A Miami man has been arrested and charged with kidnapping resulting in death more than eight years after the disappearance of his ex and the couple’s young daughter.
Gustavo Alfonso Castaño Restrepo, 55, is accused of kidnapping 43-year-old Liliana Moreno and 9-year-old Daniella Moreno in Miami-Dade County on Memorial Day 2016.
The two Doral, Fla. residents were last seen at or near a Home Depot store in Hialeah, according to the FBI, which was investigating their disappearance alongside county and city detectives.
Just days after the two were reported missing, investigators said they suspected foul play was involved.
Restrepo was initially named as a person of interest. He was said to cooperating with police, but no charges had been filed until now.
According to officials, Restrepo said the two had an argument on the day the mother and daughter went missing. He told investigators he had dropped the pair off near the Hialeah Home Depot, NBC South Florida reported.
Days later, he was found in the same area with a self-inflicted stab wound. During a confrontation with law enforcement officials, Restrepo was tased by police and lost an eye in the process, according to local TV station WPLG.
He denied any involvement with the disappearance of the two.
In June 2021, five years after their disappearance, the FBI Miami Division offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to their whereabouts.
Authorities have not offered many details on the developments that led to Restrepo’s arrest. According to the indictment, “Restrepo, did willfully and unlawfully seize, confine, inveigle, decoy, kidnap, abduct, and carry away and hold a person” and used a “cellular telephone, the internet, a motor vehicle, and the Homestead Extension of Florida’s Turnpike” to commit the alleged offense.
He’s currently being held pending a pre-trial detention hearing on Friday.
If convicted, Restrepo faces a minimum sentence of life in prison or the death penalty.
