It's been four years since Dulce Maria Alavez was kidnapped in broad daylight while playing in Bridgeton City Park in New Jersey.

​To coincide with the fourth anniversary of Dulce's disappearance, the National Center for Missing an Exploited Children released a new age-progression rendering of how she might look now as a 9-year-old. 

​In a joint statement, the Cumberland County Prosecutor's office and Bridgeton Police Department shared a sketch of the person of interest in the case and said: 

​It was just after 4 p.m., Sept. 16, 2019. Dulce, then 5, and her little brother Manny were near the swings while their mother, Noema Alavez, sat in her car with her younger sister.

​Within minutes, Dulce was gone. A frantic Alavez ran through the park looking for her daughter before calling 911. One witness told Alavez they had seen a Hispanic man behind the sheds next to the playground around the time Dulce disappeared. Another witness mentioned seeing a black man in the same area. (The latter was eventually located and questioned.)

​Minutes after calling 911, dozens of Bridgeton Police officers descended on the park and began canvassing the area and woods nearby. The search lasted well into the night. The following morning, the FBI sent its Critical Incident Response Group (CIRG) to assist. The team specializes in cases involving abductions or mysterious disappearances of children. Bridgeton Police questioned Dulce's mother and her family. The case made headlines.

​The one thing missing from the massive response? An Amber Alert. Pennsylvania State Police didn't issue an Amber Alert until more than 24 hours after the abduction. By then, whoever took Dulce was long gone. 

Fast forward to 2023. Not much has changed since the day Dulce vanished. Police have spoken to Dulce's father, who lives in Mexico, and continue to question her mother and her family in the States. They've also received and investigated hundreds of tips but to no avail. Earlier this year, The Anti-Predator Project, a non-profit organization in Florida dedicated to combating human trafficking, according to its website, agreed to look into the case independently and free of charge. They hope a fresh pair of eyes will result in new leads. 

​In 2020, I spoke to the FBI agent assisting the local authorities in the hours after Dulce was taken. He stated that based on interviews and everything he knew about the investigation, Dulce's disappearance appears to be a case of a stranger abduction, and the person could be hiding in plain sight. Think of Ariel Castro, the man who kidnapped three women and held them captive in his Ohio home for more than a decade without anyone, not even his family, noticing. Castro blended right in with the community. Dulce's kidnapper could be doing the same. (You can see my interview with the FBI and Noema Alavez here.)

However, Bridgeton Police and the Cumberland County Prosecutor were quick to say that all possibilities are still on the table and have not ruled anything or anyone out. Recently, a local news station said investigators still consider Noema and her family suspects. If that's the case, why won't the authorities say it publicly? There's a significant difference between referring to someone as a person of interest and calling them a suspect. If they're suspects, why is a reporter saying this instead of the actual authorities? Furthermore, if they are considered suspects, then why aren't they officially listed as such? 

One thing is for certain: Noema Alavez and her family have been tried and convicted in the court of public opinion, and from day one, they've also been subject to a wave of racist comments online. 

For this case to get solved, everyone working on it has to keep an open mind. That includes the community. It seems so many people are deadset on focusing only on the mother. What if it was indeed a stranger who kidnapped Dulce? What if that person is still in the community and monitoring the media coverage? Heck! That person could be showing up to vigils for Dulce or pretending to help look for her. While stranger abductions are rare and, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, make up only 1% of cases reported in the United States annually, they DO happen. 

Earlier this year, a reporter for the Victoria Advocate newspaper in Victoria, Texas, contacted me to talk about my work investigating missing person cases. He specifically wanted to focus on the disappearance of Antonio Vela Jr., a music producer from Victoria who mysteriously vanished after leaving a bar on June 15, 2017, and whose disappearance I've been covering ever since.

The Victoria Advocate has followed the case from the beginning. Kit MacAvoy, the reporter who reached out, wanted to highlight how Antonio's family is turning to independent journalists and podcasts to reach a wider audience and hopefully generate new leads.

MacAvoy asked why I chose to cover Antonio's case. As I explained on The Vanished Podcast, thousands of people are reported missing in the United States yearly, but only some receive national media attention. People of color, especially men, are less likely to get coverage, and all too often, the focus is on whether they have a criminal background or a history of running away. Missing black and brown people rarely make the news let alone become household names. Think about it. How many missing black or brown people can you name without searching on google? Even more troubling, according to a 2019 study by The College of William and Mary, cases involving missing people of color are less likely to be solved. 

Our news industry needs to improve how it covers missing persons in underrepresented communities. It's long overdue. I often hear from families, like the Velas, who feel frustrated, confused, and with nowhere to turn to get their loved one's case in the public eye. That's why the Velas and other families are turning to independent journalists and podcasts to help get the word out.

