A week after Alicia Navarro's 19th birthday, where does the investigation stand?

Alicia Navarro is alive and that's the most important thing.

However, we still don't know exactly what happened to the teen who vanished almost four years ago in Glendale, only to reappear this past July in Montana.

That’s when she told police there that she was safe.

ABC15 spoke to Trent Steele, the President and National Director of Investigations for the Anti-Predator Project.

He says there is still more work to be done to figure out where Alicia Navarro was when she disappeared from her home at the age of 14.

“This is hands down one of the most complex and bizarre cases I have ever been involved in. Currently in the process of figuring out what happened September 15, 2019, and what was it, June of 2023, and maybe what Alicia and the gentleman she was with have been up to for the last four years,” Steele told ABC15.

In June, then 18-year-old Navarro walked into the Havre, Montana Police Department, asking to be removed from a missing persons list.

Shortly after, police brought in a man for questioning, but no arrests have been made.

“We’re piecing together years of a person’s life, and that’s not something that’s done overnight,” he added.

We asked Steele what are some of the challenges he and his team face.

“One of them is, trying to go back and trying to figure out technology back then. And then within all that trying to figure out what laws, if any laws, have been broken,” added Steele.

At this time, both Trent and Glendale police have received thousands of tips and are in the process of sifting through all of them.

“Knowing what we know on the back end of this, it’s made it a little easier to go through the thousands of tips we’ve gotten over the years and filter out the ones that actually we think there’s some meat to,” said Steele.

In the middle of this is Navarro’s mom Jessica Nuñez, who has never lost hope. She is still waiting to be reunited with her daughter.

“She has not been able to. She’s going to have to wait and see how this plays out, just like everyone else,” Steele said regarding a reunion between Nuñez and her daughter.

Nuñez posted the following message on social media to her daughter Wednesday on the day of her 19th birthday:

Happy Birthday I know this message will be seen and I just want to say that I love you and will always will be here I remember today I gave birth to a special baby that I love with all my heart and always will We are connected always 5 years of birthdays celebrating at heart like I always do I will light a candle for you

Now, Steele says it’s only a matter of time before they’re finally able to get some answers.

“We’re still putting this puzzle together,” said Steele.