GLENDALE, AZ — The former lead detective in the Alicia Navarro missing teen case was reprimanded by the Glendale Police Department earlier this year for not submitting timely search warrant requests in an unnamed case.
The ABC15 Investigators obtained the memo of correction which questioned Detective Jose “Mario” Sanchez’s attentiveness to his duties, which is a big issue for any officer but especially one tasked with finding missing kids.
When Alicia Navarro, then 14, vanished from her Glendale home in 2019, Detective Sanchez was the lead investigator and was listed on fliers as the main person for people to contact with tips to help find the teen. She was missing for nearly four years.
In July 2023, Navarro walked into a Montana police station. Now an adult, she asked to be no longer considered a missing person. Police are still investigating whether someone should be held criminally responsible for her disappearance.
Two months earlier, on May 8, Detective Sanchez received a memo of correction for two police policy violations. The first was a failure to properly complete an investigation and/or make necessary reports. The second was a failure to obey a direct and lawful order. Sanchez was told that “immediate and sustained improvement in your job performance is expected.”
ABC15 obtained the memo through a public records request to the Glendale Police Department.
“We wanted to make sure, just like all of our employees, that we hold them accountable for their actions, and he was given internal discipline for not following orders and completing that investigation,” said Lt. Scott Waite, a Glendale police spokesman.
According to the memo, in November 2022, Sanchez’s supervisor ordered him to complete search warrants for follow-up in the case of a missing juvenile. The warrants were supposed to ask for phone records and for computer activity from an IP address.
The name of the missing person was redacted, and Glendale police declined to answer whether the warrants were for the Navarro case.
The memo said it took months, multiple promptings by a supervisor, and two tries by Sanchez for a judge to approve the warrants in March. The 71-day delay "slowed the investigation into an endangered missing person."
"I'm not aware of any other investigation where we believe that there has been issues, but it's certainly something that we're always looking at,” Waite said.
Glendale police say Detective Sanchez admitted to his deficiencies, and he continues to investigate missing persons cases.
“I believe that we have good detectives, who have good hearts and try and do their best to bring resolution to these families,” Waite said. “Of course, we're not perfect, and we're always striving to be better.”
Glendale police told ABC15 that a different detective is currently in charge of the Alicia Navarro case.
