Missing N.M. girl, 10, returns home, but questions remain

RIO RANCHO, N.M. -- Police in New Mexico say a 10-year-old girl who had been reported missing from her suburban Albuquerque home has been found safe, reports CBS affiliate KRQE.

Alexandra Greenwall returned to her Rio Rancho home around 7 p.m. Saturday after a three-day search, reports the Albuquerque Journal. Police told KRQE questions remain about the girl's return, however.

"Because she just appeared at the home, we don't know if she walked to the home or if someone dropped her off," Rio Rancho Police Lt. Paul Rogers told the station.

Greenwall disappeared after her mother put her to bed Wednesday night around 10 p.m., KRQE reported. When she woke up, the child was gone.

The station reports it appeared the girl apparently changed out of her pajamas during the night, stuffed clothes in a backpack and left through the family's back door.

The mother told the station the girl may have run away because she was mad that she had been punished. She said she believed Alexandra may have been wandering the neighborhood or on the way to her father's house in Madrid, N.M., about 60 miles away from her home in Rio Rancho.

The FBI and Rio Rancho police scoured the area, using K-9 units and looking in neighbors' backyards and homes and passing out fliers with the girl's picture. Albuquerque police, the Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office, and New Mexico State Police also joined the effort, the Journal reports.

Police say they will be interviewing the child in the coming days.

"I think that there was a collective sigh of relief in the City of Rio Rancho amongst everybody involved," Rogers told the station.