Search for Dulce Maria Alavez enters third week

BRIDGETON, N.J. - Family, friends and total strangers refuse to give up hope Dulce Alavez will be found, despite the three weeks she has been gone.

“We need answers,”

Answers have been hard to come by. Monday marks three weeks since five-year-old Dulce Alavez vanished from a playground at Bridgeton City Park.

Feeling the need to do something, anything, more than 50 people picked the search up again Sunday afternoon. Dulce’s mother and grandmother on hand.

Dulce Alavez search enters week three.

People like Manuel Hernandez came out.

“I work a lot. I work 70 hours a week, but this is my day to rest, but I’m here,” Hernandez stated.

Joe Nieves and his wife drove down from New York City.

“I found a pair of shorts in the park. I found a jacket. We found a wallet,” Nieves said.

Items he gave to the mayor. No indication they’re tied to the case, but Joe’s not discouraged.

“I have kids myself and I’m just tired of kids being missing and I want to help out,” Nieves added.

There were flashes of hope. Dulce apparently had been eating coconut ice cream before she disappeared.

“I see something that says coconut, so I looked at it and it said homemade coconut ice cream, so I alerted someone,” volunteer Emma Warfle said.

But, it wasn’t a match.

“I actually went to get mom and mom looked and she said it wasn’t it,” another volunteer added.

And, 11 miles away, a woman snapped a photo of a parked red van with a mattress inside, near some woods. Was it the one police are looking for?

“I called the FBI, which took so long, but to get through to somebody that would be able to investigate. It could be an innocent thing, but it’s a tip. Every tip is important,” explained the volunteer.

Volunteers search for Dulce Alavez.

After a few hours of searching near the park, volunteers shifted their attention a couple of miles away, along some railroad tracks. The volunteers came up empty, but they’re not done.

“How many times have you been out looking?” asked FOX 29’s Brad Sattin.

“Every day for the last two and a half. We’ve searched places we weren’t supposed to and places we were just everywhere. I still have hope. I have hope that she’ll come back,” volunteer Vera Dover explained.

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