Police examining videos in search for 5-year-old Dulce Alavez after N.J. Amber alert – NJ.com

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Police are reviewing surveillance camera footage showing vehicles that may be connected to the disappearance of a 5-year-old child from a South Jersey park.

It’s been 48 hours since Dulce Maria Alavez went missing from Bridgeton City Park on Monday evening.

Her mother, Noema Alavez, said the child disappeared while she was playing with her 3-year-old brother at a playground. The mother had remained in her car.

Investigators scoured the 1,000-acre park Monday night and all day Tuesday, including searches by air and in area waterways.

A statewide Amber Alert was then issued Tuesday night after a witness reported seeing a man leading the child to a van.

The suspect 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.

He led Dulce from the playground to a red van with a sliding side door and tinted windows and then drove away, according to the alert.

Bridgeton Police Chief Michael Gaimari said police are looking at everything.

“We don’t have any solid suspects,” he said during an impromptu Wednesday afternoon press conference at the park. “We’re investigating all of the possibilities.”

They are reviewing video surveillance from area schools, businesses and private homes. When asked if any video shows the van described in the alert, Gaimari didn’t answer directly.

“It shows vehicles that we are exploring,” he said. “It does give us some leads that we are exploring right now.”

Police are still looking for additional witnesses who may have information, and Gaimari expressed concern that the heavy media presence might scare off potential witnesses who visit the park.

The chlld’s mother said Wednesday morning that police believe her family was involved in the disappearance, which she denied.

“The police think our family did this,” she told NJ Advance Media. “They think I did something to her. I didn’t. I love my daughter. I would never do nothing bad to her.”

Gaimari acknowledged that difficult questions must be asked if they are going to find the missing child.

“Anytime that we have something like this … there’s a lot of reported child abductions that turn out to be family members or children that were involved in some type of custody dispute,” he said. “I’m not saying that’s the case here at all. However, it’s something that the police have to investigate.

“Sometimes tough questions have to be asked during an interview. People take offense to that because they feel you are implicating a family member or a significant other, but they’re just questions we have to clear up.”

The mother’s car was towed from the park Tuesday night for processing by investigators, Gaimari confirmed. “We wanted to make sure the car was free of any evidence or if there’s anything in there that we could use towards determining how this happened.”

Alavez told police she drove to the park Monday afternoon and let her daughter and her 3-year-old brother head off to a nearby playground while she remained in the car with an 8-year-old relative. The playground is about 30 yards from the parking area, police estimated.

Ten minutes later, the 3-year-old ran back to the car crying and pointing to the area where he said he last saw his sister, which included some storage buildings near the playground.

Alavez said she searched for Dulce for 10 to 15 minutes, before calling her brother for help and ultimately notifying police shortly before 5 p.m.

One of the images police have shared of the child is security camera footage from a convenience store where the family stopped to get ice cream before heading to the park.

Alavez said she just wants the kidnapper “to return her back and stop making her family suffer so much,” she said.

Dulce is approximately 3 feet tall with brown eyes and brown hair. She was last seen wearing a yellow shirt with a picture of an elephant, black and white pants and white shoes.

Dulce’s father is in Mexico, Alavez said, and she hasn’t been in touch with him. He still has family in the Bridgeton area, though, and they notified him of the child’s disappearance, she said.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the State Police Missing Persons Unit at 609-882-2000, ext. 2857 or the Bridgeton police 856-451-0033.

Asked if parents should be fearful of taking their kids to the park, Gaimari said the park is a safe place.

“We’ve never had any incident like that up here,” he said. “To be honest with you, I think parents should be cognizant of taking their children that age anywhere if they are going to leave them unattended. I wouldn’t be fearful at all of taking children up here as long as you supervise them.”

Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattGraySJT. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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Source Article from https://www.nj.com/cumberland/2019/09/police-examining-videos-in-search-for-van-tied-to-5-year-old-dulce-alavez-disappearance.html

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