Missing 4-year-old Miami-Dade girl is safe, living with relatives in Mexico, police say
MIAMI -- A Miami-Dade girl who was the subject of a missing child alert is safe and has been living with her grandparents in Mexico since late last year, police confirmed to CBS News Miami.
A police spokesman said photos showed Carolina Rodriguez Vizcarra, 4, and her grandparents and all seemed in order.
"I have seen photos and have spoken to the grandmother and the girl seems health and safe," police spokesman Mike Vega told CBS News Miami's Peter D'Oench adding that he believed the grandparents intended to adopt the child.
The child's grandmother, Rosario Olivera, spoke to Univision about the situation.
"My granddaughter has been treated for psychological problems," Olivera said. "She has no psychiatric problems. She has no physical problems and we are responsible for her. My granddaughter is in a good place just like she was in the states. My granddaughter is not in danger. We are responsible for her and I know protocol. I am going to call police to let them know that I am responsible for the girl. I don't know where the mother is but she is living near us. Exactly where I can not say. They were living under a bridge and on the streets and as a mother you want better."
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement issued the missing child alert for the girl, saying she had last been seen in the area of the 200th block of NW 15th Street in Miami last December. That's near the Lotus House shelter for women and children.
The mother of the girl had been accused two years ago of abandoning her in a hospital.
Authorities said the girl could be in the company of her mother, 34-year-old Carolina Vizcarra Olvera.
"Due to an ongoing investigation, the Miami Police Department believes Carolina may be in danger of death or serious bodily injury," the FDLE statement said.
In October 2021, Vizcarra Olvera reportedly approached an off -duty Miami police officer and another man at Mercy Hospital around 10 a.m. and asked if they could watch her two-year-old daughter while she went to the restroom.
She then reportedly handed the toddler, and the toddler's Social Security card, to the man and walked away.
According to the incident report, the man followed her and said "You don't have to do this" to which Vizcarra Olvera replied "Leave me alone" as she left the hospital.
The Miami Police Department's Special Victims Unit took custody of the child and the Department of Children and Families was notified.
Just after 5:30 p.m., police received a call that Vizcarra Olvera had returned to the hospital and was looking for her daughter.
When officers tracked her down she told them "It's not like I just left her, it's a hospital and I was worried for her. I was thinking I am about to sleep on the streets, but not her," according to the report.
Vizcarra Olvera was arrested and charged with child abandonment.
The incident raised questions about why it took so long for the girl to be reported missing.
Miami police said they received confirmation of a court order in August that Vizcarra Olvera was in violation of interference of custody.