The boyfriend of 14-year-old runaway Alicia Navarro has been charged with child sex abuse after police searched his cell phone.
Edmund Davis, 36, had his phone seized in July after Alicia walked into a police station in Montana and asked to be taken off the missing person’s list so she could apply for a driver’s license.
The autistic girl had disappeared from her Arizona home shortly before her 15th birthday in 2019, sparking a nationwide hunt, but seemed happy to be living with Davis when she reappeared and told police ‘no one hurt me’ .
When police raided their home later that day, Navarro answered the door while Davis tried to discreetly hide his cell phone in a trash can.
The phone was turned over to Glendale police in Arizona, who discovered that “dozens of images of suspected child sex abuse material were on the device, which were confirmed to be of Davis.”
Edmund Davis, 36, is being held on $1 million bond at the Hill County Detention Center, charged with two counts of child sexual abuse
Alicia Navaro was just 14 when she disappeared overnight from her home in Arizona in 2019
Navarro left a note for her mother saying she would return, but it took four years for her to appear again
“Per their protocols, the Glendale Police Department selected 10 images from the recovered images and took them to medical experts,” the charging documents say.
‘The review found that the individuals depicted were under the age of 13, with two images of children under the age of 5.’
Alicia’s devastated mother Jessica Nunez led the public search for the teenager after she disappeared from her home in Glendale, Arizona on September 15, 2019.
She went while her parents were sleeping and left a note apologizing for running away and vowing to come back.
But for nearly four years, there was no trace of her, despite thousands of tips and a massive multi-agency search that included the FBI.
After hearing the news that an 18-year-old identified herself as the missing teen more than 1,000 miles from where she went missing, Glendale police said they immediately contacted Montana State Police to speak to Nunez. speak.
Officers said they were able to verify Navarro’s identity and that she was extremely cooperative with authorities.
Glendale Police Officer Jose Miguel Santiago said she seemed in good spirits and “basically just wants to move on with her life.”
‘She is very apologetic for what she did to her mother. And she understands that she hurt her mother a lot, and she didn’t mean to, and she’s hopeful that they can have a relationship.”
Davis, 36, a night clerk at Walmart, was found with Navarro in Havre, Montana
Navarro, who is said to have high-functioning autism, sparked a nationwide search when she left her Glendale home in September 2019.
Alicia Navarro, right, pictured with her mother, Jessica Nunez, who led the four-year hunt for her daughter and believed she had met a kidnapper online
Over the years, Nuñez worked with several private law enforcement agencies, posted billboards, appeared on television shows and used social media in her efforts to find her daughter.
Police had previously explained how Navarro voluntarily left her home just before her 15th birthday
Nunez has long suspected that her daughter had been kidnapped by someone she met online while gaming, although police were never able to find any evidence of this
Havre, Montana is about 1,400 miles from where Navarro disappeared in Glendale, Arizona
A few days before she disappeared, she had asked her mother if she could stay home from school.
Nunez agreed, surmising that her daughter was nervous about starting classes at Bourgade Catholic School in Phoenix.
The mother-daughter duo visited a chocolate factory the next day, and Nunez said her daughter seemed happy.
But that night, Navarro asked her mother what time she went to bed and slipped out of the house while she was asleep.
Nunez suspected that Alicia might have been kidnapped by someone she met online while gaming.
“I am more than 90 percent sure my daughter met this person online,” she claimed at the time.
Over the years, Nuñez worked with several private law enforcement agencies, posted billboards, appeared on television programs and used social media in her efforts to find her daughter.
The mother said her daughter was quite a cautious person, so it would have been unusual if she was easily lured.
“Knowing what my daughter’s personality is like, I don’t think she would have fallen for that,” Nunez said. “It probably took a while for this person to gain (her) trust.”
Days after Alicia’s return, the couple fled first to a trailer owned by Davis’ mother and then to the Fort Belknap Reservation in Montana.
“Alicia is an adult, so it will be her decision whether or not to stay in Montana, return to Arizona or go elsewhere regardless of the investigation,” said Gina Winn, a spokesperson for the Havre Police Department.
Davis has been charged with possession of images of a child under the age of 12 engaged in sexual conduct, which carries a prison sentence of between 25 and 100 years.
He also faces a second charge of child abuse, which could result in a sentence of four years to life in prison.
He is being held in the Hill County Detention Center on a $1 million bond.