Milwaukee teen Joniah Walker has been found safe four years after she went missing. Walker was 15 when she was last seen on a neighbor’s Ring camera near her mother’s apartment on June 23, 2022.

The Milwaukee Police Department announced that Walker was found safe on May 25. No other details were released.

Walker, now 19, left home in 2022 wearing her brother’s clothes and an oversized camping backpack. She turned a corner and vanished. Walker erased her online profile before she disappeared.

Police didn’t update the public when Walker was found because she was “never considered critically missing.”

Rep. Shelia Stubbs, D-Madison, issued a statement on Tuesday:

“I have been waiting and praying for the day of Joniah’s safe return. I want to thank Ms. Tanesha Howard, Joniah Walker’s mother, for standing beside me in the State Capitol to advocate for a Missing and Murdered African American Women and Girls Task Force for multiple legislative sessions and for never giving up hope that her daughter would, one day, be located alive and safe. We must use that same hope and determination to continue the search for all missing people across Wisconsin.”

Howard believes her daughter was talking to someone online before she went missing. Howard thought someone was “watching” her daughter. She cautioned her other children to keep an eye on her.

Walker had her own debit card and checking account because her mother trusted her. One day, Walker received a large box from Amazon. “I’m like, what is in this box, girl?” Howard said. “And she would never tell me what was in the box.”

The item in the box was likely the oversized backpack she was last seen wearing.

“I still have that box upstairs. It was a huge box,” said Howard. “You know, I try to give them their privacy because she never gave me trouble.”

Howard said Walker acted differently the last time she saw her.

“Yeah, the last time I saw her was that morning before I went to work, and she was different,” said Howard. “I tried to go in her room and kiss her.”

Walker trusted someone online, and she was groomed and lured away, according to Howard. “It was not like, I’m going to run away from home and be this adventurous person, like, in a storyline,” said Howard. “No, I really believe that she was groomed.”