A second-grade teacher who allegedly harbored a missing California teenager for almost two years has been arrested in connection with his 2020 disappearance.
Michael Ramirez of Sacramento was 15 at the time he was reported missing in June 2020, according to KCRA-TV in Sacramento. This March, he appeared back at his family’s home.
The tale he had to tell led to Thursday’s arrest of Holga Castillo Olivares, 61.
The Sacramento City Unified School District said Olivares “was taken into custody at the school after students were dismissed for the day,” KCRA reported.
Olivares is an employee at Alice Birney Waldorf-Inspired K-8 School, the Rancho Cordova Police Department posted on its Facebook page.
She faces charges of detention of a minor with the intent to conceal from a parent and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Olivares is the mother of a friend of Ramirez, KCRA reported.
“You can’t just hide someone’s kid and think that’s OK,” Katte Smith, whose home Ramirez had lived in, told KCRA.
Smith told the station the teen was her husband’s nephew.
“We’re getting justice, you know, in seeing that someone is being held accountable for doing the wrong thing,” she said.
Smith said her family suffered while Ramirez was gone.
“Any parent out there that has a missing child, you think the worst. You think the absolute worst,” she said.
“My husband had a real hard time, emotionally, feeling like he was a failure,” she said.
She said restrictions after a disagreement sparked the teen’s flight. “He felt like the grass was greener on the other side,” Smith said.
The school issued a statement on the incident.
“The charges filed are for acts unrelated to the employee’s assigned duties. The employee has been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of a District investigation. As this is a personnel matter, Sac City Unified has no further comment,” the statement said, according to CBS News.
