Missing San Juan County Child Found Safe, Reunited with Father

A 2-year-old boy reported missing from San Juan County was located safe in California and returned to his father, Stephen West, after a multi-state investigation that ended last week with the arrest of his mother, Crystal Salazar, on a custodial interference warrant.

The San Juan County Sheriff's Office announced the child's recovery in a press release dated March 19, 2026, describing it as the conclusion of a complex investigation that tracked Salazar across multiple states. Salazar had taken the boy out of New Mexico in September 2024. West was granted primary custody in early 2025 and reported the child missing in October 2025, prompting the Sheriff's Office to obtain a custodial interference warrant against Salazar. The Tri-City Record characterized custodial interference as a fourth-degree felony under New Mexico law.

The investigation drew in an unusually broad coalition of agencies. The Sheriff's Office credited the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the U.S. Marshals Service, the FBI, the Riverside County Sheriff's Office and Gang Unit, and the Riverside County District Attorney's Office Child Abduction Unit with helping bring the case to resolution. Salazar's arrest last week came at the end of a trail that wound through multiple states before investigators pinned her location to California.

"The safe recovery of this child is the result of strong coordination between law-enforcement partners across multiple states," said David Barnett, U.S. Marshal for the District of New Mexico. "We are grateful for the work of the investigators who followed this lead and ensured this child could be safely reunited with his family."

The child is now back in New Mexico with West. The Sheriff's Office described the boy as found "alive and well." Salazar's booking details and the current status of formal charges had not been publicly confirmed as of the release date. A discrepancy also remains unresolved in the public record: the Tri-City Record reported that Salazar took the child after losing primary custody, while KOB reported West was not granted primary custody until early 2025, several months after Salazar had already left the state with the boy. Court records would clarify the sequence.