Missing Long Beach teen found after family issues desperate plea for help
LONG BEACH, Calif. (KABC) -- A Long Beach teen who was missing for two months has been found, just hours after news reports about her disappearance.
A representative of the family told Eyewitness News Tuesday night that Diana Rojas was spotted in the South Los Angeles area by a person who recognized her from news reports earlier in the day. Police were notified and informed her parents that she was found.
Details about her condition and circumstances of her disappearance were not immediately available.
Earlier Tuesday, Diana's family held a news conference to ask the public for help in searching for the 15-year-old.
That desperate search took on a new urgency recently when they got a call from her in which she said she had been beaten and didn't know exactly where she was.
Diana had last been seen by her family on May 29. A neighbor's surveillance camera captured her getting into a silver BMW near her home with an adult man that the family doesn't recognize.
"We are asking for help so we can find her," Diana's mother, Elizabeth Gonzaga said. "It's been a long time since we have seen her, since we've been without her."
Her family says Diana managed to call them via Instagram on July 1. She told them she had been beaten and didn't know where she was except that she was in Bloomington, a community in San Bernardino County.
Retired Los Angeles Police Department detective Moses Castillo has been helping the family and says he spoke with Diana at that time.
"I was trying to get her to tell me where she was at," Castillo said. "She sounded afraid. She did say that she was injured and she couldn't pinpoint where she was."
After Diana was found, Castillo shared video of the moment the teen was reunited with her family.
