A lacking Wisconsin teen was discovered protected after mysteriously vanishing from residence 4 years in the past as her household had believed she was “lured away.”
Joniah Walker, 19, was safely found on Could 25, the Milwaukee Police Division advised WISN on Tuesday.
Police officers didn’t disclose the place Walker was discovered or present any additional data on the case, together with whether or not the teenager was with another person.
Walker, then 15, had disappeared from her Milwaukee residence on June 23, 2022.
Walker’s mom, Tanesha Howard, mentioned she final noticed her daughter mendacity in mattress when she left for work the morning of her disappearance, in keeping with the Nationwide Heart for Lacking & Exploited Youngsters.
“Joniah was mendacity in mattress as a result of she had simply completed faculty. I went in to present her a hug earlier than leaving for work,” Howard advised the group.
The mom and daughter duo had talked on the telephone a number of instances all through the day earlier than Walker “abruptly stopped responding.”
Walker was supposed to satisfy her father to use for a summer season work allow however did not arrive on the designated time.
“He known as me and mentioned that Joniah wasn’t choosing up her telephone,” Howard mentioned. “That’s after I instantly knew one thing was unsuitable. I left work instantly.”
A close-by ring digicam captured Walker leaving the house complicated at round 2:30 p.m. within the Brewer’s Hill neighborhood, a mile-and-a-half north of Downtown Milwaukee.
Video footage confirmed the teenager carrying a big inexperienced backpack.
It was the final recognized sighting of Walker till she was reportedly discovered final month.
Howard believed her daughter had met somebody on-line after she deleted her digital footprint and by no means returned.
“Any individual stole her…that was my first intuition,” Howard mentioned. “However after I noticed that she left with a giant backpack that I had by no means seen, that’s after I knew. I used to be like, somebody lured her away.”
The protecting mom issued a number of pleas for her daughter to come back residence, begging Walker to “name me,” WISN reported in July 2022.
“She is my youngest daughter, so I all the time name her by ‘child woman’ as a result of that’s precisely who she is, my child woman,” she mentioned. “She is what I’d describe as an ideal daughter. She is angelic, gentle spoken and really clever.”
Walker was one of many faces of a legislative push by Wisconsin State Rep. Shelia Stubbs (D-Madison) looking for to cross a invoice to create a Lacking and Murdered African American Girls and Women Process Pressure, in keeping with Fox6 Now.
Stubbs says she believed Walker was nonetheless alive, telling Howard to carry out hope for her daughter’s return.
“I believed Joniah was nonetheless residing, and I mentioned that to her – I don’t consider Joniah is lifeless, it’s solely a matter of time,” Stubbs advised the outlet.
“I believe proper now, the household wants their privateness,” Stubbs added. “I do know there are such a lot of questions, however I believe as time goes by when they’re prepared to inform their story, they may inform it.”
