A group of 12 volunteers search for trails in a wooded area a quarter of a mile from Bridgeton City Park where 5-year-old Dulce Maria Alavez was last seen on Sept. 16, 2019
“I want for people to keep helping us, sharing her photo so people know that she’s still missing,” said Dulce’s mother, Noema Alavez Perez.
The reservations brought on by fears of deportation, paired with the passage of time, have made it seem like Bridgeton has forgotten about Dulce, supporters of the family said.
“All the people who came for the first vigil, where are they now?” said Stacey Filoon, who said she has made regular trips from Philadelphia to look for Dulce in her hometown.
Filoon and a group of “core volunteers,” as they call themselves, say Bridgeton residents make a small portion of the search parties.
A group of 12 volunteers used walking sticks to move damp leaves and brush from a desolate road that stretches into a wooded area a quarter of a mile from Bridgeton City Park where Dulce was last seen.
Anna Donnelly is a former Bridgeton resident who now lives in Vineland. Like Filoon, she laments what seems to her like a lack of community support, but she is not necessarily surprised.
“They don’t trust the Bridgeton Police, they don’t trust the state troopers, they don’t trust FBI,” Donnelly said.
Marcelino D., who didn’t want to use his last name because he is in the country illegally, felt the criticisms were harsh.
It’s complicated, he said.
“I went out to one of the early searches and
a vigil.” He’s also continued to share the Facebook posts with Dulce’s photo.
The searches he went to had some support from Bridgeton residents, he said.
“Of course, it’s not 100% of Bridgeton, but I’ve seen people from Bridgeton — at least, people that I know who help or who want to be present,” he said.
Still, concerns about deportation could be enough to keep many away, D. said.
Abelina Cardoza was also taken aback by claims of a lack of community support.
“We have done what’s possible by sharing [Dulce’s photo] on social networks,” she said as she corralled her two children and groceries in her sedan. “We don’t know what else to do. The police keep searching for her … We can’t do anything else.”
When interviewed, Rodriguez told Phil McGraw, host of the show, that some members of Dulce’s family were under the impression that Alavez Perez knew more about the abduction than she was letting on.
“I feel like she knows that child is OK,” Rodriguez said on the show. “She’s missing her, but she’s not freaking out. She knows she’s OK,” Rodriguez said on the show.
During the search Sunday, Rodriguez said she wasn’t “backstabbing or trying to throw [Alavez Perez] under the bus” with her comments.
“I think everybody just went crazy after that show,” Rodriguez said. “Everybody was like, ‘Oh, you know, she has something to do with it, she has something to do with it.’ The people that didn’t think she had something to do with it, now think that she knows and had something to do with it.”
Still, Rodriguez said Alavez Perez didn’t walk back her comments. She only added that Dulce’s mother could be withholding information to protect Dulce.
In an email, Gaimari said investigators and victim witness personnel from the prosecutor’s office continue to make contact with the family every week.
“The investigation is proceeding daily with our department, the prosecutor’s office, state police and the FBI,” he wrote.
Family of missing girl Dulce Alavez rallies for more support in Bridgeton