Transportation company provides mobile billboards in effort to solve Kennewick girl’s disappearance

KENNEWICK, Wash.-- Kennewick Police investigators say they will never stop looking for Sofia Juarez until she's brought home, and they hope having Sofia's photo driving across the country might help bring them new leads in the case.

For 18 years, detectives and community members throughout the Tri-Cities have mourned the loss of the little girl who disappeared the day before her 5th birthday, on February 4, 2003.

The case triggered the first-ever Amber Alert in Washington, when the girl didn't return home after family members thought she had gone with her mother's boyfriend to a store nearby. But when the boyfriend returned, it was determined that Sofia had never reached him.

Investigators have followed up on dozens of tips, including information accusing the girl's father or another relative of abducting her and taking her to Mexico, but no charges have ever been filed against anyone in connection with the case.

Some in the Kennewick Police Department say they will never give up looking for her, her mother passed away in 2009 without any closure.

Sofia was featured on “America’s Most Wanted,” and her face appeared on a NASCAR race car and on semi-trucks across the nation’s highways.

Starting this week, semi-trucks that are owned by Kam-Way Trucking will bear Sofia's image, along with information on how to provide a tip for those who might have information that could help bring Sofia home.

"The answer is somewhere out there," said Kennewick Police Chief Ken Hohenberg. "Somebody knows something. Situations change. Relationships change over time. We need to find Sofia. We need to bring Sofia home. Let her family know what happened to her."

The effort to revive the investigation give's Sofia's family hope.

"We are so thankful for this exposure. We have hope," said Victoria Juarez, Sofia's aunt by marriage. "Our kids- they look like her, we see her in them. For us to come together and have that closure would mean so much to this family."

Police detectives are interested in re-interviewing people who lived in the area that bordered S. Washington St. to S. Cedar St., and E. 13th Ave. to E. 16th Ave., including those who lived on those streets from December 2002 to March 2003.

To help with the investigation, contact Special Investigator Al Wehner at 509-582-1331 and leave a message including your name, the address where you lived, and your current contact information. You can also email al.wehner@ci.kennewick.wa.us.