Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Family, police continue search for missing girl
MIRAMAR — Parents of a missing 13-year-old Miramar girl made tearful pleas for her return Friday, seven weeks after she mysteriously vanished after school.
Sophia Gonzalez, tissue in hand and voice cracking with emotion, appealed to her runaway daughter Victoria, who has been missing since Sept. 17, to return home.
“You’re my pink butterfly,” Sophia said from Miramar police headquarters, adding Victoria’s two cats still sleep on her pillow every night. “And that’s what I’ve called you because you’re unique.”
Minutes earlier, Victoria’s father Enrique, who at one point was so overcome with emotion he had to step away from the podium, made a similar plea.
“Come home,” he said to her. “I miss you. I love you.”
Victoria walked out of New Renaissance Middle School in Miramar seven weeks ago and hasn’t been seen or heard from since then. School video showed her walking off campus with a group of friends.
Enrique was waiting in his car to pick her up at 4 p.m., as he does every day, but she never arrived.
“She’s normally in my car by 4:05, no later,” he said.
Victoria is 5-foot-2, 226 pounds and was last seen wearing a white shirt, burgundy sweater and black pants.
Miramar police don’t suspect foul play, but they said she could be in a bad situation.
“Oftentimes when minors run away, they get in the wrong hands,” Miramar Detective Tiffany Roy said.
Victoria checks her Instagram
account almost every day, the police said, but she doesn’t post anything.
Since she doesn’t have her phone with her, she accesses her Instagram through someone else’s phone. Police know it’s Victoria because there are a couple of accounts that are accessible only to her.
Miramar Detective Nikki Fletcher, who specializes in such cases, said if there was an indication of a crime they could get a subpoena and trace the exact location of the phone Victoria was
using. But without evidence of a crime, the law doesn’t allow for such a step.
“To go missing is not a crime,” Fletcher said.
Victoria’s parents don’t know why their daughter would disappear and make no effort to contact her family. Miramar police said Victoria hadn’t had a fight with her parents or anything like that before disappearing.
“I have no idea why she would do this,” Enrique said.
Based on various forms of evidence, police don’t think Victoria has ever left the local area.
Enrique and police said they’ve followed various leads and believe she is in the vicinity of Miami Gardens, North Miami, Opa-Locka, Homestead or Kendall. Their searches have also extended to South Beach, Miramar and Pembroke Pines.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has assisted in the search. There was also to be a segment on Victoria at 8 p.m. on Friday on Dan Abrams Live on NewsNation cable television network.
Anyone with information is asked to call Miramar police at 954-602-4000 or Broward CrimeStoppers at 954-493-TIPS (8477).