WA WA - Sofia Juarez, 5, Kennewick, 3 Feb 2003

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Kennewick police haunted by missing girl

Eighty-six kids missing from Washington are listed on a national missing children's website.

[snip]

Sofia Juarez's smiling face also is on that site. And even though it's been nearly nine years since the 4-year-old vanished in Kennewick, she has not been forgotten.

[snip]

Sofia's mother, Maria, died three years ago in Sacramento from medical complications, but police say they still are in contact with Sofia's extended family and won't stop looking for the now-teenage girl.

"We're not ever going to forget about Sofia," Lattin said. "She is still important to us."

Anyone with information about Sofia can call Kennewick police at 628-0333, Tri-City Crime Stoppers at 586-8477 or the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children at 800-843-5678.

More: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/01/27/2001270/kennewick-police-haunted-by-missing.html
 
Bump for sweet Sophia! I remember hearing about her case long ago, when I was still a kid. Local case to me. Can't believe it has been over 14 years and still nothing.
 

These Washington children are still missing
Two major announcements on long, unsolved cases involving young children in Western Washington puts the spotlight back on a series of cold cases with either no suspect or trace of the victim.

https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/these-washington-children-are-still-missing/281-551103228

Sofia Juarez of Kennewick triggered the state's first Amber Alert in 2003. Most recently, the curious case of Sky Metalwala is still unsolved. The two-year-old boy vanished in 2011 from the side of a Bellevue road, according to his mother, and has not been seen since.
Click to expand...

National Center for Missing & Exploited Children on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/missingkids/posts/10153866476431988
 
Updated Charley Project link - Sofia Lucerno Juarez – The Charley Project

zNU18TA.png
 
It was the day before Sofia Juarez’s birthday, Feb. 4, 2003, when she started walking to the store. She hasn’t been seen since.

Now, on the 18th anniversary of her disappearance, Kennewick investigators are hoping to find what happened to her, in part with the help of a Washington State Patrol program.

The Homeward Bound Program features missing children on the side of semi-tractor trailers. Three new trucks will display Sofia’s missing poster showing what she might look like as a young woman today.
upload_2021-2-2_7-22-19.jpeg
The trailers are being unveiled at a Thursday afternoon event.

This is the first time Sofia has been featured in the program with the state patrol’s new partner Kam-Way Transportation. Her missing poster was previously displayed with the WSP’s former partner, Gordon Trucking.
upload_2021-2-2_7-23-17.jpeg
In other cases, the Homeward Bound Program has succeeded in generating new leads, said Carri Gordon, the missing person unit program manager.

These rolling billboards travel across the West Coast and into Canada and Mexico. One in six children are found because someone saw a picture, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Sofia is one of five children currently featured in the program, and Gordon said they plan to have 10 total.

NOT FORGOTTEN
Sofia left her east Kennewick home after getting a dollar from her mother and following another adult who was going to a nearby store.

She was reported missing at 9 p.m. when the adult returned home and Sofia wasn’t with him. He said he never saw Sofia.

Other family members thought she was playing in her bedroom and they scoured the house and the neighborhood and called police.

From the beginning of the investigation, police treated Sofia’s disappearance as an abduction. She was the subject of the state’s first Amber Alert.

Along with being featured on trailers, her case was on America’s Most Wanted, and her picture has been shown on the side of a NASCAR race car and in New York City’s Times Square.

The entire department, along with hundreds of officers and firefighters from neighboring agencies, knocked on doors in a three-mile radius of the east Kennewick house, former police Sgt. Ken Lattin told the Herald in 2012.

Police are continuing to look for her. They have followed every lead and amassed a case file with more than 20,000 pages, the said.

Police Chief Ken Hohenberg coaxed retired Richland police Capt. Al Wehner to review cold cases starting in 2015. Among those cases is Sofia’s disappearance.

These trucks are just another example of things that we’re trying to do to gather new information,” Lt. Aaron Clem told the Herald.

The unveiling of the trucks is coinciding with another push by Wehner to retrace the steps investigators took 18 years ago.
https://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/local/article248884929.html
 
Hey y'all!

This is my first reply to a thread here. I'm a local to this area and have Sofia's missing poster burned into my brain ever since I was a kid. As devastating as this situation is, I am really happy to find that the case is getting attention in 2021. That being said...

I've found a few updates since she initially went missing in 2003.

Forgotten Victim: The Disappearance of Sofia Juarez
^
This article was really helpful in pinpointing where the abduction initially took place. After doing some finding, there was a sex offender who lived in the area with crimes committed in 2000, but as stated in the medium article, he consented to a polygraph and I believe both the property and his vehicle were searched in depth with no traces of Sofia.

Updates on Sofia's Investigation | Kennewick, WA
^
Recurring updates on Sofia's case... They include recent information about a TikTok video. After doing some searching...

TikTok
^
I believe this may be the one they're referring to? I'm not entirely sure. This was the only one I could find on the app that even mentioned Sofia.

In other words, there is a woman who has similar features to Sofia. It looks as though KPD is taking it seriously.

Here's hoping this case will finally get some answers!
 
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