A 13-year-old Arizona girl who disappeared in 1994 has been found alive in a shocking cold case update.

The Metro rport that “Christina Marie Plante disappeared 32 years ago from Star Valley, a small community in northeast Phoenix. It led to a search that included volunteers but the case went cold, the Gila County Sheriff?”

Christina Marie Plante was last seen walking to the stables where she kept her horse. Her disappearance led to a major search and a mystery that went unresolved for 32 years.

But now, Christina has been found alive, according to The Metro.

When she vanished in May 1994, the paper says, officials in Star Valley, Arizona, believed she may have been abducted. So, they classified her disappearance as happening under ‘endangered and suspicious circumstances’.

New details are emerging after authorities announced earlier this week that an Arizona woman had been found alive more than 30 years after she was reported missing as a young teen.

Volunteers joined police to try and trace her, but despite ‘exhaustive ground searches, interviews and investigative follow-up’, sheriffs could find no trace.

All they could say was that she was wearing a white T-shirt, multi-coloured shorts and black tennis shoes.

In an interview on News Nation‘s Jesse Weber Live on Thursday, April 2, Capt Jamie Garrett of the Gila County Sheriff’s Office said that Christina Marie Plante left her home on purpose, with the help of relatives.

While some key details have not been shared publicly, Garrett said, “I guess she [Plante] wasn’t happy with where she was living and who she was living with, and she ran away.”

“I was dumbfounded,” the cold case investigator said on Jesse Weber Live. “I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh. Okay, so you ran away.’ I told her … ‘You know, we were under the impression that somebody kidnapped you? It was deemed a criminal offense.’ ”

According to authorities, Plante was last seen on May 15, 1994, when she left her home to walk to a stable where her horse was and then “vanished without a trace from her community.”

Her disappearance from Star Valley was initially classified as “endangered and under suspicious circumstances.”

On Wednesday, April 1, the sheriff’s office announced that there had been a “successful resolution” in Plante’s case following a “breakthrough” that they credited to the work of a cold case unit, new leads, new technology and other techniques.

When she went missing, the sheriff’s office said, “Extensive search efforts were conducted involving local law enforcement, volunteers and regional resources.”

Plante was listed in national missing children databases, but her case eventually went cold.

Garrett said on News Nation that she was able to track down Plante and call her. The now-grown woman, who lives under a different name, confirmed her identity but shared few other details.

“She said that was a long time ago, that was an old life,” Garrett told the outlet. “She’s in her adult life. She has her family now. That’s not something she even thinks about.”

The sheriff’s office said this week that answers in Plante’s case show their commitment to solving enduring mysteries and “bringing long-awaited answers to families and communities.”

After thanking investigators, researchers and others who contributed to locating Plante, the sheriff’s office said that out of respect for her “privacy and well-being,” additional details would not be released.

“The Gila County Sheriff’s Office remains committed to pursuing all unresolved cases and encourages anyone with information regarding other cold cases to come forward,” officials said.

The case eventually went cold but was never closed and was handed over to the Gila County Sheriff’s Office. Using modern investigative techniques, detectives developed new leads and finally there was a breakthrough. This week, the sheriff confirmed that she has been found.

Investigators said they have ‘confirmed her identity, and her status as a missing person has been officially resolved’.

• A Tell Media report