New Jersey police have issued a statewide Amber Alert for a missing 5-year-old girl who is believed to have been abducted from a playground and lured into a van on Monday, CNN reported.
Dulce Maria Alavez vanished from the Bridgeton City Park where she was last seen playing on the swings with her younger brother.
First responders searched for Alavez all night on Monday without finding any signs of her.
The Amber Alert was issued on Tuesday evening as New Jersey State Police said she had been abducted.
A second round of interviews with witnesses and people in the park at the time of Alavez’s disappearance revealed new information about her potential abduction.
The youngster was believed to have been lured away from the park and into a van by a light-skinned Hispanic man.
Police have described the man as being between 5’6″-5’8″ with a thin build, no facial hair, and acne, wearing orange sneakers, red pants, and a black shirt.
He was driving a red van with a sliding door and tinted windows.
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Alavez was reported missing sometime between 4 and 5 p.m. from the playground on Monday evening.
She was last seen wearing a yellow shirt with a koala bear on the front, black and white checkered pants with a flower design, and white sandals. She is roughly 3’5″ with dark hair that was tied in a ponytail at the time of her disappearance.
“She would never run off,” Alavez’s mother told WPVI . “She would never walk by herself or do something like that. This is the first time she did it.”
Anyone with information is asked to call 1-800-CALL-FBI or the Bridgeton Police Department at 1-856-451-0033.
h/t: CNN
