Missing Maricopa High student reunites with her mother

A Maricopa High School student who went missing overnight Sunday has been reunited with her mother.

Destinee Cruz, 17, was located alive Thursday night by police in Ciudad Juárez, a Mexican border town, according to Ivette Noriega, a family friend. Destinee was reunited with her mother, Teresa Cruz, and other family members.

Noriega said Teresa Cruz wasn’t able to share details as the family was still at the police station.

A search was launched after Cruz was last seen overnight Sunday getting into a vehicle in Ciudad Juárez, according to Noriega. Her mother searched desperately for her for several days.

Destinee had recently returned to Ciudad Juárez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, where her mother lives, to wait out COVID-19, Noriega had said. Destinee is a U.S. citizen.

Closed-circuit TV had cameras captured Destinee getting into a black Chevrolet Spark vehicle, which may have been an Uber, at 3:43 a.m. Sunday in the Chihuahua city. An Amber Alert was issued in the city.

There were no signs of conflict or dispute before she left and she took her high school books and computer, said Noriega, a postdoctoral scholar at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.