FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Diana Alvarez is still missing after ten days and police are aggressively searching for her all over Florida.
As searches continue Tuesday, her family holds on to hope that Diana is still out there. "I have not lost faith that she's okay, I feel that she's okay," said Rita Hernandez, her mother. "But the question is where?"
The family is keeping hope alive, while also battling rumors that they could be involved with the little girls disappearance. The family was questioned for 12 hours when she first disappeared. Diana's stepfather, Uribe, even had to take a lie detector test. "For all the people saying I could have been involved, you don't know. Looks are deceiving, but you don't know how we're really feeling," he said. "If I were a suspect, they wouldn't have let me go until the case was solved. But here I am, and I'm helping authorities as much as I can."
The person of interest in the case, Jorge Guerrero-Torres, was arrested over the weekend in Okeechobee. He was in court, Monday afternoon, where he was charged with possessing child pornography. Fox 4 spoke with Diana's cousin, who said the family doesn't know what to make of the charge. "We don't want to imagine the worst case scenario, again, we want to try to stay positive," said Nancy Martinez.
Documents show that authorities reviewed Guerrero-Torres' cell phone records, which show on the evening of May 28, 2016 he left his residence in Orlando and headed to the Fort Myers area. The phone records also show he was near the home of Diana Alvarez between 12 a.m. and 3 a.m. on May 29, 2016 - the day she was reported missing by her parents. Guerrero-Torres then left Fort Myers early in the morning of May 29, 2016 and headed towards Okeechobee spending several hours near Yee-Haw Junction. Fox 4 has confirmed that a search is taking place in Ocsceola County in that area. The search is being conducted by Osceola officials, in assistance to Lee County Sheriff's Office. However, police will not confirm whether that search is related to the missing girl.
Documents also show that police found graphic photos of a child on Guerrero's phone. It's unknown if the 9-year-old is in the photos. Police tell us Jorge Guerrero-Torres will remain in federal prison at this time. The investigation into the disappearance of Diana Alvarez remains active, however, Alvarez' name was not mentioned in Monday's court proceedings.
