California girl kidnapped in 2020 found attending North Carolina school, sheriff says

A 5-year-old girl kidnapped from California in 2020 has been recovered in eastern North Carolina, where she was attending school under an assumed name, investigators say.

The outlandish discovery was made Tuesday, after the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department in California reported a kidnapping victim might be in Washington County, North Carolina, officials said.

“With the information provided to the Washington County Sheriff’s Office Deputies were able to determine that the child was enrolled in Washington County Schools under an alias name,” the Washington County Sheriff’s Office said in a March 10 news release.

“After working in combination with multiple agencies from N.C. to California the child was taken into protective custody, and is safe. These are very rare occurrences to have such a positive outcome on such an old case as this.”

The sheriff’s office did not provide the girl’s name, but she has been identified by Karen Rojas by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Rojas, now age 11, “was last seen in Duarte, California on June 2, 2020,” the center reports. Duarte is about a 20-mile drive northeast from Los Angeles.

Detectives are working to determine how she got 2,650 miles from her home, officials said.

No arrest was announced in the case.

“Due to the age of the child, and current investigations underway no more information is available at this time,” the sheriff’s office said.

Washington County is a 135-mile drive east from downtown Raleigh, along the Albemarle Sound.

This story was originally published March 11, 2026 at 5:44 AM.