Missing 13-year-old Apache Junction girl in Turquoise Alert found safe, man in custody

A missing 13-year-old Apache Junction girl who was the subject of a Turquoise Alert has been found safe, authorities announced Wednesday.

Skyler Conville had last been seen June 19 after leaving a Circle K near Meridian Drive and Superstition Boulevard. Surveillance video showed her getting into a man’s vehicle shortly afterward.

Less than an hour after announcing that the male driver had been found in Globe and taken into custody, the Apache Junction Police Department announced that Skyler had been found.

Skyler was also found in the Globe area, according to Michael Beaton, a commander with the Apache Junction Police Department who led incident command for this Turquoise Alert case.

“It’s still a very active case. We’re in the process of serving several search warrants,” Beaton told KTAR News 92.3 FM on Wednesday.

He thanked the community for coming forward with tips after authorities released photos of Skyler, the man and the vehicle.

“We would not have found her without that Turquoise Alert,” Beaton said. “We were able to locate the male from that alert about 5:00 a.m., and then, about five hours later, about 10:00, 10:30, we were able to locate Skyler. One of our detectives actually located her and she’s safe with him.”

Currently, investigators believe there was no preexisting connection between Skyler and the male driver, he added.

“Our initial is it was a stranger, unknown to the family and to Skyler. That is our initial,” Beaton said.

Why did it take a few days for the Turquoise Alert to be issued?

Skyler was reported missing on June 19, but based on the initial information, investigators did not believe the case met the threshold for a Turquoise Alert at that time, Beaton said.

“That Turquoise Alert is a big deal. It activates a lot of resources,” he explained. “But as an ongoing investigation, as we got more info, we upgraded it to a MEPS alert, which is a missing endangered person, and then it was quickly upgraded to a Turquoise Alert from there.”

This type of elevation is typical.

“Sometimes you don’t get all the information on day one,” Beaton said. “It took us a bit to get the information, but as we got it, we elevated it and then elevated it, it got elevated again to that Turquoise Alert, which everyone got on their phones last night.”

Currently, the entire detective division is working on the case, he added.

“I pulled the entire SWAT team in. They are spread out helping serve search warrants, pretty much, across the eastern part of the state right now,” Beaton said. “This is a big deal, and it’s worth it because we got Skylar safe. That’s the main goal, and it was accomplished.”

Turquoise Alerts are issued when a missing person is under the age of 65, local law enforcement has exhausted all available resources, the person is believed to be in danger or in the company of someone potentially dangerous and the circumstances surrounding the disappearance are unexplained or suspicious.

KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Kellan Olson contributed to this report.

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