Police warn against false leads amid search for missing Bridgeton girl

The search for a missing Cumberland County girl has been ongoing for over four months – and police are warning the public against false leads related to the investigation.

News 12 Staff

Feb 5, 2020, 10:24 PM

Updated 1,746 days ago

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The search for a missing Cumberland County girl has been ongoing for over four months – and police are warning the public against false leads related to the investigation.
Dulce Maria Alavez, 5, went missing from Bridgeton City Park in September 2019 while playing with her younger brother. She has not been seen since.
A baseball field in the park is still flooded with photos and missing person flyers related to Alavez, as her family continues to wonder what happened to her.
“It’s just like, where is she? How is she? Why? My question is always why, why her?” says family spokesperson Jackie Rodriguez.
Rodriguez oversees the volunteer search effort to help find Alavez. Hundreds of volunteers gathered this past weekend to search for her – this time in a very specific location.
“There was a YouTube video that was made by a psychic that claimed that Dulce was buried behind her school, and it just went viral and it caught a lot of people’s attention,” Rodriguez says.
Rodriguez says the family doesn't believe in psychics, but they felt that it was important to at least investigate the claim further.
"We take everything into consideration. Right now, everything matters,” she says.
But the Bridgeton Police Department is warning the public about false claims and false leads.
Chief Michael Gaimari said in a statement, "Law enforcement understands that the lack of information on the whereabouts of Dulce or the definite circumstances surrounding her disappearance causes apprehension in the community and among those close to her and the family, but we have to remain focused on the task at hand and rely on a factual-based investigation to attain an eventual conclusion."
Gaimari says that the case remains a daily active investigation. He says that he believes that there is still legitimate information out there that could help find Alavez.
A $75,000 reward is being offered for information about her disappearance. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Bridgeton Police Department at 856-451-0033 or the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI. Select option 4, then select option 8.