Avril Duenas-Juarez was a 5-year-old Hispanic girl when she was last seen in Madison, Wisconsin, on April 24, 2023. She was listed by Wisconsin’s Clearinghouse for Missing & Exploited Children & Adults as a missing child from Madison in Dane County, with black hair and brown eyes, standing about 4 feet tall and weighing about 50 pounds. The official missing poster said Avril went missing from Madison that day and that Jose Dejesus Duenas-Quinonez fled to Mexico with her, with
authorities expressing concern for her safety.
The first public information around Avril’s disappearance emerged in the context of a sudden and frightening investigation on Madison’s west side. Madison police responded to the 1300 block of South Midvale Boulevard on April 24, 2023, after reports of a potential murder, and local reporting at the time said Avril was unaccounted for and may have been with her father, Jose Duenas-Quinonez, who police identified as a person of interest. Later that same evening, Madison police said they were following up on information about the location of Avril and Duenas-Quinonez and that there was no further need at that moment for the public to attempt to locate them, but official missing-person listings later continued to document Avril’s case and the concern that she had traveled with him to Mexico.
As the case developed, the Madison Police Department later described Duenas-Quinonez as a man charged with killing his wife in 2023 and fleeing to Mexico with their young child. Police said the fatal stabbing occurred at a business on Madison’s west side on April 24, 2023, the same date Avril disappeared, and that Duenas-Quinonez was arrested by Mexican authorities in January before being brought back to the United States in late May and booked into the Dane County Jail on first-degree intentional homicide charges. Those later details clarified why Avril’s disappearance was treated with such urgency from the beginning: a small child had vanished during a violent family crisis, and the person believed to be with her had left the country.
NamUs lists the case as Missing Person / NamUs MP119083 for Avril Duenas Juarez, missing from Madison, Wisconsin, with April 24, 2023 as the date of last contact. The case file identifies the investigating agency as the Madison Police Department Central District and says the agency case was reported on April 24, 2023. Public missing-person summaries continue to note that Avril may have traveled with a male adult to Mexico and that there is concern for her safety, while the Wisconsin missing child poster specifically names Jose Dejesus Duenas-Quinonez and directs anyone with information to the FBI tip line or the Madison Police Department.
The available public record leaves Avril’s story with a painful uncertainty. She is described in official notices as a young girl with black hair and brown eyes, last known in Madison on April 24, 2023, and believed to have been taken out of the country by Jose Dejesus Duenas-Quinonez. The broader case began with a suspected homicide investigation, grew into a cross-border search, and later included the arrest and return of Duenas-Quinonez to Wisconsin. At its center remains Avril, a child whose disappearance was tied to a traumatic event in her family and whose case has been documented by NamUs, Wisconsin’s missing-person clearinghouse, and Madison police as a matter of deep concern: a 5-year-old female child last seen in Madison, Wisconsin, on April 24, 2023, believed to have traveled to Mexico with an adult male, with authorities continuing to ask that information be directed to law enforcement.Last Seen: Apr 24, 2023
