Police are investigating a viral TikTok video in which a woman claims to have been kidnapped many years ago with officers looking into the possibility she could be Sofia Juarez – a child who went missing in 2003.
Officers in the US are looking into the possibility that the woman could be Sofia, who went missing as a four-year-old girl in Kennewick, Washington.
In the clip, journalist Oscar Zazueta, is sitting with the 22-year-old woman in a plaza in Culiacan, Mexico.
As the camera rolls, he asks how she feels about her next birthday, but he’s not prepared for the woman’s shocking answer.
“I’m not happy about it, because I have a lot on my mind,” she says in Spanish.
“In all honesty, I don’t like my birthday. It shocks me each time I have another one.
“I want to say hi to my auntie and my nana.
“And I want them to come to get me, because I’ve been kidnapped.”
(Image: Tiktok)
Clearly shocked, Zazueta continues to listen as the woman explains further.
“Yes, they say I was kidnapped. Maybe from Italy, maybe from Japan,” she adds.
“I hope they come for me. Because in reality I don’t know where I’m from – from here, or from there. And now I’m in Sinaloa.”
The woman also told Zazueta she has drug problems, and appealed for help.
Now, police want to track down the woman, after the clip, which has since gone viral on TikTok, led some viewers to speculate that the woman in the video could be Sofia who went missing on 4th February 2003.
She was last seen playing in her bedroom at around 9.15pm with her brother, on the day before her 5th birthday, but it’s believe she walked out of the house before she was abducted.
An extensive search was launched, with the community shocked to the core over the girl’s disappearance.
But Sofia, nor a suspect, was ever located.
Sofia’s mother is said to have passed away in the years since her daughter’s disappearance, without ever finding out what happened to her child.
Lt. Aaron Clem, a spokesman with the Kennewick’s police department, said they were all eager to track down the woman.
“This is one of those cases that everybody in our community knows exactly what they were doing when she went missing,” he said.
“The ultimate goal is to get her identified and have her voluntarily give us a DNA sample.
“There is enough there that we need to do our due diligence,” he told NBC News.
Later, members of the homeless community in the area said they recognised the woman in the video but didn’t know much about her, or her story.
The police department launched a website to generate renewed interest in Sofia’s case and has received around 100 tips.
They are currently speaking with one credible witness who saw a crying girl being led away by another person back in 2003, as well as a windowless van parked near the area where Sofia went missing.
Officers are now in touch with Zazueta to find and identify the woman, in the hope they might be able to help her get home.