Girl who vanished from her home aged 15 is found SAFE five years on
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.
Joniah Walker, now 19, was located on May 25, the Milwaukee Police Department said. She vanished on June 23, 2022, from her mother's home
Tanesha Howard, her mother, said she's always believed that 'someone lured her away' from the home that day
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.
Eerie Ring doorbell camera footage from a neighbor's home showed Walker leaving the complex around 2.30pm, wearing a large green camping backpack
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.
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)
'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.
Meet Melat Kiros, the Ethiopian-born anti-Israel socialist crusader who is DSA’s rising star after stunning upset in Colorado
Meet Melat Kiros, the Ethiopian-born anti-Israel socialist crusader who is DSA's rising star after stunning upset in Colorado- US News
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Meet Melat Kiros, the Ethiopian-born anti-Israel socialist crusader who is DSA’s rising star after stunning upset in Colorado
By Ryan King Published July 1, 2026, 2:06 p.m. ETSee more of our coverage in your search results.
Add The New York Post on GoogleWASHINGTON — Democratic socialism is spreading West.
Political newcomer Melat Kiros, 29, who took down 15-term Democratic incumbent Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Col.) in a stunning primary upset Tuesday, is riding a wave of anti-Israel and anti-ICE sentiment sweeping her party.
The Ethiopian-born PhD student has pushed to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), suggested that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks were “inevitable,” downplayed suggestions that a firebombing of a Jewish rally was an act of antisemitism, and more.
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Once in the House of Representatives, which is considered likely because she’s in a safe blue district, Kiros has vowed to push Democrats as far left as possible and to oppose Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) becoming speaker.
Political awakening
Kiros refined many of her far-left views in law school at Notre Dame in the early 2020s, a period she describes as her political awakening, as the country was roiled by the COVID-19 pandemic and peak wokeness.
“I literally watched the Federalist Society handpicking some of my classmates onto the judge track in their decades-long bid to pack the courts,” she complained, according to Vox. “…I just lost faith in the system; I think a lot of young people did.”
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After law school in 2022, she joined the law firm Sidley Austin in New York, where she worked as a regulatory and enforcement associate. The following year, she was fired for writing a viral open letter lambasting law firms for pushing to crack down on antisemitism on college campuses.
“By chilling future lawyers’ employment prospects for criticism of the Israeli government’s actions and its legitimacy, you are complicit in Israel’s weaponization of anti-Semitism against legitimate concerns for the right of self-determination and the livelihood of the Palestinian people,” she wrote in the missive.
Sidley Austin demanded she take the letter down, but Kiros claims she refused and was fired as a result.
“I didn’t flinch because I stood by every word and I always will,” she boasted during her victory speech Tuesday.
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That move drew headlines and boosted her name recognition in lefty circles.
After losing her law gig, Kiros moved back to Colorado, where her family had immigrated while she was just 11-months-old. Her father had been picked in America’s Diversity Visa Lottery, per her campaign website.
Back home, she enrolled in a PhD program in public policy and worked as a barista.
Then, in the middle of last year, she decided to launch a seemingly long-shot primary challenge against DeGette, who is widely considered to be a very progressive lawmaker and has served in Congress longer than Kiros has been alive.
DeGette had the backing of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
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But Kiros’ candidacy caught fire with the DSA and other lefty groups that were hunting for candidates to take on incumbent Democrats and push the party further leftwards.
One of the major differences between the two was Kiros’ tougher stance against Israel. DeGette faced grassroots pushback for supporting defensive aid to Israel.
Kiros, however, made tough talk against the Jewish state a feature of her campaign.
For example, she told notorious lefty streamer Hasan Piker that the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack was an “inevitable consequence of apartheid,” though she later clarified she wasn’t trying to say it was justified.
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Piker is a very controversial streamer, having declared that “America deserved 9/11″ and praised the “brave mujahideen” who injured Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas).
In a similar vein, she told 9News journalist Kyle Clark that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks were an “inevitable consequence” of US foreign policy.
Kiros has stirred local controversy for downplaying the role of antisemitism in the June 1, 2025, firebombing attack at a weekly Jewish gathering aimed at bringing attention to the Israeli hostages taken by Hamas. One person was killed and a dozen were injured in that attack.
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The attacker, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, screamed “Free Palestine” before later stating that he “wanted to kill all Zionist people,” according to the FBI.
Kiros repeatedly declined to call it antisemitism and told NOTUS that it wasn’t “entirely obvious that it was just motivated by antisemitism.”
Many of her positions are similar to those of other DSA members, including support for Medicare for All, a modified Green New Deal, and mass amnesty. Kiros also wants a 10% slash in Pentagon spending.
“People are seeing that capitalism is responsible for a lot of the degradation that we’re seeing in our economy, that we’re seeing in our democracy, that we’re certainly seeing in our climate as well,” she claimed in a recent interview.
“They’re demanding a new way to organize our economy.”
Should she win in November, she will be the first Gen. Z woman to serve in Congress and the second Zoomer overall, after Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.)
She is riding a socialist revolt within the Democratic Party, as far-left candidates have won primaries across New York, Maine, Illinois, and elsewhere heading into the midterms.
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