The eerie reason for the disappearance of Dulce Alavez’s “old school” is unique – four years after the disappearance of a five-year-old girl, explains the investigator
The disappearance of a five-year-old girl has continued to puzzle law enforcement four years after she vanished from a park without a shred of evidence – a case one private investigator describes as “old school.”
On the afternoon of September 16, 2016, Dulce Maria Alavez and her three-year-old brother were playing at Bridgeton City Park in Cumberland County. New Jerseyabout an hour south of Philadelphia.
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Mother Noema Alavez Perez sat in her car just steps from the park entrance, helping her younger sister with her homework while her children played on the swings.
A short time later, when Perez went to check on her children, she found her son Manny crying alone on the playground – Dulce was nowhere to be seen.
Perez frantically searched the area for her daughter and called police to report their missing child.
Bridgeton police believe a man kidnapped Dulce from the park, but days passed with no leads.
A month after the 5-year-old’s disappearance, Bridgeton police released a sketch image of a person of interest, described as a 5-foot-10 Hispanic male.
Investigators followed dozens of leads, interviewed multiple people and traveled to 11 different states, including visits to Mexico – But four years have passed without there being an arrest or a named suspect.
“In the absence of evidence confirming Dulce’s death, investigators remain hopeful that Dulce is still alive,” Cumberland County Prosecutor Jennifer Webb-McRae and Bridgeton Police Chief Michael Gaimari said in a joint statement .
“OLD SCHOOL” DISAPPEARANCE
Trent Steele, the co-founder of the FloridaThe nonprofit Anti-Predator Project worked with the family to locate Dulce, calling the young girl’s case an “old-school disappearance.”
“It’s unique considering we haven’t seen a disappearance like this in some time,” Steele told The US Sun exclusively.
“Many disappearance cases that we have been involved in today have to do with children meeting someone online and becoming involved with someone online.
“This case could probably be described as an old-school disappearance – a child goes to the park and disappears.”
“We haven’t seen many of these in recent years that are technically unrelated,” Steele added.
Horrifying resemblance
Steele – whose team is involved in several high-profile projects missing persons Cases including the reappearance of 18-year-old Alicia Navarro of Glendale, Arizona – said Dulce’s case was eerily similar to that of 20-year-old Lauren Spierer.
Spierer, then a sophomore at Indiana University, disappeared on June 3, 2011, after a night out with her friends at a local sports bar in Bloomington. Indiana51 miles south of Indianapolis.
Surveillance footage showed Spierer and her boyfriend, Corey Rossman, drunkenly leaving Kilroy’s Sports Bar around 2:30 a.m. that day.
The two returned to Spierer’s apartment before making their way to Rossman’s apartment in the North Townhomes a few minutes later.
Rossman and his roommate told it police They tried to persuade Spierer to stay with them for her safety, but she decided to walk home around 4:30 a.m.
Spierer was last seen wearing a white T-shirt and black leggings, walking barefoot south on College Avenue, about two and a half blocks from her home.
The 20-year-old was never found.
Steele counts Dulce and Spierer’s cases among the very small percentage where no evidence has emerged years after their disappearance.
“I think the obvious similarity between the two is that they were both gone for an extended period of time and nothing, absolutely nothing was ever recovered – no body, no shoelace, no clothing artifact, nothing,” he told the US Sun.
“It is not uncommon for people to go missing. It happens every day in this country, but if they’re not found alive within a relatively short period of time, a body or something usually turns up.”
“But the fact that both Lauren and Dulce have been missing for years and have absolutely no trace of anything makes them a very small percentage of the cases where this happens.”
Twelve years after their daughter’s disappearance, the Spierer family still hopes to find out what happened to Lauren that fateful spring morning.
Parents Robert and Charlene Spierer continue to pay tribute to their missing daughter Facebook Page dedicated to Lauren.
The Spierer family declined to comment when contacted by The US Sun.
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“Fresh eyes”
Steele, who became involved in the Dulce case after the family contacted him earlier this year, said he and his team want to rebuild the investigation from the ground up.
“Everyone here works all the time for the first 48 hours,” Steele told The US Sun.
“The first 48 hours of something like this are the most critical. We’re at a point now where I think the most important thing is to go back and rebuild this thing in the right way with fresh eyes.”
“Maybe bring a new technology into play and repeat this research from scratch, look at it with new eyes, with new opinions, and see where that takes us.”
“I think the most important thing here is to make sure that things are done thoroughly and correctly and to make sure that we bring new eyes and opinions into the case.”
Steele said he and his team have “some working theories” about what may have happened to the 5-year-old, but cannot elaborate on them as part of the investigation.
Anti-Predator Project investigators will be at Bridgeton City Park on Saturday, re-examining the crime scene and speaking with any witnesses who may remember seeing Dulce the day she disappeared.
Anyone with information about Dulce’s disappearance is asked to contact Bridgeton police at 856-451-0033.
Witnesses who are not cooperating with Bridgeton police can also contact the Anti-Predator Project by calling 205-796-4859 or emailing info@antipredatorproject.org.
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