MIAMI – Federal and local investigators have not found the bodies of an 8-year-old girl and her 42-year-old mother after they disappeared in Miami-Dade County in 2016. They did find enough evidence to prosecute a suspect about eight years later.
Data shows Gustavo Castaño Restrepo had scratches on his arm when he told Doral detectives after a botched welfare check on May 31, 2016, that he had left his daughter Daniela with her mother, Liliana Moreno, near the Turnpike and Okeechobee Road the day before.
Miami-Dade detectives later learned that Castaño Restrepo had fathered Daniela during an extramarital affair and had kept her a secret from most of his family. He admitted to going to a warehouse he owns in Medley, where a burglar stole the surveillance video.
“We’re waiting for the government to make discoveries, waiting for the government to make public why they arrested him eight years later,” attorney Frank Gaviria said Friday.
Castaño Restrepo, now 55, was in Miami federal court. His loved ones were there to support him. He had told police he dropped them off after an argument prompted Moreno to order him to drop them both off. Moreno’s family did not believe him.
Some of Moreno’s relatives traveled from Colombia to Miami to plead for help. Some knew of her occasional relationship with Castaño Restrepo. When they learned that police had found her cell phone in her apartment, they suspected that without it she would not have left voluntarily.
Data shows Detectives had already seized Castaño Restrepo’s cell phone and Moreno’s when they found another cell phone in his pickup on June 2, 2016, after a suicide attempt with a box cutter. Detectives also found suicide notes. One was for a detective: “Mr. Villano, you were right.”
Moreno’s brother, Eduardo Moreno, told Local 10 News five years later he said he was confident his sister and niece were still alive, adding that although his family had done everything they could to find them, Castaño Restrepo had never offered to help them.
FBI Special Agent Dave Clancy offered a $25,000 reward. Last year, the FBI also paid for more than a dozen digital billboards featuring their photos and Clancy told Local 10 News that they were cooperating with law enforcement agencies in Colombia.
On Friday, Gaviria said Castaño Restrepo maintained his innocence and looked forward to fighting the charges in court. His client has been in the Federal Detention Center in downtown Miami.
“We will fight hard to get him out,” Gaviria said. “He has stayed in the community, has ties to the community and has the support of his family. He is a homeowner. He is not a danger to the community. He is not a flight risk.”
A federal grand jury has indicted Castaño Restrepo, also known as Castano, and he faces two counts of kidnapping resulting in death. After the arrest, Eduardo Moreno told Local 10 News that the news of his arrest was “really shocking and unbelievable.”
Castaño Restrepo’s arraignment will take place on November 6.
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