A 9-year-old Homestead girl vanished in 1982. FBI offering thousands for information
A 9-year-old girl vanished in 1982 after buying candy at a convenience store. On what would be her 50th birthday, the FBI announced a $25,000 reward for information about her whereabouts — or about what happened to her.
Maribel Oquendo was last seen by family at her Homestead apartment building on Dec. 6, 1982, when she left to buy candy from Food Spot #21 at the Sky Vista Shopping Center. Less than an hour later, her older sister and mother realized that she hadn’t returned home.
A store clerk told the family that she saw Maribel that day, and that she had bought candy. But when the girl walked out, she got into a car and vanished.
Her older sister, Clarabel Garay told the Miami Herald in 2021 that she believed Maribel was kidnapped by her father, Emilio Oquendo. She remembers Oquendo telling their mother that he was going to take “the thing you love the most” just days before the disappearance.
That same year, Garay tracked down her father, who was suffering from dementia. He refused to say if he knew what happened to Maribel.
“They’re all lies, what they say,” Oquendo said to a Miami Herald reporter in 2021 when asked about his own older daughter’s belief that he kidnapped Maribel.
Despite no evidence suggesting that Maribel is alive, Homestead Detective Jennifer Roa told the Herald in 2021 that she has searched variations of Maribel’s names to see if she’s alive — and going by one of them. Maribel was sometimes called Marilyn, and also had the surname Carrero.
Roa also interviewed several people named Maribel Oquendos, some of whom lived as far New York City. All provide details about their childhoods that were confirmed.
“This case has consumed me,” Roa said in 2021. “It’s very deflating because you feel like you’re so close.”
Maribel’s mother died in 2015. But all these years later, her sister still seeks answers.
“I’m hoping she’s alive, but we don’t know that. There’s nothing to prove she’s alive. There’s nothing to prove she’s dead,” Garay said in 2021. “I miss her. I miss her smile, her eyes, her joy. Her singing and dancing and playing.”
Anyone with information Maribel Oquendo-Carrero’s disappearance should contact Homestead Police at 305-247-1535 or the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI. You can also submit information at tips.fbi.gov.
