A Wisconsin teenager who vanished from her home when she was 15 has been found safe five years later. Joniah Walker, now 19, was located on May 25, the Milwaukee Police Department told WISN 12. Authorities did not disclose where she was found or if she was with anyone else. 'We do not share information of where any missing individual is located. Everyone has an expectation of privacy and we respect that,' a police spokesperson told the Daily Mail. Walker disappeared without a trace on June 23, 2022 from her mother's Milwaukee home. Tanesha Howard, her mother, said at the time that she last saw her teenage daughter lying in her bed after getting home from school, according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. 'I went to give her a hug before leaving for work,' Howard told the non-profit organization in June 2024. Walker had talked on the phone with her mother several times on the day she disappeared, but when she failed to pick up her father's phone call around 3.30pm, panic set in.

Howard said the teen was supposed to meet her dad so he could take her to get a work permit for a summer job. 'He called me and said that Joniah wasn't picking up her phone. That is when I immediately knew something was wrong,' she recalled. 'I left work right away.' Eerie Ring doorbell camera footage from a neighbor's home showed Walker leaving the complex around 2.30pm, wearing a large green camping backpack. She was never seen again after that. When her daughter went missing, Howard said it was very unlike her to just vanish.

The distraught mother said she's always believed that 'someone lured her away' from the home that day. 'Somebody stole her...that was my first instinct,' Howard explained. 'But when I saw that she left with a big backpack that I had never seen, that's when I knew. I was like, someone lured her away.' Howard told Fox6 News Milwaukee just four months back that her youngest daughter struggled with school during the Covid-19 pandemic, and has a history of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression. With that, Howard became frustrated that her child was never deemed 'critically missing' by authorities.

She also recalled noticing when the big backpack came in the mail before Walker went missing. 'And I asked her, "Why you need a bag so big?", and she told me, "Oh, because when we go camping next time I'll have enough room in one bag",' Howard told the outlet. Her mother also realized that her child had attempted to erase her digital footprint before vanishing. 'She was able to mask her data without us seeing it on the phone bill,' Howard stated. Walker's disappearance was used as part of a legislative initiative brought on by Wisconsin State Rep.

Shelia Stubbs, who pushed to pass a bill to create a Missing and Murdered African American Women and Girls Task Force (MMAAW), Fox6 previously reported. 'Some people are pushing back, not believing them, sometimes because they're black,' Stubbs said. 'They're not being taken seriously.' At the time, Stubbs told Howard to remain hopeful that her daughter was still out there. 'I believed Joniah was still living, and I said that to her - I don't believe Joniah is dead, it's only a matter of time,' she said. Several states, including Wisconsin, passed the MMAAW bill to establish task forces. Others have introduced similar measures that are still pending.