Family prepares to mark 7th birthday for child who vanished from N.J. park in 2019 – NJ.com

Work is underway to develop an image of what a missing 5-year-old who vanished from a Bridgeton park a year and a half ago would look like today.

The news comes as the family of Dulce Maria Alavez prepares to mark another birthday without her on Sunday.

Last year, her family bought two cakes: one for Dulce’s aunt, whose birthday is also in April, and one for the missing girl they affectionately called “princess.” They plan to do the same this year, and will commemorate the day at home, away from the park that drew national attention over the disappearance.

Police say they continue pursuing leads in the case and are working on “developments.” They vowed that the little girl’s disappearance will not become a cold case.

It was a pleasant, late summer afternoon when Dulce visited Bridgeton City Park with her family on Sept. 16, 2019.

After stopping for ice cream, mom Noema Alavez Perez parked her car and remained in the vehicle with her sister while Dulce and her 3-year-old brother, Manuel, ran off to the nearby playground.

Alavez Perez told police she was checking a scratch-off lottery ticket and helping her sister with homework when she realized they couldn’t see the kids. They walked over to the playground and found Manuel in tears. His ice cream was on the ground and he pointed to a spot nearby where he last saw his sister.

After searching and calling family members to assist, Dulce’s mother called 911 to report the girl missing.

“We were here at the park and people said that somebody … probably somebody took her,” she tells a dispatcher.

The search that followed scoured the 1,100-acre park and surrounding communities as the FBI joined local, county and state agencies in the effort. Word of Dulce’s disappearance spread nationwide.

A reward stands at $75,000, but more than a year and a half since she vanished, it remains unclaimed and Dulce’s whereabouts remain unknown.

Dulce’s birthday is April 25 and she turns seven this year. She had just started kindergarten when she disappeared and should be in her final months of first grade right now.

While Bridgeton Police Chief Michael Gaimari said he had no new information to report on the case, “we do have some developments that we’re working on.”

He declined to elaborate, but said local, county and federal agencies continue collaborating.

“We are working on it every week, but we don’t have anything to put out there in the public at this point,” Gaimari said.

Meanwhile, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children has started work to create a rendering of what Dulce would look like now, said John Bischoff, vice president of the missing children division at the center.

To account for changes in growing kids, new renderings of missing children are created every two years, he said, while missing adult renderings are updated every five years.

“Over the age of 18, our face doesn’t change as much as we would under the age of 18,” Bischoff explained.

Forensic artists do this by taking photos of the child and their parents and using software that allows them to age progress images to reach an estimate of how the child would have grown and changed over time.

It’s a great investigative tool and another chance to keep the public’s attention on the case, he said.

An FBI agent suggested last year that Dulce was likely taken by a stranger in a crime of opportunity, but local investigators cautioned that all theories remain under consideration.

Among ongoing efforts is work to identify everyone seen driving in the area of the park around the time Dulce disappeared.

While there were no surveillance cameras at the playground that would have captured what happened, investigators scoured through hours of footage collected from nearby cameras, including ones located on schools and private homes, for any signs of a suspect vehicle.

The FBI reported last August that they ruled out every vehicle seen on camera except for about a dozen, which could not be identified. Since that time, Gaimari confirmed that all vehicles have now been identified, “but that does not mean we’ve identified all who were operating them, as that is part of the investigation.”

Since Dulce’s disappearance, new surveillance cameras have been installed near the area that provide a view of the playground, but more work is needed to install cameras closer to the play area, Gaimari said. The city is also working with schools adjacent to the park to enhance their systems.

Tips continue to roll in regarding Dulce’s disappearance, though the frequency isn’t as great as in the early days of the case.

“We still get tips, either through the FBI number or our own tip line, and we follow up on each and every one,” Gaimari said. “They come in from across the country.”

When those tips are deemed legitimate, the information is pursued, he said, but Dulce’s whereabouts remain unknown.

Many people were at the park the day Dulce vanished and two descriptions emerged of what investigators believe is the same person — a Hispanic man about 5 feet 8 inches tall and about 30 to 35 years old, with acne. That individual could be the abductor, FBI special agent Daniel Garrabrant said last year, noting that the man had yet to be identified and located.

The FBI referred recent questions about the status of the case to local investigators.

Authorities have repeatedly said that Dulce’s family remains cooperative, including the child’s father, who lives in Mexico. Investigators said last year that they had found no evidence of a custody dispute between Dulce’s parents.

A man claiming to be Edgar Perez, Dulce’s father, posted a video on YouTube for her 7th birthday that included images of the child taken in the years prior to her disappearance. He stated that he had nothing to do with her disappearance and doesn’t know her whereabouts.

Investigators believe Dulce is still alive.

“There’s nothing to indicate otherwise,” Gaimari said. “Absolutely nothing. And that’s the assumption that we are going on and that’s where the investigation is pointing to — that she’s still alive.”

Birthdays are another chance to remind everyone that a child is still missing, Bischoff said.

“We are always doing media on each and every case, but when it comes to the birthday and when it comes to the anniversary of the missing date, we do added pushes,” he said. “It is difficult to keep the community engaged, because life does go on for everyone else, except law enforcement, the family and the child.

“That’s why it’s so important to keep her image out there. Maintaining that heightened awareness is always a challenge in every missing child case.”

For the Cumberland County Prosecutor’s Office, the case remains a top priority.

“It continues to be at the forefront of our minds,” Prosecutor Jennifer Webb-McRae said. “Every lead continues to be investigated. This will remain an open and active investigation until such time as we determine what happened to Dulce.”

She stressed the importance of community members stepping forward with any information they may have.

“My appeal to everyone is, any little thing that may have seemed trivial then might be that one piece that we need to break it open.”

Authorities ask anyone with information about Dulce to call New Jersey State Police at 609-882-2000, ext. 2554, or Bridgeton police at 856-451-0033. Tips may also be phoned in to 1-800-CALL-FBI and select option 4, then select option 8. Anonymous tips may be sent by text to TIP411 with “Bridgeton” in the message line or via the police department’s website at https://bpdops.com/tips.

NJ Advance Media staff writer Rodrigo Torrejon contributed to this report.

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Matt Gray may be reached at mgray@njadvancemedia.com.