Missing teenage girl turns up dead in Miami; officers search for gray car with frontal damage

MIAMI – A Honduran-American family’s search for 16-year-old Dayana “Diani” Gomez who vanished on Saturday morning ended in tragedy. Her uncle, Dennis Gomez, found her body on Sunday. Officers said on Monday that she was killed in a hit-and-run crash involving a gray car.

Miami Police Chief Art Acevedo said the vehicle suffered “significant windshield damage.” Acevedo asked, “anyone that has seen a gray vehicle or knows anyone that has a gray vehicle that has disappeared to let us know — body shops, window repair” businesses.

Dayana went out for a run about 6 a.m. on Saturday, and she turned up dead about 5:20 p.m. on Sunday, according to Officer Kiara Delva, a spokeswoman for the department. Miami Fire Rescue personnel responded to 1200 NE 79 St., near the Pelican Harbour’s boat ramp, and pronounced her dead.

Through tears in a Facebook Live video, Dennis Gomez said in Spanish that he and his wife first found her shoes, her cell phone, and other evidence scattered on the ground. He said his wife fainted before he saw her body in the bushes. He had hoped that she was still alive.

“I was screaming ‘Get up Diani! Get up! Please, get up!’

Grieving relatives stand near the area where they found the body of a 16-year-old girl who had vanished on Saturday morning. (Copyright 2020 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved.)

The Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner Department’s pathologists were investigating Dayana’s cause of death. Detectives were still gathering surveillance video from the area.

“She was a very sweet beautiful girl. We will miss her very much,” Nahun Gomez, a relative, wrote on a GoFundMe page.

Detectives are asking anyone with information about the case to call the department’s homicide unit at 305-603-6350 or Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-4877.

LOCATION

Noon report


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Andrew Perez is a South Florida native who joined the Local 10 News team in May 2014.

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The Emmy Award-winning journalist joined the Local 10 News team in 2013. She wrote for the Miami Herald for more than 9 years and won a Green Eyeshade Award.

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