AMBER ALERT NJ - Dulce Mariá Alavez, 5, abducted at Bridgeton City Park, Cumberland County, 16 Sept 2019 #6

[Moonracer]

Yeah. I wish someone with clout could step in and get all the facts clarified while also keeping the locals and media involved. At the very least there should be an up to date press conference, with a lengthy Q&A at the end.

I would also like someone who is truly bilingual to step up and help! I guess it's rarer there than out West.

 

[janewall]

I would also like someone who is truly bilingual to step up and help! I guess it's rarer there than out West.

I don't think it's even been asked, by the police/FBI or anyone else. I'm sure there are native English speakers in the area who also are highly fluent in Spanish - whether they're teachers or academics, or simply have studied extensively or been abroad, or have family members who are more fluent in Spanish. Heck, one of my veterinarians is fluent in Spanish because she's from Argentina. But if there's no publicity that their skills are needed in this case, how are they supposed to know?

 

[MsBetsy]

I thought the witness came forward just short of a month of Dulce going missing. I wonder why the delay? Fear of LE? The accuracy of the description might be questionable with weeks in between.

Authorities released a sketch on Tuesday of a man they believe may have information on 5-year-old Dulce Maria Alavez, whose disappearance nearly a month ago from a New Jersey park has left few answers.

Authorities release sketch of 'possible witness' in case of missing girl

Oops, sorry, I thought it was nearly two months before the other witness came forward and provided the description for the sketch. Maybe it was just released to the public a little later. I thought Dulce was missing almost two months when it was released.

Either way, I do wonder why they didn't come forward sooner and if LE has had any tips from anyone who recognizes the man in the sketch.

And why has the man not come forward himself?

Imo

 

[sleuther0192837465]

Where are you, sweetie??

 

[Moonracer]

I don't think it's even been asked, by the police/FBI or anyone else. I'm sure there are native English speakers in the area who also are highly fluent in Spanish - whether they're teachers or academics, or simply have studied extensively or been abroad, or have family members who are more fluent in Spanish. Heck, one of my veterinarians is fluent in Spanish because she's from Argentina. But if there's no publicity that their skills are needed in this case, how are they supposed to know?

I feel the need is obvious, and I think LE was lax in not getting a native speaker to help right off. In NO WAY am I suggesting the family are suspects or POIs at all, but in the beginning of any serious investigation like a missing child, LE needs to be able to parse the language used, because clues abound, especially in off the cuff remarks.

For example, if someone who speaks English poorly is speaking to LE in English, they can't use language cues like tense and vocabulary. They need the interview conducted in the native language, if at all possible.

 

[CSIDreamer]

I feel the need is obvious, and I think LE was lax in not getting a native speaker to help right off. In NO WAY am I suggesting the family are suspects or POIs at all, but in the beginning of any serious investigation like a missing child, LE needs to be able to parse the language used, because clues abound, especially in off the cuff remarks.

For example, if someone who speaks English poorly is speaking to LE in English, they can't use language cues like tense and vocabulary. They need the interview conducted in the native language, if at all possible.

With that type of Hispanic population, there have got to be translators on call or bilingual officers. There was no need for another person to insert in this investigation and erode relations between the family and LE. JMO.

 

[MsBetsy]

With that type of Hispanic population, there have got to be translators on call or bilingual officers. There was no need for another person to insert in this investigation and erode relations between the family and LE. JMO.

I haven't seen anyone insert themselves in the investigation and erode relations between the family and LE.

There is a spokesperson who is bilingual who is helping the family keep the story in the media and arrange organized searches since the grandparents do not speak English.

I have not seen any indication that anyone is talking to LE besides the family.

Imo

 

[musicaljoke]

I feel the need is obvious, and I think LE was lax in not getting a native speaker to help right off. In NO WAY am I suggesting the family are suspects or POIs at all, but in the beginning of any serious investigation like a missing child, LE needs to be able to parse the language used, because clues abound, especially in off the cuff remarks.

