A young girl who was kidnapped from Washington state nearly five years ago has been found alive in Mexico.
Authorities have been searching for Aranza Maria Ochoa Lopez since she was taken on October 25th, 2018. During a court-supervised visit at the Vancouver mall, the child’s non-custodial mother, Esmeralda Lopez-Lopez, was able to flee with Aranza. The girl had been in foster care since 2017 following proven complaints of physical abuse at the hands of her biological mother. Before the state took custody of her, Aranza was seen covered in large bruises. Child protective workers deemed Lopez-Lopez a threat to the child due to her erratic behavior and failure to undergo mental health examinations. She was eventually granted weekly supervised visits.
Then, in a twist of fate, Aranza’s mother was arrested in September 2019 in Puebla, Mexico. She was extradited to the United States to face charges of kidnapping. However, Lopez-Lopez refused to tell detectives Aranza’s whereabouts after her arrest. In 2021, she pleaded guilty to second-degree kidnapping, second-degree robbery, and first-degree custodial interference in connection to Aranza’s disappearance. She remains behind bars, serving a 20-month prison sentence.
In a miracle rarely seen in missing child cases, Aranza was located in Michoacán last month. The state located in western Mexico is a high crime area and is currently on the United States Do Not Travel list due to increased risks of kidnappings. It is unclear who the child, now eight, was found with or the condition she was in. She is now back in the U.S., though her whereabouts are unknown for safety reasons.
It’s unclear if Lopez-Lopez will face additional charges.
