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The time that has passed, the number of years that it passed, we know that somebody out there somewhere knows something.

And the reality of it is, over the last 18 years, relationship changes, people's loyalty changes, sometimes people want to clear their conscious.

The reality of it is, we need one tip, we just need the right tip. We've had a lot of tips over the last 18 years.

We've had literally thousands of tips and we work each and every one of those. But we need one credible tip. And I still believe that at some particular point in time, we will get that tip.

Somebody will want to clear their conscious. We will continue to generate information on this so that we can exhaust all leads.

On the evening of February 4, 2003, 4-year-old Sophia Juarez was at home in Kennewick, Washington. One of her relatives left the family home to go make a quick stop at a nearby convenience store for milk.

And after he left, Sophia decided to follow him. In the bright, bubbly young girl who would have turned 5 the very next day vanished into the night, never to be seen again.

I'm Marissa and from Wondery, this is Episode 301 of the Vanished. Sophia Juarez is story.

I'm Candace DeLong, host of the podcast Killer Psychie. And in our newest season, we dissect the thoughts and behaviors of the most violent figures in history.

Follow Killer Psychie on Amazon Music or wherever you get your podcasts. Or you can listen early and add free by joining Wondery Plus on Apple Podcasts or the Wondery app.

Sophia's story is different from most of the cases we've covered on the show. Earlier this year, law enforcement from Kennewick, Washington contacted us about sharing Sophia's story.

There was just one hiccup. Most of Sophia's family wouldn't be able to talk to us. Her father was never involved in her life. And her mother is now deceased.

Many of the people you will hear discussed in Sophia's story were just children at the time she disappeared. So we had to think outside of our usual format and rely on interviews from the original reporting officer, the current investigator and the chief of police to tell Sophia's story.

So who was Sophia Warez? We asked the current investigator, Al Wainer, who runs a dedicated cold case unit in Kennewick, Washington to tell us what he knows about Sophia.

She was a typical four-year-old child growing up in the tri cities. She liked to play with her young aunts and uncles. She liked to play with her dolls. She was a very shy person.

She was living in the home with her mother, Maria, and the grandmother, Ignacio. Ignacio's boyfriend, Jose, was living in the house. And also living in the house were some younger uncles and aunts of Sophia who were the children of Ignacio.

And there were four uncles that were living with Sophia, ranging in age from 6 to 15 and two aunts that were living with her. And they were in age from 14 to 17.

So a total of six uncles and aunts living with Sophia in the house. And that was in the 100 block of these 15 tab that we were in Kennewick. So they spoke primarily, at home.

However, she did have limited English speaking capabilities and she understood English. So Kennewick is part of what we call the tri cities. We're located in southeastern Washington.

And it's actually more of a high desert climate. We don't have the forests or trees like they do on the west side in Seattle or in the blue mountains with a cascade mountain range.

The cities has come, cries primarily of Kennewick, Pasco, and Richland. We're located along the Columbia River, where the Yakima River and Snake River meet up with the Columbia.

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