Click here to read the full article in The Victoria Advocate. I hope conversations like the one I had with MacAvoy take place in newsrooms across the country. It shouldn't just be us reporters, the boots on the ground, who should push to cover missing persons in vulnerable communities. It takes everyone behind the scenes, producers, executive producers, assignment editors, and news directors. They decide what you, the viewers, see on the news. While the media can't cover every missing person story, there are plenty of black and brown people whose disappearances stand out and desperately need media exposure. ​

In the case ofAntonio Vela Jr., whatever happened the night he vanished, he still has a family who loves and misses him. And, like every other family waiting for their missing loved one to come home, the Velas deserve answers and justice. 

Luis Colon woke up to a text message from a Pennsylvania State Police trooper that left him speechless. The alleged killer of his sister Evelyn Colon is out on bail.

​Luis Anthony Sierra, 64, of Ozone Park, New York, was arrested in April 2021 for the 1976 killing of 15-year-old Evelyn Colon of Jersey City, New Jersey. The teen's dismembered remains and her unborn child were found stuffed in suitcases dumped along the Lehigh River in Carbon County five days before Christmas. No one knew her identity until DNA revealed it in March of 2021. 

I spoke with Colon by phone. He stated that he and his family found out about Sierra's release this morning.

"I just can't believe this. No one called me or my family to tell us or to explain these changes in the bail law in Pennsylvania. We literally just found out that he's out and back with his family."

According to the website goldsteinmehta.com, the changes come after the Pennsylvania Supreme Court decided the case of Commonwealth v. Talley, "holding that prosecutors must introduce real evidence that a defendant is a danger to the community and no conditions of release can prevent that danger in order to revoke bail." 

Therefore, the practice of "simply asserting that a defendant committed a serious crime and should be held without bail is no longer acceptable, " according to the website.

In Sierra's case, court records show that a hearing took place on June 8 at which time bail was set at $250,000, which he posted on June 15.

"This isn't some minor crime he's accused of doing. He's accused of killing my sister, and he gets to go home until the trial? Now there's a dangerous man out there free like nothing. Someone needs to explain this to us," Colon said.

Sierra is charged with one count of criminal homicide. A trial date has not been set.

​We know Janteyl, then 15 and five months pregnant, was in contact with several older men when she vanished on Feb. 3, 2010. Investigators believe she may have left with one of those men. I asked Detective Herrera about those individuals and if any are considered suspects in her disappearance.

On the afternoon of Feb. 3, 2010, security camera footage from what used to be a PathMark grocery store in Newark, Delaware, shows Janteyl Johnson, 15, walking in to buy candy. She's wearing a puffer jacket, blue jeans, and sneakers. Her braids are tied back in a ponytail.

Janteyl, five months pregnant at the time, pays at a self-checkout register. As she exits the store at 12:31 p.m., she's talking on her cell phone and stops to scratch her leg, then continues walking. The two-and-a-half-minute footage is the last confirmed sighting of the teen. An hour later, Janteyl vanished from her family's apartment and has not been seen or heard from ever since.

Watching Janteyl buying a bag of candy is a reminder that she was just a child, and no one has been held accountable for her disappearance. 

"I can tell you that it's not normal what happened to her," said Detective Roberto Herrera, in an exclusive interview.

"She was 15. She was pregnant, five months pregnant, so it’s a case that catches anyone’s attention right away.”

A missing pregnant child should've made headlines, but Janteyl didn't get wall-to-wall media coverage. She didn't become a household name. There was no social media frenzy over her disappearance. She was barely mentioned in the news. 

But what if from the start, Janteyl's disappearance had generated the type of media coverage that Gabby Petito or Lacy Peterson received? Perhaps she would've been found, and whoever's responsible for her disappearance would've been held accountable by now. 

Janteyl's case serves as an example of how when a black or brown person is missing there isn't always an urgency to cover their case. There are plenty of examples to prove that point. 

What we know is that Janteyl was talking to several older men the day she vanished, including the alleged father of her unborn child. Her family says he was the last person who called Janteyl and that her cell phone later pinged near his relative's home. Det. Herrera didn't confirm that information and has not named any suspects in the case.

“At the end of 2019 we put up a billboard in Delaware with her picture, and we also put her picture and information on a deck of playing cards and distributed them in jails in Delaware prisons," said Herrera, "and we actually got a good lead that I cannot go into detail at this point.”

Herrera wants Janteyl's family to know that she hasn't been forgotten. He feels this case can be solved, and is asking for the public's help.