Teen missing for three weeks found by Wichita police; two arrested

A 17-year-old girl who has been missing for three weeks, and whose mother spoke to The Eagle this week about her fears for her daughter’s safety, has been found.

Acting on a tip, Wichita police found Ariel Medina on Friday in a South Broadway motel room. Two people – a man and a male juvenile – were booked on suspicion of harboring a runaway, Wichita Police Chief Gordon Ramsay said Saturday.

Ramsay said that the girl was found unharmed.

On Saturday morning, Ariel’s mother, Virginia Gonzalez, said she was relieved that her daughter was alive. She was preparing to go retrieve her from the police, she said.

Gonzalez told The Eagle this week that she worried her daughter, who she said has a learning disability that affects her memory and decision-making, had been kidnapped. Wichita police were investigating it as a runaway case.

Ariel, who is going into her junior year at Derby High School, had last been seen outside her apartment complex in south Wichita on the evening of June 10. Gonzalez said she has spent the past three weeks searching for her daughter and passing out fliers all over town.

“These three weeks have been really hell for me,” Gonzalez said Saturday. “They’ve been terrible, sleepless nights. The thing that kept me going was the faith in God. I’d say, ‘Please give me the strength, give me the power to find Ariel.’ That’s what kept me going for her.”

Gonzalez said she was frustrated with what she felt was a lack of help from police in finding her daughter. They believed Ariel was a runaway, she said, and didn’t follow up on the many tips she provided.

“I cried to them, ‘You’ve got to listen to me,’ ” she said. “But it seemed like I was talking to the wall when I was talking to the police officers.”

Ramsay said that Gonzalez had his personal cellphone number, which she obtained after selling him a mattress at a local mattress store. She was in regular contact with him, he said, and he made the case a priority.

“We were taking it seriously,” he said. “Obviously, she’s desperate to find her daughter, and oftentimes frustration becomes focused on police. But we have expended an enormous amount of resources on this case, from me on down.”

Ramsay said he couldn’t say more about the case because it was still an active investigation.

“We will follow up,” he said. “We’re focused on keeping our kids safe.”

Gonzalez said she fears the emotional work ahead with her daughter but that it’s so much better than the alternative.

“I can work with everything ahead of me, – counseling everything I need to do,” she said. “It’s just the fact that she’s alive today, and I can work with it.”

This story was originally published July 2, 2016 at 11:50 AM with the headline "Teen missing for three weeks found by Wichita police; two arrested."