FBI Seattle
Seattle Media
March 8, 2023

FBI Seattle Announces Recovery of 8-Year-Old Vancouver, Washington Girl Missing Since 2018

In February 2023, Aranza Maria Ochoa Lopez, an eight-year-old girl who had been missing since October 2018, was safely returned to the United States after being recovered in Michoacán, Mexico.

Mexican authorities were able to locate and safely recover Aranza Lopez in Michoacán, Mexico. FBI special agents escorted her back to the U.S. Aranza’s safety and privacy is of utmost importance. Her location in the U.S. is not being disclosed, and no additional information will be released at this time.

“For more than four years, the FBI and our partners did not give up on Aranza,” said Richard A. Collodi, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Seattle field office. “Our concern now will be supporting Aranza as she begins her reintegration into the U.S.”

Aranza was kidnapped by her biological mother on October 25, 2018, from a Vancouver, Washington, shopping mall. The FBI issued a Missing Person Poster and was ultimately able to determine that Aranza had been taken to Mexico.

Other investigating agencies included the FBI’s legal attaché in Mexico City; Vancouver Police Department; Washington state’s Department of Children, Youth, and Families; Fiscalía General del Estado de Michoacán (FGE Michoacán); and the Instituto Nacional de Migración.

FBI Seattle is one of 56 FBI field offices located in major U.S. cities. It has nine satellite offices—called "resident agencies"—in Washington state. The mission of the FBI is to protect the American people and uphold the Constitution of the United States. For more information, visit www.fbi.gov or www.fbi.gov/contact-us/field-offices/seattle.