For example, if someone who speaks English poorly is speaking to LE in English, they can't use language cues like tense and vocabulary. They need the interview conducted in the native language, if at all possible.

I would think that in a settled Spanish speaking community, there would be Spanish speaking LE officers, would there not?

 

[Stunned]

I would think that in a settled Spanish speaking community, there would be Spanish speaking LE officers, would there not?

There should be.

 

[zecats]

I would also like someone who is truly bilingual to step up and help! I guess it's rarer there than out West.

Not rare at all in NJ. This is a state filled with bilingual and culturally diverse citizens. This is also a rich agricultural region that is supported by many Spanish speaking immigrants and seasonal laborers who stay year round to work in other capacities.

 

[PunkCake]

There should be.

A good 30-40% of all three PD's are bilingual. Some even with English as a Second language verses just learning Spanish around the house. If you understand what I mean.

 

[PunkCake]

Also I'm back, family health was unfortunately something I had to deal with.

But fire away.

 

[Stunned]

A good 30-40% of all three PD's are bilingual. Some even with English as a Second language verses just learning Spanish around the house. If you understand what I mean.

Yes I do, I worked with the Latino community.

 

[SunBucket]

Does anyone know if the dog of the moms brother is a trained search or track dog? I still don't get why they called him first to bring his dog.
I'm just curious.

I had dogs and only one had training in tracking and it's rather time consuming and expensive to train them and keep training them.
Just because a dog is familiar with a person and you put a piece of their clothing under their nose, is not how it works. At all.

I keep following this case. I'm in NJ.
I remember the Amber alert in the middle of the night and how I got this nasty feeling in my stomach reading it.
I do agree with some of the past commenters that I feel there's alot of "water" like rivers down there and I did look at a map. I don't have a car or i would drive around and follow my intuition. Like if I were a nasty , were would I hide a body quickly without anyone seeing me? He wouldn't want to drive a long time with a body in the vehicle in fear of getting stopped. He couldn't know the Amber alert would take that long to come through!

It's a shame that everything was so delayed. The family tried to find her for so long by themselves and the police taking so long before sending out an Amber alert. I feel like it was already too late at that point.

 

[janewall]

Does anyone know if the dog of the moms brother is a trained search or track dog? I still don't get why they called him first to bring his dog.
I'm just curious.

I had dogs and only one had training in tracking and it's rather time consuming and expensive to train them and keep training them.
Just because a dog is familiar with a person and you put a piece of their clothing under their nose, is not how it works. At all.

I keep following this case. I'm in NJ.
I remember the Amber alert in the middle of the night and how I got this nasty feeling in my stomach reading it.
I do agree with some of the past commenters that I feel there's alot of "water" like rivers down there and I did look at a map. I don't have a car or i would drive around and follow my intuition. Like if I were a nasty ***, were would I hide a body quickly without anyone seeing me? He wouldn't want to drive a long time with a body in the vehicle in fear of getting stopped. He couldn't know the Amber alert would take that long to come through!

It's a shame that everything was so delayed. The family tried to find her for so long by themselves and the police taking so long before sending out an Amber alert. I feel like it was already too late at that point.

I don't know anything about the dog or its training, or why Noema thought it could be helpful in finding Dulce. It seems to me that she is not familiar with the reality of trained SAR or other working dogs vs. regular pet dogs. At age nineteen, probably many people don't understand the distinction. LE and others who use working dogs still frequently have to warn other people not to approach or try to play with the dog.

According to posts and links upthread, statistically it is a common thing for families to search for missing children first, instead of calling the police at once. Dulce's family actually searched for less time than most - I believe the average I read was more than 2 hours. I apologize that I can't find the relevant posts at the moment.

