US girl, 8, missing since 2018 when she was kidnapped found safe in Mexico and returned to America

An eight-year-old US girl who has been missing since 2018 when she was kidnapped from a shopping mall has been found safe and well in Mexico and returned to the US.

Aranza Maria Ochoa Lopez was kidnapped by her biological mother on October 25, 2018, at a shopping mall in Vancouver, Washington, according to the FBI, who announced her return Wednesday.

Lopez had a supervised visit with her mother, Esmeralda Lopez-Lopez, on the day that she disappeared, the FBI confirmed to CBS News.

She was safely recovered by Mexican authorities in February in Michoacán, a state in western Mexico.

FBI special agents took Lopez back to the US after she was found.

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Aranza Maria Ochoa Lopez was kidnapped by her biological mother on October 25, 2018, at a shopping mall in Vancouver, Washington, according to the FBI

The FBI had offered a $10,000 reward for information that might help them with the search 

After the kidnap, the FBI determined that the eight-year-old was taken to Mexico.

Her mother was taken into custody in September, 2019 in Puebla, a city in east-central Mexico, as the search for the girl continued.

Her mother, Esmeralda Lopez-Lopez, was taken into custody in September, 2019 in Puebla, a city in east-central Mexico, as the search for the girl continued

She pleaded guilty in 2021 to second-degree kidnapping, robbery and first-degree custodial interference, according to local newspaper The Columbian. 

Richard A. Collodi, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Seattle field office, said that law enforcement never gave up on finding Lopez.

‘For more than four years, the FBI and our partners did not give up on Aranza,’ Collodi said. 

‘Our concern now will be supporting Aranza as she begins her reintegration into the US’

The FBI had offered a $10,000 reward for information that might help them with the search. 

They worked with the Vancouver Police in Washington and law enforcement in Mexico on the investigation.

The majority of abducted children are taken by family members, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Only 1 per cent of missing children cases are abductions by non-family members, according to the center’s data.