Missing teen case flips as ‘kidnapped’ girl found alive, built secret life as mom of 3, investigator: report
An Arizona girl who vanished at 13 and was long feared abducted has been found alive — now living a quiet life as a married mother of three working for a private investigations company, according to a report.
Christina "Tina" Marie Plante, now 45, is living in Springfield, Missouri, more than 1,100 miles from where she disappeared in 1994, where she built a new life after leaving home as a teenager, according to the Daily Mail.
The outlet reported Plante married as a teen, raised three sons and later earned a psychology degree from Missouri State University. She now works in a supervisory role for a Springfield-based firm that investigates insurance fraud, according to the Daily Mail.
She shares a five-bedroom home with her husband of nearly three decades, Shawn Hollon, a software engineering manager.
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Hollon told the Daily Mail that his wife has been processing the renewed attention after being identified and said she had shared her story with him before they married in 1998, though he declined to discuss the details publicly.
Authorities say Plante has been reluctant to provide specifics about how she disappeared.
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Gila County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Jim Lahti told the Daily Mail that Plante has not explained who she was with when she left or how she managed to get out of town. He said she acknowledged running away and indicated she had contact with another family member at the time.
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Plante was last seen around midday on May 15, 1994, leaving her home in Star Valley after telling others she was heading to a nearby horse stable. When she didn’t return, the case was classified as missing and endangered under suspicious circumstances.
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Her disappearance prompted an extensive search and years of investigation, with early concerns that she may have been abducted. Those fears were never confirmed, and the case eventually went cold.
Decades later, a cold case team reopened the investigation using modern tools, including social media and public records, ultimately identifying Plante and confirming she was alive.
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"I guess she wasn’t happy with where she was living and who she was living with, and she ran away," cold case investigator Capt. Jamie Garrett told NewsNation.
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"I was dumbfounded," Garrett added. "I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh. OK, so you ran away.’ I told her, ‘You know, we were under the impression that somebody kidnapped you. It was deemed a criminal offense.’"
Authorities say the case is now considered resolved.
While many details about how she left remain unclear, officials say Plante has since built a stable life and has chosen to keep much of her past private.