This may be an area where LE and child advocates can try to educate the public better. It's far better for professionals to become involved in locating a child who wasn't truly missing than to let valuable time go by. There also is a lot of misinformation among the public about when police will take action on missing person reports. The old canard that they won't take a report until someone's been missing for 24 hours still gets a lot of traction, partly from television dramas. For missing children in particular, such misinformation is a terrible disservice to them and adds hugely to the risk that they will not return home safely.

MOO

 

[Trackergd]

To me there are still some unanswered questions: Where was the scent trail the bloodhound followed and where did the dog drop the scent? Was every inch (and I mean that literally) of the park and buildings searched? These are two critical questions that would either confirm Dulce was transported out of the area, or additional searches are warranted. Kids have fallen into wells, pits, manholes, etc. Are there any ways to enter the buildings or crawl under them? Small children do not generally wander very far. It has happened, but statistically it's not the norm. We had a SAR mission back in around 1980 where a mentally challenged young boy went missing. When one of my SAR Tracker colleagues got on scene after LE had done their search and finally called SAR, all the LE officers were standing around the PLS talking. He checked the prints in the marked off area, performed a tracking technique (side heading) to visually identify the direction of travel, walked about 50 feet, got on his knees, started talking softly, reached into a thick bush and carefully pulled the young boy out by the hand. The officers were stunned. Sadly in many missing person cases, not all available resources are utilized and not all scenarios are explored, only to have the missing individual found days, weeks or even years later in areas that were poorly searched by untrained searchers, or areas that were within the scope of the search area, but never searched by decision of local authorities. We are made very aware of this in SAR Management Training. People can speculate in social media all they want, but I have seen a lot of examples of poor searches in over 50 years of doing this.

 

[Trackergd]

Some examples if anyone wishes to go looking an older cases: Bryce Laspisa - CA - Lake never searched - MAJOR missed opportunity. Teresa Mastracola - PA - Body later found in Ridley Creek State Park in an area that was previously (poorly in my opinion) searched. Back in the 1980's we had a man missing from the Coatsville VA hospital. He remains were later found in an area that we were not permitted to search. The "what if's" give me nightmares.

 

[CSIDreamer]

I don't know anything about the dog or its training, or why Noema thought it could be helpful in finding Dulce. It seems to me that she is not familiar with the reality of trained SAR or other working dogs vs. regular pet dogs. At age nineteen, probably many people don't understand the distinction. LE and others who use working dogs still frequently have to warn other people not to approach or try to play with the dog.

According to posts and links upthread, statistically it is a common thing for families to search for missing children first, instead of calling the police at once. Dulce's family actually searched for less time than most - I believe the average I read was more than 2 hours. I apologize that I can't find the relevant posts at the moment.

This may be an area where LE and child advocates can try to educate the public better. It's far better for professionals to become involved in locating a child who wasn't truly missing than to let valuable time go by. There also is a lot of misinformation among the public about when police will take action on missing person reports. The old canard that they won't take a report until someone's been missing for 24 hours still gets a lot of traction, partly from television dramas. For missing children in particular, such misinformation is a terrible disservice to them and adds hugely to the risk that they will not return home safely.

MOO

I put a post in our neighborhood watch group regarding missing children due to this. As tactfully as possible I said family dogs are just that. The police would much rather have a happy ending. Maybe if anyone is in a watch group posting there would help educate a little.

 

[zecats]

Some examples if anyone wishes to go looking an older cases: Bryce Laspisa - CA - Lake never searched - MAJOR missed opportunity. Teresa Mastracola - PA - Body later found in Ridley Creek State Park in an area that was previously (poorly in my opinion) searched. Back in the 1980's we had a man missing from the Coatsville VA hospital. He remains were later found in an area that we were not permitted to search. The "what if's" give me nightmares.

I remember the advice you gave to Kevin Rudnicki’s brother too. After all the other unsuccessful searches, his brother found him.

 

[Bravo]

Thank You Trackergd for all your hard work out in the field and here. It takes a special person to do your work. You are certainly one of them.