Dulce Alavez, who disappeared before pandemic, still missing on 9th birthday

🔴 Dulce Alavez disappeared from a playground at Bridgeton City Park in 2019

🔴 Family and friends celebrated her 9th birthday with cake and a "Frozen" theme

🔴 The investigation into her disappearance is still active

BRIDGETON — Family and friends of Dulce Alavez gathered Sunday in the park where she went missing to celebrate her 9th birthday and bring attention to her disappearance.

The tree and garden named in her honor at Bridgeton City Park was the focus of the party with cake and cupcakes with a theme of "Frozen," Dulce's favorite Disney movie.

"It's been hard all these years since we haven't got any answers about the disappearance," her mother Noema Alavez told NBC Philadelphia.

Family friend Brenda Trinidad said they still don't know what really happened to Dulce that day as she played in the playground with her younger brother. The boy went to his mother who was sitting in their car helping a niece with homework and said someone had taken his sister.

The boy has been unable to verbalize what he saw the day his sister went missing.

Getting Dulce's name out there

A $75,000 reward is still on the table for information leading to the arrest of those responsible for her disappearance.

With each passing day, however, interest in the girl's disappearance wanes, the family fears.

"Without the community we can't spread her name out more," Trinidad told NBC Philadelphia.

Cumberland County Proseutor Jennifer Webb-McRae said the investigation into Dulce's disappearance is ongoing.

Information can be called into the prosecutor's office at 856-453-0486, New Jersey State Police at 609-882-2000 X 2554, the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI. Select option 4, then option 8 or Bridgeton Police at bpdops.com/tips.

Dan Alexander is a reporter for New Jersey 101.5. You can reach him at dan.alexander@townsquaremedia.com

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