GUARDIAN OF THE MISSING
Where are they?
DULCE MARÍA ALAVEZ
MISSING CHILD -ABDUCTED
Dulce vanished from Bridgeton City Park on September 16, 2019, while playing on the swings with her little brother. Investigators say her brother returned alone to their mother, who was sitting in a car nearby.
WHAT HAPPENED TO DULCE?
The Full Story
Dulce was last seen in a playground in Bridgeton City Park just before 5 p.m. on Sept. 16.
Dulce’s mother told police that Dulce was playing on the swings with her 3-year-old brother while she was in a vehicle with an 8-year-old relative 30 yards away. Dulce’s mother said her 3-year-old son returned to the vehicle without Dulce.
Dulce, who is currently on the FBI’s Most Wanted kidnapping and missing persons list, is described as 3 feet tall, 60 to 70 pounds, with brown eyes and long, brown hair.
According to the FBI, she was last seen wearing a yellow shirt with a koala in the front, black and white pants with butterflies and flowers on them and white dress sandals.
Bridgeton, N.J. is a city with a population of 25,000 located 70 miles from Trenton.
TIMELINE
EVENTS IN DETAILS
SEPTEMBER 16
Before 4 p.m.
Surveillance video captures the last known images of Dulce. The video shows Dulce getting ice cream at a store with her mother, 3-year-old brother and an 8-year-old relative.
After 4 p.m.
Dulce arrives at the Bridgeton City Park with her relatives. She and her 3-year-old brother run off to play while her mother, Noema Alavez, stays in the vehicle with the 8-year-old relative.
4:20 p.m.
Dulce's 3-year-old brother returns to the car without his sister. Noema Alavez begins looking for her daughter, but cannot find her.
5 p.m.
Noema Alavez calls police to report her daughter missing.
An amber alert was issued for Dulce María Alavez. According to the Amber Alert issued by State Police, the man who took the girl is described as a light-skinned, possibly Hispanic, male, roughly 5-foot-6-inches tall. He has a thin build, no facial hair and facial acne. He was wearing orange sneakers, red pants and a black shirt. The man led Dulce from a playground to a red van with a sliding side door and tinted windows and then drove away.
THE SUSPECT
Have you seen this man?
Police released a composite sketch (left) of a "possibles suspect" who prosecutors say was in Bridgeton City Park around the time Dulce Maria Alavez disappeared on Sept. 16, 2019 Courtesy Cumberland County Prosecutor's Office, Bridgeton Police Department.
The man who took the girl is described as a light-skinned, possibly Hispanic, male, roughly 5-foot-6-inches tall. He has a thin build, no facial hair and facial acne. He was wearing orange sneakers, red pants and a black shirt. The man led Dulce from a playground to a red van with a sliding side door and tinted windows and then drove away.
DULCE’S MOM
Noema Alavez Perez
Her mother, Noema Alavez Perez, was sitting in her car just 30 yards away helping her 8-year-old sister do homework.
“It's been really hard for me and for my parents, knowing that Dulce doesn’t appear,” Perez, told ABC News. “Nobody knows where she is.”
“She was a sweet girl. Nice, loving,” Perez said. “She likes to pretend that she was always a princess. She likes to be around like smaller kids. She always like to give hugs. And kisses.”
There isn’t a day she doesn’t think about her daughter.
“I would say to her that I'm sorry for not looking over her,” she said tearfully.
Edgar Perez
"I don't know where she is. I don't know who she is with. I don't know if my baby girl is okay. Just like everyone, I want to know where she is," he says.
Perez said he took care of Dulce as a baby and continued to see her until he was deported just before Christmas 2018.
Dulce's father was contacted in Mexico by the FBI in the days following the girl's disappearance.
“For those who think I took my baby girl, let me tell you I got nothing to do with it. Because when I was in New Jersey I had a chance to see her. Not every day but every time I could. Let’s all pray for my daughter. Don’t lose hope that my daughter Dulce Maria Alavez will be found soon," Perez says.
$75,000
REWARD
Authorities in New Jersey are now offering $75,000 for any information leading to the whereabouts of Dulce, who has been missing since 2019. Anyone with information should call the Bridgeton Police at 856-451-0033 or the New Jersey State Police Regional Operations Intelligence Center at 609-963-6900.