Family members gathered seven years after Dulce Maria Alavez disappeared

Seven years to the day after Dulce Maria Alavez disappeared from a Bridgeton park, her family returned with balloons, memories, and the same hope they have carried since the 5-year-old vanished.

Family members gathered at Bridgeton City Park, behind Bridgeton High School, wearing yellow T-shirts featuring the same design Dulce wore on the last day she was seen.

“It’s hard because it’s been seven years,” Dulce’s mother, Noema Alavez, said. “Me and my family, we never thought that it was going to be this long.”

Alavez said she was sitting in her car while Dulce and her younger brother ate ice cream and played on the swings when she suddenly realized her daughter was gone. The moment has replayed in her mind ever since.

“It’s really hard for me to go into any kind of park,” Alavez said. “I’m just afraid that the same thing will happen again.”

Dulce would now be 12 years old and in seventh grade. Her mother continues to plead with anyone who knows what happened to her daughter to come forward.

“They should speak up that it has been way too long,” Alavez said. “I want her to know that me and my mom and her siblings, that we miss her a lot. That we are not going to stop until we find her.”

Brenda Trinidad, who helped organize the vigil and other community events, said supporters remain determined to keep Dulce’s disappearance in the public eye.

“We’re here every year, every birthday, every Christmas,” Trinidad said. “We try to keep Dulce’s name alive because if we don’t, no one really knows that she is still missing.”

The FBI is offering a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to Dulce’s whereabouts. The reward being offered, along with contributions from other organizations, now totals $75,000.