Christina Marie Plante as a young teenager in 1994, who was found alive in April 2026 after being missing for 32 years... A 13-year-old girl Christina Marie Plante walked out of her house to see her horse. For the next 32 years, she was listed as missing. Everyone called her Tina. She lived in Star Valley, a small community near Payson, in Gila County, Arizona. In May 1994, around midday, she left home to walk to a nearby stable where her horse was kept. She never came back. At the time, Tina was living with her aunt and uncle. Her uncle reported her missing, and the family offered a $10,000 reward for any information about where she was. The sheriff's office was told she had been seen with no one and could not be found. Deputies, volunteers and regional teams searched the area on the ground. They interviewed people. They found nothing they could follow. Her case was classified as missing and endangered under suspicious circumstances. Investigators feared she had been kidnapped. Her details went into national missing children databases, and her flyer was sent across Arizona and to other parts of the country. Years passed. The case went cold. Then, on 1 April 2026, the Gila County Sheriff's Office announced that Tina had been found alive. The cold case unit had gone back through the file and used modern tools and new investigative methods. That was enough to give them new leads. They confirmed her identity. She was 44 years old. What came out next surprised even the investigators. Tina told Captain Jamie Garrett, the cold case investigator, that she had run away. Garrett said she was unhappy with where she was living and with the people she was living with. Garrett was dumbfounded and told her that investigators had believed someone kidnapped her. Tina told investigators that certain family members helped her leave. Chief Deputy Jim Lahti said she has not explained who she was with when she left, or how she got out of town. He said she acknowledged running away and had contact with another family member at the time. When the deputy reached her, she described that part of her life as "an old life." The first deputy to work the case in 1994, Terry Hudgens, told NBC News something different from what the public had understood for 32 years. He said Tina's father had custody of her, but she wanted to live with her mother. According to him, the two arranged to meet while she was walking to the stable. Hudgens said the investigation was dropped once they determined she was safe. The sheriff's office does not describe it that way. Lahti confirmed Hudgens led the first search, but said the case was never officially closed. A newspaper from May 1994 quotes Hudgens saying Tina had mentioned running away to friends. So for decades, a missing child poster existed for a girl that at least one deputy believed was safe. The sheriff's office has not said where Tina lives now. NBC reported she is living under a different name. Officials say they will keep further details private, out of respect for her privacy and wellbeing. Her father had custody. She wanted to live with her mother. She was 13, and she found a way out on her own.