MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Friday marks National Amber Alert Awareness Day, and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement is highlighting numerous unsolved cases in the state, including two from Miami-Dade County.
ANDREW CABALLEIRO
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The most recent case is that of Andrew Caballeiro, who police say was taken away by his father in January 2020 when he was just 1 week old.
Ernesto Caballeiro, 49, was later found dead in the Tampa Bay area, but his son remains missing.
According to Miami-Dade police detectives, Caballeiro was armed with an AR-15 when he took the newborn baby from his mother, 40-year-old Arlety Garcia, at the family’s home in the Redlands community.
Police said Caballeiro fatally shot Garcia, along with her 60-year-old mother, Isabela Valdes, and her 84-year-old grandmother, Lina Gonzalez.
Garcia’s 9-year-old daughter survived the bloodshed. Detectives didn’t say if she was in the home during the murders.
According to Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco, deputies in his jurisdiction later discovered Caballeiro’s body in a wooded area. He appeared to have died of a single gunshot wound from a rifle.
Nocco said bloodhounds assisted in the search, but “there was no indication that the child was in the area.” He said a pacifier was found in Caballeiro’s abandoned van and a witness came forward and said he saw a blonde woman in the truck, but that woman has never been found or identified.
Nocco also said investigators were told that there should have been a pickaxe in the vehicle.
“We have no indication that there’s a pickaxe anywhere where we are searching,” he said at the time.
Andrew would now be 2 years old.
JARKEIUS ADSIDE
Police are also still searching for answers in the disappearance of Jarkeius Adside, who was allegedly abducted during a home invasion when he was just 1 year old.
The home invasion robbery was reported the morning of Oct. 18, 2001.
According to The Charley Project, which highlights missing persons’ cases, both of Jarkeius’ parents were in jail and he was being watched by a babysitter, Gwendolyn Brown, when he was taken from a home in the area of Southwest 296th Street and 158th Avenue.
Police said Brown claimed that Jarkeius was taken by three armed men who ransacked her home, asking her and her live-in boyfriend, “Where’s the money? Where’s the money?”
Police said the robbers bound the couple with duct tape and when they finally freed themselves, they saw that several items were stolen from their home, and Jarkeius was gone.
According to detectives, blood was found on a mattress along with blood-soaked sheets. Blood was also found in other areas of the home.
Lab results showed that the blood was that of Jarkeius.
Investigators believe he was either severely injured or killed.
While investigators have publicly expressed skepticism about Brown and her boyfriend’s account of the home invasion, no arrests have been made in the boy’s disappearance.
Police confirmed that it took the couple two hours to notify authorities after Jarkeius was allegedly taken, although they claimed it took that long for them to free themselves.
Records show Jarkeius’ mother was in jail at the time for allegedly trying to steal merchandise at a Burdine’s department store, and his father was in jail awaiting trial for arms trafficking.
If alive, Jarkeius would now be 22 years old. Police said he may respond to the nickname Kisha.
Anyone with further information about either case is asked to call the Florida Department of Law Enforcement at 1-888-FL MISSING (356-4774) or the Miami-Dade Police Department at 305-418-7200.