Predator-Fighting Investigators Join Search For Missing NJ Child | #childpredator | #kidsaftey | #childsaftey

BRIDGETON, NJ — A nonprofit that investigates human trafficking has joined efforts to find a South Jersey child who went missing more than three years ago.

Dulce María Alavez disappeared from a park in Bridgeton, Cumberland County, on Sept. 16, 2019, when she was 5 years old. Despite massive search efforts, her disappearance remains unsolved.

Her ninth birthday was April 25.

The Anti-Predator Project, a Florida-based nonprofit, says it will examine Dulce’s disappearance. The organization conducts private investigations into cases involving human trafficking and missing persons.

The nonprofit doesn’t release the names of its team members because of the “sensitive and often dangerous nature of our work” but says the organization consists of former military special-operations personnel, law enforcement and members of the intelligence community.

Dulce was playing on the swings with her younger brother while their mother sat in a vehicle about 30 yards away, Bridgeton police said in the original Amber Alert. Her mother Noema Alavez Perez told police the 3-year-old returned to the vehicle, but Dulce did not, and she was unable to find her daughter.

Officials said Dulce may have been led into “a red van with a sliding door on the side and tinted windows” and have followed multiple leads in the three and a half years since. No suspects have ever been named.

“We’re going to rebuild this case from day one, from the ground up and we’re going to look at it with fresh eyes from different angles and see if there’s something that maybe somebody missed,” Trent Steele, the organization’s founder, told NBC 10.

Public agencies from the local to federal levels have continued efforts to find Dulce. The FBI is offering a reward of up to $5,000 for information that leads to her whereabouts, while Cumberland County officials have offered $75,000.

The Cumberland County Prosecutor’s Office released a composite sketch of a man they sought to question about her disappearance, a slender Hispanic man approximately 5 feet, 7 inches and 30-35 years old (see photo below). Officials said this man is a possible witness.

Anyone with tips can call the Cumberland County Prosecutor’s Office at 856-453-0486 or the FBI’s Toll-Free Tipline at 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324). Tips may also be made to the FBI at this link.

The Anti-Predator Project also accepts tips via text or call at 305-796–4859 or through email at tips@antipredatorproject.org. You can remain anonymous.