DCF last saw girl with troubled mother in December, now police can’t find them

Police: Girl who vanished was with mother who had abandoned her at Miami hospital in 2021

MIAMI – A 34-year-old mother and her four-year-old daughter vanished in Miami and the law enforcement community was searching for them on Wednesday.

Officer Michael Vega, a spokesman for the Miami Police Department, said detectives fear four-year-old Carolina Rodriguez may be in danger.

“We have got the FBI, we’ve got DCF, we’ve got other local agencies helping us out,” Vega said on Wednesday.

The Florida Department of Children and Families last saw Carolina and her mother Carolina Vizcarra on Dec. 28 in the area of Northwest 15 Street and Second Avenue in Overtown, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s alert on Tuesday.

“We didn’t get this information until July when we put out a flyer, but we retracted it right away because the courts had not served the mother with the notice saying that she has to return the daughter to DCF,” Vega said.

In 2021, police officers arrested Vizcarra after a police officer who was off duty at the HCA Florida Mercy Hospital reported she had abandoned Carolina, then two years old, there. Vizcarra later admitted to leaving her daughter there because they were homeless and she didn’t want her daughter to sleep on the streets anymore.

“She did this once before, there’s a possibility she could do it again,” Vega said.

Carolina, a brunette with brown eyes, is a little over 3 feet tall and weighs about 30 pounds.

Detectives were asking anyone with information about the case to call 911 or Miami-Dade County Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.


About the Authors
Saira Anwer headshot

Saira Anwer joined the Local 10 News team in July 2018. Saira is two-time Emmy-nominated reporter and comes to South Florida from Madison, Wisconsin, where she was working as a reporter and anchor.

Andrea Torres headshot

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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