LAKE ELSINORE, Calif. — Celeste Rivas Hernandez was just one of the kids in her neighborhood in Lake Elsinore, an Inland Empire community that for generations has drawn young families looking for a piece of suburbia far from the high prices and drama of the big city.

She visited the corner store almost every day with her friends, wearing a backpack and her usual long, curly black hair. She got candy, soda and Takis. She was a familiar face to neighbors and local business owners.

But there was something playing out in her world that she kept to herself.

Last year, she disappeared over Valentine’s Day. It was the first of many episodes of her running away from home, something that brought tensions in her household and worry in her community.

According to Riverside County Sheriff’s Depa

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