Over eight years after a Florida woman and her 8-year-old daughter disappeared, the FBI has arrested the young girl's father.
Gustavo Castaño Restrepo, 55, was indicted on suspicion of kidnapping resulting in death for the disappearance of his ex, Liliana Moreno, and the pair's daughter, Daniela, authorities said. Restrepo appeared in federal court in Miami on Tuesday and will be back Friday for a pretrial hearing.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida said in a news release that Restrepo is accused of kidnapping Moreno and that the kidnapping resulted in the deaths of Moreno and Daniela.
According to the FBI, Moreno and her daughter were last seen on May 30, 2016, in or near the Home Depot on Okeechobee Road in Hialeah. Moreno was 41 years old and Daniela was 8 when they disappeared. They haven’t been heard from since.
Detectives told NBC South Florida that the day they vanished, Restrepo went to pick up Moreno and her daughter and the couple got into an argument. Restrepo told detectives he then dropped the two off on Turnpike Avenue, authorities said.
Detectives found unfinished meal preparations and personal belongings when they searched Moreno’s home in Doral after the disappearance, showing that she had most likely planned to return, NBC South Florida reported.
A few days later, police told the station they found a suicidal Restrepo in a parking lot with self-inflicted stab wounds. During a confrontation with police, Restrepo lost his right eye after an officer stunned him, they said.
In 2021, five years after the disappearance, the FBI listed a reward of $25,000 for information leading to Moreno and her daughter's whereabouts.
NBC South Florida said investigators pointed to Restrepo as a person of interest previously but lacked enough information to arrest him until now. If he is convicted, the mandatory minimum sentence is life in prison, and the maximum penalty is death.
