South Florida 4-year-old girl found safe in Mexico thanks to TV news channel, police say
A Missing Child Alert in Miami was canceled Wednesday afternoon after a TV news channel helped track down a 4-year-old girl whose mother had been accused of “interfering” with the child’s custody, police say.
“The child is safe,” a Florida Department of Law Enforcement statement said Wednesday, a day after the alert was first issued.
Carolina Rodriguez Vizcarra, who has dual citizenship, has been living with her maternal grandparents in Mexico for several months. The move came after the child’s birth mother, Carolina Vizcarra Olvera, 34, was kicked out of a homeless shelter in December, Officer Michael Vega, a Miami police spokesman, told the Miami Herald. He said they came to the U.S. to pick up their grandaughter.
Vega said a reporter from Univision 23 Miami called him on Wednesday with the child’s grandparents on another line. Miami police then received photos of the girl and detectives got on a video call with the grandparents.
“She is well taken-care of and is in good health,” Vega said. “Our detectives did a Facetime, and they showed them their house. The little girl was happy, living in good condition.”
Detectives encouraged the grandparents to seek legal assistance in Mexico to gain the custody of their grandchild, Vega said, and to then notify the Florida Department of Children and Families.
Vizcarra Olvera, who is also living in Mexico, might have to face charges in Miami because the child “was supposed to be in DCF custody,” Vega said.
Missing child investigation
Rodriguez Vizcarra was 3 when she had last been seen in the 200 block of Northwest 15th Street in Miami on Dec. 28, according to the alert.
“Due to an on-going investigation, the City of Miami Police Department believes Carolina may be in danger of death or serious bodily injury,” the alert said.
Miami police added that date was the last time the Florida Department of Children and Families had contact with the girl’s birth mother Carolina Vizcarra Olvera.
Police told the Herald it wasn’t until July that DCF contacted law enforcement in reference to a court order the state agency obtained.
“Due to various dates listed on the court order, we wanted to verify the facts,” Officer Kiara Delva, a police spokeswoman, told the Miami Herald in an email Wednesday. “MPD received confirmation of the court order in August referencing the mother being in violation of criminal Florida Statute - Interference with Custody.”
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The Florida Department of Children and Families contacted police in January, Miguel Nevarez, the agency’s press secretary, told the Herald on Thursday.
“Our department contacted law enforcement in January of 2023, the day we became aware of the incident, to notify them of this missing child and to follow-up at least 10 times until the report was finally accepted in July, including Miami PD,” Nevarez said. “Our department continues to work with law enforcement on this investigation.”
Abandoned at a hospital?
This is not the first time Vizcarra Olvera has made headlines.
In 2021, she was arrested after Miami police accused her of leaving her daughter, who was 2 years old at the time, with an off-duty plain-clothed officer and another person at Mercy Hospital, 3641 S Miami Ave.
The police report says Vizcarra Olvera, then a North Miami resident, asked the other person to watch her daughter so she could use the bathroom and gave them her child’s social security card before walking away. Several hours later, police received a call saying the mother was at the hospital looking for her daughter.
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“It’s not like I just left her, it’s a hospital and I was worried for her. I was thinking I am about to sleep on the streets, but not her,” Vizcarra Olvera told responding officers.
Vizcarra Olvera was charged with child abandonment but state prosecutors declined to prosecute after she entered and successfully finished a pre-trial diversion program last year, court records show.
This story was originally published August 22, 2023 at 6:59 PM.
