>\n

“Investigators have confirmed her identity, and her status as a missing person has been officially resolved,” read a portion of the statement.<\/p>\n

The backstory:<\/p>\n

Investigators said Plante was 13 when she disappeared from the community of Star Valley. The community is located near the Payson area.<\/p>\n

“At the time of her disappearance, extensive search efforts were conducted involving local law enforcement, volunteers, and regional resources,” read a portion of the statement. “Despite exhaustive ground searches, interviews, and investigative follow-up, no viable leads were developed.”<\/p>\n

Plante, investigators say, was entered into national missing children databases, and missing person flyers were distributed statewide and in other parts of the country.<\/p>\n

What they’re saying:<\/p>\n

Officials said technological advances, modern investigative techniques and detailed case review were utilized, which allowed detectives to develop new leads that ultimately led to a breakthrough in the case.<\/p>\n

“This case underscores the importance of cold case review initiatives and the impact of evolving technology in bringing long-awaited answers to families and communities,” read a portion of the statement.<\/p>\n

What we don’t know:<\/p>\n

Officials say additional details in the case will not be released at this time, out of respect for Plante’s privacy and well-being.<\/p>\n

Where Star Valley is located<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The Source:<\/b> Information for this article was gathered from a statement released by the Gila County Sheriff’s Office.<\/p>\n

Missing Persons<\/a>Gila County<\/a>News<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX – Officials with the Gila County Sheriff’s Office say a person who went missing decades ago has…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":698037,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,1587,6082,89020,8324,50,1589,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-698036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-phoenix","tag-america","tag-arizona","tag-az","tag-crime-publicsafety","tag-gila-county","tag-missing-persons","tag-news","tag-phoenix","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116331385327311207","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698036","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=698036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/698037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}